Very fitting, that psalm, because
our only hope is Christ, isn't it? Our only hope. And Paul is
going to preach Christ. They've erected a statue for
the unknown God, and Paul's going to preach from Christ, who is
unknown until he reveals himself to us, right? And then when he
reveals himself to us, that's what you said. Our hope is Jesus.
Our hope is the creator. Our hope is the one who's Lord
of all. Oh my, wonderful. Wonderful. Now that I've given an introduction
to the message. I hope this is a blessing to
you. It was a real blessing putting it together. Open your Bibles
if you would to Acts chapter 17. Or continue our study in
this chapter. Two weeks ago, we saw that Paul
was in Athens and we saw that the whole city was given over
to idolatry. Remember I had mentioned that
there was more than 33,000 different deities that they had statues
to. That's what it's estimated to be, that there had over 33,000
different statues that they bowed down to and deities that they
bowed down to. So the whole city, he saw the
whole city given over to idolatry. And it stirred his spirit, so
what did he do? Paul did what he normally does,
he went to the Jewish synagogue. And he started preaching Christ,
telling them about Christ. And then he ran into two groups
of philosophers there, the Epicureans and the Stoics. And we looked
at a little bit about what they believed. And they said, well,
we need to take you we need to take you down to the judgment
place so that others can hear this because you're talking about
strange gods, they call them strange gods, that we've never
heard about. Well, and remember I mentioned
before that of course it would be strange to them because Religion
for the Jews, or not for the Jews, but religion for the pagans
was transactional. Remember I mentioned that? Where
you had to do, and nothing's changed. Man's works based religion
is all transactional. It's I do this and then God will
do this for me. That's not the God of the Bible.
And back then, the religions, the pagan religions, were based
upon you give them an offering, and if they're pleased to give
you a blessing, same thing. It's all transactional. Now here
comes Paul, and he's preaching the gospel of salvation through
Christ alone, and there's no transaction. It's totally free.
There's nothing we do to gain his favor and merit.
He does it all. And this is straight. So this
is the mindset. Think of this. This is the mindset.
of the time. They're used to transactional
gods. They're used to doing this and getting that or whatever
they think, right? And here, Paul comes and says, says, Charlie,
salvation's by Christ alone, through Christ alone. He died
for sinners. He rose again. And it's all done. All you need to do is just look
to him and believe. They'd never heard anything like that. It
was so foreign to them. It was so foreign to them. and
foreign to the pagan gods. My oh my. And nothing's changed. People are still doing things
to gain merit and favor with whatever they worship. Still,
it's still the same. We live in a transactional world,
right? You go to the grocery store, you buy groceries, you
pay for them. You take them home. Right? Everything's transactional
all around us. So of course man's gods of their
imagination will be transactional. Makes sense, doesn't it? And
that's what makes people stumble. That salvation is by free grace
alone? Through Christ alone? And I don't have to do anything?
Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? And then I find out even
that's given to me? Oh my goodness! Isn't it amazing? Oh, and then, as Sister Linda
said, our hope then becomes Jesus, right? Our hope becomes Christ.
My, oh my. Let's stand up and read. I'm
going to have us read two verses to start this off. Look at, we're
going to read verses 22 and 23, just to start it off, of Acts
chapter 17. Let's read this together. Then
Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hills and said, ye men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For
as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with
this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship, him declare I unto you. Oh, here we go. I've been waiting
to get to this section, beloved, and I'll tell you what. Oh, this
is just, this is wonderful. So again, Paul went into the
synagogue when he first got into the city of the Jews. He ran into the Epicureans and
the Stoics. They thought, well, you're a
setter-forther of strange gods, as we saw further up in the text.
And then he preached them, and the reason they said you're a
setter-forther of strange gods is because he preached Christ.
in Christ alone, the only hope for sinners. And then they took
him to the Eropagus, which stood in the midst of Mars Hill. It's
a place of judgment. So he goes there. And the Greeks
spent all their day just trying to learn new stuff. That's what
they did. They were taken away by trying
to learn something new. And to them, the gospel was new.
But you know what? It's not new, is it? It's called
the everlasting gospel. It's not new. It's new when we
first hear it, isn't it? We're like, oh my, Christ died
for sinners, and the Holy Spirit shows us we're a sinner. It gives
us faith. It's new to us, isn't it? Yeah. Oh my, but it's not new. The
gospel's the old, old story. Oh my, it's the everlasting gospel.
Christ the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
So they claim that Paul was a setter for the strange gods because
he preached Christ and the resurrection. Oh my. So there they take him
to the Aeropagus and they stand him in the middle of Mars hills.
Look at verse 21. This tells us, look at this,
for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their
time and nothing else but to tell or to hear something new.
They wanted their ears tickled constantly by new things. By
new things. And this, this is just man. Natural
man. Right? Wanting to hear new things
that will play with our minds. We can think we're deep thinkers,
right? That's what this is all about.
But they were given over to idols, and the culture and the people,
they were pagan idolaters. They'd never heard the gospel
of God's amazing grace. They'd never heard it. They'd
never heard it. And we see they spent, in verse
21, they spent their time in nothing else but either to tell
or to hear something new. Well, they're going to hear something
new, aren't they? New to them. The old, old story. But it's
new to them. And I want us, as we go through this
study, to continue to look and see God's hand of providence.
Right? There's sheep there. We're going
to find out at the very last sentence of this chapter. There's
a bunch of sheep there. And God has providentially, remember,
taken Paul and moved him to Athens. And now he's sitting there and
he's going to the market. We found out he's going to the
market and there's people meeting with him at the market. Remember
last week or two weeks ago we found that out. And so he's getting,
people are coming and talking to him and asking him questions.
Because Paul, as he's working, he's setting forth Christ. Isn't
that amazing? That's wonderful. But he had
the freedom and the liberty to do that. He was, in a sense,
self-employed. He was a tent maker. Right? So he could go from different
places and make those things. And isn't it amazing how God
had provided that for him? To be able to bring in income,
too, while he was out? It's incredible. It's incredible. My, oh my. So he's gonna set
forth the gospel of God's amazing grace, salvation through the
perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they never
heard this before. Now we see they had a casual
interest, right? Because they take them from the
synagogue down to Mars Hill. So they have a casual interest
in what he's saying. Oh my. Do you know, isn't it
amazing that God takes us from having no interest at all in
the gospel, right? Because I was there, I know you
were there too at one time, having no interest in the gospel, to
all of a sudden going, what's this all about? To then having
a casual interest in it, oh, I gotta look into this a little
bit more. Oh my, that's all the Lord. working and moving in providence,
wooing us to Christ, gently drawing us to Christ with cords of love,
the scripture says. Isn't that wonderful? And remember
those cords, those are cords of everlasting love. Not just
love, everlasting love. Brother Tommy's loved this one
before the foundation of the world. Our little minds can't,
but it's true. It's true. It's real. My little
finite mind just buzzes, right? But it's true. And it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And
then he gives us a love for him that we never had. Isn't God incredible? Isn't he
amazing? Oh my. He's absolutely amazing. So they had a carnal interest
in the things they'd never heard before. And they're starting
to wonder, what's he saying here? And the gospel of Jesus Christ,
again, is not new news. It was purposed by our great
majestic triune God. You know, it was declared to
Adam and Eve, the seed of the woman. She'll bruise his head. or she'll crush his head. That's
Christ. That's Christ. And we know that
Christ is the lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world, so it was all planned and purposed by God. But again,
the gospel is new to those who've heard it for the first time.
And think of this, apart from the enlightening power of God
the Holy Spirit, He has to reveal it to us, doesn't He? And when
He reveals it to us, oh my goodness, this is the most wonderful news
we've ever heard, isn't it, brother? It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. So this is the setting. This
is the setting. The whole city is given over
to idolatry. Actually, you know, we know the
whole world is really given over to idolatry, that do not know
Christ, because We either love something that
we're worshiping or we love ourselves in the sense that people worship
themselves. It's all their self-worship too. That's just idolatry too. My
oh my. So, marvel as we look at this,
God's purpose in sending Paul to Athens and for bringing him
to the Areopagus which again is called the house of judgment
in the Greek. It's God's appointed time of
love for several of his lost sheep to be delivered from the
power of darkness. It's going to happen, isn't it?
It's going to happen. The last verse of this chapter
brings that forward. Look at this. How abate certain
men clave unto him and believed. Look at that. There's lost sheep there, isn't
there, Brother Tom? And God sent them right where those lost sheep
are. Oh my. And they're to be delivered from
the power of darkness. But first, what do they have
to hear first? They have to hear the gospel. Right? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Well, God sent him a preacher, didn't he? There's
Paul. There's Paul. Let's read verses 22 and 23.
Get a drink here quick. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars hills and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things ye are too superstitious. I love that comment. I love that. Man by nature is superstitious.
You know, I got two black cats. I've crossed them probably a
million times. And they cross my path all the
time. I'll be walking to go somewhere and they run right in front of
me. But do you know that before the
Lord saved me, I was superstitious with black cats and ladders.
I was a sign painter. I never walked under a ladder.
And you know what I was thinking? I was thinking, that's just common
sense, Wayne. Today I'm thinking about the
whole ladder thing, right? And I'm thinking, that's just
common sense. You walk under a ladder, a tool hits you in
the head or something, right? Isn't that true? It's just common
sense that you don't want, but people are using this. Oh, don't
do this. It's just common sense, man.
You know, if a cat runs over in front of you and you're old
like me and you end up tripping and falling. It's just common
sense, right? Oh my gosh. Keep an eye out for
those little critters running around down there. My. But we are born superstitious
in that sense. Now look at this. Verse 23 is amazing. Now the
God of the Bible is the one true living God. He's the one true living God.
But he's unknown to us in our natural state. When we're born
into this world, he's unknown to us. He must reveal himself
to us, and he does. Praise God. He doesn't leave
us in the darkness that we're born in. My. Think upon this. Now, we've heard
different versions of who God is. You know, people say that,
well, he can't do anything unless you let him, and God has no feet
but your feet, or no hands but your hands. You ever hear that
stuff? Right? That's a weak God. If God has
just my hands, we're in trouble. Right? I'm going to read to you
something about who God is. This is amazing. Listen to this. This is the God of Bible. From
all eternity, God dwelt alone. Self-contained. Self-sufficient. Self-satisfied. In need of nothing. Dependent
upon no one. He was infinitely blessed in
himself. Before the first angel was formed,
before the heavens were stretched forth, before the earth was fashioned
and people, God dwelt in solitary glory. He had no rival, no equal, and
no companion. He existed in the majestic fullness
of his infinite being. This is the God of the Bible. Had a universe been necessary
to his satisfaction, it would have been brought into existence from all eternity. But he is
independent of all his creatures. He's independent of us all. God is solitary in his majesty. He is unique in his perfections. He is supreme in his authority.
And he is unrivaled in his glory. Heaven and earth, time and eternity
are but the unfolding of his eternal purpose and sovereign
will. This is our King. This is our
Savior. He does all that pleases Him,
and nothing can thwart Him. In the works of creation, in
the unfolding of providence, and in the accomplishment of
redemption, God acts alone. That was so foreign to the thinking
back then. God working alone? You mean we
don't help him or we don't do anything? It's not transactional? In redemption, salvation, providence,
God acts alone. He needed no counselor when he
laid the foundation of the world. He sought no aid when he decreed
salvation. From beginning to end, all is
of him, through him, and to him. What folly, then, for puny men,
formed from the dust and stained with sin, to imagine themselves
to be essential to the plans of God. God has no feet but yours. What? They don't know who God
is. And we're still learning, aren't
we? And we're marveling. Right? He is not served by human hands
as if he needed anything. Let every mouth be stopped and
let the whole world bow in silence before him. That's from A.W. Pink's first chapter in the Attributes
of God called The Solitariness of God. That's the God of the
Bible, beloved. That's our Savior. That's our
hope. Oh my! Isn't that wonderful? He's our hope. He who is absolutely
sovereign is our hope. Things go on in this world. I
don't have to worry about them. I know about them, but I don't
have to be freaking out about them because God's sovereign.
Isn't that wonderful? My, it's so refreshing, isn't
it? What peace we have. And Paul,
he's gonna declare, he's saying, the unknowing God, I'm gonna
declare him to you. And first he stated they were
too superstitious. Again, this is true of natural
man by nature. I was there, this is so true.
But Paul was also standing right where God had placed him. By
God's providence and grace, he has the responsibility to proclaim
Christ, doesn't he? And that's what he's going to
do. He's going to proclaim Christ to them. And every time God gives
one of his preachers an opportunity or teachers an opportunity to
preach Christ, man, we're going to run to it. And we're just
going to set him forth. He's our king. We're going to
set him forth. He's our savior. He's our God. My. And we know he can only be
known by divine revelation. So we set him forth, and somewhere
between my mouth or any other preacher's mouth, God the Holy
Spirit takes those words and makes them effectual. Isn't that
wonderful? Either to build you up in Christ, or to save your
eternal soul. If you're a lost sheep of God. It's wonderful. Now Paul reminded these Athenians
that they had erected this stone to the unknown God. Some believe this reference had
reference to the God of the Jews as there was a Jewish synagogue
in Athens, but what I think and what several commentators think
is that they were just making sure they got all their bases
covered. In case they missed one. Right? Well, they missed the
main one, didn't they? The true and living God. But
isn't it amazing that here these men are trying, and it still
happens. People, you know, you ever drive
by people's house, they got all these statues of certain figures
all over their place. You know, come on. Doesn't do
anything. Doesn't do anything. Good target
practice, but nothing else. Right? So. But it's wild. They don't do anything. They
don't bless you. They don't. They're just idols. And so their
whole, the whole city is given over to idol worship. And they've even, they put this
one up in case they missed one. They had to make sure there was
an altar to the unknown God. Again, there's only one true
living God. Listen to what the scripture says in Colossians
2, 8-10. It says this, Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit. Remember it was the Stoics and
the Epicureans that bought him there? After the tradition of men, men
worship idols. Men set up things you have to
do, transactional, and you don't have to do. You don't go with
girls who do certain things, and you don't go with guys who
do all the... That's just common sense, isn't
it? It's just common sense. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. See, again,
so what's happening? Not after Christ. Taking people's
eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what all works-based religion
does. That's what all idol worship
does. It takes your eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
hope for sinners. And then Paul says this, for
in Him, being Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and ye, now let this come to our hearts, beloved,
and ye are complete in Him. Isn't that wonderful? Which is the head of all principality
and power, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the ruler
over all things, and we are complete in Him. That's glorious. That's grace
and mercy undeserving. So Paul's preaching Jesus Christ. He's boldly declaring that the
man called Jesus of Nazareth is the very ones the Jews had
crucified was the resurrected, glorified, exalted God-man seated
on his sovereign throne of power now. He preached the death of
Christ and he preached the resurrection of Christ. Christ must die in our room and
place in order for sinners to be saved. Isn't it glorious that
God himself done that for us? The God that we read, that Pink
explained, who needed no one. That's mercy. That's grace. That's love. Unmeasured, you
can't plumb the lines and the depths of that love, that everlasting
love that Christ has for His people, beloved. You just can't,
you can't even, we can't even imagine. And He's on His, what's He doing
on His sovereign throne? He's ruling over everything,
isn't He? And He's also interceding for us, isn't He? Isn't that
wonderful? Our intercession by Christ never
ends. Therefore God's always pleased
with us. Isn't that wonderful? I love it. Oh, my. Every born-again, blood-washed
child of God, taught by divine revelation, that our sin-debt
was taken care of by the redeeming work of Christ Jesus, our Savior,
who ransomed us with His precious blood when He laid down His life
for us 2,000 years ago. No wonder we rejoice in this
great hope we have, the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder we rejoice
in this salvation that Christ has given us and purchased for
us. And this is who Paul's setting
forth. This is the unknown God. Men think they know all these
other gods, but they're just false gods, right? Pieces of
stone and wood. But there's one true living God,
isn't there? Isn't it wonderful that He reveals
Himself to us and He saves our eternal souls? That He sends
the Holy Spirit into our hearts, whereby we now cry, Abba, Father?
That's all of His choosing, beloved. Because it pleased Him to do
so. And we know, you know, people say, well, you guys, you guys
think you're better than everyone else. I've not met one believer
who thinks he's better than her, she thinks they're better than
anyone else. We know we are the most undeserving people in this
world, but God has had mercy upon us, and we rejoice, don't
we? We exalt him, we lift him up.
I am no better than anyone else who doesn't know the Lord. I'm
worse, to be honest with you. No wonder John Newton, Saved
a wretch like me. Do you know, we were at a church
service one time and they took the word wretch out of there. It's offensive to people, isn't
it? It's not offensive to me. Is it offensive to you? It ain't
offensive to me. Because I was a wretch. Oh my. My, oh my. We bow down to Jesus Christ our
Lord, our God and King. Look at verse 24. Look at what
is brought forth here. God that made the world. It didn't
come by a big bang. The only big bang was God saying,
let there be light. Boom! And there was light. Right? There was no supposed big bang.
How does something come out of nothing? By the power of God. Man just says, I don't believe
that. Don't change nothing, does it? Doesn't change anything. God's
not up there, oh man, he doesn't believe what No. Not at all. He laughs. He mocks their derision. Their
foolishness. My, oh my. Look at this. God that made the
world and all things therein. Everything. Everything down to
every molecule. Things we see and things we don't
see. Think of all the things in the
ground that's working and we don't see those things. My microscopic little things
that we don't, we can't see without a microscope. Our very DNA. It's incredible. seeing that He is what? Lord
of heaven. That's who He is. And you know,
we don't make Him Lord. He's already Lord of heaven,
isn't He? That's our Savior. Now, what
I want us to realize is this is our King. This is our Savior. This is the one who saved us.
Will He lose any of us? No. Because He's God. But God himself became a man. Wonder of wonders. Now think
of this, too. I want you to think about this, too. See, back in
the aspect of the religion of the days, right? The idol worship,
okay? They always had to make that whatever God they were offering
to, they had to make them happy, right? So if they offered something
before battle, Caesar would have a bunch of oxen slaying, right? And they'd look at the entrails
and they'd go, well, it looks like, I wonder who the guy that
had to do that, you know? Well, you're going to lose today.
You know? Well, we better not go into battle
then, right? You know? Bring another priest. But that's
what they used to do. And their gods would never die
for them. See how foreign it is, Charlie,
for them to be preached to? And Paul's saying, God himself
became a man and died on Calvary's cross. They'd be like, what? Your god
became a man? Why would he do that? To save
us from our sins. It's so foreign to them. You
mean that the king died for peasants? Yeah. It's totally foreign to them.
And then he rose again. He rose from the dead? What strange
things is this? We've never heard about a God
like this. You see how foreign it is? Their mindset is set in
idol worship. Their mindset is set in transactional
things. And here's, this is all done
by God himself. No wonder they said this is strange.
We're gonna see, they call him a babbler. My oh my. But he's setting forth
the truth, isn't he? How do we know that Jesus Christ
is Lord of all? Well, I'm going to give you a
few verses here. You want to write them down, you can, and
I'll read them. Let's read verse 24 again. God that made the world
and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Now think of
that. Dwelleth in temples not made with hands. Isn't there
a bunch of people that want the temple rebuilt? Why? God doesn't dwell in temples
made by hands. I just discovered that last night.
Brother Jim Harmon was bringing that out. Why would you want
to rebuild a temple when God doesn't dwell in temples made
with hands? Oh my. Because he's spirit, isn't
he? He already came to this earth.
He already redeemed his people. He's back up in glory ruling
the rain and blood. He doesn't dwell in temples made
with hands. Now here are four passages, or three passages. Three passages. in scripture, you can write them
down if you want, that bring forth, similar to what this is,
when it says, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth.
So that means he's the creator, he's the king, he's the ruler,
right? In John, chapter one, verse three, it says, all things
were made by him, and remember it said, in the beginning was
the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, the
same was in the beginning with God, and in verse three, it says
here, It says, all things were made by Him, the Word of God,
which we know later on in verse 14 of the first chapter, the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, which is Christ. All things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. Did you know He formed us in our mother's wombs? We're made by Him. Isn't that
amazing? Oh my. And in Colossians 1.16,
another really good proof verse for this, it says, For by Him
being Christ were all things created that are in heaven and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, so everything, things
we see and things we don't see, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. Pleased Him to do so. And in Hebrews 1 verses 1
to 3, this is a really good portion, too, to bring forth Christ as
a creator. It says, God, who at sundry times
and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Christ made the worlds. We're
still discovering stuff out there. They're sending these telescopes
out, right, and all that. We're discovering things we never
even thought possible. Oh, there's still more. They're
not going to find the boundary, beloved. They're not going to find the
boundary. And it says, who being the brightness of His glory,
and the express image of His person, and upholding all things
by the word of His power, when He had by Himself, praise be
to God, by Himself, right? No, nothing with us, purged our
sins. Hallelujah! He purged our sins,
beloved. He took them away. They're gone. sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty High. The work is finished. The high
priest is sitting down. There's nothing left to be done.
So rejoice, beloved of God, our Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven and earth. That same Jesus was
born of a virgin, same Jesus who worked in a carpenter's shop.
Got his hands dirty, didn't he? Yeah. who hung there on the cruel
cross, enduring the wrath of God as our substitute. He's Lord
of heaven and earth. He's Lord of heaven and earth.
And those who refuse to bow down to the absolute sovereign power
of Jesus Christ, the Lord recognizing and confessing him as the true
and living God, have never experienced the miracle of the new birth. Whether they're aware of it or
not, the sword of God's divine justice is hanging over their
polluted heads, held only by a spider web of sovereign grace, of sovereign mercy, ready to
plunge them into eternal torment from whence there's no escape,
no escape. So let we who are the born-again,
blood-washed people of God rejoice for God's sovereign mercy that
he's bestowed upon us in Christ. We are forgiven. Christ purged
our sins, all of them. There's none that can be bought
against us. Do we condemn ourselves by the
way we speak and act? Sometimes, absolutely. Absolutely. But praise be to God, there's
repentance and forgiveness, right? He brings to us repentance. And
repentance is just having to change the mind of who God is.
We say, Lord, I'm so sorry I failed again. But remember what I told
you an old preacher said one time to a young preacher who
had fallen grievously into sin? Young preacher calls and says,
oh, I did this. And the old preacher says, repent
and move on. Isn't that wonderful? Repent, confess it, right? We're to confess our sin to God.
We don't have to confess it to one another. I already know why
I'm in the city of refuge to you. Because I'm just a sinner. I need to be saved and praise
God He saved me. But repent and move on. He purged our sins, beloved.
They're gone. And there's therefore now what? Amen. No condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. Isn't that wonderful? And that
condemnation, remember I keep saying, I'm going to say it again,
in the Greek that's no judgment. Oh my, what a hope we have. My, I'll tell you what, I never
had a hope like Christ. Have you? Isn't he wonderful? Oh my, what a hope. God's bestowed sovereign mercy
upon us. We've, as Paul said, we've obtained
mercy. And here's Paul preaching to
these fellas who are a bunch of idol worshippers, right? And
he came out of religion, remember? He was full of traditions and
all this stuff and slaughtering the Church of Christ and the
Lord saved him. And our text there tells us that
Jesus Christ, the risen, exalted God-man, does not dwell in temples
made with hands. No. He's God. Let's read verses
25 and 26. It says, neither is worship with
man's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to
all life and breath in all things. Does God need anything? No, the scripture says you don't
need anything. What mercy he has upon us. And
using these clay pot instruments, right? Because that's all we
are. We're just clay, right? We're just dust. And using us, right? To tell other animated
dust about the one who can save us. Isn't that amazing? We're here,
beloved, for the furtherance of the gospel. He's using the
work here for the furtherance of the gospel. And we're a part
of it, every one of us. All I do, I get to proclaim. But we're all together in this. Isn't that wonderful? And that's
why I love when you men pray for the furtherance of the gospel,
when you pray for the messages going out. It's so important. Please keep praying for the messages.
I know several of you do, a lot of you do too. You pray through
the week for the messages as they go forth. And the Lord's
blessing the work. It's amazing. But he gets all
the glory, doesn't he? He doesn't need us and yet he
uses us. Oh, that's amazing. Absolutely
amazing. My oh my. seeing he giveth to
all life and breath and all things, even to those who hate him." That's mercy too, isn't it? He
gives life and breath to all things. Now look at this. Now this is
what you would call controversial nowadays thinking. But you know
what? I don't have no problem with
it. and hath made of one blood. Now look at that. All nations
of men. For to dwell on all the face
of the earth, and that determined the times before appointed, look at this, in the bounds of
their habitations. What if God's name is El Shaddai? It means God all-sufficient. God does not need, neither will
He accept any worship from the wicked, sinful, polluted hands
of hell-deserving sinners. We must be born again. We must be born again. And this
has reference, of course, to idol worship. Idols made with
hands and man-made images, which are constructed out of gold and
silver. That was very popular during the time when Paul's preaching
this. And there's still people who've
got statues all over the place. And we see God's the one who
gives life and breath to all things, to every living creature. This is amazing. And when God
formed Adam from the dust, he was just a lifeless form of human
being. You ever think of that? Until
what? Until God breathed the breath
of life into him. What are we when we're born into
this world? Dead in trespasses and sins. Spiritually lifeless. You must
be born again. Isn't it wonderful? My oh my! Genesis 2-7 talks about how the
Lord breathed the breath of life into his body and that's when
Adam became a living soul. The only one who can give physical
life, now think of this, the only one who can give physical
life and spiritual life which comes under the preaching of
the gospel. Physical life comes from God. Spiritual life comes
under the preaching of the gospel, doesn't it? By who? By God. God
the Holy Spirit. We must be born again. And he does that through the
preaching of the glorious gospel of salvation through Christ alone.
And he gives eternal life to his chosen blood-bought children.
Think of this. Do we contribute anything to
our physical birth? We don't, do we, Brother Tom?
We're just born. Why would we think that we contribute
anything to our spiritual birth, then? You must be born again, and God
regenerates, and we marvel. That's why I preach to everyone,
right? Because I don't know who God's going to save. He knows.
So we preach the gospel, send it out to the whole world, don't
we? And let God do all the work.
And it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. So man
contributed absolutely nothing to his physical birth, and we
contribute absolutely nothing to our spiritual birth. Scripture says it's the spirit
that quickeneth, which is give life. The flesh profits nothing,
John 6, 63. In our unregenerate state, we're
dead in trespasses and sins. We're actually what Gene Harmon
calls dead man walking. Spiritually dead. Physically
alive and spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
And God the Holy Spirit brings his promised children under the
preaching of his gospel. And at his appointed time of
love, At the point in time for life, the blood-bought child of God
is born again. Because we're blood-bought when? 2,000 years ago, aren't we? Isn't
it wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. He says,
live. Remember Lazarus? Lazarus, come
forth. That's us, right? Dead in trespasses
and sins. He calls us through the gospel,
doesn't he? Oh, it's wonderful. And then look at verse 26 again.
Let's look at this. This is amazing. Again, this
can be what you would call controversial nowadays, but the Bible's not
controversial. Oh, it just puts the truth forth.
Do you know that man, man, Man has made a difference between
the pigmentation of our skin. Man will say, the Romans, the
Romans. I've been amazed to see this
too, and it's just nothing new under the sun. The British despised
the Irish and counted them as nothing, like they were subhuman. The Nazis figured the Jews were
subhuman, right? The Romans, they considered everybody
else below them, they were the top ones, everybody was under
them. We're all of the same blood. Hmm? Man says, oh, you're of
this race, and you're of this race. And God says, you're the
human race. And God says, you're all the
same. Isn't that amazing? I love it. I grew up in a home. My dad was
racist. Oh, my gosh. It was awful. Awful. I thank God that I didn't get
into that, but it was awful. I had a friend of mine, he was
from Jamaica, Courtney, awesome fellow, one of the hardest workers
I've ever met. He was a black fellow, great guy. Used to sit
and have lunch with him, wonderful. My dad's like, what are you doing
hanging out with him? I said, well, because he's my friend. Oh, you shouldn't be doing that.
And I said, Dad, if I cut my hand and Courtney cut his hand,
it'd be the same color blood. Right? No better than anyone
else. And isn't it wonderful? I had
a friend of mine. He was talking one time, and
he was talking about different folks. And I said, do you think
the only white people are going to be in heaven? Well, I said
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. A people of all different
people. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh my, beloved. And look
what it says here. And hath made of one blood. One blood. All nations of men. There's no, God doesn't look
down and say, well, those Romans are more superior than, or that
tribe is more superior than this. He says, you're all dead in trespasses
and sins, and I'm gonna have mercy on some of you. Wonder
of wonders. Remember, he's no respecter of
persons, right? And we're gonna be in glory with
the people, all different folks. from every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. I actually want to meet some
of them Scythians, the barbarians of the barbarians. They were
the worst of the worst. I want to meet some of them.
Lord willing, I'll get to meet one or two. Say, the Lord saved you? And
he goes, yeah, me too. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. So marvel,
beloved of God, that God from eternity, and notice too what
else is in here, look at this, and hath determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. We were
born exactly where God wanted us to be born. And he determined
that. Isn't that amazing? And our parents
were determined by him. And our grandparents were determined
by him. And our family lineage was all
determined by him to get us to the place where we'd be born.
And then he brings us to the place where we'll hear the gospel. Isn't that amazing? Before the world was made, he
determined that all men would spring from one man. One man. Do you know we're all
related? We're all related. We all come
from Adam. See, man in our sinful nature
has made a difference. God says there's no difference
between any of you. Unless you're saved or lost. And if we're saved,
it's just because of the mercy of God. My, it's just amazing. It's just amazing. Before the
world was made, he determined that all men would spring from
one man. He hath made of one blood all nations of men. All
the races in the world have their origin in one man. So really, we're the human race.
We're not a bunch of races. We're the human race. All tribes,
you could say tribes and people, come from one man, Adam. Oh my. We have distinguishing
traits, don't we? We all have different distinguishing
traits. Right? But we're all from one
man. We're all from one man. This verse also declares that
God determined the time and place of every person's birth, the
length of his or her life, the space which each would occupy
upon the earth, the time given to the responsibility of all
men to take proper care of their health, everything. is all determined
by God. It must be understood that the
most careful will not extend his life beyond the appointed
time, and the most careless will not shorten his allotted span
by so much as a fraction of a second. We will die at the appointed
time of God." Period. Right? That's so. Therefore, let we who are the
redeemed of the Lord rejoice, as our life and our times are
in the hands of our great God.