I'm going to preach to you this
morning the truth that turns the world upside down. The truth
from God's Word, if the Spirit of God is pleased, will turn
your world upside down and inside out. Some things you may not
have heard before. Like these people in the town
of Thessalonica, in Acts chapter 17, that's where I'm reading
from, Acts chapter 17, Paul and Silas, preachers of the gospel,
preachers of the Word of God, came to this town of Thessalonica,
and the people there, some believed, but many were angered by what
they heard. And it says in verse 6, they
cried out to the rulers of the city about these preachers. These,
they said, have turned the world upside down. They've turned the
world upside down. Now, when God's Word is preached,
when the Word of God is preached, that it is the Word of God. When
we declare that this book called the Bible, the King James Bible,
is indeed the Word of the living God, inerrant, infallible, not
the words of man, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, and
the only Word of God, the only book of God, the only revealed
or written truth of God. This turns people's world upside
down. We preach, the Bible declares
that this is the truth of God. And the scripture says, let God
be true and every man a liar. Scripture says that God's word
alone is wisdom and the wisdom of man is foolishness. The truth
of God is that He is God. There is no other God but the
God of the Bible. He is God. He's not trying to
be God. He doesn't want to be God. He
will not be God if you let Him be God, but He is God. That the God of the Bible doesn't
want anything, doesn't wish anything, doesn't try anything, but is
working all things according to His will, and none can stay
His hand. The truth of God, the truth of
man, will turn man's world upside down. The truth of God's Word
about man. God's Word doesn't say anything
good about man. God's Word declares man to be
dead in trespasses and sin. Unwilling, unable, depraved,
depraved, totally depraved, helpless, wicked, vile, sinful, at the
mercy of a God who's angry with him. No, not a God who loves
him, but a God who's angry with him. This will turn perhaps your
religious world upside down. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Scripture said, God hateth all
workers of iniquity. No, the God of the Bible does
not love everyone, but is angry with, angry with the wicked every
day. The truth of God's word is the
truth about the God-man, that that man named Jesus who walked
this earth was not just a man, but he is the very God who created
this world. That baby in the arms of that
woman was in fact the God who made her. He was actually her
father and not her son. He came to this earth to save
his people, to save his elect people. He came with all authority
given to him from the Father to give eternal life to as many
as the Father gave him. That's John 17 too. Not to offer
life, but to give life to some dead sinner. He came and he was
despised and rejected of man back then and now still. Man hates the God of the Bible.
Man hates true holiness. Jews and Gentiles took and killed
the Lord of Glory, but they did what Scripture said God determined
for them to do. They, with wicked hands, they
did what God purposed to be done, as man does still today. The truth about the God-man,
the truth about Christ, the truth about salvation, will turn everyone's
world upside down, inside out. When the gospel comes, when the
truth comes to a town, it will set the city in an uproar, as
it did at Ephesus of old, because the truth will kill man's conception
of God. It makes people who think they're
saved to be lost. It justifies sinners and condemns
the self-righteous. The prophets, when they came
in their day, Moses came to Egypt and it destroyed that place,
turned it upside down. Joshua came to Jericho and the
walls fell down. And the only ones saved out of
that city were harlots. Jonah came to Nineveh, a great
revival, repentance came. Elijah came and the king said,
are you he that troubles Israel? He said, I don't trouble Israel,
but Israel's in trouble. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
all of them, all these prophets came. and it turned the world
upside down. And then the Lord of glory of
whom they spake, the Lord who sent them, the Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth and he turned this world upside down. The apostles whom the Lord sent
to preach the truth, They traveled into every city and every place
they entered with the truth. It troubled the people, the truth. In Acts 16, the previous chapter,
says in verse 20, they came to Philippi, and it says, these
men exceedingly trouble our city. They teach customs that are not
lawful to us. They're telling things that we
don't believe, and they trouble our city. Acts chapter 19, they
came to Ephesus in a town that was ruled by women, a town that
had a religion that worshiped a woman, kind of like Roman Catholicism
today. And it says the whole town was
in a great uproar. Well, the message to any and
every town The message of the truth then and now is, we're
not the ones troubling people, but this town is in trouble.
This world is in trouble, as in the days of Noah. Noah came
preaching a message of God's righteousness, God's holiness,
and God's justice against an evil world that was about to
perish. His message was, this world is
in trouble. Noah's message was not, smile,
God loves you, but God is angry. and is going to destroy this
world, and there's only salvation in one place, and that is in
the ark. And that ark represented the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the message we have
today. Not that smile, God loves you. Not that God loves this
whole world, but that God is angry with it. But God does love
those people who are in Christ. And they're in Christ because
God loved them, because God chose them, because God brought them,
because God taught them, because Jesus Christ bought them, because
the Holy Spirit regenerated them. Salvations of the Lord. And this
truth turns the world upside down. Paul one time said, am
I become your enemy for telling you the truth? Yes, because man
hates God and hates the truth. Man loves himself. He doesn't
love God. Man loves his righteousness. Man loves his religion. Man loves
his work. But the scriptures puts down
man's works, man's religion, man's righteousness, calling
it filthy rags. The truth, you see, exalts God
and abases man. False religion exalts man and
abases God. Over in Acts chapter 17, it says
in verse 16 that when Paul came to the city of Athens, his spirit
was stirred up in him when he saw the whole city. The city
was wholly given to idolatry. They worshiped gods of their
imagination, the way they thought God is. So that's the God of
this generation, the gods of this generation. Every thought
and imagination that man can come up with about God is what
men believe about Him. The God of the Bible is revealed
as He is. as he's revealed in scriptures. This is the God of the Bible
whom I'm trying to declare unto you right now. In Acts 17, he
came to this Mars Hill where everyone gathered together to
hear various discussions on politics and religion and so forth. An
open forum, if you will. He came there and he said to
the men and women of Mars Hill, of Athens, Greece, educated modern
society, he said, I perceive in all things you're too religious,
too superstitious. He said, I passed by and beheld
all your devotions and I found an altar with this inscription,
to the unknown God. He said, that's who I declare
unto you, the unknown God. I want to declare unto you the
God that most people don't know. He's a strange God to this generation,
but He's God. He's the God of the Bible. Paul
said over in Acts chapter 24 one time, he said, I confess,
after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, the God
of my father, believing all things which are written in the law
and in the prophet. He said, I confess that the way
they call heresy is how I worship. I worship the God of my father.
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Who
is the God of Abraham? Well, God chose Abraham. Abraham
didn't choose God. Abraham was a heathen. He lived
in what is now modern Turkey. He didn't know God. He was an
idolater. And God chose him. God revealed
himself to Abraham. God chose Abraham. He said, I'm
the God of Abraham and Isaac. What about Isaac? Isaac was born
a miracle child. Abraham and Sarah got together
and made them a boy, they thought, and called his name Ishmael.
And God rejected him. And that's a picture of man's
works, of man's religion, man's free will, and man giving birth
to himself. Well, salvation is of the Lord. You must be born again. He said,
I'm the God of Isaac. He said, I'm the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. He said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. He's the God of sovereign love.
He loves whom He will. He has mercy on whom He will.
And whom He will, He hardeneth. Paul said, I worship the God
of my fathers, Moses' God. Moses. Moses came to Pharaoh
and said, let my people go. And God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Yes, Romans 9 says, He hardens
whom He will. This is the God of the Bible.
Scripture says, let me quote you several verses of Scripture.
This is the God who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. Man doesn't have a free will.
God's the only one with a free will. Scripture says, God doeth
according to his will among the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand. None
can thwart Him. None can resist Him. None can
keep Him from doing His will. God's will will be done, not
man's will. Scripture says He declares the
end from the beginning, things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand. I will do all My pleasure. David
said, My God, our God, is in the heaven. He does whatsoever
He pleases. Not what man will let him to
do, but what God pleases. That's what he does. Scripture
says God will work and no one can let him. Scripture says in
God's hands our breath is in all our way. Scripture says the
king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. Like rivers of water,
he turns it whithersoever he will. Scripture says God, known
unto God, are all his works from the beginning of the world. predestined,
predetermined, ordered in all things, and sure, and nothing
can stop it or change it, doing all things according to His eternal
purpose, God who's holy, God who's just. This truth turns
the world upside down. It needs to. The modern God,
the idol of this world, needs to be killed. Dagon must fall. Men and women must bow to, must
be turned by the God of the Bible from their idols to serve the
true and living God. What about you? What do you say
to these things? Oh, may God be pleased to reveal
His truth to you. Amen.