On the first day of September, and I think I have told you before that the name September actually in Latin means the seventh month. And that's not quite right for us because September is the ninth month. And that is because September was the seventh month. of the Roman calendar which was in use for more than a thousand years in the Roman Empire and then after the Roman Empire it was still in use until it proved to be very inaccurate and sometime in the 15th century Pope Gregory implemented what we are now actually using, which is known as the Gregorian calendar. And the Gregorian calendar has made a rearrangement of the months, and September happened to fall into the seventh month. So you have here a case of a label that is retained, but the meaning has changed. It does not carry the original meaning of September, the seventh month, but the label has been has been retained. Now there are times when maintaining the label with a changed meaning is immaterial. Just like September, we still spend September and we still have 12 months in the year even though the meaning of the months have changed. But sometimes it can be confusing. You have the label retained and yet the actual meaning has changed or vice versa. The label may be changed. It often happens in cases of changes of street names. You know, Buendia in Makati is something that is still in use today, although 40 years ago it has been changed officially. So if someone is looking for bendia, looking at the street signs, he'll get lost because he'll see probably Hilpuyat without realizing that that's bendia. And you see there where a change of label has an impact of confusion and there are things like that. But there are times and there is one area when not only is this confusing, but perilous to one's soul in the matter of belief in God. One can maintain that he believes in God, he calls whatever he worships as God, But examination will prove that he has changed the true God. And the change may be subtle, and his worship of God may still blend with Christian company. In fact, the more it is dangerous. This is one effective way to blind oneself to his need of salvation, that there is one true God, and this true God has revealed himself in the Word, and ultimately in Jesus Christ, because this one true God is a saving God. He is a redeeming God. And you will not know that this God is known by redemption in Christ if you retain the name God for your religion, while in essence and substance, you actually have changed. Now, in biblical vocabulary, this is called idolatry. And many assert that idolatry is an Old Testament issue. And they think that it is the prophets of the Old Testament who denounce idolatry quite sharply. But in the New Testament, they imagine that there is more caution when it comes to the treatment of idolatry, and nothing can be farther from the truth. The New Testament is very clear in its denunciation of idolatry, and this morning, I'd like to direct your attention to one New Testament text that tells us that precisely. I invite you to 1 Corinthians 12, and we will be reading verses 1 and 2. 1 Corinthians 12. verses 1 and 2. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols however you were led. As short as that is, it is the word of God. Now, when you read 1 Corinthians, alert yourself to those words, now concerning. This is Paul's marker of a new section that he is treating. It begins in chapter 7, verse 1, where he says, now concerning the things which you wrote about certain areas in their church life. So, apparently there's a letter that the Corinthian church addressed to the apostle Paul, raising some problems that need apostolic teaching and ruling. And in this chapter 12, he is now directing his attention to one of those issues that the Corinthians themselves raise, and that is concerning spiritual gifts. So it is quite surprising that Paul will begin his treatment of spiritual gifts by addressing the issue of idolatry. Now, I think he is underscoring that the exercise of gifts must be set in the tone of knowing the true God. Because in verse 3, he addresses people who know Jesus Christ And he divides them between those whose reaction to Jesus Christ is one of blasphemy in one extreme, and then he treats those who are believing in Jesus Christ. We'll see that in the next two Sundays, God willing. Paul reminds them first of what they were before they came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Before they came even to the point of being able to blaspheme Christ or believing in Christ, what were they? Apostle Paul tells them directly and unambiguously that they were pagans led to mute idols, however they were led. Now, that is the description of anything outside of Christ. And therefore, that shows my message quite simply. Outside of Christ, human religion is lostness in idolatry. Outside of Jesus Christ, any religion of man is lost in idolatry. Outside of Christ, human religion is lostness in idolatry. Now you may react and ask, why is Paul so unflattering in his description of all religions outside of faith in Christ? It's like saying, besides Christianity, all other religions are wrong, all other religions are idolatrous. Is that not very intolerant of the Apostle Paul? Well, Paul is reflecting the Old Testament denunciation of all idolatry of nations outside Israel. And later on, even Israel became guilty of idolatry. So it is not preferring the religion of one party over another. Even a party that wants or even continues to profess the right religion can still be guilty of idolatry. It is an issue of whether you are actually knowing God as revealed in His Word and ultimately in Christ. And he makes the Corinthian Christians recall their own experience as unbelievers, that they were led to mute idols. And this shows that the denunciation of idolatry is not an Old Testament thing. It is something that perpetuates in the New Testament. And may I say, it is something that perpetuates to this day, that we still must denounce all religions outside of God's revelation in Christ is lostness in idolatry. Now, if this is true, it tells us unflattering truths about religion in general, and idolatry in particular. And there are two things I want us to see deriving from this. First, human religions may vary, but they mislead to idolatry. Mag iba-iba man ang religion ng tao, sila'y magliligaw sa pagkaidolo. Human religions may vary, but they mislead to idolatry. And the second point is that religious idols are many, but they offer no reality. Ang mga idolo ay napakarami, ngunit wala silang iaalok na katotohanan. Religious idols are many, but they offer no reality. So let's consider first that human religions may vary, but they mislead to idolatry. That's what Paul says here in our text. You were led astray to mute idols. And then he says something that is quite difficult to translate from the Greek. He says, however you were led. And the Scholars say that the grammar is quite eccentric in this case. The NIV probably captures it better when it translates it, somehow or other, you were influenced and led to mute idols. What it is saying, in other words, is that there are many paths That man may choose in a religious way, but the same essential result is that of idolatry. Maraming daan kang mapagpipilian, ngunit anumang daan nyan, ang kahinat na nyan ay pagkaidolo. Now, that tells us something about man. And this is very vital for us to know. Man cannot escape religion, and from being religious. Hindi matatakasa ng tao ang religiyon at ang maging religiyoso. Man cannot escape from religion and from being religious. Now many will deny that they even have a religion. And perhaps what they mean is that they are an atheist, they are not a follower of any of the established religions in the world. What they do not realize is that their very denial of religion or of God is itself their religious profession. Religion is human response to one's sense of God. It may be a community response we see in culture, or it may be an individual response in self-profession, but even one who is an atheist is responding to the inescapable knowledge of God that everyone possesses. No one can eradicate that knowledge except by suppressing it. And as Paul says, they do not want to retain God in their knowledge. So you ask the question, why does everyone make a position on God? Maybe you do not believe, but why not just disbelieve? Why do you have to justify your unbelief? Some may believe that there is a bigfoot monster, which is one of the myths that's quite popular. I do not believe that myself, but I do not need to justify it to anyone. I do not even have to justify it to myself. I just don't want to believe that there is a bigfoot monster, whether he exists or not, will not have any bearing on my day-to-day life. But that's precisely the point. Man cannot escape. being in confrontation with God, so that he may disbelieve Him, but he finds himself needing to justify why he does not believe in God. Because the default position of man, being created in the image of God, is to have a belief in God, and when he comes to the point of not believing, he must somehow justify it to himself, justify it to others, That's why I say when you are encountering an atheist who asks you the question, why do you believe in God? Turn it around and make him in the defensive posture. Most people believe in God, right or wrong. You do not believe in God. Defend your position. Why do you not believe in God? But the reality as the Scriptures teach us is man cannot escape responding to God however he may respond. He is in the image of God. And one favorite figure I use for that is like looking at the mirror. When you look at the mirror, the image that stares you back is your own image. And you cannot deny it. You have to respond to it. Whether you respond to it with, I like it. Or, as I often do, I don't like it. But, you have to respond. You cannot be in front of that image and have no response. Now, as far as God is concerned, one theologian said, we are in a posture of an I-Thou. That is, I and you. Our posture towards God is not I and it, like a subject we study. It is not even I and him, like a third person we talk about. What you cannot escape is that when you are a man in the image of God that you are, you are staring at the mirror and the image is, you realize you are the image. God is the ultimate reality and man is but the image of God. The problem of man is that he has that ineradicable knowledge of God, but he suppresses it because of God's image. Religion becomes man's response. but because he is sinful, that response has two directions. One direction of religion is blindly seeking God. This is what Paul tells the Athenians when he saw that altar built to the unknown God. And he tells them in Acts 17.27, their posture is like one trying to feel, or like those who try to feel their way toward Him, even though He is not far from us. Hindi naman siya malayo, pero kapa ka ng kapa kung nasaan ng Diyos. That's one direction of religion. The reason why religion is inescapable is because there is that in you which seeks God, seeks the ultimate. But the real and more essential direction of religion is a flight from God. It is an attempt to escape from God. Beneath every religious identity, Whether you are advocating one or denying all, it is your response to God, whether in blind quest or in flight, an escape from God. You are responding to God without you realizing it. One of the most common traffic violations is beating the red light. I remember I was stopped by the police because I bit the red light. And I won't tell you the aftermath, but the reason why you bit the red light probably is because of reasons of your own, but you cannot tell the police, I do not like red. You responded wrongly to the message that that caller is telling you that you cannot avoid. That is what many people are doing. They think they can beat the sense of God. They can't. One way or the other, there is going to be the apprehension of conscience that tells you you are departing from that which alone can be defining of life. By way of challenge, let me put it in question form. What religion do you profess that is flight from the true God? Anong religion ang inaankin mo na tumatakas sa tunay na Diyos? You may be identified with the more formal and mainstream religions we have, or maybe non-Christian religions. You may be in denial and rejection of all religious identity, and yet the fact is you are trying to be indifferent, but you are not. You may even have a formally recognized religion of Christendom and still end in idolatry. Ultimately, you must respond to Christ because it is in Christ that God made himself known. If ever you will have any dealing with God, with the true God, it must be by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. John 1.18 tells us, no one knows God, but the only begotten Son or the only begotten God, He has declared Him. This God will remain unknown to you until you recognize Him revealed in Jesus Christ. And that is why the knowledge of the true God is only in Christ outside of Him. It is misleading to idolatry. And I don't care what your religion is. You may even be a Baptist for all I care, but you can still be falling into idolatry. When I was very young, I remember reading a pamphlet with the title, How God Saved a Baptist Preacher. It's a testimony of a Baptist preacher named Leroy Shelton. Well, in my days of maturity, I can reflect now that there are some excesses, but the substance is still true that a person can be a Baptist and be preaching as a Baptist and still be outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's sobering and examine yourself where you are. Because any religion, and I mean any, that is outside of a true knowledge of Christ, will mislead to idolatry. There's a second point. Religious idols are many, but they offer no reality. There are so many idols, but none of them offer any reality. Again, the words of Paul, you were led astray to mute idols however you were led. Now, do you wonder why does Paul single out the character of idols, whatever they are, is that they are mute. You may have heard of the common definition of an idol as anything you treat as God in the place of the true God. And essentially, that is a true definition. But I want to give you one that takes into account this truth. Idols are what you find as God located outside His world. Ang mga idolo ay anumang natatagpuan mong tinatratong Diyos na nasa labas ng kanyang salita. Now, you see, that's what mute is. The mute cannot speak. And this is what Paul is saying about idols. Whatever your idols may be, they cannot speak. They have no words. And that's not the way God relates with His people. From the beginning, the way God relates with His people is by the word. The word spoken, and then later that word written. But it's always by word. Word initiated by God. And you cannot find God unless you find Him in His Word. Corinth is known as one of the major places for idols. And remember that in the story of Paul, just before coming to Corinth, he actually came from the city that was number one in idolatry in the number of idols in the Roman Empire, Athens. So he was there seeing all the idols, and then he came to Corinth. There also are idols. Corinthians were known as worshippers of Apollo and Athena. And just at the south of the city is an acropolis dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and fertility. And these people in Corinth were worshippers of these idols. And Paul is saying, however you relate to these people, they will not speak. In fact, Aphrodite was referenced too, without actually naming her, in the Corinthian correspondence. When Paul speaks of those who are having dealings with prostitutes, he is referring to the practice of temple prostitution in the temple of Aphrodite, where followers would have dealings with prostitutes in the False idea that by so doing, they are having dealings with Aphrodite herself. Grotesque. But that's what idolatry does. But God is one who speaks by word. But if it is by word, he must initiate the speaking. He must initiate the communication. And the good news is that He did. He has spoken. And He did so redemptively. That is, He has spoken in order to communicate salvation. Salvation for sinners lost in their blindness and idolatry and in Jesus Christ. There is that salvation. That's the Word of God. That's how God relates with man. And anyone who refuses that Word, what he will get is an idol that is mute. No word. But they do not want this God. Because once you get to know God as revealed in Jesus Christ, one thing you will know is that He is a God of justice. A God who has a standard to maintain, and when that standard is violated, and every sinner in his conscience knows that he has violated the standard of God, and therefore he deserves the justice of God to penalize him. And so he dismisses that God, that's what Paul means in Romans 1.28, they do not want to retain God in their knowledge. They do not want the God who will punish. And so they maintain the God who can be pampering their wishes and their... a God who will adjust to them. That's the kind of God that they want. So again, whatever idol it is that you are maintaining, I do not think that there are people here who have the idols that the Corinthians had. Those idols of pagans in their grotesque images, they have no words. That's why you have to deal with them in all kinds of rituals, either legalistic or even immoral rituals. Because that's the way to deal with these gods, no word. Maybe you have an idol that has no shrine or altar, but you are treating that idol as God, just the same. And they have their own physical and external representation. It may be currency, it may be money, and represented by bills and coins. It may be an ambition that you are worshipping and it is represented by an official position, by promotion. For others, it takes the form of obsession in what is external and temporary, such as love relation. But an idol treated as God will give a sense of happiness. for a while. It may even give a coherence to life. It makes your life apparently meaningful. It can even give you peace of mind again for a while. But what they do not have is word. There is no word of God. While the Word of God has been spoken in the past, came to fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and continues to speak today through the written Word, have you responded to that God of the Word? Every idol outside of this revealed Word, no wonder, is singled out by Paul as being mute because there is no Word. So what is it that becomes God to you? One of the most well-known in Greek mythology is Medusa. You know, hair with hair of snakes. But when her head is covered, she's a very attractive woman. But one curse she has is that when anyone looks at her and their eyes, they meet eye to eye, the beholder turns to stone. Of course, it's legend. But I think that accurately describes those who are obsessed with idols of their own, other than God revealed in Christ. You may have a fixation on something that you know is not God, but you treat it as God. On the Lord's day, instead of worshiping God, there are people who will be fixated on things of this world, and in terms of standard of living, they will live according to the moral standard, not of God. They are fixated with what the world is telling them, which is nothing but pride of life, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, as John says. And what happens is, just like in the myth of Medusa, they are turned to stones. They are lifeless. That's what the power of idolatry is. Again, I challenge you with a question. What is your idol keeping you from the true God revealed in Christ in Scripture? Anong idolo mo na siyang pumipigil sayo na kilalani ng Diyos kay Jesucristo ayon sa kasulatan? The reformer John Calvin has rightly observed the human heart is a factory of idols. That's what our heart does. We manufacture idols. sometimes they are made for us by our culture at other times we make them ourselves But we are prone to idolatry because the knowledge of God is just too much of a weight to bear. But I say only so when you do not know Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ you get to know this God and get to know this God in a way that will have delight in your heart in knowing Him. That's what you do not have in your present condition outside of Christ. And I'm asking you to come to Christ. Recognize the true God in Christ. Because there is no other God there that is outside of Christ, outside of His Word. That's the only God you have. And even if you reject the grotesque idols of pagans such as Corinth had, or you may even say, I do not accept the images that are found in many churches and cathedrals today. That may be, but it is that which is keeping you from coming to Christ and finding the true God that is your idol. and forgo your idol now. You see, again, the reality of an idol is that which is trying to find God blindly or escaping from God. Augustine had something to say of this. in his own confessions, which is, many believe, one of his masterpieces, along with the City of God. In his confessions, he tells us about his unconverted life, and that unconverted life was promiscuous. In fact, he used a description which from Latin is translated in English as lunatic lust. When he was converted, he went to the other extreme. He became celibate. And yet he had a struggle with lust for all of his life. But his analysis of it is something profound. He sees in it, even in the promiscuity and the struggle with lust, a man seeking for an intimacy of relationship that he would say later is found in God alone, but we settle for the fake. we settle for what is not true. And so a man who has that lunatic lust will try to give pleasure to it in ways that he thinks will satisfy it, but there is a man who is looking for that intimacy that God alone can give, and he thinks and he's satisfied with what is not real. That is what an idol is. And even when he has been a Christian, he still struggled with that. But you see, God alone can give that. Is that your idol? Is your idol that which will satisfy your flesh? So you do anything and everything for the satisfaction of the flesh. And perhaps you have pounds of conscience. And then you convince yourself, just another porn to watch. Just another illicit pleasure. Beneath that is a longing for a relationship that you are deceived into thinking that fake relation will satisfy. Augustine opened his confessions with those unforgettable words, we are made for thee and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee. Come to Christ. There you will find that you have been restlessly seeking for satisfaction. The reason is because every one of us is a sinner, and only in Jesus Christ is there knowledge of the true God. And as we respond with our response hymn of for a closer walk with God, let us own the fifth verse that says, the dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. Come to Christ, break your idol, and be saved. Let us say, hope for a closer walk with God. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit will move in our midst and be a convicting presence as Paul has described that life outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever its form may be, There may be many religions, and yet all mislead to idolatry. There may be many idols, but none offers reality. And we pray that we may come to recognize that the true God, the only living God, has revealed himself through words, words spoken in the past, and now words written in scripture, and they all point to Jesus Christ as the revealer of God. For no one knows God, but the only begotten Son, He has declared Him. May we know the true God in Christ alone, for those who are still outside of Christ make this the day. that they will come to Him, not delay, not resist, but cast themselves down upon Him for outside of Him, it is only dark idolatry. And though those idols may give them temporary happiness, some sense of coherence, some sense of peace even, they will not ultimately satisfy. for the reality is we are in sin and the only way for us to have relationship with you is by repenting from sin and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and that your grace must provide. for we are totally depraved. We ask that this may be the day of salvation for sinners who have heard the message. And for those of us who have already chosen to follow Christ and know God in Him, we are still not totally spared from idols of life. Help us, Lord, to search ourselves for our heart is a factory of idols. Grant that we may truly scrutinize and learn to break every idol of the heart that will take the place of the God of the world. So be with us in our allegiance to God in Christ. May you save sinners today, sanctify your saints. Now may the love of the Father, the grace of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. In Jesus' name we pray all these things. Amen.