Charles Stanley - Making 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? The more I travel to other countries in the world, the more I realize that those three questions are haunting questions in the lives of many people. While they have their different gods, their different places of worship, their different forms of religion, deep down inside there is still an abiding hunger to know who is the real God, what is He really like, and is it possible to have a personal relationship with this God?
I've seen that over and over and over again as I've talked with people. Deep down inside those three questions are yet to be answered. And not only that, in also the mail, the internet, the letters we read from In Touch, it's the same story. If you analyze those letters over and over and over again, it's the same story. Now tell me, well, how can I really be sure who is the real God? Why I've been taught this, or this is the god I've been worshipping and I've heard about this god and that god and, after all, these gods are all different and they seem to be so distant and so far away.
Who is the one true God? What is He really like? And can I have a personal relationship with Him? But you see, the tragedy is that's not only true of people who live in other countries of the world. There are people who go to church in this country every Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, and they listen to sermons and they go through their ritual or whatever it might be, however they worship. And when they come away, if you ask them who is the one true God? What is He really like? How can you have a personal relationship with Him, with Him? Many of those people could not answer those questions. They would say, "Well, oh, I believe in God. And I believe in the God of the Bible". Well, what is He like? "Well, I don't know exactly what He's like, I just know I believe in Him".
Well, can you have a personal relationship with Him? "Well, I'm not sure, I think you can". Some people say they can. You'd be shocked. If you took a little personal survey yourself of people that you know, not necessarily people who attend church but some who do. If you said to them, "Could I ask you three very simple questions"? And they're not difficult to answer. All right, how would you answer this question? Who is the one true God? What is He like? And can you have a personal relationship with Him? And if so, how, how can you do that? You may be shocked at the people that you know who cannot answer those three questions.
And if somebody walked up to you today and said to you, "I want you to answer these three questions for me. Who is the one true God"? How would you answer that? And then they'd say to you, "Describe Him for me. What is He like"? How would you answer that? Well, 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 jailer 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 17 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, and in the market place 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".
Now you say, "What happened to the cross"? Well, he wouldn't be preaching the Resurrection if he hadn't been describing the cross. So, he was preaching Jesus, His death, His resurrection. "They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? 'For you are 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 loved to talk about it and this is what's going on. And so, Paul was delighted to be able to have them as his audience because he knew that he had the truth. Now when you look at this message that the Apostle Paul preached, and you ask yourself the question, well now, how did he approach a group of people so diverse in what they believed? Well, the Apostle Paul was very adept at reasoning. And you see, one of the reasons he was is because his Damascus Road experience had so absolutely transformed his life. And he had already begun to see in his short years of ministry how God had worked in the lives of other people.
And he knew that these people were empty. He knew they were walking and living in darkness. He knew they had no answers because they were known for reasoning and talking about this and talking about that and talking about the other, and trying to discover what is the highest good in life? And you know what they were looking for? They were searching for the same three answers. Who is the one true God? What is He like? And is it possible to have a personal relationship with Him? And they were so committed to their philosophies, of course, when they heard the Apostle Paul, the scripture says one of three responses they had. Number one, they sneered at him and said, "Well, this is absolutely preposterous". Secondly, part of them said, "Well, we're going to... this is sorta interesting. We're gonna hear about this again". And the third were those who trusted, that is, those who believed the Bible says.
And so for, when Paul had finished his message, the Bible says he walked away knowing that he had done what God called him to do. Not to convert them, but to do what? To answer those three ultimate questions, he knew haunted these people. Now, let's think about this for a moment. It is the will of God that every single person have a correct answer to those three questions. 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 me," 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 shall be preached to all men in 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 think about all the religions out there and the millions of people that make up these religions. They live in fear, they live in uncertainty, they live in darkness, they live in anxiety. They worship their gods. They bow down before things that are stone, wooden, things created by man.
And I want you to think about this for a moment. Suppose you walked in here on a Sunday and this was your form of worship. You came in and before you was a... let's say that it's a brass or silver or gold statue of something. Maybe it looked like somebody. And so we sang a few songs and then we took up an offering and brought it and laid it at the foot of this altar of this statue. And then we sang a couple of songs and you went home.
Let me ask you a question. What would you have carried home with you? What assurance would you have? What real blessing could you have defined? What would you have been singing about? Could you have any joy, peace, happiness, contentment, assurance in this life or the life to come? No, you could not. Because you would have bowed down to something that is lifeless that cannot hear you, speechless, cannot speak; no eyes, cannot see; no feelings; therefore no compassion, no love, no forgiveness, no kindness, no gentleness, no mercy, none of that.
I want you to think about something. What you enjoy every single day of your life as a believer, most of the world has absolutely no concept of it whatsoever. Some of their gods are walking on four feet. Some of their gods are stationed at a place where people bow down and worship. Some of their gods are things that would be dangerous to even touch. They're looking for the one true God. They want to know what He's like and they want to know can I have a personal relationship with Him? If we tell the world our God is a God of unconditional love. That He will love you, forgive you of your sins, that He's kind and gentle and loving. That He's merciful, that He's just, that He cares about you, compassionate for you, interested in every single affair of your life.
No matter what's going on He is personally interested in your life. It'd be hard for them to believe because they have been taught so many erroneous things about this God whom they cannot identify. They may put a name on him, but he cannot speak, he cannot hear, he has no compassion. He has no love, and he has no power. He's absolutely useless. It's the same thing Paul faced. Things haven't changed a whole lot. If you had to walk in on a Sunday morning and worship that, I wonder how often you would come. There'd be no reason to come. It'd be an absolute waste of your time. Paul said, "This unknown god that you're worshipping, what can he do for you"? And I'm sure he stirred them up.
Now think about this for a moment. What do we mean when we say that it's the will of God that everyone know Him? Now watch this. The word "know", there's more than one-word, Greek word in the Bible about for knowing. One of them is just to know just like I know this, know this fact. But then there's the word, and this is what Paul is using here. The word that means to know intimately, to know in personal relationship. And what Paul is saying here, "I want to tell you how you can have a personal relationship with Him, and it comes through the repentance of your sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ". 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? They say, "Now 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 'em that. But they're ignorant. If you ask somebody to describe this god you believe in and they can't describe him? Let me ask you something. How can you love someone you know nothing about? How can you genuinely, you see, one of the reasons that God sent His Son, well the primary reason of course is to die on the cross, but He wanted Him to reveal to us the kind of God He is. And in the New Testament, we get a concept of God the Old Testament, they didn't quite have that full concept. And so Jesus sent His only begotten Son to save sinful, lost, blinded, helpless, hopeless mankind from their sins. And He wants us to know Him because He loves us.
That's why He created us. And He wants us to love Him in return. How can you love someone you don't know? When somebody says, "Well, I love God". Describe Him for me. 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. There must be... listen, 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 of these people out there are rejecting Jesus Christ. They've never had the opportunity to hear. There's a world of people out there who desire to know Him, but they've never heard.
So let me ask you a question. How content can you and I really and truly be? And this is not to put a guilt trip on anybody, this is just a hard cold fact. 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 in 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, darkened, 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 as a death, a personal commitment to Him 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 gonna be opened. 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 gonna 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. And I simply want to ask you this.
You know these things. You hear them week after week after week. You can go to Bible studies and prayer groups and you can go to Sunday Schools and you can come to worship service and you can have somebody expound the truth of God's Word to you. You know the truth and you know it and you've heard it and heard it and heard it. And there are hundreds of millions of people out there who've never heard it once who want to hear it, who desire to hear it, who long to hear it, who hunger to hear it. Listen, I'm gonna show you in a few moments who risk their life just to hear it one time. How satisfied can we be? How happy can we be about the Christian life and satisfied with what our life is, how we're counting when we know that there are absolutely several billion people who do not know, not because they don't want to know, but because they've never had the privilege of knowing.
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 think about all the young people who are growing up under the teaching of God's Word. And all of you who are single and you're working and making a living and sometimes it's hard and difficult and you look at your life and some of you, you want to get married, that's your primary objective in life and you're waiting for the right one to come along.
Let me ask you this. Are you willing to tell God you're willing to lay down all of your dreams because what you want most of all is you want the will of God to come along? You want what God has for your life. You want your life to count for Him, and trust Him to give you the things or the person God may want you to serve Him with. But you see if you put other things first, you may miss the most awesome opportunity of your life.
You say, "Well, I'm fifty years of age, I'm sixty years of age". You know what? There's nothing in the Bible about serving God at a certain age. The question is this. You're gonna live and you're gonna die. You're gonna leave behind nothing except something material, or a legacy, a spiritual legacy. You're gonna leave behind, you're gonna leave behind a message that'll keep on being born again and again and again and again in the hearts of multitudes of people and the ripples of your life will never be able to be counted. How can we be happy and satisfied when people are willing to lay down their life just to hear the truth? And you and I've heard it over and over and over again.
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 any way, anywhere, anyhow, no matter what". Do you have the courage to ask Him? 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. And sometimes it's something so simple you can do.
For example, in the Philippines, as a result of the program of "In Touch" in the Philippines and the radio, the television and the printed magazine, when people get the magazine and they listen, what happens often times a pastor will carry to a village copies of the magazines if they, if we receive e-mails or letters from those people. Did you know that as a result of people just listening and God in His wonderful way in all these villages putting people together who've been listening and they begin to talk to each other, they've started over a hundred churches? Who is the true God? What is He like? And how can I have a personal relationship with Him? Think for a moment. What are you willing to do to help somebody answer those three questions? Because their eternal destiny hinges on it and you have the answer the world is searching for.