Deception and the Truth about God: The Sermon Paul Never Got to Finish
Series: Acts
Chuck Sligh
August 14, 2016
TEXT: Acts 14:8-19 – “And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: 9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. 11 And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 12 And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 13 Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. 14 Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, 15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: 16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 18 And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.
19 And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.”
INTRODUCTION
Illus.– On March 28th, 1997 woke up to the unbelievable story that 39 members of a high-tech cult had killed themselves in anticipation of a rendezvous with a UFO trailing the Hale-Bopp comet! They made videos of themselves saying goodbye, appearing very upbeat and expressing pleasure that they were going to a better place. The leader of the group, who went by the name “Do,” was Marshall H. Applewhite, who along with a colleague named Bonnie Nettles persuaded hundreds of people to leave families and belongings behind and join them in 1975. The victims included 21 women and 18 men, all with closely cropped hair and wearing identical black outfits. Most were found with a suicide recipe on sheets of paper: take pudding or applesauce mixed with phenobarbital, drink it down with alcohol and lie back and relax.
These people had some bizarre beliefs.— They believed that humans are just soulless “plants” cultivated by an advanced civilization in outer space. Certain humans are “tagged” from birth to receive a “soul deposit” that would enable that person to evolve into a higher level of evolutionary development, through a representative of the advanced civilization, Jesus being one of those few representatives sent to this earth, and Applewhite, being the most recent. Through a rigorous life of self-discipline and sacrifice, even to the point of being neutered, one could, by the direction and guidance of the representative, reach a state where he or she would be ready to go on to the next evolutionary level. The way to get there to the next level was [PAUSE] to commit suicide for those beliefs?
Now let me ask you this: What would cause people to voluntarily live such lives of self-denial, hold such bizarre beliefs and be willing to commit suicide?
Well, the answer’s really very simple, and it’s illustrated in our text today. You see, this is not the first time people have believed bizarre religious ideas. What led these people in this twisted cult was something that billions of people have been equally affected by, just not to this great a degree. And it may surprise you to know that everyone in this room has been affected by this at one time or another.
I’d like us to look at three points from our text that will help us understand this, and then we’ll make some personal applications our lives at the end.
I. THE FIRST THING I WANT YOU TO SEE IS THAT PEOPLE ARE GULLIBLE AND EASILY DECEIVED – Acts 14:11-12 – “And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 12 And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.”
When these people saw a miracle that Paul had done by healing the crippled man in Lystra, they immediately jumped to wrong conclusions. The reason they assumed that Paul and Barnabas were Mercury and Jupiter was the same reason the Heaven’s Gate cult members gave their lives to hook up with a mother star ship they seriously believed was coming in behind the Hale-Bopp Comet. It was because THEY WERE DECEIVED.
Those without the light of the Gospel are easily deceived because they have no solid point of reference—the Bible, God’s infallible, trustworthy Word for all humanity. That’s why there are so many religions and strange, bizarre cults in this world. Satan has blinded their spiritual eyes and deceived them.
Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 – “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Satan is often referred to as a DECEIVER in Scriptures.
Jesus said in John 8:44 that the devil “is a liar, and the father of lies.” [ESV]
Satan’s modus operandi has ALWAYS been deception. Satan has been at this for several thousand years now and we see a greater departure from the truth and the things of God now than at any time in the history of the world. There’s never been a time when so many people in so many places have been deceived by so many deceptions. Paul tells us this is one of the signs that we are in the last days before the Rapture.
He said in 2 Timothy 3:13 that in that day “…evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”
Now, when we hear about the Heaven’s Gate Cult and when we read the story here of these people thinking Paul and Barnabas were gods, we’re apt to think that WE are not so gullible—that WE would not have been so easily deceived.
But you’d be surprised how many people have been duped by the enemy of our souls…
Those who believe that God will not judge sin in the Great Judgment; or that there is another way to God besides through Jesus Christ, or that their good deeds are sufficient to save them are simply deceived.
But you see, even believers can be deceived, which is why Paul exhorts us to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8).
• Yes, Satan can deceive Christians to believe that they can be a follower of Christ and live anyway they wish without consequences.
• He deceives us into believing that sin isn’t really so sinful or bad.
• He deceives us into believing that we can handle our problems on our own or run our own lives, without God’s aid and power.
• He deceives us into believing that we can free ourselves from our responsibilities and commitments, and it will all turn our alright in the end.
• He deceives us into believing that we should live by what we feel instead of what God commands us to do.
The people in our text were non-believers believing outlandish things. But ANYTHING that is contrary to God’s Word is a lie, whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or not. Take God at His Word and believe TRUTH about God, not Satan’s lies.
II. THE SECOND BIG TRUTH I WANT YOU TO SEE IS THAT MOST PEOPLE RESENT THE EXPOSURE OF THEIR CHERISHED DECEPTIONS – Acts 14:18 – “And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.”
Isn’t this amazing? Paul and Barnabas simply told these people the clear, unadulterated truth, and Luke tells us here that they could not restrain the people from assaulting them, as if Paul and Barnabas had deliberately played some kind of trick on them.
Why do you think they responded this way? Well, because people don’t like to have their cherished deceptions exposed. It’s upsetting, unsettling, threatening. These people wanted to believe that Paul and Barnabas were Jupiter and Mercury because it confirmed their preconceived, dearly-held beliefs. When Paul disabused them of these notions, it caused a riot that ending in a stoning!
Illus. – Years ago, I shared Christ with a woman who was a member of a prominent cult.
We had several long talks and whenever I proved to her Bible teaching that her cult denied, she would become LIVID! But she wasn’t open—at least at that point—at all to changing her cherished beliefs even though she could see them clearly from in God’s Word. You see, she cherished her deceptions, and TRUTH from God’s Word needed time to sink in and bear fruit because they threatened her world view, for, you see, most people resent exposure of their deceptions.
How do you keep yourself from being deceived?—By making the Word of God your final arbiter. If the Bible clearly teaches something (backed up, of course, by comparing scripture with scripture—then that settles it—end of discussion. Make that the rule of your life.
• If God’s Word says something is untrue, accept it as untrue—it’s error.
• If the Bible teaches something, even if it goes against everything you’ve been taught; even if you can’t understand it—accept it as truth from God.
• If the Word of God states that something is wrong—believe what God says about it, not what the world says.
You will never go wrong, fall into major wrong teachings or be deceived if you carefully study and apply and obey the Word of God—our only safe harbor from error and deception.
III. THE THIRD THING TO SEE TODAY IS THIS: TRUTH IS THE ONLY ANTIDOTE TO DECEPTION
How did Paul respond in this situation? Well, he simply told them the truth!
Verses 14-15 say Paul and Barnabas were so upset that they mistook them for gods that they tore their clothes (a sign of distress), ran in among the people and started preaching to them.
Now, in his short sermon, Paul tells them four things about God. He chose these things to show these people unmistakably that the God of the Bible was totally different from their false gods in order to point them to the true God of the Bible, and ultimately to Jesus as their Savior.
• First, he said that God is THE LIVING GOD in contradistinction to all the other so-called gods – Verse 15 – “And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto THE LIVING GOD,…”
The idols and gods they worshiped were not living because they did not, in fact, truly exist. They were just images of stone and wood, but there was nothing truly behind their idols, and the gods they worshipped were merely myths. God, however, is, always was, and always will be alive and active on earth. He is the LIVING God!
• The second truth Paul told them was that God is the CREATOR OF ALL THINGS – He goes on to say in the rest of verse 15 that He is the living God… “which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.”
Some Greeks and Romans believed the prevailing myth of the creation of the world by the god Chaos, while some believed in a form of evolution. Paul was trying to expose these errors and tell them about the true God. God is the creator of ALL things—the heavens above (that is, the universe “out there”), the land as well as the sea, and everything in the land and sea.
• The last thing Paul told them was that God is BENEVOLENT and GOOD – Verses 16b-17 – “Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
God is good and benevolent. You see, their gods were just advanced humans, with only limited power and subject to the same sins and foibles as humanity. They were often cruel and vindictive and vain and selfish and they committed the worst possible evils and atrocities imaginable—
• ZEUS was a serial adulterer and rapist.
• CRONUS THE TITAN, Zeus’s father, ate all his children except Zeus, and only because of his wife’s deception.
• CRONUS catrated his father, Uranus out of spite.
• HADES kidnapped his bride against her will.
• DEMETER, the goddess of harvest tried to starve the whole world to death with famine.
• POSEIDON raped the beautiful priestess Medusa in one of Athena’s temples.
• ATHENA helped Perseus murder Medusa.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The Greek gods were not in control of things, were often victims of the most heinous offences, as well as were the perpetrators of the most heinous of actions, and were, as a lot, evil, vindictive, hateful, proud, predatory of women and the weak and filled with every conceivable vile passion.
But, Paul said, the true God IS in control of ALL things and in his dealings with humanity, he is always good, benevolent, kind, merciful and loving. He does good things for mankind so that we will see that there IS a God, and to cause us to turn to that God for salvation and to love Him, not placate him out of fear.
Unfortunately, Paul was not able to finish his sermon and get to the most important part.
Verses 18-19 says that the crowd got out of hand, and they took Paul outside the city and stoned him and left him for dead.
Had he been able to continue his sermon, you and I know the rest of the sermon! He would have told them that the ultimate way God showed his benevolence to humanity is by sending His Son to live a sinless life and die for their sins and that if they would put their faith in Jesus Christ, He would forgive them their sins, become their loving, merciful, kind Father and give them eternal life
CONCLUSION
That’s the story of what happened after Paul healed a lame man in Lystra. Let me make five quick statements in summary and conclusion to bring the points made in this sermon down to where we live:
• First, remember that YOU are a target for deceit by Satan. – All are susceptible to Satan’s deception, even believers!
• Second, remember that the only antidote for deception is TRUTH.
• Third, the only infallible source for truth is the WORD OF GOD.
• If that is true, then you had better become a student of the Word of God:
Know it backwards and forwards—read it; study it; go and hear it taught and preached; discuss it; memorize it; meditate on it.
Most important: evaluate everything you hear, read, see, say or think by it. Test EVERYTHING. We discussed this last week, but it bears repetition this week. Anything not tested by the Word of God, which is truth, is subject to error and deception.
• Finally, get to know not only the WORD OF GOD, but also, the GOD OF THE WORD.
Believer, know Him personally as your Lord and Master…
> Get to know the God who is ALIVE and working to bring about His perfect will for your life.
> Get to know the God who is the CREATOR OF ALL THINGS—the God who is powerful and can do WONDERS in your life if you’ll obey and follow Him.
> Get to know the God who is LONGSUFFERING. Don’t worry, you haven’t gone too far or done too much bad. God is longsuffering. It’s not too late yet. He will forgive you and you can be clear and clean if you’ll only turn back and repent.
> Get to know the God who is GOOD and KIND and BENEVOLENT.
He is so good that even the BAD things in your life will turn out to be good.
Romans 8:28 says “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
You can’t lose with a deal like that!
If you have not given your life to Christ, know Him personally as your Savior by being saved.
If you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ to save your from your sin and give you eternal life, let me tell you, He’s a GOOD God to serve. I have served Him almost my whole life and Jesus has never let me down, never failed me, and He’s always been there to help and encourage and strengthen and lift me up when I have been down. I’ve never met a follower of Jesus who regretted it. Come to Jesus; ask Him to save you; put your life in His hands.
