The Urgent Message!
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· 12 viewsThere are two types of groups in this world. Those who know God and those who do not know God.
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Introduction
Introduction
ACTS 17:22-31
I will push you tonight to a place where you might find yourself uncomfortable. This is a must, as there is too much at stake.
There are two groups of people who live on this planet tonight. Those who know God and those who do not know God. Even sitting here tonight this very week of this revival, these two groups of people are here.
These two groups have been since the fall of man. Adam sins and hides from God. God commanding Noah to build a boat, as the wrath of God was about to befall a sin-filled world. This is atmosphere is no different as it was in Paul’s day while he entered into Athens Greece. This atmosphere of non-believers and believers are still today, here tonight, and will ever grow until the Lord Jesus calls His bride home.
Now, these two groups of people can be further broken down.
Those who know God and God knows them
Those who know God yet, God does not know them
Those who know they do not know God nor care to
Those who know they do not know God but want to know God
Where do you fit within these four brackets tonight? Where is your life at this very moment in time? I pray by the time this message comes to a close you have examined where you are at and God has began a work in your heart and you run to the one who saves, Jesus Christ!
Tonight I want to focus though on two of these four groups. Although this message is for all, I want to address you here tonight that are in the group of those who claim to know God yet, God does not know you and the group of those who know they do not know God but want to know God.
First group: Those who believe they know God
This group of people can be examined by this:
They profess God yet they do not possess God and God does not posses them!
They go to church
They read their Bible
They pray
They show an outward motion of religion
Yet, their works do not claim their profession of faith is real!!
22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
This group of people appear to be very religious, in all respects, meaning in all that they do yet, they are clueless of who God is and what God is requiring because they worship in idolatry and not in holiness.
8 Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
Zeal means to have interest in. In other words, this group of people are emotional not spiritual!
47 “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
A professing mouth yet, not a possessing house!
This group of people, they dress the part yet, do not have the converted heart!
They are self-consumed with popularity, piety, empty motions and are waterless clouds!
The second group of people here tonight are the ones who know they do not know God.
Now, the first subgroup within this main group of not knowing God are the ones who who know they do not know God and do not care to know God. They live with a belief that nothing exist in the heavens. That everything was created from a big bang developed by pagan scientist.
They believe there is no God, no heaven, no hell, no devil, no Jesus, no judgement, no life after death. These people, my heart breaks for, along with those who are just religious.
The second group within the group who do not know God is another group I am addressing tonight. The know they do not know God but you are feeling the drawing of God. You are desiring to understand who God is, who Christ is. This is because God is opening your eyes to His truth. He is opening your hears to hear His word. He is offering you the free gift of life in His Son Jesus Christ.
You are curious about God, His creation, who just is this sustainer of all we know of. Who is this person who is declaring to judge the unrighteous. Who is this man named Jesus, outside of the stories I've heard of growing up? Why did He have to die on the cross and what did that mean to me tonight? What does it mean for Jesus to have died, been buried, and His resurrection in life?
This group of people, you know within your heart there is more. There is only one true living God who, by verse 31, will judge the world on a certain day. A fixed day, an unmoveable date and time, where on that day, judgement unimaginable will happen. Make note, it will happen as sure as I am standing in front of you here tonight. God’s wrathful judgement is coming!
So it is, with these two groups here tonight, I turn my focus and I pray you turn your ears to the word of God.
First, you must RECOGNIZE who God is! vs. 24-28
In verses 24-28, Paul lines out just who God is. That the God he serves and who us believers saved in Christ serves, is not unknown like the false god’s the Athens were currently serving. (Read vs. 22-23)
God’s nature (vs. 24)
God’s power
Effectual (active, comes from the same source)
Creation
Elevation (uphold the world by the word of His power …Hebrews 1:3)
Salvation (Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation)
Preservation (Eph. 1:13; 4:30 you are sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise)
Glorification (1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:15-17)
Eternal
God’s sovereignty (God possess all power and is ruler of all; Rom. 8:20-23)
God’s goodness (His patience, love, wrath)
God’s mercies (His calling of sinners to be saved)
God’s providence (His order)
God’s salvation
vs. 28 “we live, we move, we exist”
God’s judgement (vs. 27, 31)
Secondly, you must REALIZE who you are!
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
No time for child's play. No time for arrogancy. No time to put off!
Tonight, where do you stand before the living Almighty, Creator God? Where?
You and I tonight stand on the very edge of eternity. An eternity of the loving presence of God in Christ in heaven, or the edge of absolute damnation, and the total abandonment of God’s mercy, only receiving His wrath.
The Bible says this place is the place of darkness and gnashing of teeth and utter torment.
So I ask you again, where do you stand?
Do you stand condemned in your sin or do you stand in the righteousness of Christ? If you say in Christ, how do you know?
Reason I ask, is the Bible says that even the Pharisees believed, the Scribes believed, the Jews believed, and even the demons believe and they tremble!
This is why it is so critical to examine yourself TO SEE if you are in the faith, not some faith.
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Therefore, before we can move on any further tonight, we must look deep within ourselves. before we can take the next step calling out to God, we must come before Him to His throne of grace, to the Holy and Righteous Father with...
A Lamenting Heart
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.
Is there any of you mourning of sin in your life tonight? If you say no, you my fiend are in the most dangerous place!
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
10 as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
Are you mourning over the sin in your life???
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
b. A Confessing Heart
Not only should we have a lamenting heart because our sin, we must come to Jesus Christ and have a confessing heart.
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
18 Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
You must confess your sins, that you are a sinner in need of a true living Savior, Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sins!
There is another component that one must confess. You must confess Jesus as Lord. Not just Savior, but as Lord of your life!
Jesus said...
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Again Jesus said...
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
You cannot recognize the one and only God and realize yourself a sinner by His great illumination within you, confess your sins, and not confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior, and the Lord. It does not work that way!
12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
You cannot be made right with God and at peace with God through...
Church
Baptism
Sprinkling
Money
Ministries
Reading your Bible
Works
Donations to church and charity
Prayer
Just saying you believe
NO WHERE IN SCRIPTURE WILL YOU FIND ANY OF THESE THINGS making you at peace with God.
The Bible says...
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
The Bible also says...
32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
Do you see the picture here?
You mourn of your sin because God has opened your darkened eyes and heart to see your sin before His righteousness.
Next, God begins to draw you to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Then, God grants you access to His Son for redemption and being born-again (John 6:44, 65).
Therefore, upon believing in His Son, Jesus Christ, with the final work upon the cross where Jesus took the wrath of God that we so deserved. Jesus took this wrath upon Himself, dying the death we deserve yet, Jesus was resurrected on the third day as promised, the victorious Savior, and Jesus is telling us through His word tonight, you must believe in Me, confess Me before the whole world tonight! AND I WILL CONFESS YOU TO THE FATHER, declaring for all eternity, that you stand HOLY, RIGHTEOUS, AND BEYOND REPROACH!
Yet, there is one more thing the burdened soul must do…it is at this point that God commands, demands something for salvation..that brings me to my final point...
You must REPENT from sin (vs. 30b)....You must have a repentant heart
30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
God is active here!
He calls you
He enlightens you
He grants you
God’s timing is now!
2 for He says,
“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
3. God is commanding repentance!
3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
16 ‘Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.
18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
This repentant heart never stops even after you become a saved believer in Jesus. It is a new way of life.
REVIEW:
Where are you tonight with God?
Has God drawn you to Him?
Are you realizing where you stand this evening?
Do you finally see religion is not salvation?
Are you tonight ready to turn from you sin, from all unrighteousness, and fall by faith onto the living, saving Jesus Christ?
37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
Prayer...
