In Acts 17, it is a favorite of mine because it shows Paul dealing with the Gentiles. And he took a different approach with the Gentiles, or with a heathen, or with a philosopher, than he might have with a Jew in a synagogue with the scrolls open of the Old Testament Scripture. Here he is among a strange people. And let's look at it in verse 22. through verse 29 and then flipping to Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious, or you might see that word religious, for as I pass by and beheld your devotions, 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 therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hand. Neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations for to dwell on the face of the earth, and have determined the times, the bounds appointed of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him, and find him, though he is not far from every one of us, in the sense that in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. Now, a short one in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God. Now, we're going to be looking this morning at the subject, God only is to be worshipped. Now, in this text, in Acts 17, we find the apostle Paul in Athens, Greece, on a missionary journey. And this may be a new experience for the Apostle Paul. It may have been unlike anything that he had ever encountered before, because at Athens it was unlike any other city where Paul had preached the gospel. It was usually the case that when Paul entered into a city intending to preach Christ and the gospel, He would find the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He would enter in and there. He would reason with them out of the Scripture concerning the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because, you see, in the synagogue an audience of Jews would conclude two things. Number one, that Jehovah was the one and only God. That was the professed religion of the Jew. Their disputes with Paul, their ill-treatment of him, their persecution of this man of God, was not upon the ground of the person of God or Jehovah, but it was upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They confessed the infallibility of their Old Testament Scripture, they thought these were the writings of God. But their dispute with Paul, as I said, had more to do with his preaching that Jesus was the Messiah and was the only way of salvation. that Christ is the only way for a sinner to come unto God. But here in Athens, Paul encountered a different sort of person, or a different sort of audience, Through, as in verse 17, the apostle did go into the synagogue when he was first there in Athens, and he found Jews there worshiping on the Sabbath. But it is also true that Paul made his way about the city, and he encountered there in the marketplace He came upon what I call the spit and the whittle club. That is the places where the philosophers sat, where they solved the problems and the mysteries of life and of deity. And here in this marketplace and in these porches, he encountered some of the disciples of Epicurean and other philosophers. And he began to preach unto them the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection from the dead. And they did not take him out and stone him. They said, ah, here is another God that we might add to our repertoire. Come, we would hear thee further. Now, before we look at this, There is a double aspect to be emphasized in this message this morning. Number one, God, Jehovah alone only is to be worshipped. None other ought to be worshipped. None other is worthy of worship. The worship of any other is idolatry. That's the first point of my message today. And the second point is this, God is to be worshipped only in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ, as there is no access to God except that by Jesus Christ. None comes to the Father but by me. he plainly said unto them. This is the essence of true worship. This is true religion. God the Father and God the only one revealed in his Son the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First of all, let's go back a bit in the history of the world. to the beginning, or right after the beginning, of the human family, and the beginning of the worship of God conducted in the world. At the first unto Adam, both before and then after his sin and fall, there was known unto him and his immediate ancestors only the one true God. Heathen idolatry had not yet been born, not yet come into being. had not yet raised its ugly, violent head. The quote from John Gill on this point, he said, I quote, in the first ages of the world, men believed in their true God and worshipped him, unquote. Gill said this continued up until the time of the flood, and there did not appear such gross open idolatry until after the days of the flood and the destruction of the world. And if you say, why then was the flood sent? Well, it was on account of the sins of the people, but not necessarily idolatry, but violence, and greediness, and self-sufficiency, and self-satisfaction, and that kind of thing. However, the seed or the potential for idolatry was laid in the fall and in the depravity of the human family, as well as the scattering of them over all of the face of the earth, at a distance from those who held to the worship of the true God. And then the knowledge of God was lost in large part, and quoting Gil, then by degrees they lost sight of the true God, and they forsook his worship." And this we have a description of in Romans chapter 1. In their ignorance and in their blindness, they cast off the only proper one to be worshipped, and they turned away from the one true God who created them and all things, the one who visited Adam and Eve in the garden. But at last men began to turn away. However, and this I believe is important, they did not become atheists. And put that point down. That is a strident point. They went after idols, they went after false gods, but they did not fall into open atheism, as perhaps we might have expected them to do, having left the worship of God, having cast off the worship of the one true God. We might have expected them to fall into complete atheism. For there is a middle or a medium position between the worship of God and that of atheism. To lead the worship of God does not always and only lead to full-blown atheism. Atheism is not the only alternative to forsaking the worship of the true God. Another possible alternative is superstitious idolatry. And here's where we find the majority of the human family. This is where they went sometime after the flood, having forsaken the worship of the one true God, having lost the knowledge of him as is described in Romans chapter 1, they then began to worship various things, things which God had made. They worshiped created things. Some of the first objects which they worshiped, or which they venerated, or which they held in reverence, were such things as the sun. and the moon and the stars. And again, Paul in Romans 1 gives us an account of the birth and the essence of this paganism, that they became vain in their imagination. Their foolish heart was darkened. Then they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like of the corruptible man. and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things," Paul says in Romans 1. They also changed the truth of God into a lie, or literally, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. But still, as Paul observes in Romans 1 and verse 25, they worshiped and they served these objects and idols. Not God, but the things that God had made they began to worship. They began to call it the sun god, the moon god. and the gods of the Great Spirit, and all of that sort of thing. But here are two points that are to be made. Number one, how is it that those who have lost the knowledge of the true God and are without a saving revelation of the Most High God, how is it that they are yet found to be, quote, religious, unquote. How is it, having lost that knowledge, yet are they religious? Religious in the sense that they have made them, anointed them, and appointed them gods to worship and to pray to. They have gods that they worship. They make sacrifices to. They invoke the name of those deities that they have invented this, even those people in places that have not been evangelized with the gospel truth. Even in places where the gospel had never been before, people were found to have some god, some semblance of worship, and believe in some deity. We can quote some of the older heathen and philosopher writers, and I shall. Aristotle, who once said, all men have a persuasion of a deity. Cicero said, quote, there is no nation so wild and savage but what is imbued with a notion of a god. And Seneca said, there never was a nation so dissolute, practicing such loose living, and abandoned so lawless and immoral, yet still believed in some sort of a deity or a god. Helenius said, none of the barbaric nations ever fell into atheism or doubted the gods, unquote. Now we ask ourselves, how in the world can this be? This is not what we might expect unless we are acquainted with the great providence of God. from that text in Romans 2, 14 and 15, which I think is a very, very weighty text concerning the work of God in the heart of the Gentiles, whereby they show forth the law by the things that they do. Now, the second point to consider is the scarcity of atheism. Idolatry is everywhere. Idolatry is abounding. Idolatry is overflowing. But there is in reality a scarcity of atheism. Surprisingly, atheism is rare. Not many claim to be atheists, and then some of them who do, betray their atheism then by speaking of something being right or something being wrong, making a distinction between right and wrong. For if there is no God, if there is no God, there is nothing that is right or that is wrong. There is no standard if there is no God. But as we have seen, the majority of people and nations are not atheists. They will not be. without a God, they will invent one rather than be without. Even in denying the true God and the God of heaven, they will fashion to themselves, with their hands or in their mind, something that they call God and that they vow before. This has resulted in what Paul acknowledged in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 5 and verse 6, among the people of the world, he said, there are many that are called gods, there are many that are called lords. You remember that Paul said this in reference to the question concerning the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to idols and had sat in the idol's temple, but they are gods And they are Lord, says Paul, in name only and not in essence. They possess no deity. They are due no honor or reverence or worship. They can render no aid to those who believe in them. They can forgive no sin. They can save no soul, these gods many and these lords many that people believe in in the world. Then notice that Paul adds, while the heathen acknowledge many to be gods and many to be lords, in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6 he said, to us There is one God, the Father and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To the Christian, there's one God. To the regenerate, to the believer, there is one and only one God. The Christian can acknowledge and worship and serve only one God, that none else is to be worshipped None else is to have our honor, and none else is to be recognized by the Christian as being divine. Not in heaven, not in the earth is there any other God. No matter who or how many may regard them as being gods and lords, no matter who might name them to be gods and lords, they are in the end empty vanities, as they're called in Acts chapter 14 and verse 15. Empty, profitless, I think, is the meaning of that word. Having no purpose, serving no purpose. To Israel there was one God. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord." Now, this was quoted by the Savior, the Lord Jesus, in the New Testament, in Mark chapter 12 and verse 29. The Lord quoted that passage of the Scripture. As the footnotes in the New Geneva Study Bible, King James Version, say about Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, quote, This verse became the great confession of Israel's monotheistic faith, unquote. This verse is their great confession. Monotheistic meaning a belief in one God and one only. a single deity. Now, the heathen, all about them, were polytheistic. That is, they believed in many gods. But Israel was taught there is one God. Matthew Henry noted on that passage in Deuteronomy 6, in verse 4 and 5, the Jews did reckon to be one of the choicest portions of their scripture. Deuteronomy 6 and 4. And expositors, one after another, speak of the Jews writing this passage upon their phylacteries and printing them upon their forehead as they went to worship and in their hours of prayer. Some say that a Jew repeated this passage of Scripture twice a day. The Lord thy God is one God, especially at the hour of prayer, and this was commanded of them to be done. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 8, And ye shall bind them or a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." Not only so, but Deuteronomy 6 and verse 9, they were to write them upon the posts or the gates of their dwelling places or their houses. The Lord our God is one Lord. It was designed by the Heavenly Father to fortify them against falling into idolatry. The Lord, by God, is one God. And when the heathens brought their gods around, Israel was to remain steadfast to the one and only true God. It was to anchor them in the right way of worship, to deter them from falling into the worship of a multiplicity of God. They were to worship, they were to believe in, they were to serve only the one God, And they were to avoid or they were to forsake all others. Now, looking at this verse, how powerful it is, let's try, if we might, to get a good grip on this matter as to the fullness of the expression in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. It does not, of course, mean that God, our Lord God, is one of the gods. That's not the meaning. He's not saying that the Lord our God is one among the gods. This would be reckless, this would be careless, and an exegesis would be awful to hold to that view. Nor can this verse be used to deny a plurality in the Godhead. It does not wipe out the Trinity or the plurality in the Godhead, but simply speaks of the singularity of the Godhead, that God is one. Now, the word Lord here in this verse, the word Lord or the name, is used many, many hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. It is the word Yehovah. or we might recognize it as Jehovah, so that it could read, Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. This was not the only Jewish national name for God. but it declared him to be eternal and declared him to be self-existent, and is translated in the text here as Lord. But it is not the same word that is used, for example, when Sarah referred to her husband as my Lord in Genesis 18 and verse 12, it is another word altogether. Andrew Jukes wrote a book, All the Names of God in the Holy Scripture, and in that he sets forth this rule of thumb. When we see the word Lord, L-O-R-D, in the Old Testament with a capital L. When we see it with a capital L, then the original is Jehovah, our Lord Jehovah. And some say that the Jews considered the name Jehovah so holy that they were slow to speak it at all, so holy did they consider it, that they barely would use it or would speak it. And the passage in Deuteronomy 6 and 4 seems best understood as saying, Jehovah is the only Lord, He is the only one, and that to Him and to Him alone belongs the name Jehovah, or Jehovah God. that he is absolutely God. There is none else in heaven or earth that might compare with him. He alone is Jehovah, the only one. And that's the theology taught to Israel. And this he declared in the ears of the people. said Moses in Deuteronomy 4 and verse 35, that God had done great wonders before them, quote, that you might know that the Lord, He is God, none else beside Him, unquote. These great wonders might convince you that He is God and God alone. In Isaiah 45, verse 5 and 6, The prophet writes this, I am the Lord, none else, no God beside me, none beside, I the Lord, and there is none else. It is doubly emphasized in Isaiah 45 and 21, there is no God else besides me. A just God and Savior, none beside me, declares the mighty God. How bold is Isaiah in chapter 44 of his great prophecy, where there in verse 6 to verse 8 it is described that there is no other God. He is first, He is last. Beside me no god. And he said to them, ye are my witnesses. Is there any god beside me? No other god, and the margin has rock. No other rock or foundation. Then, down in verse 9 through 17, the prophet gives a display of the foolishness of idolatry. foolish men that take their graving tools and they grave out of them some useless, blind, and dumb idol. Good for nothing. Who by their own power can do absolutely nothing? cannot care themself about. Isaiah 44, 9 through 17, is a very interesting passage of which we cannot now speak particularly, not taking the time. Suffice it to say, it contains a strong, yes, a mighty strong argument, and also, if I might add, a reasonable one from the prophet against idolatry. For example, how foolish is it, it is as stupid as when Aaron and Israel made them a golden cat, danced about it, and ascribed unto it power. to deliver them. How foolish it is to reject the God who made all things by His power, then worship something that God has made, something that is created. You see that again in Psalms 115 verse 1 through 8, as they mock the idols and the gods of the heathen. In Exodus chapter 20, At the giving of the law, God declared to them this as the preface to it, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. He goes on to say, Nor shall you make any graven image, saying unto them, I am the Lord that brought you out of Egyptian servitude, I delivered you, I redeemed you, I freed you, and upon this account, number one, they must have one God only, that being Jehovah. Number two, they must forsake and avoid all others that are called gods by the heathen or the people who live around them. and any consortium with the gods of the heathen would be reckoned as scriptural whoredom by the holy God of heaven. Spiritual adultery is what it is when they went after other gods. But let's come back to the New Testament and see where the emphasis lies in the New Testament, whether there is still this rigid monotheism in place or not. whether there is any or some relaxing and a place for more flexibility in choosing a God that one might worship. Is there? We'll start with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is one and equal with the Father. And his word of expression on this issue, this sovereign Lord, who solicited by Satan to worship him, said in Matthew 4 and verse 10, Get thee behind me, it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. That's taken from Deuteronomy 6 and verse 13. And he declared, that is Christ declared unto Satan, that none other could be the Father or could come to the Father except by me. There is no way to God except by Christ. If you throw Christ out of your theology, there's no salvation and there's no way unto the Father. He says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. John chapter 14 and verse 6. He is the only Christ, our Messiah. Eternal life is only in Him. He is the only way to the Father. A Christless, Christless religion is a false religion. What was the position of the apostles in the early days upon this matter, and what did they teach under the church? Did they hold the same position as did our blessed Lord? Well, the question is answered, and answered firmly in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, as you might remember. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." You know, this followed the charge of Peter against the hierarchy of Judaism, that they had crucified the only one that was able to save. They had set aside the stone worthy of being the foundation as being unworthy. They had rejected and crucified the one and only Savior. They killed the Prince of Life. They had made a fatal error concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is in Christ, and it is in Christ because it is appointed so by God. And none, none, including Jews, can be saved apart from Jesus Christ. And if you don't know it, Jews are behind much of the opposition to Christianity in our present day. Christianity has become the target of many. And Christianity is the one that all seem to pile on in our particular day. You know the reason why? Political correctness. Political correctness, which I call cultural communism, actually carries the day. You can't tell the truth anymore out in public. You won't be allowed to tell the truth as a politician or an official. You will not be allowed to tell the truth, especially Christian truth, out in the public. I saw a video this week, some young people outside of an Islamic gathering in the state of Michigan. I think the Town was Dearborn, don't quote me on that. And they were passing out tracks, the Gospel of John, in English and in Arabic, passing them out, standing out front to the people that came. And the police came out, shooed them away, handcuffed them, arrested them, told them to stay five blocks away in the passing out of their tracks. And they're setting up Sharia law in particular places, even here in the United States, a law that is within our borders now. But in spite of all of that, we unapologetically declare that Jehovah is the only true God, and that Christ is the only Savior of sinners. that the Bible is the only divinely inspired Word of God to be had in the world. Then it follows that Christianity is the only true religion. And someone might argue against this, saying, wait a minute, you're using the Bible to prove your point. You're using the Bible to prove that the Bible is the only way. Yes, we answer, because the Bible is a divinely inspired book, inspired by God. It is not the writing of men. But in closing, let's turn to Paul's ministry, especially again at Athens. Paul's ministry and missionary endeavor was based upon a dual premise, if we follow out his ministry. Number one, Paul's preaching and doctrine was this. There is no God but one. There is but one that is Jehovah, the only true and living God, and he exhorted and he preached that the Gentile, Acts 14, 15, should turn from these vanities unto the true and the living God. The NIV has these worthless things. Turn from these worthless things to the true and living God who made all things. And the second point of Paul's preaching is, as we've said, there is no salvation to be had outside of Jesus Christ, and that he alone is the Messiah of the Old Testament Scripture. And Paul, from the Old Testament Scripture, preached Christ unto the Jew again and again. See Acts 17, verses 1 through 3 at Thessalonica. He reasoned with them out of the Scripture, opening and alleging proving and explaining that Christ was to die and that he was to be raised again. That the Jesus, he said, that I preach unto you is the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the Savior. When Paul was allowed to speak to those up on Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17, those philosophers, it says they spent all their time in trying to find some new thing. They went around like birds in the market, picking up here and there, trying to find some new thing. And Paul tells them as he walks there among them, He says, I find that you are exceedingly religious, or superstitious as some translations have it. I presume, I see, I know, I notice that you are very religious. Even building an altar, he said, dedicated to an unknown God. And he says, it's that God that I wish to declare unto you. You worship. He did not say to them, oh, this is fine. Oh, this is so lovely. Oh, this diversity just thrills my heart. No, he did not say, oh, that's good. You worship your God and I'll worship mine. No, not like we hear today. You be sincere, and that's all it takes. Just be sincere, and that's all it'll take to get you to heaven. No, Paul didn't say, you worship your God, and I'll worship mine. And my friend, how could Satan invent a greater lie? or invent a greater deception as those worship the sun, the moon, the stars, or a rock, or a statue, or something that they have made. Thus, these two great faults and dangers that result from the loss of the knowledge of God are atheism or idolatry. The less they know about God, the more immoral they are. Even those who profess the true and the living God, they worship many of two sorts. One, there is external worship consisting only in outward rituals, a form of godliness without any power, going through the motion, rising, standing, chanting, and that kind of thing. Number two, however, there is a true internal worship, and it comes with a renewed heart, a renewed mind, a regenerate one, and in sincerity and in truth, out of a heart unfeigned, there comes forth adoration and worship of our God. Do you agree with me this morning? God only is to be worshiped, and Christ is the only way to God, and there's no salvation apart or outside of him. God only is the object of worship, and all else is idolatry. I don't care how sincere you are. I don't care what kind of sacrifice. I don't care how you cut your body and bleed and crawl over rock and stone. God alone is to be worshipped. He is the one Jehovah.