In Acts 17, it is a favorite
of mine because it shows Paul dealing with the Gentiles. And
he took a different approach with the Gentiles, or with a
heathen, or with a philosopher, than he might have with a Jew
in a synagogue with the scrolls open of the Old Testament Scripture. Here he is among a strange people. And let's look at it in verse
22. through verse 29 and then flipping to Deuteronomy 6 and
verse 4. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you are too superstitious, or you might see that word religious,
for as I 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." God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwells not in temples made with hand. Neither is worship with
men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to
all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all
nations for to dwell on the face of the earth, and have determined
the times, the bounds appointed of their habitation, that they
should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him, and
find him, though he is not far from every one of us, in the
sense that in him we live and move and have our being, as certain
also of your own poets have said, for we are his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
likened to gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's
device. Now, a short one in Deuteronomy
6 and verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one God. Now, we're going to be looking
this morning at the subject, God only is to be worshipped. Now, in this text, in Acts 17,
we find the apostle Paul in Athens, Greece, on a missionary journey. And this may be a new experience
for the Apostle Paul. It may have been unlike anything
that he had ever encountered before, because at Athens it
was unlike any other city where Paul had preached the gospel. It was usually the case that
when Paul entered into a city intending to preach Christ and
the gospel, He would find the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He would enter in and there. He would reason with them out
of the Scripture concerning the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because, you see, in the synagogue
an audience of Jews would conclude two things. Number one, that
Jehovah was the one and only God. That was the professed religion
of the Jew. Their disputes with Paul, their
ill-treatment of him, their persecution of this man of God, was not upon
the ground of the person of God or Jehovah, but it was upon the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They confessed
the infallibility of their Old Testament Scripture, they thought
these were the writings of God. But their dispute with Paul,
as I said, had more to do with his preaching that Jesus was
the Messiah and was the only way of salvation. that Christ
is the only way for a sinner to come unto God. But here in
Athens, Paul encountered a different sort of person, or a different
sort of audience, Through, as in verse 17, the apostle did
go into the synagogue when he was first there in Athens, and
he found Jews there worshiping on the Sabbath. But it is also
true that Paul made his way about the city, and he encountered
there in the marketplace He came upon what I call the spit and
the whittle club. That is the places where the
philosophers sat, where they solved the problems and the mysteries
of life and of deity. And here in this marketplace
and in these porches, he encountered some of the disciples of Epicurean
and other philosophers. And he began to preach unto them
the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection from the dead. And
they did not take him out and stone him. They said, ah, here
is another God that we might add to our repertoire. Come,
we would hear thee further. Now, before we look at this,
There is a double aspect to be emphasized in this message this
morning. Number one, God, Jehovah alone
only is to be worshipped. None other ought to be worshipped. None other is worthy of worship. The worship of any other is idolatry. That's the first point of my
message today. And the second point is this,
God is to be worshipped only in, through, and by the Lord
Jesus Christ, as there is no access to God except that by
Jesus Christ. None comes to the Father but
by me. he plainly said unto them. This is the essence of true worship. This is true religion. God the
Father and God the only one revealed in his Son the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. First of all, let's go back a
bit in the history of the world. to the beginning, or right after
the beginning, of the human family, and the beginning of the worship
of God conducted in the world. At the first unto Adam, both
before and then after his sin and fall, there was known unto
him and his immediate ancestors only the one true God. Heathen idolatry had not yet
been born, not yet come into being. had not yet raised its
ugly, violent head. The quote from John Gill on this
point, he said, I quote, in the first ages of the world, men
believed in their true God and worshipped him, unquote. Gill said this continued up until
the time of the flood, and there did not appear such gross open
idolatry until after the days of the flood and the destruction
of the world. And if you say, why then was
the flood sent? Well, it was on account of the
sins of the people, but not necessarily idolatry, but violence, and greediness,
and self-sufficiency, and self-satisfaction, and that kind of thing. However,
the seed or the potential for idolatry was laid in the fall
and in the depravity of the human family, as well as the scattering
of them over all of the face of the earth, at a distance from
those who held to the worship of the true God. And then the
knowledge of God was lost in large part, and quoting Gil,
then by degrees they lost sight of the true God, and they forsook
his worship." And this we have a description of in Romans chapter
1. In their ignorance and in their
blindness, they cast off the only proper one to be worshipped,
and they turned away from the one true God who created them
and all things, the one who visited Adam and Eve in the garden. But at last men began to turn
away. However, and this I believe is
important, they did not become atheists. And put that point
down. That is a strident point. They went after idols, they went
after false gods, but they did not fall into open atheism, as
perhaps we might have expected them to do, having left the worship
of God, having cast off the worship of the one true God. We might
have expected them to fall into complete atheism. For there is
a middle or a medium position between the worship of God and
that of atheism. To lead the worship of God does
not always and only lead to full-blown atheism. Atheism is not the only
alternative to forsaking the worship of the true God. Another possible alternative
is superstitious idolatry. And here's where we find the
majority of the human family. This is where they went sometime
after the flood, having forsaken the worship of the one true God,
having lost the knowledge of him as is described in Romans
chapter 1, they then began to worship various things, things
which God had made. They worshiped created things.
Some of the first objects which they worshiped, or which they
venerated, or which they held in reverence, were such things
as the sun. and the moon and the stars. And again, Paul in Romans 1 gives
us an account of the birth and the essence of this paganism,
that they became vain in their imagination. Their foolish heart
was darkened. Then they changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into an image made like of the corruptible
man. and to birds, and to four-footed
beasts, and creeping things," Paul says in Romans 1. They also
changed the truth of God into a lie, or literally, they exchanged
the truth of God for a lie, and they worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator. But still, as Paul observes in
Romans 1 and verse 25, they worshiped and they served these objects
and idols. Not God, but the things that
God had made they began to worship. They began to call it the sun
god, the moon god. and the gods of the Great Spirit,
and all of that sort of thing. But here are two points that
are to be made. Number one, how is it that those
who have lost the knowledge of the true God and are without
a saving revelation of the Most High God, how is it that they
are yet found to be, quote, religious, unquote. How is it, having lost
that knowledge, yet are they religious? Religious in the sense
that they have made them, anointed them, and appointed them gods
to worship and to pray to. They have gods that they worship.
They make sacrifices to. They invoke the name of those
deities that they have invented this, even those people in places
that have not been evangelized with the gospel truth. Even in
places where the gospel had never been before, people were found
to have some god, some semblance of worship, and believe in some
deity. We can quote some of the older
heathen and philosopher writers, and I shall. Aristotle, who once
said, all men have a persuasion of a deity. Cicero said, quote,
there is no nation so wild and savage but what is imbued with
a notion of a god. And Seneca said, there never
was a nation so dissolute, practicing such loose living, and abandoned
so lawless and immoral, yet still believed in some sort of a deity
or a god. Helenius said, none of the barbaric
nations ever fell into atheism or doubted the gods, unquote. Now we ask ourselves, how in
the world can this be? This is not what we might expect
unless we are acquainted with the great providence of God. from that text in Romans 2, 14
and 15, which I think is a very, very weighty text concerning
the work of God in the heart of the Gentiles, whereby they
show forth the law by the things that they do. Now, the second
point to consider is the scarcity of atheism. Idolatry is everywhere. Idolatry is abounding. Idolatry is overflowing. But
there is in reality a scarcity of atheism. Surprisingly, atheism
is rare. Not many claim to be atheists,
and then some of them who do, betray their atheism then by
speaking of something being right or something being wrong, making
a distinction between right and wrong. For if there is no God,
if there is no God, there is nothing that is right or that
is wrong. There is no standard if there
is no God. But as we have seen, the majority
of people and nations are not atheists. They will not be. without
a God, they will invent one rather than be without. Even in denying
the true God and the God of heaven, they will fashion to themselves,
with their hands or in their mind, something that they call
God and that they vow before. This has resulted in what Paul
acknowledged in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 5 and verse
6, among the people of the world, he said, there are many that
are called gods, there are many that are called lords. You remember
that Paul said this in reference to the question concerning the
eating of meat that had been sacrificed to idols and had sat
in the idol's temple, but they are gods And they are Lord, says
Paul, in name only and not in essence. They possess no deity. They are due no honor or reverence
or worship. They can render no aid to those
who believe in them. They can forgive no sin. They can save no soul, these
gods many and these lords many that people believe in in the
world. Then notice that Paul adds, while
the heathen acknowledge many to be gods and many to be lords,
in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6 he said, to us There is one
God, the Father and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To the Christian, there's one
God. To the regenerate, to the believer, there is one and only
one God. The Christian can acknowledge
and worship and serve only one God, that none else is to be
worshipped None else is to have our honor, and none else is to
be recognized by the Christian as being divine. Not in heaven,
not in the earth is there any other God. No matter who or how
many may regard them as being gods and lords, no matter who
might name them to be gods and lords, they are in the end empty
vanities, as they're called in Acts chapter 14 and verse 15. Empty, profitless, I think, is
the meaning of that word. Having no purpose, serving no
purpose. To Israel there was one God. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy
God is one Lord." Now, this was quoted by the Savior, the Lord
Jesus, in the New Testament, in Mark chapter 12 and verse
29. The Lord quoted that passage
of the Scripture. As the footnotes in the New Geneva
Study Bible, King James Version, say about Deuteronomy 6 and verse
4, quote, This verse became the great confession of Israel's
monotheistic faith, unquote. This verse is their great confession. Monotheistic meaning a belief
in one God and one only. a single deity. Now, the heathen, all about them,
were polytheistic. That is, they believed in many
gods. But Israel was taught there is
one God. Matthew Henry noted on that passage
in Deuteronomy 6, in verse 4 and 5, the Jews did reckon to be
one of the choicest portions of their scripture. Deuteronomy
6 and 4. And expositors, one after another,
speak of the Jews writing this passage upon their phylacteries
and printing them upon their forehead as they went to worship
and in their hours of prayer. Some say that a Jew repeated
this passage of Scripture twice a day. The Lord thy God is one
God, especially at the hour of prayer, and this was commanded
of them to be done. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 8, And
ye shall bind them or a sign upon your hand, and they shall
be as frontlets between your eyes." Not only so, but Deuteronomy
6 and verse 9, they were to write them upon the posts or the gates
of their dwelling places or their houses. The Lord our God is one
Lord. It was designed by the Heavenly
Father to fortify them against falling into idolatry. The Lord, by God, is one God. And when the heathens brought
their gods around, Israel was to remain steadfast to the one
and only true God. It was to anchor them in the
right way of worship, to deter them from falling into the worship
of a multiplicity of God. They were to worship, they were
to believe in, they were to serve only the one God, And they were
to avoid or they were to forsake all others. Now, looking at this
verse, how powerful it is, let's try, if we might, to get a good
grip on this matter as to the fullness of the expression in
Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. It does not, of course, mean
that God, our Lord God, is one of the gods. That's not the meaning. He's not saying that the Lord
our God is one among the gods. This would be reckless, this
would be careless, and an exegesis would be awful to hold to that
view. Nor can this verse be used to
deny a plurality in the Godhead. It does not wipe out the Trinity
or the plurality in the Godhead, but simply speaks of the singularity
of the Godhead, that God is one. Now, the word Lord here in this
verse, the word Lord or the name, is used many, many hundreds of
times throughout the Old Testament. It is the word Yehovah. or we
might recognize it as Jehovah, so that it could read, Hear,
O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. This was not the
only Jewish national name for God. but it declared him to be
eternal and declared him to be self-existent, and is translated
in the text here as Lord. But it is not the same word that
is used, for example, when Sarah referred to her husband as my
Lord in Genesis 18 and verse 12, it is another word altogether. Andrew Jukes wrote a book, All
the Names of God in the Holy Scripture, and in that he sets
forth this rule of thumb. When we see the word Lord, L-O-R-D, in the Old Testament with a capital
L. When we see it with a capital
L, then the original is Jehovah, our Lord Jehovah. And some say
that the Jews considered the name Jehovah so holy that they
were slow to speak it at all, so holy did they consider it,
that they barely would use it or would speak it. And the passage
in Deuteronomy 6 and 4 seems best understood as saying, Jehovah
is the only Lord, He is the only one, and that to Him and to Him
alone belongs the name Jehovah, or Jehovah God. that he is absolutely
God. There is none else in heaven
or earth that might compare with him. He alone is Jehovah, the
only one. And that's the theology taught
to Israel. And this he declared in the ears
of the people. said Moses in Deuteronomy 4 and
verse 35, that God had done great wonders before them, quote, that
you might know that the Lord, He is God, none else beside Him,
unquote. These great wonders might convince
you that He is God and God alone. In Isaiah 45, verse 5 and 6, The prophet writes this, I am
the Lord, none else, no God beside me, none beside, I the Lord,
and there is none else. It is doubly emphasized in Isaiah
45 and 21, there is no God else besides me. A just God and Savior,
none beside me, declares the mighty God. How bold is Isaiah
in chapter 44 of his great prophecy, where there in verse 6 to verse
8 it is described that there is no other God. He is first, He is last. Beside me no god. And he said to them, ye are my
witnesses. Is there any god beside me? No other god, and the margin
has rock. No other rock or foundation. Then, down in verse 9 through
17, the prophet gives a display of the foolishness of idolatry. foolish men that take their graving
tools and they grave out of them some useless, blind, and dumb
idol. Good for nothing. Who by their own power can do
absolutely nothing? cannot care themself about. Isaiah
44, 9 through 17, is a very interesting passage of which we cannot now
speak particularly, not taking the time. Suffice it to say,
it contains a strong, yes, a mighty strong argument, and also, if
I might add, a reasonable one from the prophet against idolatry. For example, how foolish is it,
it is as stupid as when Aaron and Israel made them a golden
cat, danced about it, and ascribed unto it power. to deliver them. How foolish it is to reject the
God who made all things by His power, then worship something
that God has made, something that is created. You see that
again in Psalms 115 verse 1 through 8, as they mock the idols and
the gods of the heathen. In Exodus chapter 20, At the
giving of the law, God declared to them this as the preface to
it, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. He goes on to
say, Nor shall you make any graven image, saying unto them, I am
the Lord that brought you out of Egyptian servitude, I delivered
you, I redeemed you, I freed you, and upon this account, number
one, they must have one God only, that being Jehovah. Number two,
they must forsake and avoid all others that are called gods by
the heathen or the people who live around them. and any consortium
with the gods of the heathen would be reckoned as scriptural
whoredom by the holy God of heaven. Spiritual adultery is what it
is when they went after other gods. But let's come back to
the New Testament and see where the emphasis lies in the New
Testament, whether there is still this rigid monotheism in place
or not. whether there is any or some
relaxing and a place for more flexibility in choosing a God
that one might worship. Is there? We'll start with the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is one and equal with the Father. And his word of expression on
this issue, this sovereign Lord, who solicited by Satan to worship
him, said in Matthew 4 and verse 10, Get thee behind me, it is
written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt
thou serve. That's taken from Deuteronomy
6 and verse 13. And he declared, that is Christ
declared unto Satan, that none other could be the Father or
could come to the Father except by me. There is no way to God
except by Christ. If you throw Christ out of your
theology, there's no salvation and there's no way unto the Father. He says, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life. John chapter 14 and verse 6. He is the only Christ, our Messiah. Eternal life is only in Him. He is the only way to the Father. A Christless, Christless religion
is a false religion. What was the position of the
apostles in the early days upon this matter, and what did they
teach under the church? Did they hold the same position
as did our blessed Lord? Well, the question is answered,
and answered firmly in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, as you might
remember. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved." You know, this followed
the charge of Peter against the hierarchy of Judaism, that they
had crucified the only one that was able to save. They had set
aside the stone worthy of being the foundation as being unworthy. They had rejected and crucified
the one and only Savior. They killed the Prince of Life. They had made a fatal error concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is in Christ, and it
is in Christ because it is appointed so by God. And none, none, including
Jews, can be saved apart from Jesus Christ. And if you don't
know it, Jews are behind much of the opposition to Christianity
in our present day. Christianity has become the target
of many. And Christianity is the one that
all seem to pile on in our particular day. You know the reason why?
Political correctness. Political correctness, which
I call cultural communism, actually carries the day. You can't tell
the truth anymore out in public. You won't be allowed to tell
the truth as a politician or an official. You will not be
allowed to tell the truth, especially Christian truth, out in the public. I saw a video this week, some
young people outside of an Islamic gathering in the state of Michigan. I think the Town was Dearborn,
don't quote me on that. And they were passing out tracks,
the Gospel of John, in English and in Arabic, passing them out,
standing out front to the people that came. And the police came
out, shooed them away, handcuffed them, arrested them, told them
to stay five blocks away in the passing out of their tracks. And they're setting up Sharia
law in particular places, even here in the United States, a
law that is within our borders now. But in spite of all of that,
we unapologetically declare that Jehovah is the only true God,
and that Christ is the only Savior of sinners. that the Bible is
the only divinely inspired Word of God to be had in the world. Then it follows that Christianity
is the only true religion. And someone might argue against
this, saying, wait a minute, you're using the Bible to prove
your point. You're using the Bible to prove
that the Bible is the only way. Yes, we answer, because the Bible
is a divinely inspired book, inspired by God. It is not the
writing of men. But in closing, let's turn to
Paul's ministry, especially again at Athens. Paul's ministry and
missionary endeavor was based upon a dual premise, if we follow
out his ministry. Number one, Paul's preaching
and doctrine was this. There is no God but one. There is but one that is Jehovah,
the only true and living God, and he exhorted and he preached
that the Gentile, Acts 14, 15, should turn from these vanities
unto the true and the living God. The NIV has these worthless
things. Turn from these worthless things
to the true and living God who made all things. And the second
point of Paul's preaching is, as we've said, there is no salvation
to be had outside of Jesus Christ, and that he alone is the Messiah
of the Old Testament Scripture. And Paul, from the Old Testament
Scripture, preached Christ unto the Jew again and again. See
Acts 17, verses 1 through 3 at Thessalonica. He reasoned with
them out of the Scripture, opening and alleging proving and explaining
that Christ was to die and that he was to be raised again. That the Jesus, he said, that
I preach unto you is the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the
Savior. When Paul was allowed to speak
to those up on Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17, those philosophers,
it says they spent all their time in trying to find some new
thing. They went around like birds in
the market, picking up here and there, trying to find some new
thing. And Paul tells them as he walks
there among them, He says, I find that you are exceedingly religious,
or superstitious as some translations have it. I presume, I see, I
know, I notice that you are very religious. Even building an altar,
he said, dedicated to an unknown God. And he says, it's that God
that I wish to declare unto you. You worship. He did not say to
them, oh, this is fine. Oh, this is so lovely. Oh, this
diversity just thrills my heart. No, he did not say, oh, that's
good. You worship your God and I'll
worship mine. No, not like we hear today. You be sincere, and that's all
it takes. Just be sincere, and that's all
it'll take to get you to heaven. No, Paul didn't say, you worship
your God, and I'll worship mine. And my friend, how could Satan
invent a greater lie? or invent a greater deception
as those worship the sun, the moon, the stars, or a rock, or
a statue, or something that they have made. Thus, these two great
faults and dangers that result from the loss of the knowledge
of God are atheism or idolatry. The less they know about God,
the more immoral they are. Even those who profess the true
and the living God, they worship many of two sorts. One, there
is external worship consisting only in outward rituals, a form
of godliness without any power, going through the motion, rising,
standing, chanting, and that kind of thing. Number two, however,
there is a true internal worship, and it comes with a renewed heart,
a renewed mind, a regenerate one, and in sincerity and in
truth, out of a heart unfeigned, there comes forth adoration and
worship of our God. Do you agree with me this morning?
God only is to be worshiped, and Christ is the only way to
God, and there's no salvation apart or outside of him. God only is the object of worship,
and all else is idolatry. I don't care how sincere you
are. I don't care what kind of sacrifice. I don't care how you
cut your body and bleed and crawl over rock and stone. God alone
is to be worshipped. He is the one Jehovah.