7/20/03 T-5 INI Acts 17:16-21

Dear Fellow Redeemed, by the blood of God's own Son,

Did you catch that last verse? "All the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." What a waste of time! This is the Idolatry of Novelty, that seizes every culture and society sometime in its history. The worship of the new and the novel is perhaps the greatest of all vanities. You heard what the God-inspired preacher, King Solomon, said in Ecclesiastes: "There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, 'See, this is new?' It has already been in ancient times before us. . . . ." (Eccl. 1:9-10)

But the worshipers of Novelty laugh at these words. "Did Solomon have penicillin? Did he ever see a helium balloon or drive a car? What about space travel?" Oh how we like to boast over past generations, that our methods and accomplishments are new. When I tried this as a teenager, my Father set me straight: "We today are no wiser or more creative than the generations before us," he said, "What we have discovered as 'new' is merely the result of building on the knowledge of others from the past."

What is there in all of creation that is really new? The powers of nature have never changed. The "laws" or principles by which our Lord governs and upholds all creation may be "newly discovered" by modern science, but they themselves are as old as creation. Men's hearts and minds remain the same -- corrupted since the Fall into sin. Man's desires, pursuits and complaints are still the same. After 6,000 years of world history, kingdoms, nations, and individuals still follow the same pattern of existence: birth, growth, and prosperity, followed by decline, death, and decay! Is the Theory of Evolution something new?Long before the "hairy arm" of evolution grabbed modern science and civilization, Epicurus taught that the world was formed by an accidental gathering of atoms -- not created or even formed by divine power. Many deny the immortality of the human soul given by a Creator. But this is nothing new; Epicurus also denied the existence of the soul.

What about the materialistic, self-seeking of our nation's people. Is this new? Long ago, the same Epicuras and his followers spread the notion that since no man is governed by a Creator God, and since man does not exist after death, his highest aim in life should be to seek pleasure while he can!

Another large portion of American society exalts the powers of the human mind and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. They follow a moral code that denies the physical pleasures of the Epicureans. They think that their salvation is to be found in their own will-power and well-thought-out morality. But this is nothing new; The Stoic philosophers of Paul's day believed the same thing.

No, there's really nothing new under the sun. Yet people continue to worship the Idol of Novelty. You have heard about the New Age Movement. There's nothing new about a movement to abolish God as a personal being, or a movement that promises easy solutions to problems and instant gratification of a person's desires. This movement is as old as Satan's proposals in the Garden!

The devil knows how the word "new" appeals to those who worship Novelty. Novelty worshipers must have the latest fashion in dress, experience the newest thrill everyone else is talking about. They want a "new" woman, or a "new" and wide-open life-style. I have know people who are driven by loneliness and boredom to buy a new home or a new car every two or three years.

When will man realize that he can find nothing "new" under the sun? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ! He alone has provided the solution to the fear and the monotony which moves sinful mankind to his soul-destroying search for something "new" under the sun. Our Lord writes in Revelation 21, to his believing people of all times: "Behold, I make all things new!" That the Lord God of heaven makes all things NEW is set forth in the Holy Scriptures and in human history. Think of the many happy examples:

Man spoiled paradise. Then he might have eaten of the Tree of Life and made us all live on earth forever with our terrible sorrows and physical afflictions! But God drove man from the Garden so that he would have to make a NEW start -- seeking life eternal in the promised Seed of the woman, the Christ.

When man again ought to have been utterly destroyed for his wickedness before the flood, what did God do? He determined through Noah to make a NEW beginning for the human race so that some might still be saved!

At the Tower of Babel man was again threatening to erases himself entirely from the memory of God. How proud he had become of his own strength and numbers! (Gen. 11) But God broke up the "huddle." He befuddled the signals of their tongues, sending people in all directions away from one another. This creation of different languages was one of the most revolutionary developments in the history of the world! And from this event, God chose for Himself a NEW people -- Abraham's nation -- to be the bearers of the promised Savior.

When the nation of Israel continued to reject the promises of God, the Lord made a NEW beginning; He called the Gentile nations to faith! (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Finally, you heard this morning of the vision John received of the "NEW" heaven and the NEW earth," and the 'NEW' Jerusalem," which God has prepared through Jesus Christ for his believing children. It is the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Who says to John in Rev. 21: "Behold, I make all things NEW!" And God shall wipe away every tear from our eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4)

But the possession of this new and heavenly existence seems so far off at times, doesn't it? As we wait, we who believe may also be tempted to bow to the Idol Novelty. The Lord, the Great RENEWER, has come to our aid here too! For His is not only a promise to give us a new life and new home in eternity. We who are His through faith in Jesus Christ are already experiencing the power of our God to make "all things new." Consider Paul's words to the Corinthian Christians (2 Cor. 5): "If any man be in Christ, He IS a new creation; the old things have passed away. Behold! All things ARE new!"

What does this mean to you who believe in Christ? Once we stood naked and filthy before the holy God, because of sin. NOW we are washed and clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, the Christ! (Is. 61:10)

Once we were dead in our sins; NOW we are alive through Christ! The members of our bodies were slaves of sin; but NOW are made the instruments of righteousness! (Rom. 6:1-18) Once enemies of God, NOW we have become His beloved children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus (Rom. 5:1 ff.)

Once without God and without hope in this world, like countless others, NOW God Himself has become our portion, our eternal inheritance -- AND THERE'S NO END TO OUR HOPE! (Eph. 2:12, Ps. 16:5, 73:26)

Now, if our God and risen Savior "makes all things new"

-- heaven and earth and US too -- then He has also made NEW the way our hearts and eyes view everything in this life. Whether it is God's will that we abound in wealth or suffer need; are raised to honor or humiliated before men, we can do and suffer "all things through Christ Who strengthens us," and Who is our Defender and Treasure forever!

My wife and I now classify as OLD marrieds. Some of your marriages are even beyond such classification! Yet our Lord makes our wives, our husbands, and our marriages NEW to us! . . . New clothes? New thrills? New house or car? None of these things is NEW for long! But one of my favorite Bible passages says, "The mercies of God are new to us every morning." (Lamentations 3:23)

Dear friends in Christ, there is nothing monotonous or dreary in our lives, if only we are made to see that God's MERCY is made NEW to us each day in countless ways. Away then with the IDOL "NOVELTY"! We say "NO!" to her seductions! Ours is no "strange God, to be added to the vain idols of the world. He is the One who has died in Christ for us, but now is risen from the dead to make ALL THINGS NEW both now and forever! Amen.