This story here in Acts 17 is very
relevant to our day. If you would change the names
of the people and the places, it could very easily have taken
place in our day in this very town. The Apostle Paul was in a city
called Athens, Greece, a very large metropolitan city, that
is, a city filled with all sorts of people. That can be said of
most any town in the United States now, filled full of people from
all over the world. And this place attracted many
different classes of people, races of people. It was a city
that prided itself in entertainment and politics and the arts and
so forth, which could be said of most any city, especially
a large city. It was full of artisans, full
of actors, historians, intellectuals, politicians This could very easily
have been the city of Washington, D.C., or San Francisco, or even
little Rocky Mountain, Virginia. And to this great city of Athens
came this little, miserable-looking fellow named the Apostle Paul. He came walking into town, and
nobody noticed him, and nobody cared. Well, it says in verse sixteen,
Acts seventeen, it says, verse fifteen, Paul came to Athens
and he was waiting on Silas and Timothy to come to him. He sent
word for them to come down to Athens where he was. In verse sixteen it says, Now
while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit, his heart,
was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry,
full of idols." Paul, like the scripture says,
the zeal of God's house has eaten me up. Every one time our Lord
came into the temple and cast out all those that were making
money and selling trinkets, claiming to worship in God, right there
in the temple, he plaited a whip. Remember that story? The Lord
calmly outside the temple made a whip, thinking about what he
was going to do, and came into that temple. and started kicking
tables over and kicking people out. The Scripture says, "...as
the eel of thine house hath eaten thee up." It's supposed to be
a place of worship. He said, "...you've made it a
den of thieves." It's supposed to be a place of worship, a place
of prayer, people calling on God with thankful hearts, worshiping
God, studying God's Word. He said, "...you've made it a
mockery." Well, Paul saw the same thing going on. in his day,
and I see the same thing going on in our day. The same thing,
and it stirs me up. It bothers me. Paul's spirit
was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry,
full of idols. And I am troubled and saddened
and amazed and indignant with all that I see when I look upon
our idolatrous generation. Yeah, even Rocky Mount, Virginia. And when I talk about idolatry,
I talk about pagan things like this, talking about Christmas
parades with their little religious actors and stuffed dolls pretending
to be the Son of God himself, images and slogans. You know,
the Lord God said Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven or upon
earth." Didn't it? Express command of God, don't
make any image. People have these pictures of
supposedly Jesus when there's no description of him in the
scriptures, none whatsoever. They bow, they worship these
things. If you don't think they do, try burning one. If you don't think people take
these things seriously, try throwing one of those pictures of Jesus
away. Crosses. He said, don't make
any image. Our land is full of these things.
It's full of them. He said, don't take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. One of the commandments, thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the
Lord will not hold him giftless who takes his name in vain. We've
got God's name all over our bloopers in our cars, bathroom walls,
every billboard, every telephone pole, God's holy name written
upon it. Is that taking his name in vain?
Sure it is. Our land is full of this. You
see, it's no different today. It's worse. It's worse. They wouldn't dare do that years
ago. Idolatry, graven images, statues, crosses, these huge
cathedrals that we build that God's supposed to be impressed
with, that God's supposed to come in. Religious pageants and
parades and entertainment. Sometimes I turn the TV on just
to see what's going on, and it's the same old, same old. But you'll
have a quartet there, and that man—I don't turn the sound on,
because it'll just really make me mad. I just turn on the picture. I watch it in silence. You know,
it's very revealing to watch things in silence sometimes. Because if you couldn't hear
what they were saying, you'd think, what in the world are these people
doing? But there'll be a woman, you know, just singing like this.
And I think, she looks so ridiculous. I think she's putting on a show.
She's no different than Dolly Parton. And a man, boy, he was
dancing around, he was having a big time, and I thought, he
ought to be on the Grand Ole Opry or turn the channel to MTV. There's no difference in doing
the same thing. Idolatry. You see, Paul's spirit was wholly
stirred in him when he came to this city. that ours ought to
be now. We see all this idolatry. It's
idolatry, people, is what it is. I'm getting ahead of myself. Look at verse 17. And he disputed
in a synagogue with the Jews and with devout persons in the
market daily, with them that met with him. Verse 18. Certain philosophers, the Epicureans
and of the Stoics, encountered him. I'll not take the time to
tell you who these people were, these Epicureans and Stoics,
but I'll tell you this. They were miles apart in what
they believed. They were poles apart. They didn't
get along normally. They didn't believe anywhere
near the same thing. There were two religious groups.
One, this was about like the Catholics and the Baptists. It's
about who these people were like, or like the Muslims and the so-called
Christians getting together. And they got together against
the Apostle Paul. They came against him and said,
look at it, verse 18, what's this babbler going to say? Who's this come to preach or
to teach or to talk? Who's this preacher? Who's this
fellow? It's Paul. Who? Paul. Well, what are his credentials?
He doesn't have any. Who's this fellow come to preach
here? It's John. John, the baptizer. Where did he go to school? What
does he know? He didn't go to school anywhere.
He lived in the wilderness. What? Vain babbler. Well, we'll hear him. Sure. We'll
hear what he has to say. We're big-hearted. They said
this. What's this babbler going to
say, this base fellow, this nobody from nowhere? Somebody said,
Verse 18, "'Others some said, He seems to be a setter forth
of strange gods.' He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.'"
He's preaching a strange God. We've never heard this before.
All this talk about a sovereign God, you know? What is this? This One who lived
before time began and who always has been Lord and always will
be? became a man with a purpose, an eternal purpose, and came
to do a job to save a particular people, and did that and went
back to heaven. What is all this? Never heard
that before. Strange, strange. What kind of
God is he preaching, anyway? Holy, just, sovereign God? Well, God is love. Everybody
knows that, don't you? You Epicureans know that, don't
you? How's your God there, Stoics? He's love, he's love. God loves
everybody. God's not willing that any should
perish. God wants to save everybody. Isn't that right? That's right.
Amen, amen, amen. Who is this God he's preaching
here that's sovereign and does with his own as he will? Like
a potter with clay in his hands and can make one in this way
or one that way, it doesn't have to save anybody. That's a strange
God. Right? You preach that today. If I were standing in the pulpit
at the average so-called church today, preaching what I'm saying
right now, They would say, people would rise up in horror, shock.
What is this? This is strange here. Where did
you get that? I got it right here. Blow the dust off of yours and
you might see it. Take those preconceived notions
out of your mind and your heart that your preachers filled you
full of and you might see the God of the Bible is God indeed. Well, they said, well, we're
big-hearted, we'll hear him, we like good preaching. Verse
19, they took him down to the court for the Areopagites, Mars
Hill, it's called. And First Baptist Church of Mars
Hill, they took him down there and said, we're going to have
this evangelist. There was a lot of places years ago that asked
Brother Barnard in to preach. After his old age, he never had
a single book to come preach for them. I was listening to
a tape the other day, and he was talking about one group of
Southern Baptists that asked him to come preach in their churches. They said, You're the only one
we know that the Lord is doing anything through. And they said,
We want you to come preach to our people. But just don't go preaching that
election. Can't you preach anything but
that? Don't preach election. Our people,
they can't take it. They won't take it. Don't preach.
Mars said, I had to. I had to. He said, I had to. Well, they took him down to this
Mars hill, Paul, and they said, may we know what this new doctrine
is, Paul? Tell us what this new doctrine
is. The sovereignty of God. The purpose of God, the eternal
purpose and will and mind of God, of God choosing a people
before the foundation of the world, is no new doctrine. It was around before people were.
You see, God's purpose was around before the world was. Known under
God, Acts 15, 18, are all his works from the beginning. Isaiah
46, 10, I declare the end from the beginning. This is no new
doctrine. I'm not preaching some new doctrine,
am I, this morning? Well, this has been around a
long time before even the world was. But they said this to Paul. We'll hear this new doctrine
that you're preaching here. Verse 20, you bring certain strange
things to our ears. This is strange. And I said this
before. that the truth is so far removed
from all these so-called churches and all. People have been hearing
lies so long now that a man gets up and just declares what the
Bible says, just tells the truth, what God says, just reads it.
You just read it. And people will say, well, this
is strange. You see, it's strange. The truth
is strange to people. It ought to be familiar. One
of our ladies was telling me the other day that she was talking
to her boss at work, a woman, and she was talking to her, saying
that man is dead in trespasses and sins. He's dead. Man's dead.
He can't do anything. God, who's the giver of life,
creator, who gave life in the first place, Man's dead in trespasses
and sin. Man can't call on God, can't
hear God's voice, can't call on God, can't come to God unless
God gives him life. Unless God gives him new birth. That's what new birth means.
God gives birth. God's the one that opens the
eyes to see these things in the scriptures. Men and women can
read them all their lives and not see it. Why? They're dead. They're dead. They can hear these
things and not hear them. Is that right? That's what the
Scripture says. Having ears, they hear not. And
she was telling this woman, it says in the Scriptures, that
man is dead and trespasses in. The woman said, didn't she? She
said, I've never heard that before. Where does it say that? Didn't
she? I've never heard that before.
Where does it say that? I bet you nearly every person
in this room knows it says it in Ephesians 2.1. Colossians
2 verse 13, I believe it is, says, "...you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespass and sin." Dead! You know it was so of you. Those
who had been given life knew that you were dead, right? Well,
it's strange, you see. These things are strange. This
is new. This is strange. What is this?
It's just the truth of God's Word. That's what it is. It's
the truth. The truth will set you free.
The truth gives life. Well, read on. It says that,
well, we'll hear this new thing, this strange thing. Verse 21
says, The Athenians and strangers which were there, they spent
their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some
new thing. Boy, doesn't that describe religion today, huh? Like I said, I turn the TV on
to see, well, what's new today? Because that's what everybody's
trying to do. You see, religion's in the people proselyting business. That's what they're doing, encompassing
sea and land, see how many church members we can have and ultimately
how much money we can take in. But it's encompassing sea and
land, see how many people they can get in their buildings. And
how they do that is come up with something new. You can't be doing
what so-and-so down there's doing. You've got to be doing something
new. Come up with something new. Well, this fellow, what's he
doing? Well, everybody down there is... And again, turn it on sometime,
just turn the sound off and watch them. You think, if you didn't
know what was going on, you'd think, who's playing? Notre Dame? Or is Virginia Tech playing today? I thought it was... They're doing
the wave, you know. Is it football, basketball, baseball?
What is it? No, this is church service. Well, you turn over to the other
channel and everybody's laying on the floor. I'm serious. They're laying on
the floor laughing. I'm serious. Have you seen it?
This is a new thing. What's your new thing? We're
going to think of something. Some new thing. You know, the
preaching of God's Word has been replaced with everything on the
side. It's come out good now. Gospel sings, testimony meetings,
miracle healing crusade, prophecy seminars, this and that and the
other. And Christ said, You let a man come in his own name of
some new dream, advertise it in a paper, put his picture all
over the place, put these affecting moving shots of this man, you
know, in Africa, reaching down to serving kids and on the mountaintop
preaching to thousands of people. This man's face, you've got this
man's face and this man's name all over the place, it's obviously
for the glory of this man. Christ said this, Jesus Christ
said this, let a man come in his own name, obviously for his
own glory, for his own sake, his own fame, his own fortune.
He said people will flock to hear him. And a man will say,
God told me something. He can be out running at night
with prostitutes. I was watching Jimmy Swaggart
this morning. That guy's still in business. Been caught red-handed
time and again. Still in business. Thousands
of people coming to watch him. And they were doing this, too,
you know. A crook, a red-handed crook. Cry, because he sings
good. Jimmy sings a good song. Let a man come in his own name.
God spoke to me. God told me this. And people,
what now? Yes, tell us, preacher. Tell
us. He said, you let a man come just
in the name of God. A man could say, what are you
going to do this morning? What are you going to do, preacher,
this morning? We're going to open the Bible to Acts 17, and
we're going to look verse by verse at God's Word and see what
God says in His Word. Is that all? Is that it? Oh, yeah. This is
how God speaks. We're going to look at his word.
It's serious. We're going to look and see what
God says all the way through his book. Now, we'll have a sing.
We'll sing a few songs of praise, yeah. We'll sing some worship
to prepare our hearts, but not to entertain. We're not trying
to entertain anybody. No, you can do that on Saturday
night. Probably did. But on a Sunday morning, this
is the time to worship, see. And we're going to sing, why
don't we sing, to worship God. We're going to get that out of
the way, though, and get to what this thing's all about. See,
we're going to look into God's words. You want to say, well,
that ain't much. That's not enough for me. So,
here we have it. You got empty pews here and there.
Right? Let me tell you what God says.
I want to hear that. Let me tell you what I know,
what God told me. Yeah, let's hear that new thing.
Verse 22, Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, and this
is called Central Baptist, isn't it? Rightly named. Right in the
midst of Franklin County, between Rocky Mountain and Farrell. Central. This little place on the hill
here. Paul stood in the midst of it.
I've got a good name, too, don't I? I've got a good name. In the
midst of Mars Hill and said, You men of Athens, you men of
Athens, I perceive, looking around me at all of you, these statues
and these pictures and everybody going through these motions and
this and that and the other, I perceive that in all things
you're too superstitious. The word there is also religious. I looked it up in the original
Greek Bible. I had a word so long, I said,
I can't give that to them. I can't even say it, the word. It meant, and I'm not talking
in tongues, Henry. It's this long word. It meant,
you're more religious than anybody else. That's what this means,
what he's saying here. I perceive, I look around me,
I see all these things going on, and I perceive that you're
more, y'all are real religious. And I think that's why, and I
say the same thing right here on the top of the hill here on
40 West. I think that's why, I know now
why they named this road 40 West. You know why? Because west of
Rocky Mountain there are 40 churches. On every street corner. No, they're
not. They might be. I haven't counted
them. It seems that way, that. Every time Dick and Harry and
Mary wants to start them a little church, they'll start them one.
Just put up a little building and you've got your church. I
thought a church was people. That isn't right. drive down
through here and you'll see nothing but church, church, church, church,
building, building that, building that, building that. I perceive
that this is a real religious place. Look at all the church
houses, right? And that could be said about
any town in any small town USA, or big town for that matter.
Read on. Paul said, I perceive in all
things you're too superstitious, you're real religious. Verse
23, As I passed by and beheld your devotions He saw all of
these different gods in different ways, this denomination, that
denomination, this way, that way, we do this, we do that,
you do that, you do this. Paul said he found this one inscription. I found an altar with this inscription. It said, and they were trying
to worship in every which way, and over here it said, to the
unknown God. He was just a slab of stone over
here on one side. Nobody's paying much attention
to it. It's just a rock, you know. To the unknown God, just in case
we've missed something, the unknown God. Paul said, He's the one
I'm going to declare this morning, the one that nobody seems to
know. Him I declare unto you this morning. You know, all the
way through the Old Testament, we've read it together time and
again. Through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Daniel, God says this. And I know I could give you two
dozen scriptures where he says this over and over again. I'm
God. There's none else. You've read
those, haven't you? Some of them. Over and over.
He said, I'm God. There's none else. I'm the Lord. There's none else. Isn't it?
Why does he say that? People don't know he's God. They
take the name on their lips, don't they? They say, God this,
God that. But when they begin to talk about
him and describe him, it's obvious he's not God. Here's how Paul describes him.
Listen. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing
that he is Lord of heaven and earth, Now, stop right there. He's saying here, God is the
Creator, isn't He? Now, just stop and think about it. In Jeremiah chapter 18 and
Romans 9, Jeremiah preached this, or the Lord preached it to him.
Jeremiah 18. Paul preached it to the Romans.
It says, God is the potter and we are the clay. You've read that, haven't you?
He says, I'm the potter and you are the clay. I used to have
a pottery wheel. My brother and I used to have
a pottery wheel and we would make pottery on clay. And I wish I had a little bit
of clay with me this morning. I'd show you. I would demonstrate
to you this thing of potter and the clay. At any rate, when we
would go to make something, we would get this clay. You buy it, you don't buy it
in already wet, mixed form. You buy it in a sack of dust.
It's a sack of dust. It's all in dust. You add a little
water to it, and you shake it, and you mold it like that. however
big something you're going to make with it, you put it on that
pottery wheel thing, a big slab of slob, a big blob of wet dirt. That's all it is. It has no say. Clay has no say. Right? Never once in making a
piece of pottery did that clay say, hey, I sure would like to
be this or that. Never once. I always made that
clay exactly what I wanted to make. And if I didn't like it? Right? That's the story that
the Lord told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 18. In Romans 9, hath not the
potter, I'm quoting it for you, power over the clay of the same
lump to make one a vessel unto honor and another a vessel unto
dishonor? Hath not the potter power over
the clay? The Lord said, I'm the potter, you're the clay.
He said, cannot I do of my own what I will? Yes. He said, can
the clay say to him that formed it, you can't do that? Oh, yes,
he can and he does. He's the potter. We're the clay.
What do we say about that? Paul went on to say that in Romans
8. What do you say to these things? Well, some people, he said, argued
that. Well, then who has resisted his will? How can God find fault? If that's the way it is, if God's
sovereign and there's nothing I can do about it, then what's
the sense in it? Paul said, don't you dare talk like that. Just
acknowledge that God is God and worship him as such. And he might
show you something else. He doesn't have to. It's enough
to know that we're clay. Henry, you own some things, don't
you? You own a tractor. You own this and that and the
other. Have I any right whatsoever to tell you to do with what you
own the way I want? Any right whatsoever? No, it's
yours, isn't it? You can do with your own what
you will. And you do, don't you? God's the creator. Is there a
simpler Is there an easier to understand concept? Men have
forgotten this. God's a creator. If I make something,
I can do with it what I want. Right? It's mine. God's a creator. Is it any wonder, then, that
men are trying to disprove creation? Huh? Do you see why? Do you see
why men and women want so badly to believe in evolution, and
you've got to want badly to believe that. It takes more faith to believe
in evolution than creation. It really does. Big bang. It
takes a lot of faith to believe that, that all of this came out
of an explosion. The only explosion was in their
brains. Their brains blew up. These people,
these experts, This is indicative of modern wisdom, isn't it? We pay billions upon billions
of dollars for men to study the fact that there are black homes
in space. And in it lies the secret of
the universe. No, that's where his brain went.
That's where his marbles are. In evolution you can pack all
of the actual evidence, the actual concrete skeletal remains that
they found to support the theory of evolution in a small box,
a small box the size of this table. The fact is that there
are billions upon billions of dollars being put into these
coffers for these people to look at these things. And what are
they going to do? Say, it's all a lie, it's all a hoax. There's no Neanderthal, man.
Are they going to say that? No, it's their life, it's their
job. They're getting money, free money. And the fact is that men want
to disprove the fact that God's the Creator. See? Why? Because
if he's Creator, we're answerable to him. Right? If he created
us, that means he can do what he wants to with us, and he does.
But if we can disprove that, you see, we don't have a God.
There's no God to answer to. You see what I'm saying? So that's
why John Chapman said this. Men like to believe in evolution
because they like to think that they started out as monkeys.
And they evolved, and so they can say, Look how far we've come.
Look how far we've evolved. The fact is, we started out upright,
and we've gone down to all fours. And we ought to say, Look how
far we've fallen. Right? Created in the image of
God, and man crawls around on all fours now. Isn't it so? God is Creator. That's what Paul
said, seeing that he's Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not
in temples made with hands. Read on. Verse 25. He doesn't
dwell in buildings. Why are you building this big
monstrosity, this big glass cathedral? Why are you doing this, people?
What are you building this big? What's all this for, this stained
glass? What's a stained glass for? Just get a rock thrown through
it. Huh? What's all this about? Put all
these golden pipes in this organ. What will the piano do? What's
all this about? Because this is God's house. Oh, no, it's not. It's just brick and stone and
glass. That's all it is. And I could spit on this floor
right now. I don't, out of respect for what God has given us, and
I do highly value the place that God has given us and treat it
with respect and teach my children so, that this is the place the
Lord has given us to come and meet, and we take care of it
and we highly esteem it and we conduct ourselves in a very reverent
fashion. But I could spit on this floor.
There's nothing holy about this floor. There's nothing holy about
that land in Israel. That's not the holy land. You
won't find that anywhere in the scripture. That's dirt! The land in Jerusalem
is dirt! It's got worms and maggots and
dead skulls, and it's dirt! Nothing holy about it, is it,
huh? Seem near too superstitious,
aren't they? And for a hundred dollars, I'll
send you a vial full of that dirt. That's what they're doing! Dirt out of the Lord's tomb,
send it to you. What do I want with that? Well, if it's good and fertile,
send a truckload. I need it in my garden. I've
got a lot of red clay. Holy water. You see that man
on the newspaper the other day, blessing that bridge? Holy water. I bet you he got
that water out of the river. It came from the river. The same
water, holy water, will bless the bridge. I wish you'd jump
off it. God's not worshipped with men's
hands. Look at that, verse 25. He's
not even dwelling in temples, verse 24, made with hands. He's
not worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed to do anything.
What are we going to do for God? You can't do anything for God. I'm serving the Lord. Are you
going to hurt me? Did we read that together in
Psalm 50? He said, If I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. If I needed
anything, I need your money. He said, I want the gold and
the silver, and the mines is mine. A cattle on a thousand ale, I
don't need what you've got. You need what I've got. I don't
need what you've got. God doesn't need anything. Isn't
this strange doctrine? It would be strange to our generation,
isn't it? You mean I can't do anything
for the Lord? No! God doesn't need anything. Right? Look at it. He gives to all life
and breath and all things. He's the one that's got everything.
We've got nothing. The only thing we can do, per se,
for God is to do something for one another. He said, if you've
done it for one of my children, it's as if you did it to me.
But you can't do anything for me, God said. God's spirit. What's he need
with mine? Whatever. Verse 26, he says,
made of one blood, God hath made of one blood all nations of men
to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. What's
that talking about? Paul is saying, in the beginning,
God created man, a man named Acts. Turn over to Romans 5,
OK? Romans 5, the next book over is the book of Romans. Acts,
Romans, and then turn to chapter 5. I want you to look at this.
You need to see this. Our generation is ignorant of
this. It's a strange doctrine. You'll not hear this preached
anywhere except where the Bible is preached.
It's strange to talk about original sin. I know I'm rambling a little
bit here, but these things need to be exposed. This so-called
Knights of the Sea, what is it? Oh, yeah, I know what it was.
It's the Church of the Scientific Whatever that is, scientific.
Christian science, that's it. Christian science has a big ad
in the Roanoke paper that said, are you tired of guilt manipulation? Are you tired of preachers getting
up and preaching to you the original sin? He said, if you're like
95 million other Americans, you didn't even go to church this
morning, you're tired of feeling guilty about your sin. Well,
come to where we are and we'll tell you as somebody that you're
something. You don't have to take this.
Come to where it's new, it's different. It's almost as if
they were saying, let's get a good ad, let's read Acts 17 and put
all that in it. Original sin. The fact is, look
here at Romans 5. 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned. Read on. Verse 17. By one man's offense, death reigned
by one. Verse 18. Therefore, by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Verse 19,
"...as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Do you
know who the one man he's talking about is? Do you know? It's Adam, isn't it? It's the first man God created.
See, God created one man. Everybody else came from this
man. Say, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Oh, you'd
rather believe the explosion. Now, this man lived 930 years,
he and his wife, and if you had a child every nine months with
some twins and some triplets, families would build up pretty
quick. That's where he came to get his wife. He married one
of his sisters. Does that answer that question for all time and
eternity? Huh? Sure does. All right? From one
man. God created one man. He was holy. He was upright, he was in the
image of God, right? He had a free will. The only
one who ever had it, Adam, had a free will. God said, here's
good, here's evil, choose. Right? Adam was holy. What did Adam choose? He said,
God said, here I am. Here's this woman, here's the
world, here's the planet Earth and the pleasures of sin. What did Adam choose? He chose
evil, didn't he? And from that day forward, God
said, the day you eat of that fruit, the day you rebel against
me, the day you choose evil over me, you're going to die. Didn't
it? That's where the spiritual death
came from. That's where original sin came
from. He said, the day you eat, you
shall die. In dying you shall die. Adam died, didn't he, that
day? Did he? He didn't die physically. He lived 930 years. How'd he
die? Spiritually. God cut him off. He couldn't see God anymore.
He couldn't hear God anymore. He couldn't talk, he wouldn't
walk with God, he didn't know God anymore, unless God chose
to speak to him. Right? He died. This sin, this
nature called sin, you see this thing, just as soon as he fell,
the scripture says there in Genesis 3, it says that Adam was naked. He covered himself, he shamed,
he felt shame. covered himself, little fig leaves, and that's
the whole story. Little fig leaves and all that,
and hid from God. Hid from God? Why did he do that?
He didn't want to hide from God before. He loved God. He enjoyed
God's presence. Naked? God came to him and said,
Who told you to be naked, Adam? What's naked mean? He said, I
was ashamed. I was naked. Naked? You've been
naked for however long he lived? A hundred years? You weren't
ashamed? What happened, Adam? Did he eat
of the tree I told you? God knew. Well, he said, it's the woman,
it's the woman. She did it. What's that? He loved her before. He said when he first saw that
woman came, that God created, he said, bone of my bone, flesh
of my flesh, oh, I love her so. And as soon as he took that bite
of that, as soon as he rebelled against God, look at that, it's
her fault. If you hadn't created her, it's
her fault. suspicion, hatred, didn't he? He hated that woman. What else
did he say, Joe? The woman you created. Ultimately,
he said, if you hadn't have done this, I wouldn't have done that.
What's happened to Adam? He's a sinner. He was holy before, just like
God. But now he's dead in sin. Every thought, every affection,
everything he touches, everything he thinks is full of sin. So what kind of boy is he going
to give birth to? This is his nature now. His nature
before was holy. His nature now is evil, sinful,
wretched. What kind of boy is he going
to have? Well, the first boy he had was named Cain, wasn't
he? What was he like? He killed his brother. He wasn't
holy like God. Why? He's a sinner. He's born in sin. And every boy, every girl born,
why do you have to teach your children good? You don't teach
them to lie, do you? You don't teach them to lie.
We spend all our lives trying to get them to do something good.
Huh? We don't have to teach them to
cheat and steal and hate and all that. It's their nature.
You see, one blood. God is made of one blood. All
men. It all came from Adam. Right? We have original sin. You say,
God can't hold me accountable for what Adam did. He doesn't. He holds you accountable for
what you've done. He said all of sin comes short of the Lord.
Huh? That's what he said there. All
obscene. This is a foreign doctrine today,
isn't it? They say, I don't like that. I won't have that. I won't take the blame for what
one man did thousands of years ago. I won't take that blame.
All right. God made another man. He was
holy. He was just. He was righteous.
A righteous man. substitute come down here as
a representative of man, just like Adam. Two thousand years
ago, he lived on this earth, and when God saw this man, he
said, I'm well pleased. I accept him. He's approved. Yes, that's a good man. That
man can come into heaven, and everybody that's in him, everybody
he represented, everybody he did that work for, is accepted
by God Almighty. Will you take that? Will you take credit for something
that he did 2,000 years ago? You can't unless you take the
blame for what Adam did 6,000 years ago. Right? That's the reason they're not
preaching substitution either today. Well, God hath before appointed
all things, and I could give you countless scriptures about
that, the bounds of their habitation. Job said, it says in Job 14,
5, that the number of his days are with thee, thou hast appointed
his bounds, that he may not pass. This is a day appointed by God
Almighty, who is the Creator, who reigns and rules and is in
control of all things. It's got your name on it, that
you're going to die, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
So that's fatalism. No, it's not. It's Job 14.5.
And it's Acts 17.26. Right? Right. He's too wise to
err, people. Too wise to err. Well, he says
this. Now, men, they should seek the
Lord. Verse 27. That means, Barbara, we don't
know what day, do we? What should we do then? Oh, that
they were wise, the scripture says, and would consider their
latter end. They're disappointed. None of
the men wants to die, and after that, the judgment. Read on. He says that he's appointed to
bounds, and they ought to seek after the Lord and feel after
him, if happily they might. Happily they might feel after
him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. far off and not of God at hand.
He said, if God at hand and not of far off, in other words, we're
in his hand. Verse 28, in him we live and
move and have our very being. In him we live and move and have
our very being. The God in whose hands our breath
is, our very being. For as much, then, as we are
the offspring of God, in other words, God created us, we came
from God, this man who was creating his image holy and upright and
perfect, we ought not to think that God Almighty is like gold
or silver or stone or engraved in by art and man's devices.
If you believe God created man in his own image, You believe
that God is all-powerful and creator and ruler? You can't
worship a picture or a statue, can you? If you know anything
about the sovereign God, you ought not to think that. Verse
30, "...the times of this ignorance God winked at." But now, God
winked at means he turned an eye. It's like when you look
at something and you see it You ever done that? I've done
that to my daughter or something. I see it, and I'm holding you
accountable for it. I'll tend to it later. That's
what that means, wink that. It's not like, well, boys will
be boys. It's not like he's saying that, oh, he's cute. That's not what he's saying there.
It's like, I see that. and turns his back and her eye
goes on. But now, God wants you so badly
to let him into your life. Is that what verse 30 is saying?
God wants so badly. Somebody gave one of our young
men a track the other day, and the whole thing, that's all it
said, all the way through it, God wants you to know this, God wants
you to do that, God wants this, God wants that, God wants that,
God doesn't want anything. If he wants something, that means
it's something he doesn't have, right? Let me tell you, if God
Almighty just supposed that he does want something, he's going to get it. That's
God. It says, God now doesn't ask anything,
he commands. commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, because," now here it is, I'm going to quit with
this, "...he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance to all men that he hath raised him from
the dead." What's that talking about, preacher? Well, Noah was
a preacher of righteousness, the Scripture said. Noah preached
judgments coming. 120 years he pounded the same,
he preached the same thing. Judgments coming. With every
blow of his hammer on that ark. 120 years! Boy, don't you know,
people, he might have attracted a crowd at first, Dan. But after
14 years, after 78 years of the same message, they said, this
guy doesn't know anything else. He's got the same message. Judgment's
coming. Get in the ark. Judgment's coming.
Get in the ark. There's only safety in the ark.
Judgment's coming. God's going to watch. Judgment's
coming. It's sure. It's certain. Judgment's
coming. Get in the ark. There's salvation
only in the ark. Only those in the ark can be saved. Judgment's
coming. Same message over and over again. Got to be in the
ark. Your ark's going to be pinched, and the water can't get in. Get
in the ark, judgment's coming. Then all you know of Noah? Yeah! God's holy, sovereign,
just, and you're going to judge this world. Get in Christ. Christ
is the only way of salvation. Get in Christ. How do we get
in Christ? I don't know what you've got
to do to get in Christ. Is that all you know, preacher?
It sure is. That's all they're preaching
about in heaven? Preacher of righteousness, you know it was.
Whose righteousness? Well, if you live straightened
out and live right, God won't judge you. No! Get in the ark. It's the only place you're going
to be safe when the overflowing scourge of God's wrath comes
through, because it's coming, in the ark. It's the only place
of salvation. Where, preacher? In the ark. Where is salvation again? For
it is in Christ, in Christ alone, not what you're doing, not your
righteousness. It's in his righteousness. It's
in his sight, it's in under his blood, under the blood, under
the blood. God is appointed today, and he
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. One man. The whole world was
judged, we read that in Romans 5, in Adam, right? Everybody
was condemned. Everybody's on their... God doesn't
elect people to hell. That's where they're going. That's
where every man by nature is going. That's what the scripture
says, we're condemned already, right? That's what people say
about those who believe in election. Well, you believe God elected
men to hell and some to heaven. No! Everybody by nature is going
to hell. That's what Romans 5 says. By
one man's sin, death came upon all men. Condemnation, judgment. God elects people to salvation.
Salvation. By one man, he judged all the
world guilty because they have his nature. And by one other
man, the second man, Second Adam, the Son of God, who came as a
man. God's going to judge the world,
whether they're in Him or out of Him. They trust Him, they
believe Him, they're in Him, they know Him, they love Him,
they bow to Him, or they're out of Him. They don't care about
Him. They're not interested in Him. They don't believe Him.
He didn't choose them, He said. And I don't know, but I told
the people down in Winston-Salem, I said, you know, when that day
comes, Did you ever, as a child, get
under your mother's skirt? Huh? Your mothers used to wear
long robes or dresses, you know. Hannah used to do that, get up
under her skirt. I knew where she was. I could
see her little feet sticking out, you know. Hannah, you know,
you played the game, where's Hannah? I don't know, I don't
know. She's hid. She was in her. She was born,
she was in her at one time. She gave birth to her. And then
she was hidden under her skirts. Oh, isn't that a clear picture,
huh? It's coming a day when God's going to judge people either
standing beside Jesus Christ God's going to look at two, and
here's Jesus Christ, perfect, holy, just like God Almighty.
Now here he is, here's St. John Davis. Ooh, John, you don't
want to be standing beside him like that, do you? You don't
measure up. He said, you've been waiting
in the mountains to find water. He said, like dust. Dust won't
even move the scales. You don't want to be standing
beside him, John. Where do you want to be? Anywhere. Under his skirt is robe of righteousness. Hide me, O my Savior, hide me."
You see that? You're dead. Your life is hid
with God in Christ. Where's Jeanette? Christ says,
here. Her life's hidden. She was a sinner all her life,
but don't worry, she's under the blood. She's robe of my righteousness. She's here in God. She's here. That's what it means to be in
Christ, in Christ. And when the Scripture says in
Psalm 24 that when the time is all over, that the everlasting
doors and gates are going to be thrown wide open and the King
of glory is going to come in. It says there's going to be a
whole army of people behind him. Not beside him, behind him, following
him, in his trail, holding on to his apron string. That's his
righteousness. Oh, what are you all doing in
here? Christ says, Behold, I, these
are my children. Accept them because of what I
did. The Father says, Come on in,
family. Come on in. Because God has pointed
at that. He's going to judge the world
in righteousness, absolute holiness. according to what we've done
or haven't done. Want to stand beside him or any? Huh? That's what salvation is. What
does it mean to believe Christ? What does it mean to trust Christ?
You hear these people say, well, now just believe on Jesus. Believe
what? Believe the fact that he came? Everybody believes that.
The devils believe that. What James said, didn't he, Terry?
In the book of James, he said, The devil believes more in God
than anyone. Is that salvation? Well, believe on Jesus. Believe
that in the blood of the Book of the Blessed Holy. Believe
on Jesus, He came, He died, He buried and rose again. Believe
that and you're saved. No. Everybody believes that. Facts
don't say it. It's to have God Almighty show
you who He is, God. God, and what you are, a sinner
before this God, in need of mercy and grace. And there are different
degrees of seeing this. Some people, it really strikes
them with terror and guilt and fear, and they don't rest for
a long time. But in other people, it's just
a slow revelation. Slowly they're being revealed
to them, hey, God's not what men are saying. What I'm reading
here is that he's holy, and I'm nothing, I'm nobody. Some people
say it's a slow revelation, but they all know it. And they see,
hey, I'm a sinner. God doesn't need me. If I'm going
to be saved, God's going to have to do it. They see this, and
then they cry out to God for mercy. Lord, please, I don't
know you. I don't know Christ. I don't
know these things. I'm ignorant. Reveal yourself to me. Reveal
the gospel to me. And the gospel keeps being preached.
And I see, I see now, Christ, yes, it's all my hope is, all
salvation is what Christ had in it. What you're saying, preacher,
is that God elected a people and only those people will be
saved. Yes, that's what the Bible said. But all those that he elected
will see that Christ is the only Savior, and they'll trust and
believe him. They'll try to see Christ as
their substitute, their sacrifice, their only hope with this holy
God. They'll see that. They'll all see that. That's
what I'm saying, yeah. And they'll call upon him, Lord,
save me or I perish. Lord, did you do this for me?
Would you do this for me? Yeah, that's what they'll do.
And they'll confess him. After they believe this, and
the Lord bears witness with their spirit that, yes, I did this
for you, then they'll want to tell everybody, yeah, it's baptism,
and I'm confessing this Lord, this gospel, dead, buried, and
resurrected with Christ, the walking newness of life. Yeah,
that's what I'm saying. And it says there in our text,
it says, Some believed. He said some cleaved,
as you read on down, he said some unmocked him. Right. I don't
believe that. Some mocked him. I don't believe
that. And he said others cleaved Paul. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Come
back tonight. Hey, that's just what I needed. I haven't heard that anywhere
else. It's strange. Yeah, I never heard it before.
I want to hear it again. They cleaved Paul. But more importantly,
they pleaded unto the Lord Jesus Christ, pleaded to him.