It's a privilege for me to be
here or anywhere else before God, knowing a little bit of truth. And I think it'll be humbling
and glory when we look back and think about preaching this gospel with so
much sin in us, so much ignorance, so much dullness, it'll be amazing,
amazing. Then we'll know this is the work
of God. And preaching is the work of
God. It's the work of God. I invite
you to turn back with me now to Acts chapter 17. In the providence of God, the
apostle Paul found himself in the city of Athens, Greece. Now I talked to Gabe coming up
here and I said, I told our folks the other day, When Philip went out to preach
to the eunuch, he didn't know that he was going out to preach
to the eunuch. He just knew he was going out.
In the providence of God, he came upon that caravan, and this
was the only people out in that wilderness, so he knew this must
be where he's supposed to be. And now he's looking around in
that caravan at this People, and some of them, they'd been
down to the feast days, and some of them were talking about how
strange that was, and how the Jews conducted their services,
and so on. And some of them are saying,
boy, this was a waste of time. We went from here all the way
to there, and now we're going back, and we're out here, and
it's hot. And he's listening to all these people and looking
around, because he knows God called him there. And he's looking
around for whom God called him there. And everybody's going
about their business, and he looks up there in that chariot,
and here's a man with a scroll. You know how rare a scroll would
have been in that day. And he said, this is him. This
is him, this man has a hunger for the Word of God, and this
is who I've been sent out to preach to. Isn't that why we're
here tonight? Isn't that the reason? And I'm
glad to be here because I see people here with an appetite
to hear, and I know this is it. This is why you're here tonight.
Won't be here tomorrow, won't be here this weekend, but I'm
here tonight And this is the way it is every time we preach,
Gabe. How shall they preach except
they be sent? We want to look at that in the
general. I want you to see it in the particular. And here's
Paul in Athens, Greece. This is the last place in the
world a preacher would expect to preach. He went there really
to get away from people who were trying to do him harm. That was
the only reason he was there. he thought. In the providence of God, the
Apostle Paul found himself in the city of Athens, and these
Greeks were held in high reputation throughout the world. I mean,
Paul could quote their poets. He had studied, he knew something
about the Greeks, so much so that under the inspiration of
the Spirit, he used the Greeks to talk about all wise men. In the First Corinthians 1.22,
it says the Greeks seek after wisdom. Paul knew that, he was
there, he knew those people. And they were known for their
writings and their poetry and their philosophy and their talented
painters. And Athens was the epicenter
of their culture. This was the place in Greece
to be, Athens. And Paul began to walk around
in that city and he was stirred in his heart as he looked around
and he saw, verse 16 of our text, the city wholly, 100% given to
idolatry. Statues and monuments and plaques
and jewelry and the like everywhere, everywhere he went. And so he
began to speak to whoever would listen. He first went, being
a Jew, to the synagogues, and there he spoke to whoever would
listen to him. I don't think that lasted very
long, but he might have found some interested people, because
it says he then went to the marketplace and preached to those who had an
interest there. And then in a short time, I could
just almost imagine him in this marketplace. You know, a lot
of our great churches, when they start, that's where they start,
isn't it? They start in the one up in Missouri that I was preaching
to until they got their pastor they met over in a retirement
home. And they met there for a while
in the middle of town. Some of them have met in store
buildings. And this is Paul. He's in the marketplace. And
they found a little spot there. I don't know if he rented it
or they allowed him to do it or whatever, but there was a
small group of people. And he stood up and he preached
to them. He preached to them. And these philosophers, they
were walking around, you know. And they heard him. And they
said, what on earth is this? I thought we'd heard everything
there was. What is this babbler saying? He just goes on and on and on.
He acts like he's got full knowledge of these things. In a short time, these philosophers
of the Epicureans, it says, and Stoics, They heard him preaching
and they said, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange
gods. I tell you, first time I heard
the gospel, that's exactly what I thought. This guy's talking about a god
I don't know. I don't know. I've never heard. I've been to church all my life.
I've never heard such a thing. God, unchangeable. Huh? All these gifts, all these means,
everything that comes down, every good and perfect gift that comes
down, all of them, every one of them, including the means,
it comes down from the Father of lights, listen what James
said, without shadow of turning, no possibility of changing. And yet I'm told in our day that
preaching's You don't need to do that anymore. Gathering together,
you don't need to do that anymore. You can just stream messages.
You can sit at home and watch it on TV. You reckon God's changed
his mind? God hasn't changed at all. Not
at all. And so these men, they saw him
and they listened to him for a little bit and they invited
him to go with him to Areopagus. And a few years ago, I went out
to San Diego, and they took me up on one of those mountains,
and they have a big amphitheater up there, and they put on plays
and stuff, and they got stone benches carved into the mountain.
That's kind of the way I imagine this to be. And we're told that this Areopagus
was a place where men gathered either to tell or hear some new
thing. That's what religion's all about.
I don't know if any of you grew up in it or not, but I did. And
that's what we wanted. We wanted something new. We wanted
to hear something new, something fresh. And we would go to these
places and state meetings, but here it says they gathered to
tell or to hear some new thing. And I believe the picture the
Holy Ghost is pointing could very well symbolize what goes
on in most of the churches in our day. You think about it,
it's not our cities and communities giving completely over to idolatry. I saw three crosses that had
to be at least 100 feet tall coming up here, and lagging on
the sides of mountains and stuff. I was traveling up to Washington,
D.C. to see my son, and they were rebuilding the ark over
on the side of the mountain. on the way up there, and I went
up to Michigan to preach years ago, and here's a full-body bust
about 200 feet tall, rising up out of the lake, and it's a statue
of what they call Jesus, and he has his arms out like this,
and he's looking up to heaven, and I was so glad to hear that
the next day lightning hit that thing and blew it to smithereens,
and it looked, from then on, it looked like he was shaking
his fist into heaven. It's just wholly given to idolatry. And then you pass by these churches
and I just try not even to read their signs anymore. It makes
me nauseous. One of them had a sign that looked
like a scroll and it had the Ten Commandments on it. And in
big letters it said the Ten Commandments are enough for me. Well, they're
too much for me. They're too much. And then what of our city and
state officials? What of the leaders of our nation?
Can you not see their idolatry? You listen to them in their speeches
and all this campaign rhetoric. Can you not see idolatry in what
they're doing? So Paul, he knows these things,
but he agrees to speak to them. And this is what he said. He
said, I looked around your city and I perceived that in all things
you're too superstitious. I challenge you to look that
word up. It means religious. Religious. Can a man be too religious? He can and he is. Like the Athenians, this world
believes it's wise, it's a wise thing to pay homage to all forms
of religion. You see a Catholic priest walking
down, you address him as father. If you see a man and he's dressed
in a special robe and he pastors such and such church, you call
him father. Well, somebody will, but I'm
not. Not by the grace of God, I'm not gonna call him that.
And by the same grace, I won't call him what I think he is. And then if you see his name
in the newspaper, his name will certainly be preceded with one
of these titles. Father. Pope. Cardinal. All religions are recognized
and given open arms in our cities, the same as it was there, but
this is what I want you to understand. I don't want to keep going into
this thing of religion, but the world is not the pillar and ground
of the truth. Because the world says something,
or the world recognizes something, and the world says, this is the
way it is, we accept that, that don't mean anything. They're
not the pillar and ground of the truth, God's church is. This
is where God establishes his truth in this world. This world is not how God's servants
are confirmed as his ambassadors. And it's certainly not the source
of their being sent. You know the scripture said that
Christ was in the world. He came into the world, the world
was made by him, and the world knew him not. But we look to
the world, don't we? I did when I was a child, I looked
to the world. Certainly these officials and
governors and presidents and all these men, surely they can
be trusted. Surely these pastors and these big monuments of religion,
they're big, they're established, they've been here forever. Surely
they're telling me the truth. No, no they're not. No they're
not. One lady quit coming to church
where I pastor and she said, I didn't see any papers where
he graduated from seminary. Or should I call it cemetery? Our Lord said, this is condemnation. Light has come into the world.
And men love darkness rather than light. And point blank, Paul just told
them, you don't know God. He said, the only monument in
all of Athens that made any sense to me at all is to the unknown
God. Him, he said, you ignorantly
worship. What did he tell these folks?
They didn't know God. Where do you start talking to
somebody about God when you know they don't know who God is? Well,
God is God. Is he not? God is God. He is who he says he is. Now that's where you have to
go. If you wanna know something about God, you're gonna have
to listen to God's testimony, because God was around before
any of us. God was around before there was
a creation. God knows who he is, and he knows
how to make himself known. And you wanna know who God is,
you go to the word of God, and you look at his testimony. He is who he says he is, he is
as he says he is, and he's doing what he says he's doing. That's
God. He said he worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. And he said that having
just said that you obtained an inheritance. And that's how come
you obtained that inheritance. You were predestinated to it
by him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. The prophet said, he doeth according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? My generation's voting whether
or not to accept or reject what God says and what God does. Nobody
would do that who knew God. This present evil world talks
about letting God do this or that or God trying to do this
and trying to do that. Brethren, that's idolatry. It's
idolatry. God is God, and that's what Paul
told him. He's the creator of the world.
He's the governor of it. He's the judge of it. His creatures
are accountable to him. Chance has no part in the lives
of men and women. Paul said he made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.
And he hath determined the times before appointed. And listen
to this, and the bounds of their habitation. Nothing's out of
control, nothing's going sideways, nothing has been as blindsided
to living God. He took a heathen nation, a corrupt
religion, a deceived people, and a cruel army, and he used
them, according to Acts 428, to do what his hand and his counsel
determined before to be done. Now that's God. That's God. God is God. He's infinitely,
totally, completely sovereign. And as our sovereign creator,
he holds his creatures accountable. In verse 31, my text here in
Acts, it says, he has appointed a day in which he'll judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. He's not gonna judge us by what
seems right to us or what the world decides is fair. When I
hear men talk about judgment, that's what I hear them talk
about. He gonna judge you according
to that righteousness which he established in the life, death,
and resurrection of his dear son. This world was judged and condemned
and Adam. Sin entered, death passed. That's
what the scripture says. That floored me first time I
ever read that. I just kept looking at it and
reading it. Is this a misprint? By one man seen at the end of
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men? How can that be? And then I read this one, and
Adam all died. There's no possibility that sinful
man will rise above his fallen nature and somehow reconcile
himself to God. It's not gonna happen. There's a continuing debate going
on as to whether or not God causes sinners to sin. And if he does, how could he
then justly judge them? But the truth of it is that all
God has to do to the sinner is leave him alone. I told our folks
the other day, man will self-destruct. All you gotta do is leave him
alone. Destruction and misery is in his ways. He'll self-destruct.
It's just a matter of time. All men talk about a present
judgment and I suppose there's some truth to that as God gives
men over to a reprobate mind. Causes them to believe a lie
and be damned. Destroys some nations while preserving
others. But this is not the kind of judgment
that Paul's talking about. That judgment wouldn't be a puff
of smoke compared to what lies ahead in the judgment of God.
These things we call judgment. A horrible storm will come through
like it did in New Orleans. And all these preachers will
jump up and start talking about the judgment of God on New Orleans. My friend, the judgment of God,
I don't even like to read about it. I'm telling you, it is horrifying. If you just take his words at
face value, it's horrifying how he talks about hell and judgment. If anything, these things are
just a precursor to the judgment of God. This judgment that Paul's
talking about is final, eternal, complete, irreversible. There's no coming back from it.
There's no second chance. It's defined in the scriptures
as everlasting punishment, being tormented day and night forever
and ever, a bottomless pit. I told our folks the nearest
thing I could think of to even say what that means is a continual
falling. We used to be daredevils when
we was little, and we'd go out up in Kentucky on this bridge.
It was about 30 feet above the water, and the bridge was lighted,
but that was it. After road level, it was pitch
dark, and we'd dive off of that bridge into that river at night.
and you just fall through the darkness. You imagine that forever,
forever. I've experienced something of
the fall of Adam, not completely, not wholly, but I know something
about it, and hell is a continual falling with no grace, no mercy,
no light, no bottom. everlasting punishment, being
tormented day and night forever and ever, a bottomless pit, an
eternal falling, nothing in this life can compare with this eternal
judgment. And this righteous, sovereign,
holy God has set a day for judgment, and this judgment by that righteous
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And now to my text. He says in
verse 31, whereof, the last half of the verse, whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from
the dead. Now here's my message to you
tonight. Assurance unto all men. Do you struggle with assurance?
Boy, I do from time to time, I do. And then I remember he's
my assurance. As long as you keep your eyes
on Christ, you have assurance. The minute you take your eyes
off, you're looking at a black hole. And I'll be honest with you,
the first time I read this verse, back in about 1978, I was totally
baffled. How can all men have assurance
before God? Of course they don't know God. Paul just told them that. And
they don't know Christ. They don't know the gospel. And yet God raised his son from
the dead and now he says, he's talking about assurance by that
resurrection unto all men. How can that be? Can an unreconciled rebel have
assurance against judgment? Hebrews 10.27 says, he's got
nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fire-ending
nation. That don't sound like assurance
to me. Willful transgressors of the law under Moses was taken
out and stoned to death. Of how much sore punishment,
he said, suppose you should you be thought worthy of trodden
underfoot the Son of God. Counted the blood of the covenant
wherewith you were sanctified an unholy thing and done despite
under the spirit of grace. That don't sound like assurance
to me. You suppose God gonna give folks
like that an assurance against that awful day of judgment? No,
sir, he's not. So what in the world is he talking
about? How can he give assurance unto
all men by the resurrection of Christ? Well, in time, I think
the Lord gave me the answer to it, and he taught me the truth
of this verse of scripture. It's because this resurrection
has two applications. First of all, to the unbelieving
rebel, it is an assurance that this everlasting judgment shall
take place. If God judged his son at Calvary, forsook his son, let him suffer the believer's
hell on that cross. punished him under the perfect
righteousness and judgment of God. You think you're gonna get
out of judgment? No, sir. There is an assurance
to every unbelieving rebel, God raised his son from the dead. and justified his people. He
spared not his own son. And I'm telling you, that judgment's
fixed, and the resurrection of Christ is the assurance of it. You know, the scripture said,
if the righteous scarcely be saved. You ever sit and ponder
on that verse? I used to think he was talking
about the believer, and he is in a sense. But there's only
one righteous, and that's Christ. And if he scarcely be saved,
what in the world does that mean? Let me see if I can help you.
God is absolutely perfect. Yeah, no flaws. Everything about
God has to do with perfection. His righteousness is perfect
righteousness. His holiness is perfect holiness.
All his attributes, these are his perfection. This is his character. What do you do to satisfy perfection? You think there's an abundance
that goes above that? Mm-mm. All you can do with perfection
is barely get there. That's perfection. There's nothing
past that. And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, where's the sinner and the ungodly
gonna appear? Huh? If Christ just fulfilled,
now he's, there's an abundance of mercy. He talks about that.
There's an abundance of love. There's an abundance of grace.
But there's not an abundance of salvation. Salvation goes
to that point of perfection and that's it. And if he's scarcely
be saved, where's the sinner going to appear? You suppose God'll give him an
assurance? No. No, he won't. The righteous here talking about
Christ. And that's why he told that rich
young ruler, he said with man, or told his disciples, with man
this is impossible. Man can't do it. God raised Christ
from the dead because he satisfied God on our behalf. There's nothing
extra, no abundance left over. He satisfied eternal perfection
and was raised from the dead. How do I know that? Because the
purpose of God in salvation is to manifest his glory, and his
glory is his perfection. That's what he manifested in
that death. His perfect righteousness, his
perfect justice, his perfect holiness, his perfect salvation. In him, he said, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in him. Let me show you something in
Peter's message at Pentecost over here in Acts chapter two. We're talking about the assurance
of judgment. In Acts 2.36, having declared
the resurrection of Christ, he said, therefore, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly, that is, with full assurance.
Isn't that what he's saying? Let them know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord
and Christ. And they said, what are we gonna
do? We killed the Lord of Glory.
What we gonna do? You know what Peter told them? Repent and believe on Him. Jesus Christ is not still in
some unmarked grave over in Jerusalem. He's seated at the right hand
of God in glory. And he who bore the full wrath
of God toward chosen sinners now sits fully justified, accepted,
and Lord over the dead and the living. And he gonna judge in
that day. And he's the standard of that
judgment. So let every unbelieving rebel
know with full assurance that judgment is fixed and it's sure
and certain unless God intervenes on your behalf. And then secondly, This is wonder
of wonders to me. That same justice and judgment
that terrorized my soul become the assurance of life. Preacher, what in the world are
you talking about? Well, turn with me to Romans chapter three
and I'll show you what. Let me see if I can bring this
thing to an end. Paul said he proved that all
men were under sin, and then he told us what it means. None
righteous, none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God,
all gone out of the way, together become unprofitable. None that
doeth good, no not one. Poison of vipers in their lips,
all they wanna do is kill. All they can think about doing,
killing, murdering somebody. No fear of God before their eyes.
And then he says this, he gets done telling you what it is that
he just proved to you that men, all men, Jew and Gentile, they're
all under sin. Therefore, he says, having proved
these things, there shall no flesh, according to the law,
there's no flesh gonna be justified in his sight. No possibility,
because you're a sinner. You're a sinner. And even your
righteousnesses are filthy rag before you. But then he goes
on to say in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God. I tell
you, you start studying the gospel, you'll find out that righteousness
takes a preeminent place in the gospel. Paul said, I'm ready
to preach to you Romans. The gospel I preach is the power
of God unto salvation. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. And now he said, the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith or faithfulness
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe, for there's
no difference. That is between Jew and Gentile.
They're all one sin, all sinners. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now watch this. being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins. that are passed through the forbearance
of God. That doesn't mean God forgave
all your past sin, no. He's talking about Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Moses, all these Old Testament saints that believed. This Jesus,
this salvation, this propitiation was set forth under that law
symbolically. And they looked at it and foresaw
the coming of Christ, the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ,
and they believed. But just in case you don't think
that's what he's saying, he says in verse 26, to declare, I say
at this time, his righteousness, now listen to this, that he might
be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. It is the purpose of God in the
salvation of sinners to manifest his glory. Not just the glory
of his mercy and grace, but the glory of his holiness and his
justice and his righteousness. All God's attributes shine the
brightest in Christ, don't they? Christ in him crucified. That's
why Paul said he wouldn't preach anything yet. That's where God's character,
his perfections, his glory shines the brightest. even in the righteousness of
God which is by faith. It is the purpose of God in the
salvation of sinners to manifest his glory and all God's attributes
shine the brightest in him. Assurance against judgment. Only one that'll do you any good. Assurance in Christ. assurance
in Christ. He's already went through the
judgment. He's the only one in all God's
elect who really knows what judgment is. What judgment is. Well, you say that's a strange
message, Bert. Not really. He said when the
Spirit of God has come, He's going to convince you of sin.
That's That's one of the points of my message tonight. I want
you to understand what a sinner is. I hope every time I hear
the gospel, God convicts me of my sin. If he hadn't, I'm not
hearing from God. Because God, the Holy Spirit,
convinces of sin, then he convinces of righteousness. Not yours, his. And then of judgment, not that
there is one, but judgment satisfied. And that's where the assurance
comes from in Christ. Judgment has been satisfied. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. To them who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. Oh, may God teach us that in
our hearts.