Look once again at verse 15 of
our text. After these people were getting
ready to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, they said,
Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions
with you. and preach unto you that you
should turn from these vanities unto the living God. That's what I titled this message,
The Living God. There is one true and living
God. Everything else is vanity. And the only way that we will
turn to the living God, the only true God, is if we're like the
Thessalonians. Turn with me for a moment to
I Thessalonians 1. Verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that you turned
from idols to God." I didn't say that right, did I? You turn
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. You didn't look at the idols
and think, you know, these things, something's wrong with this.
I see the vanity of all this. I'm going to turn to the living
God. It never works that way. God
turns you to himself by revealing himself, and then you see the
idols for what they are. You turn to God And when you
turn to God, you see all that stuff is nothing more than idolatry. And you serve the living and
the true God. Now, the people in this town
saw this notable, amazing miracle. A man that had been born lame,
perhaps only one foot, crippled from his mother's womb. had never
walked. And Paul looked on him and saw
that he had faith to be healed. He said, rise, stand up. And
the scripture says the man leaped up. He jumped. It wasn't a gradual healing.
He leaped up and walked. And this was what the Lord did. What a miracle that they observed. Verse 11, And when the people
saw what Paul had done, now you see the problem with that, don't
you? When the people saw what Paul had done, Paul didn't do
this, the Lord did this, but they saw what Paul had done. That's all they saw was what
Paul had done. Turn back to Acts chapter three.
This is after the Lord healed a cripple through Peter. He was walking and leaping and
praising God. He had been crippled from his
womb, and the same thing took place here. Now look in verse
11, And the lame man which was healed hailed Peter and John,
and all the people ran together unto them in the ports, which
is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw
it, he saw that they were impressed with him and what he did. He
could see that clearly. Look at his response. He answered
unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why
look ye so earnestly on us? As though by our own power or
holiness, we had made this man to walk. The God of Abraham,
and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified
his Son, Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied him in the presence
of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But you denied
the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted
unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised
from the dead, whereof we are witnesses, and his name. Through
faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom you see and
know. Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect
soundness in the presence of you all. The Lord did this. Why
are you looking at us as if we had something to do with this?
Well, the same thing happened with Paul. They looked upon Paul
and Barnabas and they thought they have performed this miracle. And look what they said. And
when the people saw what Paul had done, They lifted up their
voices, saying at the speech of the Lycaonia, the gods are
come down to us in the likeness of men. Surely these men have
the mighty power of God. Now notice they said the gods,
the gods, not the one true and living God, the gods. And they were talking about the
Greek gods. Zeus and Hermes are the ones
they talk about, Jupiter and Mercury, but that's what the
Romans named the Greek gods. They adopted their religion,
and I got to thinking about this. If anybody wants to know what
kind of weird kid I was, I spent all my time when I was in grade
school reading Greek myths. I don't know why I did that,
but I love to read these Greek myths about Zeus and Hermes and
all the different, we had them all in our grade school library,
and I'd check out every book, and that's all I ever read, Greek
myths. That's weird, isn't it? At any
rate, they, called Barnabas, Jupiter, and Paul, Mercurius,
because he was the chief speaker. Now, let me tell you something
about the gods of the Greeks. They were very human. They were
very immoral. They were very spiteful. They
were very vengeful. They were very human. I mean,
they were, they were, they were bad, they were bad gods, you
know, as far as, you know, small g, s, just man-made inventions,
and they were very unlike the one living and true God, the
God of the Bible. But so they attributed this to
Paul and Barnabas, that the gods would come down in the likeness
of men. Now look what they do next, verse
13. Then the priests of Jupiter, or Zeus, which was before their
city, brought oxen and garlands. Garlands were decorative wreaths.
That's what the word means. It's a decorative wreath. Is
that the right word? Reef? What's the word? Reef,
okay. Decorative reefs to put on the
oxen before they sacrificed it. What I think is interesting,
even these heathen, Greek religious Gentiles, they
saw some vague need for sacrifice. They brought these oxen for sacrifice. And I suppose they have the same
view of that sacrifice that people have of the sacrifice of Christ.
Well, he'll make up for our deficiencies. I mean, where we go wrong, we
realize that there's some problems. And so we can have his sacrifice
make up for our deficiencies. And then they put a human decoration
on it to make it beautiful. That is pretty much the way,
what most stuff goes under the Christianity is, that same difference. What happened? Which, verse 14, when the apostles
Barnabas and Paul heard, they rent their clothes and ran in
among the people, crying out and saying, sirs. Now, I like
the way they address them as sirs, not as idiots. That's probably
what I would have done, and I wouldn't have been right in doing it.
They addressed them in a very respectful way. Sirs, why do
ye these things? That's a good question, isn't
it? with regard to all of our religious practices. Why do you
these things? I think of what they said to
the Lord when he took a whip and drove people out of the temple.
You know what they said? Who gave you the authority to
do this? Why do you these things? Now, let me say this. That should
be asked with regard to everything. And if we don't have scripture
to back it up, it has no authority. Why do ye these things? If I can't give the scripture
to show why, it's wrong. It should not be done. Why do ye these things? We also, verse 15, we also are men of like passions with
you. Now you all have way too high
an opinion of us. You're trying to make us to be
gods. We're men of like passions with you. We have the same emotional
qualities. We have the same psychological
makeup. We have the same fears. We have
the same desires. We have the same humanness. We
have the same fallenness. We have the same sinfulness.
Twice in the book of Romans, Paul said with regard to mankind,
there's no difference. There's absolutely no difference. I don't care if you're talking
about Jew or Gentile. I don't care if you're talking
about black or white. I don't care if you're talking
about male or female. There is no difference. All have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God. There's no difference between
men. You take religious men, the most religious man you can
think of, the most moral man you can think of, and you take
the most immoral man and degraded man you can think of, and before
God, there is no difference. Everybody has Adam's blood running
through their veins. There is no difference between
men. And that's what he's saying to
these people. We're men of like passions with you. We're just
like you. Don't look at us as if we can
do anything for you. We're men of like passions with
you. There is no difference. Now look what he says next. We
preach unto you, and that word preach is actually we preach
the gospel to you. We give you the gospel message. It's not saying there's different
words to translate and preach, but this particular word means
we preach the gospel to you. Oh, may that be said of everything
we say. It's a gospel. If I'm not preaching
the gospel, it should never be said. We preach the gospel to
you. that you should turn from these
vanities. Now this describes all human
religion. Everything that is not taught
in the scripture is vanity. It is a vain show. It is nothing. It is meaningless. It can do nothing toward your
salvation. I think of what Isaiah said when
he talked about those people who have no knowledge that pray
unto a God that cannot save. You're praying unto a God that
cannot save, Paul says. He can't do it. It's nothing
more than vanity. Now, that's a rough way, I suppose. Somebody says, are you saying
their religion is vanity? That's exactly what he's saying. Vanity,
nothing more. That's lighter than vanity. What
a word. There's no substance to it. There's
no salvation in this. It's vanity. We tell you that
you should turn from these vanities, these utterly powerless, devoid
of life, man-made gods, and turn to the living God, the only true
and living God. Now, I wish I could say this as it
ought to be said, but God is without any reference to what
mere you believe about him. What you and I think by nature
has no reference as to God's isness. God is. And I love his name, I am that
I am, that he spoke to Moses in Exodus chapter three, verse
14, when they said, if I'm gonna go tell them that you sent me,
they're gonna say, what's your name? He said, I am that I am. And when I hear someone Say,
here's what God is to me. My thoughts are, who cares? I
could care less. This is gonna sound mean, but
I'm gonna say it anyway. I heard somebody else say it, and I thought
it was good. God can't spell church without
you. He can't spell stupid without
you either. I like that. Are you being mean? Well, it's not a thing of intellectual
ability, I realize that. I debated on whether or not to
say it, but I just like it so much. I hope somebody says that
to me one of these days so I can say that. And then I heard this
same guy, he said, well, no. He said a lot more worse things
than that, and I thought, no, he's taking it too far. But I
still like the stupid part. God is. Now, on numerous occasions, He
says, Who is like unto me? Turn with me for a moment to
Isaiah chapter 40. I am that I am, not a wannabe, Not a used
to be, not a would be, not a could be, not a will be. He's always
the eternal. I am that I am. Now Isaiah chapter 40, beginning
in verse 12. I love this passage of scripture. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? and
meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of
the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and
the hills in a balance. Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or, being his counselor, taught him? With whom took he
counsel? And who instructed him, and taught
him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, Now you think how insignificant that is. The
drop of a bucket. And are counted as the small
dust of the balance. It's so insignificant, you don't
even bother to wipe it off because it's not gonna have any bearing
on the weight in the scales. Behold, he take up at the isles
as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations
before him are as nothing. and they are counted to him less
than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will you liken God? Who are you gonna compare him
to? Or what likeness will you compare him to? The workman melts
a graven image and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and
casts a silver chain? He that's so impoverished that
he hath no ablation chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeketh
unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall
not be moved. Have you not known? Have you
not heard? Hath it not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof, or as grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens
as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that
bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth
as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted.
Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stock shall not take
root in the earth. And he shall also blow upon them,
and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away
as stubble. To whom then will you liken me? Or shall I be equal,
saith the Lord? Look in Isaiah chapter 45, verse
three. And I will give thee the treasures
of darkness. Speaking to Cyrus, this is a
prophecy of Cyrus 200 years before he was even born. That's how
glorious his passage of scripture is. This is the prophetic word
of something that did take place, Cyrus in Persia. And I will give
thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places,
that thou mayest know us, that I, the Lord, which call thee
by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel, mine elect, I have called thee by thy name. I have
surnamed thee, though thou dost not know me. I am the Lord, and
there's none else. There's no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know it from
the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord, and there's none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Look in chapter 46, verse five.
To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me
that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag,
and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he
maketh it a god. And they fall down, and they
worship. And then they bear him up on their shoulder. They carry
him and set him in his place, and he standeth. For his place
shall he not remove, yea, one shall cry unto him. Yet can he
not answer, nor save him out of his trouble? Remember this
and show yourselves, men. Bring it again to mind, O ye
transgressors. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there's
none like me. declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure, calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel
from a far country, yea, I've spoken it, I will also bring
it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. You know in that commandment
with regard to idolatry, You don't make any image like God.
Why? Because any likeness you make
of God only brings him down to a human level. There are no comparisons. I've even heard people say, well,
you can understand the Trinity by understanding water. Water
has vapor, it's solid, and it's liquid. What's that tell you about the
Trinity? You know, I know it takes three different forms,
but that doesn't tell you anything about the Trinity. If somebody says,
well, that's a good illustration. No, it's not. You don't illustrate
God with anything. He says, there's none like me.
You don't compare me to anything or anybody. He's the one living
and true God. And that is why Paul and Barnabas
rent their clothes. They were so upset. They're gonna
do sacrifice to us? and think that there's something
we can do about the putting away of sin? They were just horrified
by this and they went rending their clothes saying, sirs, why
are you doing this? We're just like you. Turn from
these vanities to serve the living and true God. Now the living
God is utterly unique. No one to compare him to. NOTHING
TO COMPARE HIM TO. ALL WE CAN DO IS BOW DOWN AND
WORSHIP HIM FOR WHO HE IS THROUGH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. HE'S ENRICHED
BY NONE. NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO ADD TO
HIM. HE'S BEYOND OUR COMPREHENSION. HE'S NOT GRASPED BY HUMAN INTELLECT. I LOVE IT WHEN THEY SAY, CANST
THOU BY SEARCHING FIND OUT GOD? NO, YOU CAN'T. You can't, we,
you and I are completely dependent upon him to reveal himself. And we won't know him unless
he reveals himself. He's not somebody we can figure
out. Now the living God, and I've already read this from Isaiah
46, the living and true God, and I love thinking about this.
He's the God who decrees everything. Somebody says, what are you talking
about decreeing? I mean, whatever was, whatever happens in time,
he purposed and decreed in eternity, everything. I declare the end
from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not
yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. His decrees, or his decree, he
really only has one decree, and everything that happens came
from that one decree. But I'll say decrees out of lack
of human weakness. But his decree, or his decrees,
however you want to say it, are eternal, all wise, free, that
means uninfluenced, and absolute. He never responds. He only acts. He knows everything. He's never
learned anything. He's never been informed of anything. He's never surprised. He is all
knowing and all wise. I love the way the Bible speaks
of his foreknowledge. That doesn't mean he New stuff
would happen because he could see through the telescope of
time. When we read we're elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, that's what Peter said, whom he did foreknow. Then he
also did predestinate. He's the supreme being, answerable
to no one but himself. He has no law over his head,
no standard that he's trying to reach. Somebody says, here's
love and God fits that definition. Oh, no, no. God is love. He doesn't fit some kind of definition
we make. God is sovereign. He doeth according
to his will. God is all powerful. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that
did he. God is holy. He's other. That means He's not like me and
you in any way. He's faithful. He's a God in
whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. God is good, and everything He
does is good because He's good. Just like everything he does
is holy, everything he does is good. God is essentially good,
originally good, infinitely good, immutably good. God is good. God is gracious. God is merciful. He's not part this and part that.
He's not made of parts. He's God. And you can't take
anything with regard to him too far. He's not part merciful and
part just. He's altogether just and altogether
gracious. This is the living God, the God
of the Bible. I love what Moses said. Who is
like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders, the living God. We read of the son
of the living God, and we read of the spirit of the living God,
and children of the living God, and the church of the living
God, and the city of the living God. Oh, he who lives. Never changes, always the same. Jesus Christ, the same. Yesterday, today, and forever,
the living God. Now, I said this this morning, and
I'm gonna say it again, and I hope this never becomes, I already
know that. I heard that, I understand that, I got that down pat. I
hope this never comes cliche to us, But the cross of Christ
is the full revelation of the living God. There is no knowing
of God apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The cross
of Christ is God's revelation to us of who he is. Every attribute of God is displayed
in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every attribute, or at
least every attribute he has been pleased to make known. I
don't know why I'm saying that, but every attribute that is revealed
in the scripture is seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how glorious the cross is. That's why Paul said, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, how glorious. God is known. I know the living
God. I know Him. And I recognize that I'm not
hearing who He is. You see, the cross tells us who
He is. And whenever we hear something that is contrary to who He is,
we know right off the bat, don't we? I'm not listening to that.
This is my Lord they're talking about. This is my God they're
talking about. This is my Savior they're talking
about. I know Him. I know Him through the cross,
every one of His people are people who know the living God. He said,
I'll be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Verse 16, back to our text, in Acts chapter 14. He says in verse 16, who in times
past, as of yesterday in your all's experience or right up
to this present time, in times past, he suffered all nations
to walk in their own ways. Now, Sodom didn't have a Bible. Greece, Rome didn't have a Bible. didn't have a Bible. God suffered
them. God allowed them to walk in their
own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness.
Even if you don't have a Bible and have never read the Bible,
you still have the witness of creation. You still have the
witness of the goodness of God. All you got to do is look at
the creation and you know somebody made this and nobody made him. He's eternal. He's the eternal
God. And look at his goodness toward
us. It says he did good and gave
us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and gladness. And with these sayings, scarce
restrained they the people that they had not done sacrifice unto
them. And if you go and read the next couple of verses, and
we'll consider that next week, oh, how the tables turned, they
stone Paul. They changed from seeing him
as a God who could do things. They took him out and they stoned
him and thought he was dead. They hated him so bad, they stoned
him. And they took him by the heels and drug him out of town
and let him just lay there. Well, let's read it. 19 verse
19 and there came to their certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium
who persuaded the people and having stone Paul They drew him
out of the city Supposing that he had been dead. They weren't
gonna bury him. I guess they were gonna let him be carrion
They just pulled him out of the city and left him thinking he
was dead now I love to think of all the disciples standing
around looking at him. How be it as the disciples stood
round about him. He rose up and He rose up, battered,
bruised, bloody. He rose up and came into the
city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby to preach
the gospel somewhere else. The Lord gave rain, food, gladness
as a testimony that God is, and Paul said, turn from these vanities
to serve the living and true God. In John chapter 17 verse
3, and this is what we're in close with, this thought, this is eternal life. These are the words of the Lord
in that great high priestly prayer for his people. This is eternal
life, that they might know thee. the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent." And this is eternal life, to
know God, to know the living God. But he didn't just leave
it at knowing the living God. but, or the only true God, but
Jesus Christ, his son, Jesus Christ, and I love this last
phrase, whom thou hast sent. Whom thou hast sent. One simple question. Why did he send him? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1
verse 15, this is a faithful saying, and it's worthy of all
acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world. Here's why
he was sent. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save Paul said, of whom I am the chief,
not who I used to be the chief, till God saved me, now look at
me. He didn't say anything like that, of whom I am chief. Now,
my question for you, this glorious God sent his son into the world
to save sinners. And that's what he did. Thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. He sent him to save sinners. Now here's my question.
Are you a sinner? Now you can answer that with
a yes or no. Are you a sinner? I'm not asking you if you're
saved. I'm not asking you if you're one of the elect. I'm
not even asking you if you believe. Are you a sinner? If you are, Christ Jesus came
into the world to save you. This glorious God we've been
speaking of, the only true and living God, this beyond our comprehension. All we can do is worship. We
can't explain Him. We just bow down. We say this
is who He is as He's revealed in this book. We worship Him
for who He is. This glorious God sent His glorious
Son, the second person of the Trinity, to save sinners. Are you a sinner? Well, I'll
tell you. If you are, it's because of the third person of the Trinity,
the Spirit of the living God, revealed to you who He is. And whenever you see who He is,
you can't conclude anything else about yourself with this. You're
a sinner. You're a sinner. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. You know what that means? That
means He came into the world to save me. He never fails in his intention.
Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who
you are, the living and true God. And how we thank you that
you sent your son into the world to save sinners. And Lord, we
confess that's what we are. but how thankful we are that
that's who you came to save. Lord, we love who you are. Enable us to preach thy gospel according to your will. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.