Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. I'd like
to look at verses 22 to 25 this morning.
We went through the book of Acts. Oh, three years plus ago, and
the last few days I've had this particular passage of Scripture
on my heart, and I feel as though that this is the message for
this morning. I'd like to read these verses.
And then we'll take a few minutes and consider what the Spirit
of God has to say. The scripture says in verse 22,
Acts 17, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said,
You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too
superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare
I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that He is Lord in heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with Neither is worship with
men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to
all life, breath, and all things." The more I listen, look, contemplate, What men say concerning God Almighty, the more I'm coming to realize,
I know it's so, I'm saying the more I'm coming to realize, this world is ignorant. Ignorant
of God. They don't know God. A year or so ago I was with Glen
that had gone up to a place and we were sitting in
a restroom and the person that was waiting on us had a particular
dress on her outfit that distinguished a particular sect of people that
hold to certain religious truths, very
easily recognizable. And as a general rule, I usually
don't say anything about it. I just sit down and I don't say
anything. But I was truly intrigued with this religious
outfit that she had on. And I asked this young lady,
I said, let me ask you something. I said, tell me, tell me very
quickly, I know you're busy, but I just want to ask you this.
I said, what, tell me what is the, what's the basis, what's
the heart, what's the bottom line of what you believe? salvation is. I noticed your
outfit and your hat. What do you believe? Oh, we believe
that Jesus Christ came into this world and died on the cross.
And that he saved sinners, you know. I said, well, I said, everybody
says they believe that. That's pretty universal. I said,
let me just ask you a quick question. I said, do you believe that Almighty
God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy and compassion, before
the foundation of the world, chose to show mercy to a group
of people, that he chose in particular, out of all the world, he selected
some that he was pleased to show mercy to, and that the Lord Jesus
Christ, having been given those people in an eternal covenant
of grace, that Christ came into this world as their surety and
lived before God's law for them. for the elect, for a chosen people,
and redeemed absolutely everyone that the Father had given Him.
And with absolute certainty, God Almighty, by His Holy Spirit,
is going to call every one of the elect out of darkness, and
they will surely be saved. She said, oh no, I don't believe
that. She said, we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross
to make salvation possible, and that it's up to men to decide
whether or not they want salvation. I said, well, thank you. You've
answered my question. This world, by and large, does
not know God. Men are absolutely in total darkness,
dead in trespasses and sins. And He absolutely is going to
have to do something for men. As old brother Scott said, God
is going to have to do something for Himself before He can do
anything for men. God is going to have to satisfy Himself before
He can save men. And he did. Paul said, as he stood, he had
gone to this city. There he was, waiting. And he looked around, the scripture
says, when he stood in the midst of Mars Hill. He'd drive down
any road in West Virginia, Virginia, Anywhere you want to go, go to
any city, look around. And there's church buildings
all over the place. And you look at these buildings,
just like Paul when he stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and
he said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you're too
superstitious. But Paul did perceive the absolute
ungodly worship of this world to be nothing more than false
religion. He told these Mars heathens,
in a sense when he said what he said, he could have He could
have said what he said in a very harsh way, but the context does
not, to me, appear to be that he was just going to beat them
over the head. Listen to me. The gospel in itself,
the gospel itself is offensive to the natural When you tell a man, you tell
a man that God elects a people, and you know what he's going
to say? That's not fair. That's not fair. Man, I've told people so many
times, fair. Listen to this, you listen to
this scripture again, Adam all die. Thanks be unto God that God Almighty
chose a people to show mercy to. Why? Because God so loved the
world, He loved the order of man. Paul said, I perceive that
you choose superstition. The gospel itself is offensive. But you let the gospel be that
which offends people. You don't have to go in here
and treat people harshly. What we normally do is, We normally
end up telling men that they're wrong before we tell them what's
right. Tell them what's right. Somebody told me one time that
bankers, when they teach people how to catch counterfeit money,
they just handle good money. Good money. That's all they handle
is good money. And when they pick up bad money,
they know it. I don't feel right. I don't look right. Color don't
look right. You let a believer sit under
something that's inconsistent, and I'm telling you the first
hint that comes across something that's inconsistent with what
they know is so, and red flags go up everywhere. They're thinking,
whoa, wait, whoa, wait a minute. Paul says, I see, I perceive
that you're too superstitious. Remember this, a soft word turns
away wrath. A tender heart turneth away anger,
but grievous, hurtful words stir up anger." Proverbs 15, verse
1. Oh, the mercy of God, Paul said,
I perceive, verse 22, you two superstitious. As I, verse 23,
pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,
to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him declare
I unto you. That's what I'm titled as. Him
declare I unto you. As I passed by, what a miracle
of God's grace that God Almighty would send a preacher. Mercy,
mercy, mercy is exhibited, openly exhibited. The Lord said, I'll
send you pastors after my heart. Oh, where you find God has raised
up a place, and God is sending a pastor. That is by the grace of God. Here was a preacher, a preacher
in center of all the know-it-all,
the hoopla. And here were these men. Paul
said, I beheld your devotions. I saw these gods that you're
worshiping. You know, a believer sees really
what's not present, a place of true worship. If I
was going to go somewhere and it wasn't Katie Baptist Church,
where would I go? I'll tell you where I'm going
to go. I'm going to go someplace that
I feel comfortable, where there's a pastor that's consistent. One truly seems to me to be having
the honor of Almighty God at heart, the good of His people,
God's people. That's where I'm going to go.
Paul looked around and realized that no place, there's nothing
here. It's not until the Spirit of
God quickens a man's heart that he sees with eyes of faith toward
Christ and hears with ears that loves his gospel that he can
truly behold that which is false. How do you know? Remember that
illustration I told you about Darden Pruitt? That's one of
the best. I've used it so many times. I love it. Darden's nephew
asked him one time, he said, you say that salvation is all
grace. They say it's made possible that
you have to accept what God, you know, you say they're wrong,
they say you're wrong. He said, how do I know? How do
I know? And if Almighty God doesn't do anything for you, you'll find
something that sounds good. I guess that sounds good as any. And you'll go somewhere where
they pat you on the back and tell you what a good Christian
you are. You'll get on some committees. They'll give you a job. Keep
you busy. And you'll die right there, but
for the grace of God. Apostle Paul had been called
out of spiritual darkness and he recognized by eyes of faith
the spirit of idol worship. Paul knew what he was talking
about. That's what he'd been previously engaged in. That's
what men by nature Usually you talk to somebody and as a general
rule, not always, but as a general rule, men are called out of false
religion, sitting under false religion. I think about so many
of you that have sat here for years and years, sat under Brother
Scott, and he's the only one you ever heard. But I'll tell
you one thing, it took the same power to call you out of darkness
as it did to call anybody out of false religion. Same power
that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, same power. It takes the power of Almighty
God to regenerate a heart, regenerate a man, give him a new spirit,
new mind. Though people say they worship
Jehovah, without a new heart, without regenerating power, that
person merely worships. the God of their imagination. Man makes up a God. Isaiah 29.13
says, Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw
near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honor
me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward
me is taught by the precepts of men. I found an altar with this inscription. to the unknown God. Amazingly, these Athenians, while
boasting of their vast wisdom that they had in all things,
actually broke that on stone. They were more honest than most
people are. You ask men, do you know God? Sure I know God. Tell me about
it. Tell me about who God is. I had someone come to me
this week, about three days ago. And they said, can I talk
to you? I said, sure. And they said,
I'm lost. I'm lost. And I'm telling you, I was so
taken back by what I heard. I said, do you mean before God
Almighty? He said, yeah. I said, how do you know? She said, I'll tell you this,
I know this, I died. He said, I'm going to hell. And
I told her, I said, you could have not told me one thing that
would have been more of an encouragement to me and to tell me I'm lost. I said, if anybody truthfully
from the heart admits, I don't know God. I said, I'm going to
tell you something. God's already shown mercy to
you. Because I said, I'm telling you, hundreds of people pass
this church. daily and I will say by and large
the vast majority, not all of them because some of you passed
by, but by and large the vast majority don't know and don't
care. Boy, I'm telling you everything
in the world that I could possibly think of at that moment. I was
thinking to myself, I've got to tell you who God is. I've
got to tell you who the God of this Bible is. I want you to
know, if you're lost, if you're truly lost, you want to know. You do want to know if you're
truly lost. And then after I told her everything
I could possibly think of, I still second guess myself. And I think
to myself, who's sufficient for these things? I got up this morning,
coming over here, thinking about that. And thinking to myself,
Arvind, don't you dare. Strive as much as you can. Tell these people who God is.
Don't ever assume that anybody knows who God is. Tell them to
the unknown God. This wasn't an attempt on their part to give
honor to the gods that they didn't know. I'll tell you what they
were trying to do. They were trying to cover their bases right here
to the unknown God. We've got all these gods we're
worshiping right now. And just in case we've missed
one, we're going to put up an altar to the unknown God. By the grace of God, I heard Brother Scott say this
too. You ever noticed something? I told him one time. I said,
Brother Scott, be careful what you tell me. I said, I may be
listening. He told me. He said, I'll tell you what.
He said, believe it does. He puts all his eggs in one basket. One basket. These people right
here, they thought just in case we don't have our faces covered,
we're going to put up an altar. And whoever that unknown God
is, he'll just accept it. I want to tell you, the one that
you're ignorantly worshiping. The one that you ignorantly worship. They worship. They worship. You
say, they actually worship? The scripture said that Lydia
worshiped the God of her imagination. The Lord opened her heart and
she attended to the words that Paul was preaching. That woman at the well, the Lord
told her, He said, you worship, you know not what. She didn't
know who God was. Almighty God is a God that must
be set forth with clarity. How are they going to hear? How
are they going to believe without a preacher? How are they going to preach
unless God Almighty sends a preacher and teaches a preacher? This
is who God is. Listen to Paul the Apostle. Here is the message that Paul
preached. And I listened and I read these
words again this morning, and I thought to myself, the Spirit
of God has given the message that Paul preached. And I'm going
to take those two verses, 24 and 25, I want to look and I want to
see, what does the Spirit of God have the Apostle Paul saying? I can do no better than to bow
before an Almighty God that's got the same. Here's what he
said, Paul says, Him declare I unto you, and the next words
out of his mouth, God that made the world and all things therein. God Almighty, who is the Creator
of all things, how far, how far has God created? Proverbs 16,
4, the Lord has made all things for Himself. Yea, even the wicked
for the day of evil. You need to tell me that God
Himself created all of these things, everything that we see,
everything we can't see with our eyes, even the wicked for
the day of evil. My friend, this is the God that
Paul set forth. He's God. He's sovereign infinitely,
sovereign in all things. Sovereign in creation, sovereign
in providence, sovereign in salvation. This is the God of this Bible.
This is the God, the unknown God that you say you're worshiping
and you're worshiping in absolute ignorance. You don't know Him.
Paul said, I'm going to tell you who He is. This is God. God that made the world and all
the things therein. In Genesis 1-26, God said, let
us make man in our image, after our likeness. One of the most
amazing passages of scripture that I've read. Here's what's said in that. God Almighty said, let us make
man. The word make in Genesis 1-26. Look it up. Believe me, I would not stand
here and tell you this if I had looked it up. I think I've got
at least enough sense to know that. Somebody may chuck up on
me. Let us appoint, let us appoint
man in our image. Who is the image of the invisible
God? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make man, let us appoint
man in our image, after our likeness. Let us consider men, all men,
in their relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
express image of God. The scripture says, Genesis 127,
so God created man in His own image. God created. It means
to cut down or to make fat. Can I just come to the heart
of what I just said right here? Does God have the right to make one vessel of honor and another
vessel of dishonor? Does God Almighty have the right
to set His affection, His eternal love upon an object of His mercy
and say, I'll have mercy unto whom I'll have mercy? I'll have
compassion upon whom I'll have compassion. Let us make man,
let us appoint man according to their relationship to the
Lord Jesus Christ that God hath arrived. All souls are mine. Can I not
do it my own as I will? Paul said, this is the God that
you don't know. This is God Almighty. To say
that God made the world and all things therein, that means that
this thing is not evolving. Number one, it didn't come out
of green slime. And number two, it's not being sustained on its
own. Well, the earth is getting warmer, they say. Well, I tell you what, it won't
be long. You know, the seasons are changing. No, as long as Almighty God sustains
this, there's going to be more, just like there are right now. God Almighty is absolutely seated
in the heavens, that David said he hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased." Nebuchadnezzar, he doeth as he will in the army
of heaven. Among the heavens and the earth, no man stays his
hand. But John 6.39 concerning our
Lord's will, he who is the Creator, he who rules and reigns John
6.39, what is God's will? What's the will of God? The Lord
Jesus Christ said, This is the Father's will which hath sent
me, that of all which he hath given me. My, if men would just
stop and read the Word of God. I know that the Lord is going
to have to give them a heart. I can't tell you how many years I've
read the Bible. And when God was pleased to open
my eyes, all of a sudden I saw, you know what? This is everywhere. God's sovereignty is everywhere. This is the Father's will that
He sent me, that of all that He has given me, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Paul
said, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing
that He is Lord in heaven and earth, Lord in heaven and earth. Isaiah 45-7 says, I form the
light, I create darkness, I make peace, I create evil, I, the
Lord, do all these things. God Almighty is God. Paul said he dwelt, if not in
temples made with angels, God's not limited to the puny thoughts
of man. He can find the shrines created
by the feeble hands of men. Last Wednesday night, I was sitting
at my desk, and out of the corner of my eye, somebody came down
right here. I thought it was someone that
goes here first, but then I looked again and someone was kneeling
down right here. Stayed there for a few minutes. Got up and walked out. And I asked somebody, I said,
who's that? He said, I don't know. Some lady just walked in and
wanted to know if she could come down and pray. Almighty God is not confined
to this piece of wood. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. I tell you where He dwells. He
dwells in the temple that He's made in His people. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of the living God? We don't stop people from praying
in schools or whatever. You can't stop anybody that God's
given a heart. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. The universe is in Him. Believers call upon the Lord. In Christ Jesus dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God's people are His temple. We've come together this morning.
Here's Katie Baptist Church. I know what we refer to. I understand
that. This is a building here. This is God. In verse 25. Neither is worship with men's
hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life,
breath, and all things. Paul said he's neither worshiped,
he's neither served, neither obeyed, with men's hands of power,
as though he needed anything. I told you I heard that silly
statement. Your hands are the only hands
he has. Your mouth is the only mouth
that he has. The Lord said in Psalm 50, 12,
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. The world is mine,
the fullness thereof. This is what scripture says,
Luke 17 says, So likewise when ye shall have done all these
things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants,
we have done that which was our duty to do. I don't add anything to the glory
of Almighty God. But I come before you and stand
before you prepared, hopefully, to preach the gospel of God's
grace. I'm a servant of God Almighty. This is my calling. It's my duty
to be here. But I'll tell you this, I don't
add one thing to His honor. He's God. He's God. God Almighty. God Himself said He's not worshiped
in the sense as though He needed anything. See, He gave it to
all life and breath and all things. That breath of air that He just
gave you, that was His air. That physical life He gave you,
that's His life. If He's pleased to call one of
His own out of darkness, He has the right to do so. If
He withholds it, He has the right to do so. Who is God? God Almighty is the one for whom
all men are going to stand. He's God in heaven and earth.
He's sovereign in all things. Moses said, when I go down to
tell the children of Israel, tell Pharaoh,
who shall I say sent me? Well, that was another one that
came to my mind when I was thinking about this. He said, you tell
them that I am. I am that I am. That encompasses
all things concerning His sovereignty. God Almighty doesn't bargain
with men. He does as He will. He does as
He will. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart and our understanding. This is the God. Thankfully,
I thank God, I'll tell you this, that God Almighty has raised
up a place these many years. That faithfully, faithfully,
faithfully, He has allowed the gospel to be here. Because I
know this. If he removes this candlestick,
it's over. It's over. If he were to move
the candlestick, take it out of Katie, many would say, I'm sure, I remember
a time when you could go to this place right here and you could
hear about who God was, truly who God Almighty was, is. Lord bless these words to our
heart.