17, Acts chapter 17. This evening we welcome one and all in the Savior's name. Acts 17 and let's begin at the verse 16 of the chapter together. The Word of God says, idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, what will this babbler say? Others some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him on to Euripagus, saying, We may know what this new doctrine whereof thy speakest is, for thy bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these things mean. For the Atheans and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious, for as I pass by, I beheld your devotions, and I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things are in, seeing he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands, as though we needeth anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and is made of one blood of all nations, of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed in the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As certain also of your own, poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, the silver or stone graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now he commandeth all men everywhere to repent Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, wherefore he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them, albeit certain men clave unto him and believed among The witch was Dionysus, the Arachite, and the woman named Demetrius, and others with them. Amen. And may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's briefly pray. Father in heaven, come now and fill me with thy spirit, and help us, Lord, in the preaching of the word. Lord, give us understanding. We pray this in our Savior's name. Amen. dominated to this day by the sprawling white marble complex of the Apollogos. Athens is a city that is immensely proud of its past. For a period of roughly three centuries, Athens stood in supremacy among all of the cities of the known world. It was a most important and dominant city. Its fledgling empire, though small by the standards later set by Rome and also by its former enemy, Persia, nonetheless encompassed cities as far as Asia Minor and southern Italy. A remarkable fact. considering that such an expansion was only accomplished by a city and its surrounding area rather than an entire nation. Athens is chiefly remembered for two reasons. First of all, for its political system, which would form really the nucleus of all Western democratic systems of political government. The other remarkable thing about Athens was the outstanding individuals who live within that enlightened city-state. The ancient Atheans really formed the backbone of the West's entire culture, from art to philosophy and to everything in between. In virtually all fields of human endeavor, Athens was at the forefront of dynamism and innovation in the field of medicine. The great physician, Hippocrates, not only advanced in the practical knowledge of the human anatomy, but also changed the entire face of the medical profession. Great philosophers lived in the city of Athens, men like Aristotle. and Socrates and Plato. And they really revolutionized the way that people thought about topics like logic and reason and that of right. and wrong, and good, and evil. Great architects lived within the city. It was into such a dynamic, innovative, and diverse city that the apostle Paul entered on his second missionary journey around the year A.D. 51. As he waited for his traveling companions to arrive, Paul's spirit was stirred within him when he noticed that the city had given itself over to the worship of pagan gods. So many gods were worshipped within the city of Corinth or the city of Athens that one city or one historian wrote that it was easier to find a god in Athens than it was to find a man. Paul's response to the paganism and to the idolatry of Corinth City was to preach Jesus Christ in the Jewish synagogue, in the marketplace, and really to anybody who wanted to listen to him. One day some philosophers, individuals known as the Epicureans and others that were known as the Stoics, heard Paul Now the Epicureans, they believed that the philosophy of life and the purpose of life was simply to eat, drink, and be merry. Enjoy today and forget about tomorrow was really the motto of their life. The Stoics were of the opposite extreme because they were individuals who believed that they should deprive themselves and pursue some sort of harmony that existed with all that was around them. After these philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics had disputed with Paul, they took him to Mars Hill, the place of public debate, in order that Paul would speak to them about his teaching and to explain his teaching in a further way. It was whilst he was in Mars Hill, at that public arena, that Paul took an altar that he had seen in the city with the inscription to an unknown God or to the unknown God. He took that altar as the very springboard to teach the citizens of Athens about the true God that can be known. And so in Acts chapter 17, we find that Paul here As I thought about Paul's response, As he stood there that day on Mars Hill, looked over a city that had given itself wholly to idolatry and to the worship of false gods, I started to think of the many different false world religions that there are, and the many cults that exist within our world today. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, and ultimate concerns in the world this very night. Of the 8 billion people, or the almost 8 billion people who presently live in this world, 85% of the global population ascribe and identify with some kind of religious group. Statisticians, they estimate that there are about 2.2 billion Christians, and that term Christians is a very broad term. That's followed then by the 1.6 billion people who follow the religion of Islam, and then closely followed by the 1 billion individuals who worship the God of Hinduism. We thought about that last week with our sister who was here. As I started to consider the diversity of world religions, I asked myself the question, how do we in this pluralistic society counteract the false teachings of false religions and cults? Well, I believe that the best way of doing that is by preaching the truth. That's a way by which we counteract the teaching of error, falsehood. It is by preaching the truth. I've used the illustration before, but it used to be that whenever bank officials when they were trying to decipher which was the genuine, which was the fake banknote. They didn't study every fake banknote in circulation. That would have took them their lifetime. But simply what they did was they studied the genuine. And thereby, whenever a fake note came before them, they were able to very quickly decipher that's fake, because there was some difference. There was some distinguishing mark that set it apart from the genuine. And brethren and sisters, that's what we ought to know. We ought to know the truth, so then whenever error arises, then we're very quick to decipher that it is error and that it is falsehood. We could study for years all of the various world religions and the cults that exist in the world for 4,200 of them. We could try and take time to study them all, but it's better to know the truth. But let me say that I do believe that there is merit in studying. There is merit in studying what world religions and cults teach, so that we then can, from Scripture, counteract their teaching through what is revealed to us in the Word of God. And that's what I want to do over the next little time within our Bible study on a weekly basis in the will of God. I want us to look at some of the world's false religious systems, and I want us to look at some of the cults, what they teach. and how we can then counteract their teaching by bringing you to the truth of the Word of God and show how they are in error as we find them not aligned to the teaching of Holy Scripture. Now, tonight's a very general, not a specific message it is but an introductory message but I want us to think about a number of matters when we consider this thought of false religion and the cults in the world. The first thing I want to consider and this will be very brief the first point and that's you usually the first point is the longest but the first point is very short a definition of false religion how would you define false religion well false religion is any religion by any name that is not consistent with the gospel of the lord jesus christ false religion whatever by whatever name it comes under is that which is not consistent with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether that is Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Russellism, Jehovah's Witnesses, speaking of the Jehovah's Witnesses, all of these things, the Cuneites, all these various organizations, these religions, these cults are not consistent. Their teaching is not consistent with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All false religions agree on being anti-gospel and being anti-scripture. If you want a very simple definition of false religion, it is this. False religion is the worship of a false god or the false worship of the true God. False religion is the worship of a false God, or it is the false worship of the true God. That's the definition of false religion. The second thing I want us to consider tonight is the reality of false religion. You know, sometimes we believe that the emergence of false religion and the emergence of the cults is nothing less than a, as it were, a present or a modern phenomenon. But is that the case? Is it the case that false religion has just simply, as it were, emerged in the last number of centuries? Well, you only have to read and open the Word of God, only have to open the Scriptures of truth, and you soon find that false religion is nearly as old as the world itself, and as old as human civilization. Turn to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4, I suppose we could go to Genesis chapter 3 and the devil coming into the garden of Eden. And that was really the beginning of a divergence, a moving away from what God had said and how God was to be approached. But here we have in Genesis chapter 4, We have the beginning, I believe, of false religion in human history. Now, don't forget that whenever we come to Genesis chapter 4, we're only into the second generation of humanity. We have Adam and Eve, and now they have children, and they have children called Abel and Kiem. Notice there in the verse number 3 to 5, the verses 3 to 5, We find Cain and Abel as now adults, they're now approaching God and says, and in the process of time, I remember someone, whenever they preached and all their words were being mixed up, they said, I'm breaking these teeth in for an Egypt. And I feel that that is happening tonight. I feel that I'm breaking these teeth in for an Egypt. I don't know what is wrong with my speech this evening, but we'll go anyway. I'm sure you'll be able to decipher something that I say. Well, anyway, Genesis 3, or 4, verses 3 to 5. In the process of time it came to pass, it came brought of the fruit of the ground of an offering unto the Lord. He also brought the firstling of his flocks and the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and unto his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance failed. Cain's offering, the fruit of his own hands, was offered to God, and then what he brought and what he did not bring really saw the commencement of false religion. This is where it all begins. It begins by man trying to approach God in a way that God had not stipulated. And this is what Cain does. He comes his own way. And that really is the basis of world religion. That is not biblical Christianity, the cults, it's coming their own way to God. You see, God had devised the way. It was by the blood sacrifice shown to Adam and Eve whenever he provided the skins of coats for them, the coats of skins there in the Garden of Eden, that animal was slain. This is how you approach me, through the blood sacrifice and obviously Abel is fully aware of that and he brings the first slain of the flock. the God-ordained and stipulated way. But here's Cain, he's coming his own way. He's making his own approach to God because you see, all roads, all roads meet in God. That's what the world's religions will tell you. That's what the Roman Catholic will tell you. Well, I go my way to God and you'll go your way to God and we'll all meet, we'll all meet someday in heaven. But that's not the case. You see, the Bible says there's a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And so here we have this thought, I'm going to come my own way to God. And really, as he comes before God, really what Cain does here, it is the embryo. that spawns every false religion that we have in the world today, because every religion outside biblical Christianity is a works-based religion. It is what man can do for God, not what God has done for man. And then we come to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12, we meet a man by the name of Abram. And God chooses this man to be the father of the faithful. But Joshua tells us something very interesting about Abram's father, Tira there in Joshua chapter 24 verse 2. Let me read the verse. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Tira, the father of Abraham, the father of Nechar, and they served other gods. They served other gods. When Tyr lived in the Ur of the Chaldees, he and his family served other gods. You see, false religion, it didn't stop whenever Cain as it were, committed such a sin against God, but rather it develops in such a way that it now finds itself outside the Garden of Eden, now reaching as far as the Earl of the Chaldees. There is now the worshipping of false gods, other gods, not the God Jehovah, not the living God, but other gods were being worshipped by men. at that particular time. False religion had entrenched itself very early on after the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. Now, you need to remember that whenever we read the Bible, the focus is always on the children of Israel and upon God's covenant people. But you mustn't forget that they weren't the only people who lived in the world at that particular time. Israel was but a small nation, but a small group, a small family, beginning with Abraham, and then moving in to the various generations. But there were nations surrounding the nation of Israel. They did not worship Jehovah. Rather, they had their own religious systems. And you can trace that, and you get glimpses of it throughout the Scripture. You'll read throughout the Scripture about the idolatry of the Canaanites. You'll read about the worship of Baal and of Ashtoreth. You'll read about the construction of golden calves by the children of Israel. You'll read about the erection of golden statues in order to worship Babylonian kings. You'll read about the legalism of the Pharisees and of the scribes. You'll read right through to the Gnosticism of Paul's day that he had to counteract when he wrote that that little book or that epistle to the Galatian saints. And so you have idolatry, you have Beel worship, Ashtaroth worship, you have the worship of the sun and the moon and the stars, you find the worship of Judaism and legalism, Gnosticism, the worship of angels, you have all of these various false religions. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, he warned that in the last days, They would be days that would be marked by religious confusion and the explosion of false religions. Those false religions would be headed up by false prophets who would present false Christ. Matthew chapter 24, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the last days. Matthew chapter 24, the verses 23 and 24 of the chapter, It says, Paul speaking about those same days said that there will come a time when teachers will, as it were, draw a crowd to themselves. They will turn from sound doctrine. And instead, the people, they will believe fables. For the time, he said to Timothy, will come that they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned on to fables. And so there is the reality of false religion. And more so as the day of Christ approaches, there will be a turning away from the truth and there will be the acceptance of that which is termed by Paul as being fables. This will be the mark of the end age. And so what I've said and what we know from personal experience, false religion is most certainly a reality in the world in which we live. What is the source of false religion? That's our third point this evening. Well, I think there are two sources. First of all, the fallen heart. The fallen heart. Man's sinful nature and fallen, depraved heart is always manufacturing ways in which a person can approach God that is distinct from the way that God has already stipulated within His Word. Again, we see that early on in human history, Genesis. chapter number 11, we find that a tower is built. What does that tower or what is the purpose of that tower? That purpose of the tower is to reach God, reaching into heaven. It was really man's early attempt to reach God and heaven its own way, or his own way. Let's try to reach God, physically speaking. Let's try and reach Him. And really that's what false religion is. Let's try and reach God. And willing to submit to God's way, the fallen human heart devises its own way, and that way is always doomed to failure. Listen, false religion is really man's attempt to reach God. True religion, on the other hand, reveals how God reached man. Let me repeat that. False religion is really man's attempt to reach God. True religion, biblical religion, biblical Christianity, reveals how God reached man, how God reached down into sin, our sin, and into the horrible pit and lifted us out of the married clay. And so the human heart is a source. It was one of the reformers who said, I think it was Calvin, who said that the human heart is a factory of idols. In other words, it continually produces idol after idol for that human individual to worship. And how true Calvin was. But an accomplice in the formation and the propagation of false religion, the second source, not only the fallen heart, but the father of lies, the devil himself. Anything that God has placed his stamp of divine approval upon, the devil has a counterfeit for it. It then should come as no surprise to us if there is such a thing as true religion, then there's going to be false religion. False religion that the devil will propagate, inspire, disseminate throughout the world. Satan has always been the father of lies. He is the great deceiver. And as such, he loves the vehicle of religion. He acts as the angel of light. transforming himself into the angel of light and has devised many a spiritual counterfeit for that which is true. And one of his favorite frauds, as I've said, is false religion that propagates and preaches and disseminates a false gospel. Horatius Bonner, he said this about the devil. He said, the devil comes as an angel of light To mislead, yet pretend to lead. To blind, yet professing to open the eye. To obscure and bewilder, yet professing to illuminate and guide. He approaches us with fair words upon his lips. Liberality, progress, culture, freedom, expansion, elevation, science, literature, benevolence, nay, and religion too. This is the vehicle that the devil uses. to deceive and to damn many a precious soul. The ploy of the devil from the beginning is to twist the truth but a little, to pervert its teaching only slightly, just like he did in the Garden of Eden. This is what he does with false religion. You know there are elements of truth in false religion, elements of truth within it. However, that truth is twisted and perverted and distorted in such a way that it leads masses astray and ultimately damns them to eternal perdition. Man and the devil, they team up to devise and disseminate falsehood throughout the world. That is so often achieved via the channel of false religion. Let me make a few comments on the marks of false religion. Is there any way that you can distinguish between a false religion or a cult and true Christianity? I believe there is. Let me give you about a few of the traits. First of all, false religious movements and cults, they claim to be in possession of a new revelation from God. They claim to be in possession of a new revelation Whereas the Christian believes in the all-sufficiency of Scripture, sola scriptura, the Scriptures alone, for matters relating to faith and practice, the leaders of false religious movements and of cults claim to have received a new prophetic revelation from God, that is either subservient or equal to the revelation that God has given to us in His Word. So, for example, the Jehovah Witness has been given the new revelation that is contained within the New World Translation. The Mormon, well, they've been given a new revelation by Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The followers of Islam, their new revelation is through the Quran. This claim of a new revelation is not just confined to these religions and to cults, but there are leaders in churches today, and they stand before their congregation, and they tell them that God has spoken to them. God has given them some new revelation, some word of knowledge. God has given to them some words, as it were, that is contrary to Scripture. And yet, brethren and sisters, you must be very careful of such places. If a man does not stand in a pulpit and bring you to the Scriptures, then be very careful of such a man. You see, Isaiah 8 verse 20 is a good benchmark to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. To the law and to the testimony, to the word of God, bring all teaching to the scriptures of holy truth. False religious movements and cults are also headed up by strong authoritative leaders. In false religion and cults, much emphasis is placed on the leader of that particular religion or that particular cult. And really what he says is the final word. It really is what the cult leader or the religious movement leader demands of his followers, really that trumps what God demands of his disciples. And so, as I've said, in these movements, the word of the leader is final. Their word is received as if it's almost the word of God itself. tremendous influence over their followers so that they do their bidding. We only have to think back in church history and even in our own lifetime about leaders of cults who have, as it were, brought to themselves a gathering of individuals and have formed little isolated communities. And really that leader has become, in the eyes of their followers, nearly the personification of God himself. That's how they present themselves to their followers. The leader of the cult is often a very charismatic individual and is often considered to be very special for many reasons. He maybe has been given or he's claimed to be given a revelation from God. They, as I've said, claim to be maybe a reincarnation of deity or an angel or a special messenger from God. They would claim that they'd been appointed by God for some special mission. They would even claim to have some special abilities. The leader is often above reproach and is never to be denied or contradicted in any way. That's the leader of a cult or a false religious movement. False religious movement and cults are often marked by overemphasis on finances. A cult often coerces their adherents to transfer money or property into the funds of that particular religious system. Those funds normally end up in the bank account of the cult's leadership. And there's never any publishing of the accounts of the organization, because such can never be scrutinized. And so you find that within cults and false religious movements, a real emphasis on finances. It really is simply to help an extravagant lifestyle of the leadership of that religious organization. The fourth mark of a false religious movement or cult is that of isolation. We're separatists, but we're not isolationists. There are those of other faithful denominations that we can have fellowship with, and we thank God for that. However, a false religion or a cult will create a mindset in its adherence that results in them isolating from the rest of society, and even from non-believing family members. You see, the goal of the false religious movement, the cult, is to lessen the followers' dependence on outside influences. in order to make them more dependent on them, and thereby they come to gain more control over multiple aspects within that person's life. This isolation can be accomplished various ways. Physically, as in they go to live in communes. Emotionally or mentally, techniques are used. In order to isolate, in order as it were to put fear into the mind of their adherent, that they don't commune with anyone outside the cult or anyone outside the religious movement. And so there is this isolationism that can be often a mark of false religious movements. Now, let me say two final things, and very quickly, the answer to false religion. I've already indicated it. If false religion propagates falsehood, then the answer to it to false religion is obvious. It is to bring the truth of God to the world. And where do we find that truth but in God's Word? These are the scriptures of truth. This is why Paul said to Timothy, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. He understood that there would come a time when there would be those who would heap to themselves teachers having etching ears. And so, in order to counteract that, Timothy, before that happens, Timothy, preach the word, preach the truth. And in preaching the truth, you'll ground these individuals in it so that they'll not be blown away with every wind of doctrine. It is the truth that sets people free. It is the truth of God that deals with the devil's lies. It is the truth of God that deals with the falsehood of false teachers and false religions. And so really, the only answer to false religion is the positive preaching of biblical truth. and the great reformed doctrines that are found within the Word of God. We find this to be true whenever Paul wrote his many epistles. Whenever Paul wrote his epistles, on occasions he was dealing with some false teaching that had infiltrated into the fellowship of believers. As I've said, Gnosticism had crept in to the work of the churches there in Galatia, and so Paul writes the letter to the Galatians in order to counteract a false teaching. And how does he do that? Well, he exposes error, and he does that briefly, but then he tells them the truth. He speaks to them the truth. He brings to their attention the truth and by instructing in the truth, these believers were then enabled to reject the false teaching and then to enjoy the freedom that comes whenever the truth is embraced and whenever the truth is lived by. And so, brethren and sisters, we need to be armed with the truth. So then whenever falsehood does arise, we know how to counteract that falsehood by telling men and women the truth as it's found in the Word of God. And so in these studies, yes, we want to expose error, but we also want to equip you with the truth. The last thing I draw your attention to is the doom of false religion. Brethren and sisters, thank God there's coming a day when all false religion will meet its final doom. We have a picture of that in the book of the Revelation when the false prophet is cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 2010 and the devil that deceived them. was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and forever. This false prophet and yes every false prophet who has ever come before him will hear The words of God on the day of judgment, I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity. Thank God there's coming a day when all false religion will be exposed and every adherent to false religion will bow the knee and confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. God speed the day when, as Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 2 verse 14, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. God willing, next Wednesday night, we're going to consider then our first false religion that has an estimated following of 1.32 billion people. If you want to know what that false religion is, Well, you may come again next Wednesday night in the will of God, and we'll begin our series properly next Wednesday night in God's will. Let's bow in prayer together. Father in heaven, oh, to know the truth, Lord, to buy the truth and to sell it not, oh, to know the truth of thy word, oh, how many falsehoods and errors there are in the world today. And yet we bless thee that the truth has set us free. And we know the truth. And Lord, we're not held in the ignorance of our sin and we're not, oh God, as we're being manipulated by some cult leader to believe, oh God, something that is contrary to scripture. We thank thee for the priesthood of all believers, the ability that we have to read the scriptures ourselves and to know what is right and what is wrong, what is truth and what is error. And therefore, Lord, may we not be gullible. Oh, save this gullibility that exists among thy people. Help us to know where there is falsehood and error. And may we never fall for it, Lord. But may we love the truth and stand by the truth. And may we then disseminate the truth throughout the world. as those who have received the truth. We realize that the church of Jesus Christ is to be the ground and to be the pillar of the truth. Help us therefore to know the truth and help us then to stand by the truth. Even in coming days, we pray this in our Savior's name. Amen and amen.