Making Him Known

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October 27. Sharing the gospel doesn't have to be frightening. People everywhere are desperately longing for the eternity that God has set in their hearts.

Christians need to be willing and ready to step up and make Him known. There are three questions that everyone needs to be able to answer correctly. The first one is this. Who is the one true God? Secondly, what is He like? And thirdly, is it possible to have a personal relationship with Him, and if so, how? That is the question.

Those three questions are three questions that haunt many, many people around the world. Who is the one true God? What is He like?

And can you have a personal relationship with Him, and if so, how can that be possible? These are the same questions that the Apostle Paul faced when he arrived in Athens. He'd been in Philippi, for example, and you know the story of the Philippian jail and so forth, and then he was in Thessalonica, and then he was in Berea, and then he came to Athens.

And when he was in Thessalonica and Berea, he did what he normally did. The Scripture says that he was in the synagogues, reasoning with them about the Scriptures about who Jesus was and the resurrection. So I want you to turn, if you will, to the seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts, and I want to talk about this whole idea of making him known. The Apostle Paul in Athens. He arrives in Athens, and Timothy and Silas remain there in Berea, and so coming on the scene, he does what a normal person would normally do when they first arrive in town.

What does he do? He takes him a tour. He takes a tour of Athens. And if you'll notice what happens here, beginning in verse 16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him. That is, he was agitated and irritated what he saw.

He was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue during the days with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. And also, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.

Some were saying, what would this idle babbler wish to say? Others, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And he said, what happened to the cross? Well, he wouldn't be preaching the resurrection if it hadn't been described in the cross. So he was preaching Jesus, his death, his resurrection. They took him and brought him to the aerobics, saying, may we know what this new teaching is which you're proclaiming? For you're bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean. Now, all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. That is, they weren't necessarily trying to make a commitment about something.

They just love to talk about it. And this is what's going on. I want you to notice how he began his sermon. Now, remember who his congregation is. These are philosophers, these people who do not believe at all, those who don't care anything about religion, but they're curious about this guy's saying.

And there are Jewish people there and those God-fearing Gentiles and they're not quite sure exactly what they believe. So here's Paul. He's standing there and there they are. So I want you to notice how he begins.

And this is how smart he was. Listen, Paul didn't always approach all of his sermons the same way because he approached them on the basis of who his listeners were. So he didn't start out saying, well, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he didn't even mention that crowd.

Here's what he said. Look at this beginning in verse twenty-two. So Paul stood in the midst of the Iropagus and said, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. But 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, tone of message changed.

Can you imagine? He said that you're a very wonderful religious much group of people, but you're absolutely ignorant. And this is exactly what he was telling him. You know what he was getting ready to do?

Answer three questions. Who is the one true God? What is he like?

And can you have a personal relationship with him? Because he saw an idol to an unknown God, which shouted to the apostle Paul, they were so confused and blinded by their desire for worship and their fear of not worshipping the right God. They set up one that said to an unknown God.

So just in case they missed somewhere along the way, they'd be able to say we worshiped the ultimate God. So here's what he does. Watch this. Remember what those questions are. Let's see if you can give me the questions back. First question is what?

Who is the one true God? Second question. What is he like? Third question. Can you have a personal relationship with him?

All right. Listen to Paul's sermon now. The God who made the world and all things in it, that is the God that you're seeking is a God who is the creator of the earth. Since he is Lord, he is the sovereign of the earth, heaven and earth. He does not dwell in temples made with hands. That is, he is infinite and omnipresent.

You can't put him and crowd him into a building. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything because he's omnipotent, has all power to provide all things and is self-sufficient in every way. He himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. And so therefore you are the result of God creating you, he said, because he's the one who's given you life.

And he made from one man, speaking of Adam, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, which meant that he's a God who controls all the affairs of the nations and the peoples of the earth. Then he said that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. And he says this, he says, he is a God who is placed within you a desire for himself and you're groping in darkness. You're trying to find out who this one true God is.

I'm telling you who he is and what he's like and that you can have a personal relationship with him and you're groping in darkness. You're trying to find out who is this true God. For in him we live and move and exist and even some of our own poets have said, your own poets have said, but we also are his children. He said, for example, your very life is dependent upon this God. You live and move and have your being in him.

You're dependent upon him. And when he said your poets have said we're the children of God, that does not mean that they were the born again believers who are children of God, but that is that they were created by God and therefore his creation, his children when it comes to creation. Then he says, being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature that is God is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Then he says, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God, he says, has been very forbearing toward you. God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he's fixed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man that is Jesus, whom he has appointed, sent his only begotten Son, having furnished proof to all men of his saving power by the raising him from the dead. He says, now, when they heard all this, the resurrection of the dead, some of them began to sneer. Others said, we're going to hear this again.

So Paul went out of their midst and some believed. Now, what did he do? He answered the same three questions people need an answer for today. Who is the one true God? What is he like? And can you have a personal relationship with him?

And if so, how? That is the ultimate question. It is the will of God that every person have the correct answer to those three questions. And if you'll think for a moment what Paul said to Timothy in that first epistle and the second chapter, he had just finished talking to him about encouraging them to pray for their leaders. And then he said, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men and women to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Not some, not most, but all. Now, when he gave the Great Commission, what did he say? As you go make disciples of not some, not most, all nations. He said, for example, go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.

He said repentance and faith should be preached to all men and all nations so that it is the will of God that the very truth that you have known a long time, that you know today is the truth the world desperately needs to hear and does not understand and does not know. You can ask a lot of people, well, do you know God? Oh, yes. And here's how you can tell whether they know him or not.

Well, describe him for me. And you know what? Listen, look, don't get personal. That's their way of defending their ignorance. Now, you don't go tell them, well, I want to tell you that you're ignorant. Paul could do that, but you shouldn't tell them that.

But they're ignorant. If you ask somebody to describe this God you believe in and they can't describe him. If you can't describe him, you can't tell me that you love somebody you know nothing about. You may love some figment of your imagination.

You may love an idea. You may love a concept, but to love God, to love the Lord Jesus Christ, you must know him. It's not just know some facts about him, but to know him personally, an intimate relationship with him that comes through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. That's when the Holy Spirit comes into your life.

That's when you begin to know him. The Spirit of God will open the eyes of any unbeliever walking in darkness who desires to know the truth. Their eyes will be open to the truth if they really and truly want to know the truth. The issue is, have they ever heard? And I don't believe the issue in the world of missions today is that all these people out there rejecting Jesus Christ. They've never had the opportunity to hear.

So let me ask you a question. How content can you and I be as believers when we have all of this truth? From Genesis to Revelation, the revelation of God, when we know who the one true God is, we know what he's like and we know that you can have a personal relationship with him and we know how.

How can you and I be content when there are multiplied millions and millions, even the billions of people who have never heard the truth? Not one time has anybody ever said the one true God is Jehovah, the God of the Bible. He is the creator of the ends of the earth. He is the God who created all things and sovereignly rules over all things.

He is the God who so loved sinful, dark, lost mankind that he sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin. Came into this world to reveal the Father and ultimately for the purpose of going to a Roman cross, laying down his life voluntarily. And when he did so, he took all of your sin, all of your darkness, all of your guilt, placed it upon himself. And he died as your substitute so that you would not have to die in your sin. And the moment you accept his death through your faith in him, you say to him, I'm confessing my sin and I'm receiving you as my personal savior. In that moment, your eyes are going to be open. You will understand what it means to be forgiven of your sin. Your name will be written in the Lamb's Book of Life and forever and ever, you're eternally a child of the living one true God who has prepared a place in heaven for you.

And until he comes to get you, he's going to be living on the inside of you and enabling you to live out this godly life and to become the person God wants you to be. Friend, that I just gave you the message the whole world needs to hear. And they're not hearing it. They're hearing it by small degrees, but not the way they need to hear it. There's a whole world of people out there who are waiting for the truth, longing for the truth, searching for the truth. And they are mired up and stuck in spiritual darkness because they've never heard it.

And I want to give you a few examples of people who would be characteristic of the millions of people out there who really want to know and they've never heard. I'll just read just a few of these. Your programs have brought me much enlightenment. It's helped me to understand who God is and to know Jesus is the only way of salvation for mankind. I pray to God that with your help, I'll be able to walk day by day in the ways and follow Christ. As you know, there is no freedom of religion here. If others know that I'm a Christian, I'm afraid I will be persecuted.

Listen to this one. I love your program very much because you proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. You provide spiritual food for us. Every time I hear the message from God's holy book, my soul is comfort and I think God is working in me. God is not far from mankind, but rather is right there inviting men to Himself.

I've learned from your program that God loves us. For a while now, I've been thinking to give my heart to Christ and to choose Him as my Savior. To be honest, however, I have a fear that my letter will be opened and they will come after me. I fear that my own family and friends will reject me. I fear that I will lose my own life even before I have had fellowship with other Christians. After a long time, I finally decided to write you and tell you my desire. No matter what happens to me, I want to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ.

Please help me. What you take for granted week after week after week, here is a young man who is willing to lay down his life just to hear the truth. Listen to this. I've been listening to your program for about two years off and on. I start to cry and feel that these words speak to my heart.

I can say that I do love Jesus. From an eleven-year-old girl, now think about this, eleven years old, I have a deep love for your program and one of your faithful listeners. Every night I listen to your message of hope. I have encouraged my relatives to listen as well because your programs had a great influence on me.

My problem is that I don't have a good quality radio and often I'm unable to listen because sometimes there's interfering signals. Then she says, sometimes I write down the beautiful words of Jesus. I pray that these words would purify me. I sincerely desire to have your holy book and a picture of Jesus Christ. Now if that doesn't get to your heart, you don't have one.

Listen to this, last one. Because of what you've shared on your program, I'm ready to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord. I'm giving this letter to a friend to take it outside the country to mail it to you. As you know, it's impossible in this country to convert to Christianity and live. I don't know what to do.

Could you please help me? Do you have any friends who secretly believe in Jesus, to whom I can be introduced, who will help me live for Christ? I'd be grateful if you could help me find some fellow believers. Until now, I've never received any Christian book or the Gospels. Only your program taught me the Gospel. Thank you for reading the Scripture on the radio. I've been very blessed by it. Now that's just the very few emails, letters that represent hundreds of millions of people. Now most of these are young people.

You know what they're saying? Please tell me who God is. Please tell me what He's like.

Please tell me if I can have a personal relationship with Him and please tell me how to do it. How could you and I possibly be content with having so many Bibles and so many books and knowing so many fantastic songs and hearing the Word of God and have it expounded week after week after week after week, soaking it into our minds and our hearts and be content when there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of young people as well as adults who are saying, if I could just hear it, if I just know that I know the truth one time and I could know who the one true God is, know what He's like and know that He can be my personal Savior, I am willing to die just to know that. So let me ask you this question. As you look at your life today, what is it counting for? What are you living for? Is your primary interest, your future security, your present pleasure, your goals that you've set for your life without even asking God, is your primary goal in life money, marriage, acceptance, or some other form of pleasure in life? Or could you say today, my primary interest in life is to do the will of God, whatever that is.

I just want to ask you a question. Is Jesus Christ worth? Is His message worth? Is what He's done for you worth? You bowing before Him and saying, Father, Lord Jesus, everything I am and everything I have, I owe it to You. I give You myself without reservation, without hesitation. I don't even want any promises. I just give myself to You and ask You to use me anyway, anywhere, anyhow, no matter what.

Do you have the courage to tell Him that? Think about your life. It's not yours. Your life belongs to the living God. And He has given you skills and opportunities and abilities and talents and all the rest. Think for a moment. What are you willing to do to help somebody answer those three questions?

Because their eternal destiny hinges on it. Who is the true God? What is He like?

And how can I have a personal relationship with Him? And you have the answer the world is searching for. Thank you for listening to Making Him Known. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.