05-24-26 Study of Acts Chapter 17:25-29 Getting to Know the Unknown God Part 2

➡ This Bible study focuses on Paul’s journey in Athens, as described in Acts 17. Paul is shocked by the city’s idolatry, where they worship many gods, despite being a cultured and sophisticated society. The study emphasizes that all forms of worship not directed towards the one true God are considered idolatry, including self-worship and the worship of materialism, humanism, and sex. Despite the multitude of gods, the people of Athens are unsatisfied, leading them to create an altar to an unknown God, highlighting their continuous search for fulfillment.
➡ The text discusses the belief that humans are created to know and understand God, and without this knowledge, they cannot find true peace or satisfaction. It suggests that even in a world where the knowledge of God is dim, there is a small light of consciousness and creation that can lead to the full life of God. The text emphasizes that the purpose of life is to know God, and without this knowledge, life lacks meaning, regardless of worldly achievements. It concludes by stating that eternal life can be lived on earth through the knowledge of God, and that any worship or religion is meaningless without truly knowing God.
➡ The text discusses the concept of worthlessness, suggesting that people who don’t know God are considered worthless. It also explores the idea of God’s jealousy, explaining that God is jealous when people are taken away from knowing Him. The text emphasizes the importance of knowing God, stating that not knowing God can lead to a life of suffering and even eternal damnation. It concludes by encouraging everyone to seek knowledge of God, as this is the key to a fulfilling life.
➡ The text discusses the importance of recognizing and understanding God. It emphasizes that one must first acknowledge the existence of God, then understand who God is, and finally comprehend what God is saying. The text also explores various beliefs such as atheism, agnosticism, evolution, polytheism, pantheism, and deism, all of which are seen as denials of the true God. The text concludes by asserting that God is knowable and that evidence of His existence is written in our hearts and minds.
➡ The text emphasizes the belief in one true God, as stated in various scriptures. It highlights the importance of recognizing God as the creator of everything, including the intricacies of space and the natural world. The text also warns against idolizing oneself or other entities, as this goes against the belief in one God. It encourages individuals to seek knowledge about God through the Bible and to understand and accept His existence as the first step towards spiritual enlightenment.
➡ The text discusses the immense power and capabilities of God, emphasizing that He created the universe single-handedly and without any assistance. It highlights that God’s power is so great that He can create a universe more easily than we can think a thought. The text also underscores that God not only created everything but also maintains it, holding the universe together with His power. Lastly, it mentions that God is not confined to physical temples or churches, as His presence is too vast and infinite.
➡ This text discusses the belief that God doesn’t need anything from us, but rather, we need God. It emphasizes that God is the giver of life, breath, and all things, and that everything we have comes from Him. The text also highlights that God is the controller of history and the destiny of nations. Lastly, it mentions that God is the revealer, and the only way to truly know Him is through Jesus Christ.
➡ World leaders are working towards justice, peace, and accountability. We hope for a smooth journey home and to return with questions that will help us understand better. We give all praise and glory to you and ask these things in your son’s name.

Welcome. This is our Sunday morning Bible study. We’re in the book of Acts. As we’re migrating through, looking at the history of the church, we happen to be looking at three particular sessions on a topic of getting to know the unknown God, which is in chapter 17 of Acts. And we’re looking at this passage as it relates to a portion of the life of Paul. Now, you guys a little bit setting the stage here. This is Paul’s second discipleship journey. And we find ourselves with Paul alone in Athens. That’s where we left last time. That’s where we’re going to start this time.

And when it comes to Athens, he is overwhelmed by the idolatry of the city. Remember, they worship thousands and thousands of gods. Their artwork still today is all a matter of their religion. In other words, the gods are the great masterpieces of art. And so we see a city that is tremendously cultured, but at the same time greatly adulterous. Now, when we think about the word idolatry, I don’t know what it conjures up in your mind, but if you’re like most people, you think adult idolatry and immediately you think of a whole lot of savages groveling in some dirt in front of a totem pole.

Or maybe you think about a cruel face statue that you saw in a picture somewhere at a Hindu temple, maybe. Or maybe you just think of whirling dances by the priests of Bell as they skittered around the altar of Elijah. I really don’t know. But if you’re like most people, idolatry is sort of a remote, low culture kind of thing. But I think that’s wrong because in, in essence, we’re. We were created to worship. And your worship is either of the one true God or its other gods. That’s the only two choices that you have. So I think that in terms of the Greek idolatry of the city of Athens at this time, it was a tremendous, sophisticated and cultured society.

They were the philosophical and intellectual class of the world. They were the philosophers, they were the educated people. They were the people who studied. They were way ahead of a lot of other of the people in that part of the world, and for that matter, any part of the world. Basically our whole basis of education came from the philosophers in that area. Our language came from there and so forth. So idolatry with them wasn’t a groveling in the dirt before totem pole. It was a very classy, a very sophisticated, a very contemplated and complex kind of thing.

All of the framework of A very astute quote, unquote philosophy. And I think we have to recognize that today in, even in our country, as in all parts of the world, we are victims of idolatry in the truest sense. Nobody really chooses whether to worship a God or not. You only choose which God you’re going to worship. As I said, we were, we were created to worship. And you’re going to worship a God, whatever that might be. And you’re going to bow down someone, you’re going to bow to a God. The question is, which God? So you might say, well, what about the atheists? We talked some briefly last week about this.

But you know, he vows to himself, he still worships a God. He worships himself, which is the most extreme kind of idolatry, the worships of self, which is also the most hopeless kind. Incidentally, if you had to look to yourself for the salvation of your soul and the answer to your problems, that’s a pretty disastrous view. But everything apart from God is idolatry. And so idolatry is a part of our Western civilization. Billy Graham asked a student at the University of North Carolina if he believed in God, and he said, yes, I have my own private guides.

Well, you have to realize that’s pretty sophisticated individual. And I think we see this all about us every day. Some years ago on to the present day, we might say that the dominant idolatry of our country and Western civilization was, well, there were three little deities, to be honest with you, and we still bow down to those deities today. One was humanism, that man could solve his own problems. You know, that was the time time when science was exploding and we were really being able to conquer all of these problems and we were going to solve them.

We’re running a little thin on humanism about now today. And the second little deity that everybody worshiped was materialism. And I think that the panic of the energy crisis and panic of a lot of these things that are going on is the panic that somebody is whirling away our little guy called materialism their money FL what you want. And we’re not going to be able to get all of the goodies we want. And life may reduce itself down to the very dull, boring basics and we won’t be able to entertain ourselves with a multitude of things.

And so little by little, somebody is whacking away at our a few little gods, humanism and materialism. And the third guide that our society worships is sex. I mean, everything that from advertising to zoos is propagated through sex. It doesn’t matter what it is, whether it’s cars or deodorant or toothpaste, whatever it is, it all comes from the same advent. And of course films and books now beggar language like Billy Graham said, they rivaled the drippings of a broken sewer. And it’s pretty trick. We’re living in a world where we have our own little guts and then the little gods that dominates everything itself.

And you know, we have in God we trust on our coins me first engraved in our hearts. And that’s pretty much our little God. And it’s really interesting to me, I think that in the time in which we live now with this kind of supernaturalism creeping into our society, we’re now drawn backwards in terms of culture. Remember return of gods and people are beginning to go to the old things like they are actually worshiping superstitions, the occult and all of this stuff. And some people even have physical idols that they worship. Now in our society say we’re going back to the gods.

Western man, with all of our culture, with all of our information sources, with all of our scientific knowledge is in the same santanic trap that governs the life of the. Australia’s ribbon means individual somewhere in the middle of nowhere who’s bound down to Iraq. We all have our guts, everybody bows somewhere. Idolatry is just that, it’s worshiping anything but God himself. That’s adultery and it comes in all kinds of packages. But, but the, you know, the one thing about it is that it continually is brought to light I think is the fact that with all of man’s little gods and all of our little deities, we never get any satisfaction.

We’re always looking for more. And I think the reason is God has created you and me and every man to know him. Now we might not believe that of course, but that’s really clear in scripture. Every man needs to know him. And you’re going to know him one way or the other. You’re going to know him as the one true God of your life. You’re going to know him through the guides because you have to know that those gods exist because of him. See, we’re made to know God. Not to know God is not to know what you’re made for.

It’s not to know what the meaning of existence is. It’s to be totally disconnected from purpose and significance. And you may try a lot of non gods and you may try to have your little deities and you may bow down, but there never will be any ultimate satisfaction. Because as Augustine Said you, you’ve got a God shaped vacuum that only he can fill. And a zillion other little deals don’t bring satisfaction. And so we are in a world today where all these little gods have failed to satisfy us. And so it’s a tremendous frustrated world. Think about it.

You’re frustrated with everything. It’s not happened in my time frame. It’s not happening like I want. It’s not happening because I can’t control things. It’s. You’re frustrated in all kinds of venues and people are taking drugs, they’re getting stoned on alcohol. They’re killing themselves at a rate like never in history. And the reason is because they cannot cope with the fact that they can have a multiple, multiple of things that they bowed before and with no satisfaction. You could be in total pain and not being able to satisfy the peace in your. In your soul. And you’re going to bow down to something, to something.

Yeah. Deborah? Hello? Okay, now that’s precisely the problem in Athens. So when we, as we look at chapter 17, they had all these guides, imaginable guides all over the place. But in desperation, they had in verse 23, an altar to the unknown God. Like we talked last time, they always were looking for the next dot. And I told you the significance of that is this. With all their guides, they had no satisfaction. And so they knew somewhere out there there is a God we haven’t tapped yet who’s who in their mind was the guide that would satisfy them.

But that’s not true. And ultimately agony, the ultimate agony of all of this in adultery, it never gives satisfaction. And you might ask why? Well, because man was created to know the true God. And until he knows the true God, he knows no peace. Remember, the only peace that you have is through Jesus Christ. You have no other peace. You can’t generate peace. You can’t on your own generate peace. And so in that way, man has no satisfaction of the truest sense. And so if you go back into the garden, Adam and Eve, they were there and God was there.

Remember, they walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and they were having a great time. And they knew God and all was bliss and beautiful. And then they fell and bang. God cut himself off from them. They lost the knowledge of God. They had to live in a state of fallenness. They had to have a body to conform around their spirit being in order to live in the elements that they had transgressed into. And since that time, men are born into this world apart from the knowledge of God. Remember, while you’re in the womb, you’re in a heavenly place.

But as soon as you go through the birth canal, there is a veil that comes across your knowledge base and your eyes and the only thing you can see is a fallen state. So man came into their this world and they don’t know God. Ephesians 2 tells us that we’re born in the nature of demonic spirits. We’re controlled by the prince power of the air and our whole focus is on the chaotic situation of this world. But it’s interesting, God has a little two prong socket that he plugs in and every man is plugged in to that two prong socket.

And it may be only about a 5 watt bulb, but anyway, there’s a dim light. Remember at this heart of our being medically we have a metabolic light. Carneus had that. Remember in the story Carneus light grew based upon his seeking of knowledge of Jesus Christ. So the two prongs are creation and conscious. In other words, even in a world where the lights are out, in terms of the true knowledge of God, there’s at least a little 5 watt glow and it’s conscious and creation. God is planted within us, the knowledge of himself in our consciousness and around all of us as we look at the world that he has made.

And by those two things were surrounded and indwelt by a limited knowledge of God. Now some people, because they love sin so much, have pulled the plug and their 5 watt bulb has gone out and they’re in total blackness. The Bible says that they love their darkness rather than light for the simple reason, not that they’re philosophical, but that they’re sinful. The love of darkness rather than life because their deeds are evil. I want self assessment guys. We’re really getting to the heart of human nature. And so God has put in this world the knowledge of Himself very, very dimly.

He’s done it in consciousness and in creation. And if a man will take that light and follow it, he can know the full life of God. Now if you were to ask me, I want to know what our worship family here exists for, I would probably tell you it exists just to know God. That’s why we exist. As we learned last time, our whole existence is to know him because that is the purpose for existence of its in itself there is no other purpose in life. So those of you who are struggling to find your purpose, your purpose in priority level, your first purpose is to know Him.

And from that everything else permeates for you to live Your life apart from the knowledge of God is for you to be a worthless individual. I don’t care what else you do. That’s basically it. You might say, well, what if I help my fellow man? Well that’s fine, but see, you’re still going to die, and so is your fellow man. And if all you’ve done is given him some physical help, you’ve just prolonged his death. Now that’s not consequential. Ultimately, it’s consequential in terms of momentary comfort, but it’s inconsequential in terms of eternal bell. Okay, a person who doesn’t know God has no reason to exist because you were made to know him.

You were made for him as well as by Him. And your purpose is to know God and to spend eternity basking in the blessings of such knowledge. Okay, guys, we’re going to stop here. We were given all of the blessings of heaven before the foundation world. Ephesians 1:3. And you live eternal life on this earth. It is not something that basically you get after death. You’re able to live eternal, eternal life here on earth. Now Jeremiah, I’m going to spend some time in scriptures now. So in Jeremiah you’re, you’re going into Jeremiah 9:23. He says, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.

Neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but lack him that glory glorieth. Glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me, knoweth that I am the Lord. Now watch this. It is this life. You might be smart, you might be strong, and you might be rich, but you are nothing unless you know God. That’s what he says. So that is the meaning of existence. That is who you are. The purpose of life. God made us for fellowship with him that we might know Him. So when you come into the knowledge of God, all of a sudden the whole key to the universe is unlocked.

That is critical on your self assessment. Guys, what did we just say? Your knowledge of this universe, your knowledge of how to attract. Remember the law of attraction of attract. All of his blessings. Your, your ability to manifest his blessings comes through the knowledge of God which unlocks the whole key to the universe. You know what you, what you’re for. And so the purpose of man is to know God. It’s just that simple. Now God doesn’t even want your worship and your religion. He wants you to know Him. You remember in Hosea he said, I’m not interested in your in your sacrifices.

I want to know. I want you to know me. And that’s all kinds of religions going on and people who are talking about God, but they don’t know God. Think about all of the corporate churches. They worship a religion, a set of corporate doctrine that they establish when they establish a religion and create a corporate church. And that’s not God. See, it’s one thing to know about God. It’s another thing to know God himself. It’s like one thing to know about holiness. And it’s another thing to be holy, right? God doesn’t tolerate any rivals because the single purpose of man is to know him.

Therefore, a. The any rival violates man’s purpose. It’s not that God is some kind of a nasty orga. I mean, whatever you want to place him at. It’s that God knows that you were made for. And God knows that you’ll never be satisfied till you come to that knowledge. And so God gets really uptight when other gods are introduced that suck men off from the true purpose. And that’s why in Exodus 20, verse three, God says, this is. This is the Ten Commandments, guys. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Why? It’s that just because God is selfish.

Now, that isn’t the main point. See, the main point. It is a violation of his creation. You violate him with other gods, you shouldn’t be sucked off to worship anything but the true God. And in verse four, it goes on and says, thou shalt not make in unto thee any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou should not bow down my thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord died, am a jealous God. I hope you get that.

I’m a jealous God. God says, I tolerate no rivals. You are made to know me. You are mine. You own nothing. I made you for that purpose. I tolerate no intruders. Now, I just want today to give you an idea. I know a lot of nice people, and they don’t know God, but they’re such nice people. I know. I know a lot of nice people like that. But, you know, they’re nice people who haven’t got any reason to live. Absolutely none. This is a very provocative verse in 1st Samuel 2:12. And you probably have never really even read it before.

But I’m going to read it to you now. The sons of Eli were worthless men. Now let’s try to get over the hump of the inadequacies of English. Okay, this is the, this is the most economic, demonic language that exists. Because we were overdone it. When you see the word worthless, what does that really mean? It just means that they’re no good for any purpose. They’re strictly useless. So the sons of Eli. Eli was a nice guy, by the way. He was a lousy father if you study history, but he was a nice guy. But the sons of Eli were worthless men.

Now, would you like to be a worthless individual? Self assessment. I mean, would you like to come to the end of your life and God writes your epitaph, here lies worthless. Here lies no value. Here lies pointless. Remember what Jesus said of Judas. Better for him if he had never been. What? Born worthless. Pointless. Say, well, what is that? Worthless. How does a man become worthless? They knew not the Lord. You know why they are worthless? They knew not the Lord. For a man to exist apart from the knowledge of God is for that man to render himself worthless.

Say you were created to know God. If you fail on that endeavor, you’re worthless. First Corinthians 15:34. Paul says, Some of you know not God, and I speak it to your shame. Some people say, oh well, God is some kind of jealous God. They treat it as a negative factor. They don’t understand what the scripture is actually telling them. See, that means God has an evil capacity. If he could be jealous. Well, no, that’s not what he’s saying. Jealous jealousy is, isn’t always evil. And when God brought Israel out of Egypt to Sinai and gave them the laws already, he said, I’m a jealous God.

Later on he made a shocking statement to Moses in verse 14 of chapter 34 of Exodus. And he said this the Lord. Watch, watch. The name here, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. I mean, he even said, not only am I jealous, but that’s my name. Well, that’s heavy. They used to name people commensurate with the kind of person they were in the Old Testament. And God says, my name is jealous. And you might say, well, God, what are you so uptight about? I mean, there aren’t any rivals. Well, yes they are, see, but they’re not any rivals that are true rivals.

But there are sure lot of little nothings picking away at you. God’s in effect saying, saying this, I made men, I made you. Every man that was ever made, I formed him from the womb. Heavenly place is what he says, I made him. Don’t you believe it all happened in an evolutionary process? Now, God made men and he says, I made them and they are mine. And anybody who takes them apart from the knowledge of me is an intruder. And I have a right to be jealous. Now, there are two kinds of jealousy. One kind is this.

I want what you have. And because you have it and I don’t, I hate you. That’s one. That’s covetousness gone completely wild. But there’s another kind of jealousy. And that kind of jealousy says, you’re mine and I love you, and I don’t want anyone or anything or anybody to take you from me. Now, that is what I call pure virtue. And that’s what Scripture calls pure virtue as well. Tester said, and I quote, married persons who felt no jealousy at the intrusion of a lover or an adulterer into their home would surely be lacking in moral perception.

For the exclusiveness of marriage is the essence of the marriage. God has made us for himself. And God gets very, very upset about intruders into his area. In fact, I’m going to read First Corinthians 10:22. And you’re going to provoke the Lord to jealousy? It’s a question, Are you going to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? If you do, then listen to this. Are we stronger than Him? What does that imply? That implies that if you provoke the Lord to jealousy, he’s going to do something.

And you better be stronger than he is or you’re going to get it. He’s going to judge you. And God is very, very possessive about his own. And he has created man in his own image. And God cannot know his meaning until and man cannot know his meaning until he knows God. You don’t know who you are unless you understand who Christ is. And any kind of idolatry you see sidetracks us from that. Ezekiel in chapter eight, verse three, it says there, there, that there, as a particular image, and it calls this image the image of jealousy, which provokes jealousy.

Idols make God jealous, and when God gets jealous, that’s not good, because God will move to protect his own, and he will move vengeance upon the intruder. Second Thessalonians 78, it says that Jesus will return from heaven in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God. So ultimately, it’s a disaster not to know God. It’s not just the question of dying a worthless life. It’s a question of spending eternity in hell to. To know not God. And it’s a question whether or not you’re going to live a Life of blessing on this earth or a life of hell on this earth? Well, the question should be, can everybody know God? Absolutely.

Because everybody’s got that little 5 watt plugged in where the two prongs conscious and creation so much. So Romans 1 says that there’s enough knowledge of God available in you and around you that you are without excuse. Romans 1:20. Remember that verse, man, no man is excusable. God has plugged that little light in every man’s life. The knowledge of God is available. And some people choose to see the little light and follow the little light and they know God and they meet him fully. Now Paul says getting to know God is so important. And now I know you guys have an unknown God.

That’s what Paul told them. And you haven’t plugged into him yet. You got the little light glowing. At least you’ve got the idea that he’s there. So in verse 22, Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. And we, we learned that there’s two names for that. Aeropagus, which is the name of a court. There were the really sharp guys. They were the best of the Athenian society. The court that stood in judgment on many matters. And he said to them, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. You guys are a religious bunch of people and that’s obvious.

You have stuff everywhere. Before I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Now Paul shot across the bout, he really made a shot at them. You’re very religious. And I found among the things you worship is an unknown God whom therefore you ignorantly worship. If he’s unknown, then you’re worshiping him in ignorance. Now Paul says, I would like to declare him unto you. Now there is his platform. I’m going to tell you who the unknown God is. So we call this sermon, basically this teaching, getting to know the unknown God.

We did that last time. We’re going to do it this, this today and next time as well. Isn’t it again interesting that all of this time with all of these gods, there’s no satisfaction. Now there’s a verse I love. And when I wrote this and I studied it again this morning, I. I searched high and low for the reference and I just, I can’t get. Figure it out off hand. It says. I just, I know what it says. Happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Happy is the people whose God is Lord. You see, when your God is the true God, you’re happy.

Your peace, there’s satisfaction, and apart from that, there’s no satisfaction. And it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. So to really know God is what life is all about. And then circumstances may come and go, but the knowledge of God still abides in you. When I was studying this, I. I was thinking about the three guys, Shadrach, Nishak and Abednego. And back in the book of Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar, who thought himself to be some kind of hot shot, demanded everybody worship him. And they had this idol built, remember, this big image and so forth. And everybody’s supposed to bow down to it.

Well, Here comes these three guys, Daniel’s three friends. And he says in verse 15, now, now, if you are ready, that at that time that you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyric, the sec, but the pastry and the dukereimer, just a little combo, basically, they used to have in those days, their music combo. They were to fall down and worship the image, which I admit, that was Nebuchadnezzar telling the people, in other words, when you hear the music, fall down and worship, if you worship not, you shall be cast that same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

And then Nebuchadnezzar goes on and says, and who is that God hat shall deliver you out of my hand? Oh, well, he had a very exalted opinion of himself, because now he placed himself on the level of the one true dot, because he said, huh, you think your God’s going to get you out of my hand? What did. What happened? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we’re not careful to answer thee in this matter. In other words, we don’t mind just telling you the truth in their language, our language today, if it be so, we get thrown in there, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from your fiery furnace.

Now, he didn’t say, our God will deliver us. He said, our God what is able to deliver us? They did not put themselves at God’s level, but they declared what God is able to do. See, he left the prerogative with God. He’s able to deliver us, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King, if he so chooses. But if not, be it known unto the O King that we still will not serve thy guides, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. If we go there, our God may deliver us, but if not, we still won’t bow down to the see.

They knew they had the right God. They feared nothing. Now that’s the confidence and the satisfaction, the blessedness that comes to life of one who knows the Lord. And no substitute can bring that. Someone wrote sometime back, Lord, it belongs not to my care Whether I die or live. To love and serve Thee is my share and this thy grace must give. If life belong I will be glad that I may long obey if short Then why should I be sad to soar to endless day. See, that’s confidence in the right God. So Paul is going to present how they can know God.

Now there’s three things involved here. We started on these last time and we’re going to get, we’re going to get not get much further today, but we’ll get in next week than where we originally started. One is to recognize God, okay? One is recognize God is. Two is recognize recognize who God is. And three is to recognize what God is saying. In order to know God, you’ve got to start with number one. You’ve got to recognize God is. At the very beginning a person must recognize God is. And it isn’t it good that they did. They actually had an altar to the unknown God.

They didn’t know who he was. And they didn’t know what he was saying, but they at least believed he was there. God is in Hebrews 11:6, what is it we say it was last week. Him that cometh to God must believe that he is the fool. The full self assessment is the guy who denies God is. And you know, there are always people who deny God. Some of them are atheists. An atheist denies God, you know, that is such a ridiculous position. Atheism to me it’s like a cactus sitting in the desert telling another cactus that there’s no ocean.

So he looks around and all he sees is sand. And he figures that’s the way it all is. That’s the atheist who stands and says there’s no God. He stands on one infant intesimal peanut point in the midst of an endless universe and it doesn’t make any sense. But there are those who come to that conclusion that there is no God. Well, that’s an accommodation for their sin. They like to do what they want to do, self assessment and they don’t want to live with the prospect of judgment. So they get rid of God, you get rid of the potential of judgment and you can live what life easier, you think.

And then secondly there’s agnosticism. Agnosticism is the guy who doesn’t know, but it’s usually not. They usually believe. I can’t believe or I want belief, he just doesn’t want to believe. There’s a God and then there’s evolution. All of the things that were taught in school, by the way, this is what we’re talking about today. And evolution is, is somebody who thinks that, or there may be some God, there may be some cosmic intelligence, etc. Etc. But the whole thing is God has never manifest himself. Everything’s an accident. Then there’s the polytheist and he says there are many gods all over, everywhere they’re gods.

And that’s what’s being propagated in America today so fast it’s unbelievable. Return of the gods, the spirit beings, the demons are propagating stuff that you can’t even believe today. Oh, let me say this. I, I apologize that I put the return of the God session on tomorrow night because I woke up this morning understanding that tomorrow was Memorial Day and pretty much everybody deals with family on that day. So I moved that class one week out to give everybody the ability to spend the time with the family and, and remember those in your legacy or what they have actually served our country.

So. But in next week’s session of that, we are going to get into this specific topic. Demons are propagating all kinds of stuff in your life that you cannot believe and you most likely don’t understand. You know, all these spirits books about spirit world, not written by Christians, but written by demons, dictated by demons. And it tells us about all the hierarchy of any gods. And the Prince of Venus think. And this ruler over here and this ruler over there and, and you know, they’ve got a whole strategy going. All right, think about what we, what we discussed about Ishtar and her setting up Stonewall, all that stuff.

They have a strategy and they know more about you than you. They’ve even got this thing called, that illustrates they’ve got a strategy for the Rapture and what they’re going to say when the rapture happens? We’ve often. I know I have. I’ve often wondered, what’s Satan going to do when the Rapture comes? What’s he going to do? How is he going to convince the world of what’s going on? And you might say, well, when the rapture happens, aren’t people going to immediately believe? No, no, the world is going to get dominated and is fast getting dominated by this whole meditation bit.

Oh, by the, by the Eastern religion and by the way, I think the follow on to the return of the gods we’re going to do. I’m going to start it in August. We’re going to take a little time off so you can spend time vacationing or whatever and not worrying about, you know, being. Having to be stationary for class. We’re going to look at what was also created in the 60s after Stonewall, which was called the New age movement, Eastern religion. And they’re trying to get everybody to get into a higher level of what? Consciousness. Raise everybody out of the third dimension to a higher level of consciousness.

Meditate, transcend, transcendental meditation, get out of this thing. And when the rapture happens, the announcement by all the demons is going to be, well, these people were holding back the whole world from transcending. And in doing so, we eliminated them. I want you to think about that. That’s pretty smart for them to do that. That captures your attention back to them, see, because they’ve already got the whole world to believe that meditation’s where it’s at. And Christians are the hang. And so we just got rid of them so you could advance to a higher level. And then they’re going to rule in the tribulation.

Oh boy, the world’s going to be ready to buy that whole bag of tricks. And so of course, they are propagating that there are many gods everywhere. Spirits, you’re a God. Everybody’s a God. A guy, a guy once said who’s one of these meditation teachers. After several lessons, they even convinced themselves that they were Jesus Christ. And he says, I’m not. And now he’s a Christian, by the way. And he knew one thing I knew I wasn’t Jesus Christ. So polytheism is being propagated tremendously today. And this is a position that you see, there’s no God, there’s just gods all over, everywhere.

And then that’s what we call pantheism. Pantheism is a different kind of atheism. Instead of saying there’s no God, it says everything is God. Oh, think about that. Everything’s got nature, Gaia, you know, the worship of nature itself. Everything is God. And that’s just like, here’s no guy. If everything is God, then God isn’t anything, right? And another view that’s kind of atheistic is deism. You know what deism is? That’s the view that God is a God somewhere. And he would wound up the world made it was kind of a little fun thing for him. So he made it, wound it up, and he went away and let it run down and he’s totally uninvolved.

Now all of those are forms of denial of the true God. And we could, we could talk many, many, many more. But those are most prevalent in our society today. To, to begin to come to God, you must believe that God is. And that God is knowable. He. You can know him. Well, what’s the evidence for that? Well, I spoke to you about consciousness. It’s written in your mind. I wrote my laws in your heart. Well, what’s your heart is your mind, your true mind? You’re a man who becomes an atheist or denies God has to reason against his own nature.

Not only that, but they have to reason against creation itself. See, if you, if you read the psalmist, the psalmist says the heavens declare what the glory of God. Well, you could get your science book out and you could read about the micro, microchism, the unbelievable intricacy of space and the stars. And I could probably talk two hours on the scientific phenomena of that. And that’s what people always say when they don’t know anything. I could go on and on about that because we’re blabbering idiots. We think we know what we know and we don’t know anything.

There’s so much material available just in expanding your mind to understand the fantastic intricacies of what space and to say that it all just happened, it just doesn’t happen that way. So you have a conscious and so there’s creation that are testimonies to God. I think the greatest testimony to God is right here in this book of Acts in the, in the whole Bible. By the way, I think the testimony of God begins in Genesis. Deuteronomy 6:4 stated it hit this way. Hero Israel. The Lord our God is one God. That’s it. There’s no other, that’s all.

There’s God. God is good. There is no other God beside him. Now there are many scriptures on this. Deuteronomy 4:35 Unto thee it is it was shown that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God. There is none else beside him. Now Isaiah has some of the greatest statements regarding God’s character in nature in the 40th chapter. But in chapter 42, verse 8, it says this. I am the Lord, that is my name. And I like that, that authoritative kind of thing. And it goes on and says, and my glory will I not give to another.

Neither my praise to carved images say, God tolerates no idols. He alone is God. Why is that important? Because you have set yourself up to be your own Idol, you think you know better than anything. You want to direct and control what? Everything. Oh, but see, you own nothing. You control nothing. Your whole purpose is to know him. Isaiah 44, 6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. Two persons of the Trinity joining together here. I’m the first, and I’m the last. And apart from me, there’s no other God.

I want you to get that. That’s very powerful. There is no God outside of me. And I like verse 8. Fear not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that time and have declared it. Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there’s no God. I know not any. Oh, and believe me, if God doesn’t know of any, they’re not any other gods. If you believe scripture, he tells you that these gods that are out there and that we’re studying the return of the gods and you’re living your life around.

They’re demons. Some people just don’t realize there’s only one true God. There’s all kinds of people caught up in the occult. They think there’s all kinds of gods, all kinds of spirit beings and. And they’re right, but they’re not gods. They’re demons. But they think there are all kinds of gods. Some people just don’t get it because they can’t get themselves out of the way to see the truth. First Corinthians 8, 6. Paul says to us, there is but one God, the Father, that’s all. Just one God of whom all things and we are in Him.

There’s are there’s own Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. However, there is not in every man that knowledge. Not everybody knows that. But you can’t even begin to come to God until you believe he is. That’s where it all starts. And if you want to know, you better get into this book called the Bible. And then you’ll see that he is. Mark’s illustration is powerful. In Mark 12:28, one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, this is Jesus and the Sadducees. And he perceived that he had and answer them.

Well now he was really amazed that Jesus answers to the Sadducees. They were giving him all that stuff about whose wife and all that would she be in heaven. And he said, he says to the scribe says to Jesus, which is the first commandment of all. And Jesus answered him, this is this first of all commandments is Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one God. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and all the strength. That is the first commandment. And when you’ve knocked that one off, you can go on to the second commandment.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There’s no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to Jesus, well, master, thou hast said the truth. Well, Jesus didn’t need him to commend him. Jesus knew he said the truth, but the man recognized it. He said, for there is one God, and there is no other but me. Now here was a man who believed the testimony of the Old Testament described. And he said to Jesus, there’s only one God. Well, you’re right again in verse 33. To love him with all your heart and with all the understanding, with all.

With all the soul, with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself. This is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices could ever be done. Now watch this. When Jesus saw that he answered so discreetly, so intelligent described, he said unto him, thou art not far from the kingdom of God. Oh, stop right here. What does he mean, you’re not far from the kingdom of God? Well, because he’s already taken step one. Go back to verse 32, back up. Well, Master, hast thou said the truth? But there is one God. There’s no other but He.

Now that is where it began. See, God is. He was not far from the kingdom of God because he believed God is. And God alone is God. That’s where it starts. I say to you this morning, you’re not far from the kingdom of God either. If you believe there is one God. If you believe that God is. Now the second thing is knowing the unknown God back to Acts 17 and knowing the unknown God, we must believe that God is. And secondly, we must believe who God is. It’s not enough to say I believe in God.

See, that’s too bad. It’s got to be identified. So who is God? We get that in verse 24 to 29 gives us this information. Paul then starts to tell the court who God is. Verse 24. God who made the world and all things in it. Now, God is first of all the Creator. We’re going to talk about probably four or five of these before we’re done. And not all of them today, by the way, but the five things is beginning with the Creator. God is the Creator. God created everything. And when you, if you can comprehend just God’s creative power.

I don’t believe you can handle it. Well, why do I. Why don’t you say that? Well, if you go look at job, chapter 26, it’s just absolutely unbelievable. When he was. When he’s talking about God as Creator, beginning in verse five. And he’s going to get into God’s creative power, expressed even in shoal or in the grave. Verse 5 said, Dead things tremble from under the waters. They probably should be trembled rather than are formed. Shoelace and neck is naked before him and destruction hath no covering. See? In other words, God’s power extends even into hell, the place of death called shoal, Hades.

Then his creative power is expressed in the heavens. He stretches out the heavens or the north, which means the heavens here over the empty place. In other words, over nothing. Over chaos. God stretches, stretched the heavens. Think about it. Everything hangs on something. Do you realize that the earth hangs on nothing? There is as much pressure exerted in every direction on earth as in any direction. It’s completely suspended. God just somehow said, let it be, and it all spun out and there it is. He even took chaos or nothingness and slung the heavens over. Says he bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds.

Now that’s a miracle. That water stay in those clouds, right? What holds the water there? Have you ever asked that question? See? And it says in scripture. And the cloud is not torn under them. What an amazing feat of creation. The cloud remains while it’s full of water. Think of that. Suspended in this atmosphere. He holdeth back the face of his throne and spreadeth his cloud upon it. Circular bounds regarding the water. In verse 10, he hath compressed the water with a boundary until the day and night come to to an end. See, he’s talking about the horizon.

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through its pride. God controls the sea by the spirit. He garnished the heavens. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. This probably refers to the curse of the stars. Lo, these are parts of his ways. But how little a portion is heard of him. But he thunder of his power. Who can understand? See, when you start thinking about creation, there’s really no way to think. It’s just an imagination. Now just get this in your head, okay? God can easier create a universe than you can think the thought.

You got it? God can easier create a universe than you can think a thought. That’s how powerful he is. See? We imagine first of all, that he created everything out of nothing. Oh, let me give you something that’s really amazing. He did it without any advice or any assistance. He just did it. Isaiah 44:24. You ought to read that Isaiah chapters 40 to 48 and so and get that information about God there. Okay. But in verse, in chapter 44, verse 24, it says, Thus saith the Lord the Redeemer, and he who formed thee from the womb.

I am the Lord, who maketh all things and stretches forth the heavens alone, who spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. Some time ago, I was reading a book written by demons and they were claiming to be the Creator. God did it alone. Demons didn’t create anything. They can’t create anything. He didn’t have any engine but His Word. He didn’t have any pattern but his mind. And he could is easily create a world. Easier create a world than you can think. I thought he created the universe by projecting his own thought into existence. Let me look. When you look at Jeremiah 32:17, this is how the verse starts out.

Oh, Lord God. Exclamation point. Behold, thou has made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and outstretched arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. God made everything and he made it out of nothing. Now there’s a second thing about this fantastic creative power that we’re going to look at. And that is he made it by a single word. God said, let there be. What? Light. What happened? Light showed up. See, I don’t know how you can handle it when you study creation. The vastness, the power that had to exist in this creation.

I don’t know if you’ve ever studied Romans 4:17, but it says, he calleth those things which are not as if they were cause them what to exist. Psalms 33:6. By the word of the Lord, were were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath, breath of his mouth. One day he stood up in the middle of nothing and said, heaven, earth, water. All things were Psalms 148:5. For he commandeth and they were created. Not only the things that exist obey him. The things that don’t do. And do you know what’s so interesting about that? See, we put in a good day’s work and we’re pooped, we’re exhausted.

God never gets tired. He never gets anything. Well, you might ask, where do you get that? Well, we’ll just go to Isaiah 40:28. The God, the Lord, creator of the ends of the earth, faints not. Neither is Weary. Do you know, he did the whole thing and he never ever diminished his energy one bit. We often hear the Lord must be weary of all of this stuff going on. Well, I’m going to tell you something. The Lord doesn’t get weary at all. Why? Because we now know that he’s absolute energy and has no capacity to dissipate.

Why, love is energy. And he is just as active today upholding what he made that he was when he made it. And see, that’s the second point. He’s not only the Creator, he’s ruler. That’s point two in verse 24. He is the Lord of the heaven and earth. He holds it all together. And remember Hebrews one, He upholds all things by the word of his power. It’s his power that made it. It’s his power that hangs it together. See, it says the earth is the Lord’s. Don’t Forget it. Psalms 24:1. The earth is the Lord’s in the fullness thereof, and everybody who dwells in it.

And so he holds it all together. And that’s with his tremendous power. Well, his power is unbelievable. We could go on and talk a lot of different verses about that power, but I just want to give you a couple of insight insights. And Isaiah, Isaiah 40 talks about his upholding power. He’s the God who holds it all together. And I’ll tell you, in all the little nations that think they run this world, Isaiah 40:12 says this. Think about God in terms of these who hath measured the waters and the hollow of his hand, measured out the heaven with a span, measured the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighted the mountains in scale, and the hills in a balance.

In other words, God has everything ordered and set in right perspective and balance. That’s you, that’s you and I like verse 13 who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord? Or being his counselor, taught him? What school did God go to? With whom took his tookie counsel? Who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him in his knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Nobody did. Scripture says, behold, the nations are like a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the coast as a little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn.

In other words, most real big strong nations aren’t even good for kindling to start a sacrifice. Verse 17 all nations before him are as nothing. They are counted less than nothing, and that’s not much. Matter of fact, nothing is not much Less than nothing is not much at all, right? And they’re counted vanity. Okay, here’s the point. When you start comparing things with God, you’ll come out less than nothing. See, he’s running the universe. It’s his verse 22. Here’s a beautiful thought. It is he who sits on the circle of the earth. Well, that’s. That’s a fantastic statement, guys.

That’s the Hebrew word for chug. Chug. S, A, C, H, G. Chuck, do you know what that word means? Sphere. Do you know what? Isaiah knew the earth was a sphere when people thought it was flat hundreds of years before they did. Say, you better watch when you read the Bible because it’s spot on. Now here’s an interesting thought we’ve talked about. How do you have a firmament that’s attached unless you have a plane flat? Oh, well, that’s going to be an interesting conversation. See, any inhabitants thereof were like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, spread them like a tent to dwell in.

See, it’s God who runs the universe. He brings the princes to nothing. He takes the best of the world’s judges. They’re all vanity. Verse 25. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? Said the Holy One. See, we want to start comparing him with it. With anything. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things. Now in verse 28. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, Saying there is no searching of his understanding.

There he is. He is. He not only made it, but he holds it together. Think about Pentecost when he brought the Holy Spirit down to earth. He holds it together. And his spirit is your energy. You know, I think that is so fast. Fantastic to see this in action. Say we send people, men, women in tin cans and fly them around in space for all these days and it’ll shoot them at, shoot them back and they land where we expect. Why? Because this universe is constant loss. And the laws that we’ve talked about many, many times, or just diminishing.

If the world was decaying and somebody wasn’t holding it together and that just a fraction of an inch or whatever, a small minute point was just reducing all the time. We couldn’t calculate anything. We have no basis. Everything is held together. Everything is consistent. And see, that’s just God. Well, that kind of a God just can’t go and bow down to a little rock and worship him. Verse 24. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands. I want you to hear that. Churches. He dwell not in temples made with hands. That’s the kind of God, is way too big.

Solomon built a temple in First Kings 8. 27. He says, God, I gave. I. I got a problem. I got a big problem. You see, I can’t build a temple that fits you. You will not fit in this temple. And he was right. God couldn’t get in his temple. He’s far too infinite. God said, my throne is heaven, and earth is my footstool. Well, the third thing we need to look at is God is. God is giver. He’s not only the creator and the one who upholds the rules, but he’s the giver. Look at verse 25.

Neither is worshiped with men’s hands as though he needed anything. Well, why are we doing this? Why are we here today discussing this? Let’s see. God needs this. God needs us to continually dwell on him. And you might say, wait a minute. He’s the one who gives us all life, breath and all things. And yet we talk a lot about how much God needs us. Well, you might say, I’m not sure that’s biblical. Well, in a sense, it is all right to say that God needs us to be faithful to the calling he’s called us to do.

But in terms of him being dependent upon us for something he doesn’t have is not biblical. So in Job 22:2, it says, Can a man be profitable unto God? I mean, do you think God’s going to benefit by you? God can’t benefit. Why? Because he has no capacity. He’s as good as he could possibly ever be. He can’t get any better. But the pagans, they didn’t see this. You, the pagans, they didn’t see this. They were always bringing food and putting it down, and they were thinking the gods would consume it. The Hindus still do that today.

By the way, they think gods consume the food that they bring to the temples. They don’t really know it’s those guys in the back room that consume the food. But there’s always been that kind of thing, serving the gods and enhancing the gods, all of this kind of thing going on. And God says, I don’t need your. You piddling around with little shrines. I don’t need your fancying up a little diddy stuff. I don’t need your routines. I’m the one who gives you everything. I don’t need anything out of you at all. One of the psalms that I love, It says, I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

You know why? They thought they were doing God’s favor. Well, let’s go give God a few animals is what they were thinking. God likes that we do that. God will like that we would do that. And he says, I take no bullocks out of your homes house, no he goats out of your fold. For every beast of the forest is mine. And the cattle on a thousand hills. See, you think I need yours, he’s telling him, he says, guess again. I know every foul of the mountain. I know every wild beast of the field or mine.

If I were hungry, I wouldn’t tell you why I don’t need to. The world’s mine and the fullness thereof. Do you think God needs you to bring a little offering of porridge and put it before some altar? No, he doesn’t need that. What he says is, if I get hungry, I can handle it. That’s Psalms 50, verses 9 through 12. Now, the point he’s making here. He’s shooting down their idolatry. He’s just knocking the props all out of the whole system. In effect, he’s saying, God does not need you to do all these little routines. You need God because it is God.

Verse 25, who gives to all life, breath and all things. Those three things are important. Life, that’s being born. God is one that brought you into this world. Breath, that’s the sustaining of your life. And all things, that’s everything that comes to you while you live on this earth. See, everything is God. Everything is of God. Psalms 100:4. If you get food, you got it from God. If you don’t get food, it’s because God didn’t give it to you. Everything is from God. God is the giver. He doesn’t need us to give him anything. Romans 11:36.

For of him and through him, and to him are all things to whom he glory forever. See, he’s the giver of everything. James said, every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father above. He is the One, the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. First Timothy 6:17 says, Charge them that they are rich in this age, that they be not high minded. You know, the rich people say, well, I have a lot of this and that, and I’m very wealthy. And tell them not to trust in his uncertain riches, but better trust in the living God who giveth us richly.

All things to enjoy. Well that’s interesting, isn’t it? You think you deserve the blessings from this world that’s coming? Well you deserve nothing. It’s not yours, You might say. You mean God actually gives things to unbelievers? Yeah, he does. God makes the rain to fall on the just. And what? The unjust. Whatever you had, it came from God. Whatever you have, it came from God. You need to recognize that, see, God is not only the creator, he’s the ruler and he’s the giver. Now, last point for today. He’s the controller. And this is another fantastic thought.

Verse 26. He hath made of one blood, all nations. Oh, now that’s interesting. Let me read that again. He hath made of one blood, all nations. That alone was a shot across the bow to the Athenians. They believe the world is made of two kinds of people, just like majority of you did, the Greeks and the what? The barbarians. You are either Greek or you are a barbarian. And they were the Greeks and everybody else was barbarian and they prided themselves in that. We have sprung from the native soil of Attica. You know, they were really the international hotshots, they were the super race.

And so Paul says God has made of one blood all nations and men to dwell on the face of the earth. Every nation is God’s ordaining. And God even determined the times before and the bounds of the habitation. What does that mean? That means God is controlling history and the destiny of men and nations even today. You know why things are not happening as fast as you want? Because God’s timing is not yet arrived. You can’t live in this day and see what God is doing in Israel and in Russia and in Egypt, in the Common Market, in the United States and all these things without believing God was controlling history.

Why? Because we’re living in a constant state of creation. His history, not yours. He’s in total control. Now when scripture says the appointed time, it refers to the seasonal times as well as historical times. God has appointed the times of winter and summer and all of that, as well as historical times when certain nations exist. And then he says the bounds of their habitation, well that’s continual, that is continental. In other words, God sets a certain kingdom in a certain location. And it’s also imperial how far they reach out in conquering others. So God’s the controller.

Me, This is some God. See, history is on schedule. God is running it and it’s going to culminate in the coming of Jesus Christ. And the fifth thing is God is the revealer. Well, we’re going to take that up next week. But, you know, I always have a. I always get a second thought when I think about this. I think about God and I go further and further and further and I think about God more and go further and further, further. And then I. I stop somewhere in all of that thought sometime and I always come back and.

And think to myself, The thing that amazes me the most is he lives in me, lives inside of me, that I actually know God. That’s such a fascinating thing for me to understand. He’s so large and he lives inside of me. And because of that, I get to actually know him, you might say. How do you get to know God? Well, Jesus told us, no man cometh unto the Father, not by me. There’s no knowledge of God apart from Jesus Christ. He’s the one who introduces you to God. You can know God, see, and it’s our trust in him and our prayer for you that no one will ever go away from this place with this family not knowing God.

And we’re going to stop there for today. Questions? Comments? All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you again for a day of studying your word. Thank you for opening up the understanding to us about who you really are. And we cannot know who we are unless we know who you are, that you exist, that you rule, that you give, that you control, and you reveal all of this stuff to us. Father, we want to ask a prayer blessing to those that are hurting this morning for lost ones grieving, those that are sick, those that have injured themselves, those who have lost friends.

We just want to ask you to meet, protect their heart. Give them the understanding that you’re in control. All things happen for the glorification of your son. And give us the wisdom and understanding and truth that we may be at peace with all the things of this earth. We want to thank you for your son. We want to thank you for his death, his burial, his resurrection and ascension. Because without that, we would not have the ability to go home, be with the world leaders as they continue to move forward in justice, accountability and peace. That we may receive the blessings that you have set aside for your people on your tongue, your way, your control.

Father, give us this passage back home today. May we find that the journey being smooth. Father, give us the ability to come back on Tuesday with questions and points of things about your word that will give us a better understanding. Father, we just want to give you all the praise and glory. Ask all these things in your son’s name.
[tr:tra].