Good morning.
bring greetings from the Oakey Boulevard Church of Christ in Las Vegas.
where Brandon Green, was a graduate from the Memphis School of Preaching, is the preacher there, and he was familiar with Collierville during his time in school, and he said that
he always had good recollections and good memories of Collierville, so your name goes before you even to Nevada.
ah But the congregation there uh has a Hispanic congregation and an English congregation, both in the same building, so during the Bible class for the English
congregation, they'd have that in the fellowship hall while the Hispanic congregation had their worship in the auditorium and then they'd flip spots.
But it was good to get to meet them while I was out in Nevada and get to spend time in fellowship with them.
This morning, a brief departure from our evangelism training and continuation, which we'll be back to next week.
I want to spend some time this morning talking about...
the only God.
when you step back and consider that there are some things in life there's only one of.
you as an individual.
There may be a lot of people like you.
There may be some ancestors that you derive a lot of characteristic from.
And there may be some descendants that you share a lot of characteristics with.
But there's only one of you.
I think a few thankful prayers have gone up that there's only one of me.
Mostly from my brothers.
But when you consider...
that Scripture is incredibly clear that there is only one God.
We're going to begin in Acts chapter 17.
Paul is, is in Athens.
is moved, the text tells us.
As he goes through that city and he observes all of the idols, it was said of Athens that there were more idols in the city than there were people.
And in Acts chapter 17, we read beginning in verse 16, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to
idols.
Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
Verse 22, and then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious, for as I was passing through and
considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with the inscription, To the unknown God.
Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you.
Paul.
as he is moved by witnessing the actions and the attitudes of those in Athens to worship everything under the sun.
and many things that were nothing more than imaginary.
He found that they even had an altar to a god in case there was one they didn't know about.
And Paul says, actually, there is one you don't know about.
I'm going to declare to you the God that you worship who you don't know.
And as you consider what Paul presents in that text, he presents a number of things that we need to understand about the only God.
We're actually going to see the majority of those through other texts of Scripture, yet Paul presents them here as well.
First thing that you need to know about the only God.
is that they're his only one.
not dealing in this lesson with the nature of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, rather with the fact that in contrast to the beliefs of men, there is only one
God.
And the scripture does not leave any room for argument.
Turn to Mark chapter 12.
We quite often will discuss Jesus' answer to the question concerning the greatest commandment in the law.
And yet as we discuss that, there are times where we will kind of skip over the beginning of his answer.
In Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 28, notice what we read, then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceived that he had answered them well,
asked him which is the first commandment of all.
The scribe is not asking in the chronological order of the Old Testament text which commandment was given first.
That's not what the scribe is asking.
The scribe is not asking about time order, he's asking about priority.
Which is the first and greatest commandment of all?
Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
And we usually begin at the end.
we often begin it, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbors
yourself, and we leave off that Jesus didn't start there.
Jesus started with there's only one.
and in order for the law to be understood.
in order for the Jews to worship God acceptably.
They needed to be crystal clear.
There's only one God.
There's only one Lord.
And everything else flows forward from that.
If look at Ephesians chapter four, Paul as he's writing to the church at Ephesus, a city like Athens that was pervasive with its idolatry.
Paul was actually driven out of Ephesus because of the impact that he had made in their idol worship and the impact that it was having on the marketplace and the people who made
the idols.
We read in Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says, there is one body, verse 4, and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.
And he says this, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all.
and through all and in you all." Paul says there's no this God and this God.
There is no God Jehovah and God somebody else.
There is no competition for who is God.
There is no question about who is God.
many in this world.
would love to hold and do.
that there is no God except themselves, that they are accountable only to themselves.
that what they want is what is right.
And while I enjoyed the opportunity to be at the conference and to work with the people that I worked with over the last week, being in the city of Las Vegas is one of those
experiences like Paul being in Athens.
There's just nowhere you can go where you're not thrown in the, where it's not thrown in your face that people
are living entirely for what they want.
Had a conversation with a guy yesterday who had been at the conference who was not from there, he's from Massachusetts.
Spends half of his year uh in Chile and half his year in Massachusetts, depending on the weather.
a uh guy about my age.
And he said, you know, I've looked at this city and I kind of feel like I'm on a movie set, like none of it's Because everything is just designed.
and it doesn't feel real at all.
Yes, it's designed, it's designed to take your money.
the God that that city worships is fleshly desire and money.
And yet, as you examine people's lives, consider that the majority of the people participating in that city aren't from there.
There's a marked difference between some parts of that city and the rest of the city.
people participating are the people who are going there.
from everywhere else.
from every different country.
I saw people from the Middle East, I saw people from Asia, I people from America, all indulging their desires.
and there to just worship themselves.
And as you think about that...
We should appreciate and realize that that's not new or unique in the world.
And yet Paul says, there's only one God.
And Jesus says, there's only one God.
You go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6, as Moses presents the law to the second generation in Israel.
Moses says, now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which
you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, you and your sons and your grandson all
the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
Therefore, hero Israel.
and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and
honey.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
Moses, as he stands before Israel, says, it is not enough for you to mentally acknowledge that there is one God.
Rather, it must be the driving force in your heart that drives your life and your son's life and your grandson's life.
that everything you do stems from, there is one God.
Then consider as well that the only God does not share His glory with any other.
you go look at Exodus.
You see from Exodus chapter 3 forward through Exodus chapter 12 a demonstration of God, His power, His nature, and His character, and an emphasis in Egypt to the Egyptians that
there is no other God besides Jehovah.
as Moses and Aaron arrive to Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh, God has said, let my people go.
Pharaoh's reply is, who is Jehovah that I should listen to him?
And Jehovah is going to explain by way of demonstration through ten plagues who Jehovah is and why Pharaoh should listen to him.
But as Israel arrives there at Mount Sinai and God begins to give the commandments from the mountain as the mountain is burning and smoking with fire and thunder comes from the
very heavens as God speaks to Israel.
We read in chapter 20 and verse 1, God spoke all the words saying, I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not worship self.
You shall not worship other gods.
You shall not put me on the same level with other gods.
You shall have no other god.
before me." But he doesn't stop there.
says, verse 4, "'You shall not make for yourselves a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water
under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations
of those who hate me.'"
God says, want to demonstrate to me that you hate me?
Start making idols out of the things you see.
Start worshiping the things that are around you.
There's a reason why.
Paul, over in Colossians, will tell you that covetousness, the desire of what others have that you desire to take for yourself, is idolatry.
God says, don't see the things around you and make them your God.
You don't see the things that exist in this world, all the things that are great, all the things that are magnificent, and worship them.
Because I alone am God, and I am a jealous God.
Now the term jealous here is not the idea that we have sometimes where here's a boy who's got a girlfriend and another boy is acting a certain way and this boy's jealous of the way
that he's acting towards his girlfriend.
No, no, no, that's not it.
Because that girlfriend doesn't belong to either one of those boys.
God is jealous in the use of the term that says, am and you belong to me and you don't belong to anybody else.
And I'm not going to share you with anyone else.
as you consider the fact that God does not share his glory.
You might be reminded that Jesus was once tempted by Satan.
In Matthew chapter four, as we read some of the records of some of the temptations that Jesus experienced in his life in this particular scenario,
We find in beginning in verse 8, the devil took him, Jesus, up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
America has a lot of glory in it.
and other nations around the world have a lot of glory in them.
Satan takes Jesus to exceeding high mountains, shows him all the nations and all the glory.
And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.
Jesus said to him, await with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.
as Jesus reached back into the Old Testament and pulls forward that quote from the law in Deuteronomy.
He makes it clear to Satan, no, I won't serve you.
I won't bow my knee to you.
Not for anything you could give me.
Because there is only one God.
Over in First Thessalonians.
Paul as he is writing to the church at Thessalonica.
emphasizes this very critical point to these brethren.
1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 8, for from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth as he commends these brethren on their labor, on their work, on their influence in
the region around them, because when they became Christians, they didn't keep it to themselves.
When they were obedient to the gospel, they didn't just say, hey great, I'm saved, and move on with life.
He says, word is sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.
Your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything.
For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
Are there Buddhists who are sincere in their belief concerning their religion and the deities that they serve?
Yes.
Are there Hindus that are sincere in their belief and their religion and their understanding of who they serve?
Yes.
Are there atheists who are sincere in their belief and their religion that there is no God?
Yes.
Are there Christians who claim to be Christians and yet don't follow God and Jehovah?
Yes.
Are there those who serve nothing greater than themselves?
Yes.
but there's only one.
I love this statement that Paul makes and the way he makes it.
True and living God.
There were sincere worshipers of a God who once stood on a mountain in Israel.
And in their sincere worship of their God, they cried out to God, they screamed out to God, they prayed to their God, they cut themselves before their God, trying to get their
God to send fire down from heaven to light their altar.
And all morning went by as they tried to get their God to simply light their altar.
Nothing happened.
there on that mountain.
Elijah demonstrated quite clearly there's one God who's not only a true God, he's actually alive.
He actually exists.
and he actually has power in this world.
and he doesn't share his glory with anyone.
But then consider as well that the only God is the Creator and the Sustainer.
As Paul opened the words of the message that he presented there on the Areopagus there in Athens in Acts chapter 17, he begins with the God who created heavens and earth.
It should be no wonder to us that the book that we hold as scripture begins with, the beginning, God created.
because there's only one who's creator.
there's only one who has the power to create.
One of the things we know by way of science is that in this universe, to the extent of our knowledge and understanding, you can neither create nor destroy energy.
You can change its form.
It can go from passive energy to active energy, but you can't destroy it.
and you can't create it.
And yet there was one.
who spoke it into existence.
In Isaiah chapter 43, Isaiah presents a number of prophecies to Israel.
Chapter 43, chapter 44, chapter 45, chapter 46, the point that is central to each one of these prophecies.
is that there is one creator.
and there is no one else like him.
In Isaiah chapter 43 and in verse 10, we read, are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am, is
what the text says.
Before me there was no God formed.
nor shall there be after me.
I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior."
God, through Isaiah, makes it clear to Israel, there wasn't a God that preceded me.
Raise your hand if you came from parents.
Raise your hand if you didn't.
All right, just checking.
You came from somewhere.
You came from someone.
You share their characteristics and they preceded you.
Not so with God.
Not only does Isaiah make it clear that there was no one who preceded God, there's no one who will secede God.
one of the greatest attributes of this country.
of all the things that our founding fathers decided to do.
was make sure that a president was in power for only a limited amount of time.
That's probably saved our country more times than we can count.
because some of these individuals who have held that position are really, really not good people.
but at least they're only there for so long.
That's part of the reason why there's a good argument going for why all of the positions in power in Congress, et cetera, should be term limited.
and gone after a period of time.
But consider...
that when this world is over, when this universe is consumed as God said it will be, God's not going away.
and no one is going to secede him.
There will not be a change of power.
There's not going to be an expectation, if I just live long enough, I'll get a new judge.
It's not going to happen.
Chapter 44 of Isaiah.
We read, thus says the LORD, verse 6, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last.
Besides me there is no God.
Some will say, I believe in God.
I'm just hedging my bets, and so I'm going to worship all of them.
And God says no.
because the only one who actually exists isn't going to accept that.
Chapter 45, Isaiah writes, verse 5, I am the Lord and there is no other.
There is no God besides me.
I will gird you through you though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me.
I am the Lord and there is no other.
only one, the only God.
Chapter 46 and verse 9.
He says, verse 8, remember this and show yourselves men.
Recall the mind, O you transgressors.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.
I am God and there is none like me.
calls upon Israel to think back, to go all the way back in their mind to when their nation was birthed out of Egypt.
and God's point that He made to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians, go ahead, find another one like
because you can.
Nehemiah will write.
there in Nehemiah chapter 9 as he is.
dealing with the circumstances in Jerusalem.
as he prays before God.
He says, verse 5, stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever.
Bless be your glorious name which is exalted above all, blessing and praise.
You alone are the Lord.
You have made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all.
hosts of heaven worship you.
There's a reason why atheists and skeptics...
argue so diligently to get rid of Genesis chapters 1 through 11.
why individuals who are willing to allow the world to teach them about things the world cannot prove and could never demonstrate concerning the origin of this universe and have
demonstrated over and over and over again that they are wrong about because they keep changing their theory.
why there are Christians that will allow the world to convince them.
that the only one who exists who had the power to create heaven and earth and had the audacity to come in the flesh and walk this earth in the flesh and die so that we might be
saved couldn't accurately describe what he did when he created the world.
every single section of every part of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation demands and insists and repeats the creation story.
as if it was true, because it is.
And the reason why the skeptic and the atheist tries to dismantle the creation story is because they're at least honest enough to know and to realize that if they get rid of
that, the rest of it falls too.
And yet there are Christians who will try and say, well, we evolved.
time and chance got us to where we are.
And they'll repeat such things as the reptilian brain that we have.
What a load of nonsense.
in all honesty.
Anyone you know who believes in evolution, ask them one question.
So explain to me how, in your theory of evolution, you deal with this one thing.
We'll ignore all of the process of evolution all the way up until the point that you claim apes became men.
I'll grant you all of it till that point, but let me ask you one thing.
How is it that in your theory of evolution and time and chance...
that you just happen to get an ape that was a male and an ape that was a female both evolving into a man that was a male and a human that was a female in the same time, in the
same place, on the same part of the planet so they could have a child.
And furthermore, my question to you is...
Was it two apes that gave birth to a human child or was the ape walking through the woods and changed from being an ape to a man?
Because guess what?
The theory can't explain it.
Not only can the theory not explain it, the theory can't demonstrate one time in all history and all known humanity and all verifiable wisdom that it could ever happen.
And if you can't get the simple change in evolutionary terminology from an ape to a man, and by the way, a male ape and a female ape to a male man and a female woman in the same
place and the same time, you can't have offspring and whatever that evolutionary change was died and resulted in no change at all.
You see, when you replace revelation...
with the stupid ideas of men.
You come up with theories that don't even make any sense at all, yet people hold them religiously.
Yet they cannot even explain the simple questions, let alone the hard ones.
Hebrews chapter 1, the Hebrew writer makes it clear that God did not just create the universe.
He did not just create the world.
But as Nehemiah pointed out, he also sustains it.
That without him, it would not continue to exist.
If He did not allow it to continue to exist, if He did not enforce its continued existence, it would not continue.
Hebrews chapter 1, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed
heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power.
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." Did you catch what Jesus does?
He upholds all things by the word of His power.
He is the creator of all things by the word that He spoke.
And when he says it's done.
It will be done without question.
The only God is the Creator and the Sustainer of everything that exists.
and that only God.
who doesn't share his glory with anyone.
of whom there is none like Him, none before Him, and none after Him.
That only God.
provided a path.
but He only provided one.
as Jesus says to His disciples that He is about to depart.
and that if he goes and prepares a place for them, then they will join him.
Thomas says to him in verse 5, Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?
And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me.
We're not all on different roads headed to the same place.
Jesus said there's two options.
There's a narrow way that's hard and difficult.
that involves the path of obedience to God that He declared through His words and by His words you will be judged.
But if you will walk that straight and that narrow path, it leads to life everlasting.
But there's another way too.
And it's broad and wide and easy.
And if you walk that path, it leads to eternal destruction.
And Jesus said, unfortunately, there will be few who find the narrow path.
The world wants you to believe everybody's fine, everybody will be saved, everybody will be great.
except we know, and even people who proclaim that know in their heart of hearts, that's not how life works.
m
There's only one path.
There's only one God.
Jesus said that one God is seeking worshippers to worship Him.
John chapter 4, that God seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
But that means they're going to have to realize, and they're going to have to live out in their life that there is only one God.
And from that stems forward, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
If you're going to be obedient to the one God,
And you're going to accept and walk that one path.
You're only going to get to that God through Jesus Christ.
He's the only Savior.
That's what Isaiah told us.
And as the only Savior, He provides you salvation if you are willing to be obedient to Him.
But if you are not, He is your only judge.
You're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, the place where salvation is found, the place where the blood of Christ cleanses you from all sin.
If you're outside the church, that Jesus shed His blood to purchase its redemption, its salvation, and its glory.
then you're outside of hope.
For there's only one hope, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
If you're outside the body of Christ, why stay there?
If you say, would like to know more about the one God, why not ask?
And we'll help you.
If you have need of the invitation for any reason,
to come to God, why not come now as we stand and as we sing.