Let us open our Bibles to John
chapter 3, the gospel of John chapter 3. I want to point out that In this chapter, we read of the
love of God, verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son. And also in verse 36, we read
of the wrath of God. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. The love of God and the wrath
of God. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the product of the love of God and it saves men
from the wrath of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
a message of substitution and satisfaction, as our Lord stated
here in verses 14 and 15. Substitution and satisfaction. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. I want us to think tonight of
this truth. It was this gospel, this gospel
that is a product of the love of God and saves men from the
wrath of God. It was this gospel that the risen
Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to go into all the
world and preach to every creature. First this evening, and I have
two parts to the message, First, a word about the world and its
gods to which the apostles were sent with the gospel. Go ye into
all the world, the world into which the Lord commanded his
disciples to go and preach the gospel. Two points. The world
into which the apostles were sent was one of polytheism, the
belief that there are many gods. This was the rule. The nation
of Israel was an exception. It alone had the word of God
and had been taught the truth about God Almighty. We know this
is true from secular history as well as from the word of God.
We see it in the book of Acts. When Paul preached the gospel
in Athens, you remember he began his message there by speaking
of the fact. And Athens was a place, it was
a seed of the greatest learning of that day, up until that day,
actually, the philosophers, the philosophies. Remember Corinth
was the city of Greece, as was Athens. And to the Corinthians,
Paul said, the world by wisdom, by wisdom, that is the philosophies
of men, Plato, Aristotle, and many other of those great men. The world by wisdom knew not
God. Paul begins his message on Mars
Hill in Acts chapter 17 by telling them, this was a good introduction,
to his message, his obeying the command to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. He began his message
by reminding them that in their city he had witnessed or saw
there was one altar that had the inscription to the unknown
God. And the context is very clear. that there were many altars.
There were many altars to many different gods in the city of
Athens, but there was that one altar to the unknown God, and
that's the God Paul said, I'm here to preach. The world into
which the apostles were sent was one of polytheism. Let me
say that again. The belief that there are many
gods, that was the rule among all the nations. We know that in Lystra, when
Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra, they preached the gospel. Remember,
there was a cripple who was there, and Paul beheld him, and Paul
commanded by the power of God the Holy Spirit for that man
to walk. He was healed. And the people,
what did they do? Immediately they said, the gods!
The gods have come down. Here's the god of Mercurius,
and here's the god of Jupiter. They're in our midst. That was
the norm. Let me point this out. Israel
was an exception to the norm. The norm was polytheism, the
belief of many gods, was the case. These places that I've mentioned
here, Athens and Leicester, they were not exceptions. They were
the normal. The gospel, rather, was sent
into a world that worshipped and sacrificed to many gods. The world was in darkness. Satan, the prince of the power
of the air, had enslave men over the world to believe in many
gods. Now, God, remember when they
came out of the ark, when Noah and his three sons and their
wives, when they came out of the ark, they all knew there
was one God. They knew that from Adam and
Eve before Noah. But as men began to multiply
on the face of the earth, it just seemed it was natural natural
to fallen men and women, to brave men and women, to believe that
there are many gods. This is the world into which
the Lord sent his apostles to preach the gospel. Number two, the beliefs about
the gods of the pagan world. The apostles referred to these
gods as vanities. as vanities, which means they
were vain, they were empty, they were useless, they were non-entities. The beliefs about them was something
like this. They believed that there were
many gods, but there was not any one of them which had absolute
power. Now I said this was the norm.
I want you to look in Acts chapter 19. I gave those illustrations from
Acts chapter 17, Paul preaching in Athens, from 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, in Corinth, the many. But in Acts chapter
19, the apostle was in Ephesus. I want to begin my reading in
verse 21. After these things were ended,
Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia
and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there,
I must also see Rome. So he went into Macedonia, or
sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Demotheus
and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. At the
same time, there arose no small stir about that way. That way,
of course, is Christ. He is the way. For a certain
man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for
Diana, Here's one of these false gods, Diana. Brought no small
gain unto the craftsman, whom he called together with the workmen
of Lyca occupation and said, sirs, you know that by this craft
we have our wealth. Moreover, you see and hear that
not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul
hath persuaded and turned away much people saying that they
be no gods. These are vanities. These are
not gods, which are made with hands. So that not only this our craft
is in danger, to be said it not, but also that the temple of the
great goddess Diana should be despised. That's where the great
temple, it was one of the Eight wonders, I believe, of the ancient
world. The temple to Diana was there
at Ephesus, and people came. It was a tourist attraction,
as we would say today, only it had a religious connotation.
They would go there to worship Diana. And they made these trinkets
and these idols and sold them, these craftsmen did, and that's
how they made their money. And now here comes the Apostle
Paul along saying these are not gods, these things made with
hands. But also that the temple of the
great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence
should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship it. It wasn't just one little tiny
part of the world, all Asia, Ephesus, and not only Ephesus,
but all over Ephesus. You look at those seven churches
of Asia Minor that are mentioned in Revelation Chapter 2 and 3,
these were all churches of Asia. And these were people who were
polytheists. They believed in many gods. Diana
was just one of them. And when they heard these sayings,
they were full of wrath and cried out saying, great is Diana of
the Ephesians. And the whole city, the whole
city was filled with confusion and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus,
men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one
accord into the theater And when Paul would have entered in unto
the people, the disciples suffered him not, and certain of the chief
of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that
he would not adventure himself into the theater. Some therefore
cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused.
And the more part knew not wherefore they were come together, and
they They drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting
him forward, and Alexander beckoned with a hand and would have made
his defense unto the people. But when they knew that he was
a Jew, and Jews believed in monotheism, one God, one God, when they recognized
this man, Alexander, was a Jew, they were not about to listen
to him. Because their whole argument
was, Diana, is a goddess. All with one voice, about the
space of two hours, cried out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the town clerk had appeased
the people, he said, you men of Ephesus, what man is there
that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper
of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down
from Jupiter? The beliefs about these gods
of the pagan world, the apostles referred to them as vanities,
as nothings. But what was the belief among
the pagans? It was something like this from
what I have read. They believed that there were
many of them. And I'm talking about many, hundreds
of different gods, many of them. But not one of them had absolute
power. All of them had some power, but
not any of them had absolute power. And this power that these
so-called gods had, they used to make life easy or hard for
an individual. In other words, they believed
that this certain god, he could make life hard for you, or he
could make Life easy for you. And it also appears that these
gods all had tempers. They all had tempers. And they
could be easily offended. And they were unpredictable. They would take offense at the
least thing and they were very jealous. They were very jealous,
and one god would be jealous if you paid too much attention
to this other god. If you neglected him and paid
more attention to this other god, then this god that you neglected
would become very jealous, and he could make life hard for you,
or she, goddesses, or she could make life hard for you, easy
or hard. They had power, but not absolute
power, not one of them. Now when they were offended,
because they had power, when they were offended, then they
manipulated circumstances to make life difficult, even to
hurt a person. And there was only one remedy,
only one remedy to modify them, and that was with an offering
or with a sacrifice. They felt the bigger the sacrifice,
the better. For the gods were inclined to
hold out for bigger offerings. Now what I'm saying and what
I'm trying to bring to us tonight, this is the world. These were
not exceptions. This is the world into which
the Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to go and preach
the gospel. a world that was full of polytheists,
a world that believed in many gods, and these gods had enough
power to make life hard or easy for a person, and the only way
to pacify any of them was through an offering or a sacrifice of
some kind. Human, now listen, human sacrifices
were especially effective. Now I can't tell you tonight
how many times I visited the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza and
saw there what is called today the Sacred Well. It was a giant
hole in the rock formation there. I suppose it was at least 200
feet across, 200 feet wide, and at least that depth down to the
water. And it was there that young women,
especially according to what the anthropologists, at least,
what they teach today, young women were offered to one of
their many gods. And they had many gods. One god,
which you see in the framework, and this was, these ruins began
to be constructed, I believe, in 400 A.D., and they're large. And then the population, the
Mayan Indians, they moved away for some reason and then they
came back and repopulated and built more. But one of the gods
that you see on the fronts of the buildings is what they call
the Feathered Serpent. I forget his name, but the Feathered
Serpent. If you look down that side of
the Castillo, that largest pyramid there, you will see what appears
to be a snake coming down to the side, and it is a feathered
snake. They also believed in the rain
god, wind god, gods that could control the crops and give a
good crop or a bad crop. This is the world into which
the Lord Jesus Christ sent his apostles to preach the gospel. We can't imagine. I do not believe that any of
us can possibly imagine the work the Lord Jesus Christ gave his
disciples to do. The church, to go into all the
world and preach the gospel to people like I've described. Second,
a word about God and his gospel which the apostles were sent
to preach. Two points. The God whose message
that the apostles were sent to preach is the only true and living
God. The apostles restrained those
men of Lystra from offering a sacrifice unto them. They wanted to sacrifice
to Paul and Barnabas. They said the gods have come
down. And they had the animals and they had the wood for the
fire. They had everything ready to offer sacrifice. And they
spoke in a language evidently that Paul and Barnabas did not
understand. But as soon as they understood
their intentions, they put an end to it. Paul and Barnabas. They put an end to this. And they did so by telling them,
we preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities. unto
the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all
things that are therein. The attributes or the characteristics
of God, which men call incommunicable, can only be true of Him. Some
of His characteristics we know may be true of men and women,
but there are attributes of God like His omnipotence, there's
only one omnipotent one, His omnipresence, there's only one
who is omnipresent, there's only one who is immutable, and that's
God. Those attributes cannot be communicated
unto any of His creatures. We learn from the scriptures
these three things that we're told that are true about God. Number one, God is spirit. Number two, God is light. And number three, God is love. God is spirit. That means he's
invisible. And it is idolatry. to make an image of him whom
the heaven of heavens cannot contain. God is spirit. These vanities of the heathen,
many images were made of them, but the true God is spirit. And it is a sin to make an image
of God. It is an affront to God. God is light. He is holy, and
in Him is no darkness at all. The sun, they tell us, has its
dark spots. John said God is light. and in
him is no darkness at all. The holiness of God. God is love. God is love. And to bridge the
gap between himself, that is God, to bridge the gap between
himself and his fallen creatures, he gave His only begotten Son. The second part of this, the
gospel which the apostles were sent to preach, is the exact
opposite. It is the exact opposite of the
beliefs that lost men and women had about their gods. These would-be gods, these inventions
of man. The gospel which the apostles
were sent to preach is the exact opposite of the beliefs around
the pagan god. Now listen, the message, the
message was that the gods, the gods have been offended and I
must do something to satisfy or pacify them. That was the
belief. Here comes the apostles to town.
I like to think about that, don't you? Here comes the apostles
to town, sent into the world, announcing that there's only
one true God, and yes, we have offended Him. The wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and worldly lust,
but He has come to satisfy Himself. Do you see how contrary these
beliefs were? They believed in many gods and
they had to do something to satisfy their gods. Here comes the apostles
with the gospel of Jesus Christ that preaches, yes, we have offended
God, but He came to do something for us. He came to satisfy Himself out of His great love. He gave
His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Look at this verse in 1 John
chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 10. Here in His love, Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. The English word propitiation
is found in only two other verses in the King James translation. Some of the more recent translations
have changed the word, and instead of propitiation, they have expiation. What is the difference? What
is the difference? One writer said, the difference
is that expiation only means half of what propitiation means. Expiation only means half of
what propitiation means. I think of the difference like
this. Propitiation, and this is what this verse tells us,
that God sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. I think of the difference like
this. Propitiation has to do with God as its object. Expiation has to do with sin
as its object. The Lord Jesus Christ is both. He and His vicarious death is
the propitiation for our sins. That is, He pacified the wrath
of God for the sins of his people. We have sinned against God and
he had to first satisfy God by doing something for God which
would allow God to be both just and justifier of the ungodly. He is the propitiation. He had
to do something first with God as the object of his sacrifice. We have sinned against God and
he had to first satisfy God doing that which allows God to be both
just and to justify the ungodly. He by his vicarious death as
the expiation of our sins put them away, put them away. as they had been a barrier that
kept us from God. And by His expiation, by carrying
our sins away, by putting them away once and forever, now we
have fellowship with God. Fellowship with God Almighty
through His Son, Jesus Christ. I've read that the Greek word
for grace, the Greek word for grace came into being, came into
the dictionary with the preaching of the gospel. In other words,
there never would have been a word grace in the Greek vocabulary
had not the gospel been preached. The very thought of unmerited
favor was foreign to the Gentiles. It was foreign to their God's
unmerited favor. But the gospel that our Lord
sent his disciples into the world to preach and the gospel that
we believe and preach tells of the one and true God who came
and did something himself to satisfy his wrath. So that now the gospel is preached,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
declaring that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life, only because of his probitiation and his expiation. How in the world did the gospel
advance as it did in a world of paganism with just a few disciples? God, the Holy Spirit. And he's
the same. He's the same today as he was
yesterday. God help us to believe and trust
that the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation unto
everyone that believeth. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed as it is written, the just shall live by faith. I trust the Lord would bless
this message to all of us here tonight and encourage us to witness,
to live, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The world, compared
to the world the apostles went out to preach in, I doubt that
you, well, I'm not going to say that. You will run into some
people, they've imagined a God, but they call him Jehovah, but
he's not the Jehovah of the Bible. But we have a great advantage,
humanly speaking, over the apostles when we go forth preaching the
gospel. All right, Bill, if you will,
lead us in a hymn.