Now here's what I propose. Since
I read so slowly, I'd like to read the first 14 verses, and
then when we come to our second reading, I'd like to finish the
chapter, because it is the overall chapter that I want your attention
to be directed to, and then in In trying to preach this morning,
I want to take a statement out of Paul's sermon that was preached
in Athens, Greece in a place called Mars Hill. Mars Hill. We have a Mars Hill, North Carolina,
and I'm sure that's where its name comes from. Now here's what
I want you to look for as we read. I want you to notice how
Paul and Barnabas go about preaching the gospel of Christ. The whole
book of Acts is simply an unfolding of these apostles of our Lord. Hence, the book is called the
Acts of the Apostles. So the first ten chapters are
taken up pretty much with the other apostles. And beginning
at chapter 13 and taking us through the end of the book of Acts,
which I believe is chapter 28, is primarily the preaching of
the Apostle Paul. And he went to a goodly number
of cities, being the first to carry to those people the gospel
of Christ. And it's like a broken record.
I mean, he goes in and heads straight for the Jewish synagogue
and they give him an opportunity to speak and he starts telling
them about Christ, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament.
And the only scriptures in existence were the Old Testament scriptures.
And he appealed to them and showed them Christ in the Old Testament.
Well, pretty soon they've had their fill of Paul and his message
and they toss him out on his ear and he goes to the next town
and does the very same thing all over again. But in every
situation and in every case, here's the rule of thumb wherever
the gospel goes. You can find these words in Acts
28 verse 24. Some believed the things which
were spoken and some Believed not. And that is still how it
is. And I cannot change it. Neither
can any other man. God alone can clothe His Word
with power and save lost sinners. No man can do that. Not all the
men put together can do that. God must do that. All right,
Acts chapter 17, verse 1. Now when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was
a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures." Three weeks in a row. Opening, here's
what he preached. opening and alleging that Christ
must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and
that this Jesus who both died and rose again, this Jesus whom
I preach unto you is Christ, is Messiah. the long-promised
Messiah throughout the whole of the Old Testament. And some
of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the
devout Greeks, the Gentiles, a great multitude, and of the
chief women, not a few, but the fly and the ointment. But the
Jews which believed not moved with envy took unto them certain
lewd fellows, vile fellows, people that for money will do virtually
anything, of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set
all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason,
and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they
found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the
rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside
down are come here also. And wherever the true gospel
goes, those are the repercussions. It turns things upside down. You know why? Because they're
wrong side up. puts God where God should be
and man where man should be. God's on the throne and we're
in the dust. Verse 7, those that turn the
world upside down, whom Jason has received, and these all do
contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another
king, one Jesus. Our Lord had no interest in Caesar's
throne. His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. But the truth didn't much get
in the way of people like this. They used lies as well as truth. And they troubled the people
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And
when they had taken security, a bond of Jason and of the others,
they let them go. And the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming there
went into the synagogue of the Jews. Right back again. These were more noble, the Bereans
were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures
daily whether those things that Paul and Silas preached were
so. Therefore, many of them believed
also of honorable women, which were Gentiles, and of men not
a few. But when the Jews of the previous
town, Thessalonica, had knowledge that the word of God was preached
of Paul at Berea, they came there also and spurred up the people
And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were,
to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained
in Berea. And Paul winds up, we'll find
him there in just a little bit, in Athens. Athens, Greece. We'll start reading at verse
15 in Acts 17. Let's call upon the Lord to help
us. O Lord God of heaven and earth, God who is revealed in
your holy book, the Bible, upon your name we call. Lord, we dare
not approach your throne except we come through him about whom
we've just sung, our blessed Redeemer and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We come through his blood, by
his merit, and by your grace. Lord, here we are. reading of
an event on the pages of your book that occurred 2,000 years
ago. And if we are to understand what
we read, you must give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts
to understand, or we'll read till our eyes fall out and we'll
never understand your Word. Lord, how many years did we spend
in the Baptist religion. Church member, Sunday school
teacher, deacon, pastor, did not know who you were and I did
not know who I was. But Lord, one day you opened
my eyes, my ears, and my heart. God be praised. Do that again
this day, we pray, for helpless, dead, lost sinners. Lord, bless Your holy Word, we
beg, and the preaching of Your gospel that is all grace and
all Christ. Amen. All right, Acts chapter
17 and verse 15. And they that conducted Paul
brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment from
Paul to carry back to Silas and Timothy, for them to come to
him with all speed, these persons that led Paul to Athens departed,
going back to Berea. Now while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly,
entirely given to idolatry. Now please make no mistake here. Every man and woman is born into
this world, into the human family, is a born idolater. I was, you are. And only God
can deliver us from idolatry. And that's what it takes is for
Him to save us by His grace. Now here, Athens is no little
tiny town. This is a big place. This is
where everybody that's anybody comes. All these philosophers
that gather on Mars Hill to Talk about these things. Look what
it says. Verse 17, Therefore disputed
Paul in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons,
and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then
certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered Paul,
and some said, what will this babbler say? Others, some, said
he seems to be a center-forth of strange gods. Yes, indeed,
the God of the Bible is strange among the rest of the world's
gods who are all idols. I've lost my place. Here it is.
He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached
unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Areopagus, which is this magnificent structure on
top of Mars Hill saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof you speak is, for you bring certain strange things
to our ears. We would know therefore what
these things mean. For all, catch this statement
now, he's talking about the people from Athens, all the Athenians,
And strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else
but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Now can you
imagine that? It didn't matter what it was
as long as it was new. Now there's an old adage that
says, if it's new, it isn't true. And if it's true, it is not new. So verse 22, they want Paul to
explain himself. Here's how he does it. You've
got to get hold of this now. He's in the midst of the high
muckety mucks of this world. Philosophers, theologians, people
that were somebody. What is Paul going to preach
to such a crowd as this? Well, let's see. 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. And he explains
himself, For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found
an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. Out of all their idols, out of
all these things that represented the various philosophers and
religions of the world, all comes to this one inscribed to the
unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship. That's the
God, he said, I want to tell you about. Whom therefore you
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. And here's the gist
of what Paul preached. God that made the world, no matter
how you explain it, no matter what language you use, this book
and the God of this book declares God made this world. But science says, God said, I
made this world. And if you and I can't believe
that, we can't believe the gospel either. The Lord Jesus said in
John chapter, the last verse of John 5 or maybe 7, I'm not
sure. If you believe not Moses and
his writings, which is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy, if you believe not Moses and his writings, the Lord
Jesus said, how can you believe my words? You see, if Genesis
is not true, the gospel ain't true. If Adam is not a real man,
Christ cannot be the last Adam and the second man. You tear
down one, you tear down it all. It stands or falls together.
So Paul begins, God that made the world and all things therein. I'm in verse 24. Seeing that
He is Lord of heaven and earth, this God dwells not in temples
made with hands, neither is worshipped. The God of the Bible, the God
of creation, the God of providence, Neither is He worshipped with
men's hands as though He needed anything, seeing He gives to
all life and breath." The very breath that I used to say that
word is His. To give or to withhold. As long as He gives it, I'll
stay alive. And when He retrieves it, not
to give it back again, I'll die. So will you. Seeing He gives
to all life and breath and all things, then why does today's
gospel and today's Christianity tell people that God needs them
and what they have? How come they do that? It says
here that He doesn't need anything. Least of all, He doesn't need
me and you. What we need to understand is
that without Him We perish. We need Him. We desperately need
God. Verse 26, this God whom Paul
said they ignorantly worshipped has made of one blood all nations
of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. Now God is either
God of this whole universe or He ain't God at all. and has
determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord, if happily, if perhaps, they
might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from
every one of us. For in Him, in God, this One
that we do not know, except He make Himself known to us, in
Him we live and move and have our being. As certain also of
your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. For
as much then as we are the offspring of God, We ought not to think
that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven
by art and man's device, and the times of this ignorance God
went at. But now, now, commands all men
everywhere to repent, because God has appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom God has ordained, namely the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ,
whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that God has
raised him, Christ, from the dead." Is Christ raised from
the dead? Is He? Then that confirms what
this statement declares. And when they heard the resurrection
of the dead, verse 32, some mocked and others said, we'll hear you
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them,
albeit certain men, clave, stuck with him and believed. Among
the witch was Dionysus the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and
others with And out of that whole chapter, I'm going to bring you
back for just one little short phrase. And I don't know how
this is going to work, but I'm going to do my best to tell you
the truth about God, about ourselves, and about God's grace in Christ.
And if I don't do that, I'd appreciate you throwing something at me.
But I'm going to do my dead-level best to do that. Now here, it's
just a series of questions. The first one is simply the heading
for all the others. There will be five other questions,
but the first one is this. It comes out of Malachi chapter
3 and verse 8, which we will not turn to. I urge you to go
to it at your leisure today. The question is raised in Malachi
3.8, Will a man rob God? And the only reason you've ever
heard it from the pulpit, for the most part, is because preachers
like to use it to get you to give more money. Is that true
or not? Absolutely. I know it's true.
I ain't been living in a cave for 64 years. I know it's true. I've been there and done that.
I'm telling you, forget the money. Will a man steal God's glory? Absolutely. If God doesn't keep
him from it, he sure will. Bet your bottom dollar on it,
he will. I will, you will, and everybody
else will if God does not prevent it. So that's my subject. Will a man rob God? Yes. He'll even rob him of his glory,
which, by the way, he can't do. But the very fact that I want
to, that's all it takes. Or if I try to, something bad
wrong. All right, here's the first question.
I'm admitting this morning that what I preach and what this congregation
believes and enables me to preach is totally opposite of what the
rest of professing Christianity, for the most part, is saying.
I ain't bashful to say that. I say it proudly. I believe I'm
telling you the truth. If I'm not, you ought not to
give me the time of day. But if I am, you better listen. In your mind, in your heart,
fall on your knees and beg God to do something for you because
I can't do it. I tell you frankly, I cannot do it. Here's the first
question, not counting the title. Why is it so wrong for me to
expect God and me to share the glory. Why does God have to have
all the glory? Tell me. How come? In Acts 42
verse 8, if you'll just note this down, I'll try to give you
the gist of it. Acts 42 verse 8, God says that
He will not give His glory to another. It's His. It's His. He's the only one worthy of it.
I'll not share my glory with another. 1 Corinthians 1, the
theme with which that wonderful chapter concludes is, he that
glories, let him glory in the Lord. To glory in ourselves. would be to glory in that which
does not deserve to be gloried in. It would then be falsely
glorying in ourselves. Psalm 115, verse 1. Jot this one down. The psalmist
begins with these magnificent words. Not unto us, not unto
us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory. How come we're not
to share God's glory? Because He said so. Now let me
give you an illustration. Right here in the book of Acts.
Just back to your left to chapter 12. Starting at verse 20, we read
about a king by the name of Herod. If I remember right, this guy
is like the grandson of the Herod that was on the throne when our
Lord Jesus was born. I'm not sure about that. You
can check it out and see. It doesn't make any difference.
It's not material to what we're looking at it for. Herod's a
powerful man. He visits the neighboring country
of Tyre and Sidon, Gentile nations. And he goes there to make a speech
on a given occasion. And he gets up to speak. And
the people wanting to continue in Herod's favor. They said when
he started to speak, they all yelled, it's the voice of a God! The voice of a God! And look what happened. Verse 23, immediately the angel
of the Lord killed him, smote him. How come? Because He gave
not God the glory. Yes, but it was the people that
were telling Him He's a God. All He had to do was deny it. Now, do you understand the serious
nature of the question? Why can't God and me share the
glory? Because He's God and I ain't
nothing and I'm nobody. And that's reason enough. And this book teaches us everywhere
that it's not to be the case. We are to give glory to God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to Him alone. Second question,
why is it, you can find this right here in Acts 17, why is
it that God cannot be worshipped with our own hands? Why can't
we worship God by bringing something of ourselves to Him? Why can't
we? Most of us work some kind of
job and you make a little money now and then. Why can't you worship
God by bringing your money to Him? Well, for one thing, it's
contaminated with sin. Everything you and I touch is
polluted with sin. Why? Because we're polluted.
Please understand this. This is vital. This is important. God can only accept from you
and me what He freely gives us Himself. Whatever He commands
of us, He must in free grace and mercy give us or we'll never
have anything to give Him. In this very statement here at
Mars Hill on the part of the Apostle Paul in verse 25, I deliberately
tried not to stop here when I was reading, though it was very tempting
to do so. Paul is telling them who the
God is that they don't know. Now, I don't care who your mama
is, or your daddy is, or your grandmom, or your granddaddy. They, by virtue of our relationship
with them, cannot give us life in our souls. It cannot be done. They may have been true believers.
That does not make me one, nor does it make you one. So Paul
says in verse 25, neither is this God whom we don't know,
neither is He worshipped with our hands, now catch this, as
though He needed anything. Now I'll just appeal to the honesty
of your own mind and heart. You tell me if today's religion
is not trying to convince people that God needs them for this,
that, or the other. Is that true or ain't it? It
is true. I know it's true. Trying to put
people on guilt trips and threaten them with sickness and losses
of one kind or another. I've known some preachers that
claim to be grace preachers that says, well, if you don't give
it to him in the offering plate, he'll take it out in doctor bills.
That ain't so. That's a lie. That is not so. And any man that uses such motives
and methods of that doesn't understand what grace is. God is not worshipped
with our hands. Just not. He is not. Do you remember
in Genesis chapter 4, I know you do, two brothers, one was
named Cain and one was named Abel. They came to worship God. Cain brought of the fruit of
his own labors, of that which had grown on this earth that
was under a divine curse, and God would not receive his gift. But his brother Abel brought
a little lamb, killed it, shed that precious blood because God
said that was the method by which he'd be worshipped or he would
not be worshipped. And the Scripture says that God
accepted Abel's sacrifice but refused Cain's. Why? Cain's was bringing the labor
of his own hands. what he himself had done. He
became so angry that God accepted his brother's offering but wouldn't
accept his, that he took Abel's life and killed him. And you
know what the book of Jude verse 11 says about that? That this
world has run greedily in the way of Cain. It's right here,
not very far away. Let me just read it. I don't
think I quoted it exactly right. So I better go look at it. Woe unto them, verse 11, only
one chapter in Jude, so you have no chapters, just verses. Woe unto them, for they've gone
in the way of Cain. What is the way of Cain? Worshiping
God as I decide, not like God declares He must be worshiped.
Now that's not hard to understand, my friend. But I'm telling you
what's called worship in our generation is not worship. It
is not worship. It's putting the crowns on the
head of men, people just like you and me. Instead of declaring
that God alone is to be praised, they're spreading it all around.
Now you don't have to ride far at all to see a church with a
sign that says this is the church where everybody's somebody. Only
one I'm interested in is where everybody's nobody. Because that's
the only place you'll find where Christ is everything. Now these
things ain't hard. They're hard to swallow. But
they're so. Third question. Will a man rob
God? Third question. Why does God
insist that He does not need me? You could ask me that question,
why do I insist on it? Because that's what this book
says. He doesn't need us. You see, if I try to take a shortcut
in dealing with men and women just like ourselves, and try
to get them to do things for God, but use wrong motives and
wrong means to get them to do it, then I have done them and
eternal disjustice. I have done a most wicked thing. Believers, whatever they do in
the name of God, they must do so because the love of Christ
constrains them and no other motive is worth a hill of beans
when it comes to moving God's people. But the problem with
that is that it doesn't happen fast enough to suit us. And so
we decide to take measures in our own hands and get things
done a little quicker. And all we've done is raised
a generation of absolute Pharisees who do not love God and do not
worship Him because they love themselves and they worship themselves. That's simply how it is. If you'll
turn to one little scripture, oh, I'm running out of time. Let me just tell you about it. You can find this in Luke chapter
18. I think it starts at verse 9 and goes down to about verse
18. Our Lord gives a parable in that
chapter. It is the parable of the Pharisee
and the publican. Both of them come to the temple
to worship God. The Pharisee comes and tells
the Lord what all he hasn't done, what all he has done, that he
gives tithes of all he possesses, he fasts twice in the week, and
on and on and on. The other fellow, a poor publican,
will not so much as lift his eyes up to heaven, bows his head
and beats on his breast and begs, God, have mercy on me, the sinner
of all sinners. Now you tell me which man worshipped
God and which one didn't. The Lord said that that poor
publican went down to his house justified, but not the other
man, not the others. And you can divide this room
with those two people. You can divide everybody in Harnett
County this morning that's in church or any place else, for
that matter, by those two people. We're one or the other. There
ain't no middle ground. There is no middle ground. I'm either one or the other.
Take Matthew chapter 7. Verses 21 through 23, our Lord
tells us what's going to take place on judgment day and He's
the judge. And all these people come before
Him and they tell Him what all they've done in His name. We've
cast out devils. We've done many wonderful works
in Your name. And our Lord said, depart from
Me, you workers of iniquity. Their religious works were their
greatest sins. Then He adds, I never knew you. You claim to know me, but I don't
know you." Now, dear friends, that's tragic. But that's the
assessment of this generation in which we live. And until men
and women hear the truth, God will not use a lie to save even
His elect. You must hear about the true
God and the true gospel, what Christ has done for poor, helpless,
ungodly, hell-deserving sinners. Question number four. I would
ask you to turn, if you will, to one passage. And I won't read
that, but I want you to see it. It's in 2 Kings 8. So if you'll
find 2 Kings, You've got a bunch of books in
the Old Testament, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles,
in that order. 2 Kings, chapter 8, and if it helps, I can give you
the page number, but I don't think that will help. If we don't
have exactly the same Bible, that wouldn't do us any good. Alright, here's the fourth question.
Why does God's Gospel have to be so offensive. Why does it? Because if you tell men the truth
about God and the truth about us and the truth about salvation,
it cannot help but offend. If your gospel is devoid of offense,
it has no power to save none whatsoever. It's just a bunch
of gobbledygook that won't accomplish anything. You see, when we talk
about God, we can't say, well, maybe He's this and maybe He's
that. You can't be wishy-washy. You have to declare, thus saith
the Lord. We must. We must. When Paul wrote
to the Corinthians a second time, chapter 2, verses 14 through
17, he says that this gospel that is always victorious, And
you trace him through the book of Acts and you'll find that,
well, the Lord saved some here and He didn't there, but He says
everywhere it's preached, the gospel accomplishes its purpose. And He says it is a saver of
life unto life and a saver of death unto death. My friend,
if this gospel doesn't save you, it will damn you. Now the problem
with our generation is we have too low, too small an estimate
of God and too big of an estimate of ourselves. Now here's a character
in 2 Kings 8. Elisha is the prophet in Israel. He's gone to the neighboring
country which was Syria. He's gone to Damascus. The king
of Syria, a man by the name of Ben-Hadad, has been deathly sick
and the king finds out that Elisha is coming to the capital city
of Damascus. So he sends his most trusted
servant to find out from God's prophet if this disease is going
to be fatal or not. So this servant of Ben-Hadad,
by the name of Hazel, he comes to Elisha He brought 30 or 40
camel's burdens of gifts, which I'm sure, just like what was
the Syrian general's name? Who? Naaman, yes. You know, he
brought all those presents. Elisha turned them away, wouldn't
have a one of them. His servant slipped out behind
him after things were over and said, well, he's changed his
mind, so he took all the presents. And as it turned out, the servant
Gehazi came down with leprosy and Naban was healed. So here's
all these gifts trying to get the prophet of God to do what
he's going to do for free or not do it at all. Do you understand
that? Religion just thinks it can bribe
God. That's sick. The Lord is a thousand
times more willing to do for us And we are to swallow our
pride and beg for Him to do it. So this servant of Ben-Hadad
comes to Elisha and he puts the question to him, is this disease
going to be fatal for a master? And Elisha tells him that he'll
surely recover. But he said, how be it, the Lord
has shown me that Ben-Hadad is going to surely die. But he ain't
going to die from disease. And Elisha settled his countenance
in verse 11 steadfastly on Hazel until he was ashamed, and the
man of God wept. And Hazel said, Why weep, my
lord? And Elisha answered, because
I know the evil that you will do unto the children of Israel,
their strongholds will you set on fire, their young men will
you slay with the sword, you will dash their children on the
rocks to kill them, and you will rip up their mothers with child. And Hazel said, this is what
brings me to this text. This is one of the most powerful
illustrations in all the Bible on what it means that the gospel
must offend in order to save. Here it is. Hazel said, but what
is your servant, a dog? What am I, a dog? That he should
do this great thing? And Elisha answered, the Lord
has showed me that you shall be king over Syria. He goes home
to the king's castle, puts a heavy cloth over his face, and suffocates
him and becomes king. Now that one expression, what
am I, a dog? Well, a while ago we sang, Alas,
and Did My Savior Bleed. We said, Would He devote that
sacred head for such a worm as I? We called ourselves a worm. That's what grace does. It takes away from us all boasting
and gives all the glory to God alone. Well, preacher, how do
you expect anybody to ever believe this gospel? The answer is in
Acts 13.48. Acts 13.48. As many as were ordained,
ordained, ordained to eternal life believe. The only people
that will believe this gospel are the people that God works
in mightily by the power of His Spirit, causes them to fall in
the dirt at the feet of Christ, beggars for mercy, beggars for
mercy. Well, I had one more question,
and that is, why be so out of sync? Why do you want to be so
out of touch with all the rest of professing Christianity? And
I'll just give you the answer or tell you where it is. It's
in Deuteronomy 32, verse 31. That's Moses' song about Christ,
the Rock. And it says, and their Rock,
with a little r, is not like our Rock, with a capital R, Our
enemies themselves being judges. If you don't believe the God
whom you've heard this morning is not the one that's preached
down the street, you just go ask them. You won't have to tell
them. They'll tell you. And I'm telling
you because I know it to be true. You can't whine and dine sinners
and then stand up and praise God. It doesn't go together.
One denies the other. Anyway, that's how it is. God
cannot be worshipped. with men's hands.