The Lord Jesus who died on the
cross. Thank God He saved us by His
grace when He gave His life a ransom for His people. Okay, we're in
Acts chapter 17 this morning. For the last few weeks, we've
sort of been following the Apostle on his second missionary journey. Like his first missionary journey,
this one began at Antioch. That's the church that, first
of all, sent out the Apostle and Barnabas, and went around
preaching the gospel that came back to Antioch. And then the
church sent forth the Apostle Paul, and this time Silas went
with him, and so they're together. After they left Antioch, God
directed them to Macedonia. That's where they preached the
gospel. And as they went into Macedonia, they went to a city
called Philippi. And God established the local
church there. And then after that church was
established in Philippi, they went on to Thessalonica. God
graciously established a church in Thessalonica. Both of those
cities would later receive letters from the apostle. The book of
Philippians was written to the church at Philippi, and we know
that. And then, of course, the church
at Thessalonica, they were privileged to receive two letters from the
Apostle, and these are indeed part of the canon of Holy Scripture. Well, after the Apostle left
Thessalonica, then he went to Berea. God established a church at Berea. Here are three churches the Lord
has graciously established. He brought people out their false
religion. It brought people to believe
the grace of God, to believe the Lord Jesus. Three churches
were established. What does the word church mean?
It means a called out assembly. People who've been brought out
or called out by God's free grace, by God's effectual grace. This
is a local church. Not the building, really, and
I know we loosely say, and I'm not going to chastise anybody
for saying this, well, I went tomorrow to say I went to church
yesterday. We know what we mean, right?
We know what we mean. But we also know that, really,
this building is not the church. We're the church, right? We're
living stones. There's nothing living about
this building. This building, back when it was
built, boards and nails and mortar and brick and whatnot, all the
other things that go into building a building, but this building
has no life in it. It is just the location where
God's people gather together to worship. We are the church. We are the church. And we're
alive. We're alive. You see, we're living
stones. That's what the Lord did. He
did this with these great preachers of the gospel in Philippi and
in Thessalonica and in Berea. Here's what the Lord did. He
sent His preachers into those cities. They declared the gospel
of Jesus Christ. They preached about the grace
of God. They set forth Jesus of Nazareth as being Messiah. He is the Christ of God. He's
the one set forth in the Old Testament. He came into this
world, this One who is God and Man. He is the Son of God. He
is the Son of Man. He came into this world. These
men set Him forth. They said, Jesus of Nazareth,
He is the Son of God. He came into this world. He gave
His life a ransom. A ransom for His people. God's law had arrested us. It
held us for ransom. Well, what's it going to take
to liberate the Lord's people? And the justice of God said it's
going to take the death of the Son of God. And so the Lord Jesus,
He died on the cross bearing the full penalty for the guilt
of our sins. All of our sins were charged
to Him. They were made to be His indebtedness. He died under the wrath of God.
These men went forth preaching the Lord Jesus who died and who
rose again. He ever lives, the Scripture
says, to make intercession for us, and His resurrection, it
attests to the fact that He actually redeemed His people by His blood. He did God's work when He died
on the cross. He did it to God's full satisfaction. He arose from the dead, He went
back to glory. This is a message these men went
preaching, and as the message went forth, God called His people. He drew His people from among
those who heard the message. Not everybody believed the message.
Not everybody was called effectually by the Spirit of God. But the
Lord's people were. The Lord sent the Word forth
as it were into the very quarry of mankind. And He dug out rocks,
stones, out of this vast quarry of mankind. And He made us to
be living stones, and He fits us into the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're living church. We're made
alive by the Spirit of God. That's what happened in Philippi.
That's what happened in Thessalonica. That's what happened in Berea.
That's what's happened right here. Right here. God has brought
a people, He called a people by His grace. And you know what? That message that the people
in Philippi heard, and the message that the people in Thessalonica
heard, and the message that the people in Berea heard, is identical
to the message that we hear today. It's the same gospel. It hasn't
changed at all. It's still the same message that
God uses in order to bring forth His people, to call His people
unto Himself and gather them together to worship Him, to adore
Him, to enjoy Him, to believe Him, to rest in Him and give
Him all of the glory and all of the praise. He's brought us
together today. He brings together people, a
called out assembly. That's what a church is. We're
called out false religion. And in your mind, you think back,
where were you when God called you? A lot of you are in false
religion, and ultimately we're all in false religion, but many
were very active in false religion. Maybe some where you just lived
a life of wickedness? Open wickedness? You had a defiled
life? But wherever you were, whatever
your circumstances, wherever God found you, here's the important
thing, He found you. He found you. And He called you. And He sent to you the very same
message He sent to me, the very same message He sent to those
who believed in Thessalonica, and those who believed in Berea,
and those who believed even way back in Philippi, and everywhere
else that they believed. They believed the same gospel
that we are brought to hear and believe today. So the Lord has
established His churches. We read in 1 Peter, but you're
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation,
a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him
who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He
called us. And it's like this, if He doesn't
call us, we won't ever call on Him. If He doesn't seek us, we
won't ever seek Him. Had He not elected us, had He
not chosen us, we would never have chosen to believe this gospel.
It all originates with the Lord. It's of His grace and of Him
only. When I think of God's call of
grace, I reflect upon the way our Lord chose His twelve disciples. It is written in Mark chapter
3 and verse 13, And He goeth up into a mountain, and calleth
unto Him, whom He would, and they came unto Him." Here is
sovereign grace. He calleth unto Him whom He would. Whoever He wanted to call, that's
the ones He called. He didn't call everybody. He
called the ones He wanted to call. That's sovereign grace. And here is effectual grace.
And they came unto Him. That's effectual grace. That's
grace that gets the job done. As the gospel of the Lord Jesus
goes forth today, it's a message delivered by a mere man, a man
who is himself a sinner just like you are. But in this miraculous,
mysterious, glorious Word of God, there is great power when
taken by the Spirit of God. He can make it effectual even
to your heart. Even to your heart. And this
is what we need to ask God right now. Lord, speak to me. Lord, speak
to me. You wouldn't want me to get up
here without having some preparation for this message, would you? Well, Do you think maybe you
ought to have some preparation before you come? You think you
ought to ask God, Lord, help me to hear what He's got to say
today. Lord, help me to believe. Enable
me to believe. Lord, You direct all things according
to the Word of Your power and You brought me into this building
today. You're the one who gives me life.
and breath, and you brought me here, and I've already heard
the Word of God read, and now your servant is speaking from
the Word of God? I don't have a devotional book
up here. I'm not speaking to you from
some kind of religious magazine. I've got the Word of God here.
And this is what you should ask God right now in your heart.
And God will help you to do it in meaning. Lord, speak to me
through your Word. Just like you spoke to those
people in Philippi. Just like you spoke to those
people in Thessalonica. Just like you spoke to those
people in Berea? And just like you've spoken to
so many other people here? Lord, please speak to me today. Speak to me. Speak to me. Oh,
pass me not, O gentle Savior. Would you hear my humble cry? While on others you are calling,
you've called so many others in here, please don't pass me
by. That's what we ought to be praying.
Ask God that. And you know, if by the Spirit's
leadership, if you mean business, He won't pass you by. Will He? He's not going to pass you by.
He'll speak to you. He'll speak to you. Well, the
Lord established these different churches. But after the Apostle
Paul and Silas, after they preached in Berea, well, things got really
tense. Persecution arose. And of course,
it arose to a degree for all of the preachers, but really,
here's the one the enemies of the Gospel really hated, the
Apostle Paul. That's the one they set the bull's
eye on him. And so some of the brethren in
Berea said, we've got to get him out of town. It's just not
safe for God's preacher to stay here. And so they said, we're
going to take you to Athens. We're going to take you to Athens.
And the Apostle Paul, as we had read to us in verse 15, They
conducted him to Athens and then he told the men who brought him,
he said, now, you go back and would you have Timothy and Silas
come and join me? Come and join. Now, where is
Timothy? He stayed back. He stayed back
in one of the churches to preach there and so did Silas, but he
said, I want them to come with me. Now, he goes to Athens. Athens was one of the most vital
cultural and philosophical cities in all the world. Some say in
its very heyday, it's the greatest city that's ever existed. That
would have been especially back in the 5th and 4th centuries
BC. This was a city of the great
wise men of the world, the philosophers, the Plato's and Socrates and
Aristotle and folks like that. They studied, they taught, they
were professors in Athens. And yet with all their brilliance,
with all the great intelligence of the men in Athens, The city of Athens stood as a
monument to the foolishness of men. It stood as a monument to the
absolute accuracy of a statement found in 1 Corinthians 1.21 which
reads, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God. If ever that was so, it was so
in Athens. The world by wisdom knew not
God. With all the great intellectual
brains, the minds of those men, men who were brilliant, men who
had unusual, exceptional intelligence, with all of their wisdom, with
all of their knowledge, with all of their schooling, with
all of their education. And it all come together in debate
and they love to learn new things, talk about new things. With all
of that together, all of their education and knowledge and intelligence
together did not get them any closer to knowing the true God. They were still in ignorance.
Ignorance. You see, the things of God, the
salvation of sinners, an understanding of how God can be just and justify
the ungodly, an understanding of how God saves the lost can
only be known by revealing grace. It makes no difference of your
intelligence, how smart you are, your great academic achievements,
how many degrees you've got. I'm for education. But I'll tell you this, the world
by wisdom does not and cannot know God. Can't be. So Pope arrives in Athens. He took a look at the city and
he said, go back and get Timothy and Silas. I need them. I need
them. Here's God's man in Satan's city. That's where he was. He is God's
man in Satan's city. One man, God's man against an
entire city full of godless intellectuals. He said, I need help. I need
a couple more preachers over here. Go back to Timothy and
Silas and bring them over. There is a lot of work to do
here. enters into the city. And as
it says, and we've read in verse 16 says, as he waited for them
at Athens, verse 16, his spirit was stirred within him when he
saw the whole city wholly given to idolatry. All of the city
was given to idolatry. All of it. His spirit, it bothered
him. It bothered him. It's estimated
there were at least 30,000 images of different gods in the public
buildings in that city. And that's not even including
all of the gods and the images in individual residences. In doing a little reading from
the historians, some of the historians say every house and every walkway
had a god. guarding over it. In fact, one
Roman writer said it was easier to find a God in Athens than
it was to find a man. And as the apostle viewed all
of these idols, it bothered him. It troubled him. Now can you
imagine how this city looked in Paul's day when everything
was alive and everything was vital and the buildings were
not in ruins as they are today? Boy, it must have been some city
to visit. All of the gold and all of the
marble that just glittered in the sunshine from one end of
the city to the other end of the city. And all of the statues,
they were everywhere, just breathtaking. Such statues, such intricate
idol making was obvious. Can you imagine going to that
city and just being absolutely overwhelmed with all of their
culture and the wonder of the arts? The wonder of the great
architecture and everything else that was there. But that's not what impressed
Paul. In fact, he doesn't even mention
it. We get caught up in that kind of stuff. He doesn't even
mention it. Here's one man against a whole
city given to idolatry. Now most of the people arriving
in Athens would be absolutely overcome by all of the architectural
marvels of the city, but those things didn't impress the Apostle
Paul. That which bothered him, that which got his immediate
attention was the spiritual darkness and the depravity and the spiritual
deadness of the city. He said the whole city is given
to idolatry. I read one French writer, an
atheist, and I didn't take French in high school, so I'm probably
mispronouncing his name, but he won't know because he's been
dead for hundreds of years. Riemann or Rennan or something
like that, but he referred to this passage of Scripture And
he said this, quote, one ugly little Jew abused Greek art by
calling their statues idols. That's what he said. One ugly
little Jew abused Greek art by calling their statues idols. But that's what the apostles
saw. As he looked out over the city, he said, it's given to
idolatry. Fifty years after this, a famous
writer went to Athens, so it's recorded, he was so overcome
by the culture, the arts, and the buildings and the wisdom
of the philosophers, that he wrote six volumes, six volumes
describing the city of Athens, six big volumes. And you know how the Apostle
Paul summed it up? It was given to idolatry. That's
what he had to say. What do you have to say about
the city of Athens?" He looked it over. Oh, it's an impressive
city, isn't it? He just looked it over. He said,
it's given nine dollar a tree. That's how I'd sum up this city.
This city that we live in, where you got a so-called church on
every corner, a city full of religious error, I'd say this entire city, with
the exception of God's elect, is wholly given to idolatry. That's what I'd say. Wouldn't
you say that? Anybody? I don't know whether you agree
with me. Surely you agree with me. This city is wholly given
to idolatry. Because most everybody in this
city and in this county and in this state believes in salvation
in which you make some contribution. And the free grace of God in
Jesus Christ, the effectual work of the Savior on the cross, is
set forth as only a mere effort to save, but really accomplish
nothing. Listen, that kind of belief is
idolatry. That's error. And as I look about
this city, as I look about this county, as I watch the religion
on television, as I behold what's going on today, I say it's all
given to idolatry. That's what it is. Let's call
it what it is. Listen folks, we've got to make
a distinction. We've got to make a distinction.
And the gospel draws the line. It is the line. It is the line. The gospel of sovereign grace,
of God showing mercy to whom He will show mercy. The substitutionary
accomplishment of the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of the Spirit
of God in the hearts of sinners by effectual grace. We've got
to tell people this. Salvation is of the Lord. That's what it is. The city is
given to idolatry. You ever go to a city to maybe
a big gathering of people? You just look around and start
thinking this. I wonder how many of these people
know the gospel? We went to the graduation over
here at the football stadium. There were hundreds and hundreds
of people there. And I just sat there and I got
to thinking. I wonder how many of these people know of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified? I know it's a bunch of religious
people there. But you know what I'd say? I
said a given to idolatry. And I don't say that in a mean
way. I'm not trying to be deliberately
offensive. But I'm being honest. Being honest. You go to big cities, these old
cities with their stately buildings, the culture and things of that
nature. God's people look at things in
this world in a different way than the man of the world looks
at things. I know it's interesting to visit
these old things and relics and buildings and things like that.
But I'm going to tell you something. It's all going to burn up someday. Don't get too attached with these
things. It's all going to burn up someday.
I'll tell you what ought to trouble us. And God help us to be troubled,
to be like the Apostle Paul, stirred in spirit. That's what
it says. Stirred in spirit. He went into
that city and all them big buildings, they didn't impress him. All
those wise people in that city, they didn't impress him. All the fancy culture and the
arts and all of that kind of stuff, it didn't mean anything
to him. He looked at the whole city.
He said, it's given to idolatry. Does it bother you? It bothers
you, doesn't it? It bothers the people of God.
It troubles me. People who are involved in false
religion, people who hear error, There are hundreds and hundreds
of people all around us today, and they're going to go to their
churches. And as far as people are concerned, they're fine folks.
But they're going to hear about, well, be a good person, live
by the golden rule. Walk in a nice way in this world. Be fair, be honest, be moral.
And I would say, well yeah, everybody ought to live like that. But as they set forth all of
their tomfoolery, that is spiritual tomfoolery, the gospel of God's
free grace is missing. It's missing. What's missing
in churches today? What's missing in this city?
What's missing in this state? What's missing in this country? Somebody was talking last week.
We were talking about the fact that this, man, what a vile world
this is. Things that used to never come
up. Nobody ever mentioned things.
You'd blush to even mention. And now things are out in the
open. But you know what the real problem is? You know where the
problem lies? You know who the source of the
problem is? Men behind the pulpits. Because
they're not preaching God is God anymore. They're not preaching
the Word of God anymore. Era goes forth and people...
What happens when era starts going forth? Error leads to immorality. You see, as we preach the truth
of the Gospel, if the Gospel of God's grace gets a hold of
your heart, you'll be moral people, you'll be decent people, you'll
seek to do the right thing, you'll seek to treat your neighbor as
yourself. You'll seek to walk by the golden
rule. But it's the Gospel of God's
grace that changes you. It's the Gospel that's effective
in you as God gives you spiritual life. That affects the way you
live. I'm not trying to change you.
I'm not trying to change the city. I can't change you. I can't
change the city. I can't change the state. I can't
change the country. Only God can change you. It's
the work that He must do. And as I think about what people
have to listen to, it stirs my spirit. Doesn't that stir you?
The name of God is dishonored. Brother Ron was talking in Sunday
school class about watching some religious programs on television.
They so dishonor God. That stirs me. Doesn't that trouble you? The
God I love, the God I worship, and they say things like, God
needs you. God wants you to do... won't
you let God Do something for you. God wants what's best for
you. Let Him have His way. Let Him
have His way. Listen, when you talk about a
God who wants to have His way, you're involved head over heels
in idolatry. You're just an idolater. When
you talk about a God who loves everybody and who hates nobody,
you're just an idolater. When you talk about a Savior
who died for everybody and He's hoping that you'll let His blood
be effectual to the putting away of your sins, that you'll open
your heart's door to Him. Preaching that kind of Jesus,
believing that kind of Jesus, that's idolatry. You got the
wrong Jesus. Preach the Spirit of God who
wants you to let Him help you. You've got the wrong spirit.
That's idolatry. The city is given to idolatry.
That's what Paul said. It's given to idolatry. And we've
got friends and neighbors and relatives, they're given to idolatry. Oh God help them, they're given
to idolatry. And I'll tell you the only cure.
They've got to hear the true gospel of God's grace. And God
the Spirit has to take that message and put it in the heart. Idolatry. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians
10, he said, wherefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry. And I know today people don't
carve out monuments of little gods and that sort of thing.
Not literally. At least not in this country.
I've been in Japan and you go into houses and they have their
god. There's their god. Sitting right
there. And they'll bring him a little
bowl of rice every morning. Put it right there in front of
their god. Burn incense to their god. Take him a banana. And I'd like to go back to the
end of the day to see how much of that banana he's eaten. You know what David says over
in Psalm 115? He says, they have mouths but
they speak not. They got eyes but they can't
see. They got ears but they can't hear. And he says, the idols
are just like the folks that make them. They can't see, hear,
speak either, not spiritually. Given the idolatry. Now we don't
have gods like that, but we got this false god the father
and false god the son, false god the spirit. There's the idolatry
of loving your spouse or your children more than loving the
Lord. Sure it is. Loving possessions,
loving things. An idol can be a child, a husband,
a wife, a family member, a possession. That's why the Lord said in Matthew
10.37, He said, He that loveth father or mother more than Me
is not worthy of Me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than
Me is not worthy of Me. If you want something more than,
if you absolutely have an urge, a craving for something or somebody
more than the living God in Jesus Christ, you're an idolater. And even God's people can slip
into idolatry that way. That's why we've got to be careful. The apostle wrote to the Thessalonians,
he said, when they turned to the living
God, they turned to the living God from idols. See, that's what
true repentance is. You turn from your idols to the
true God. I hear people talk about, well,
I've repented of this sin, I've repented of that sin. Well, that's
all well and good. What about repenting of your
idol, that Jesus idol you've been worshiping all your life?
What about repenting of that idol? What about repenting of
that God the Father idol that you've had all your life, that
He isn't God of the Bible, but He's a God who wants to, but
you've got to let Him. What about repenting of that
view of God? I tell you, our views of God,
the world's view of God is so distorted, people don't even
know who God is. That's why the apostle, he goes
into Athens, he sees all of this, and he starts preaching to them.
He goes into this area where they all love to debate. And they said to him, Look at
verse 20. Of course, they've already said
in verse 18, what will this babbler say? Well, this bass fellow,
what will he say? They said in verse 20, they said,
he brings certain strange things to our ears. Isn't it sad that
the very truth of God is strange to the ears of the natural man?
What have they been hearing then? Is this strange to you today?
Is the message of grace, the message of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, the message of blood redemption, the message of imputed
righteousness, is this strange to you? Well, what have you been
listening to? This is the truth of God's Word.
They said, bring certain strange things to our ears. And of course,
they love to hear new things. They say, well, why don't you
talk to us for a while? Let us hear what you believe. In verse 22, He stood in the
midst of Mars Hill. He said, You men of Athens, I
perceive in all things you are too superstitious. You sure are
a bunch of religious people here. That's what He said. I can see
religion is very rampant in your city. Because, verse 23, I passed by
and I beheld your devotions. I saw your temples, your altars,
your statutes, your religious images. I saw those and then
I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. He said,
that's the one I want to preach to you. I want to preach to you
the God you don't know. You know all about these gods
because you ordered them from the silversmith. He ordered them
from that guy who's going to cut down a tree and fashion it
with his saws and with his hammer and with his chisels, going to
fashion it out the way you want it. Then you take it home, you
put it up on the mantle. You pray to it, you bow to it,
you give it a bowl of rice or whatever you do. You know all
about those idols, but I want to tell you about a God you don't
know anything about. The God, the God of heaven and
earth, they said. That's what I want to tell you
about. He starts off verse 24, God that made the world and all
things in it, He's the Lord of heaven and earth. Boy, I'd love
to tell this religious but lost generation, He's the Lord of
heaven and earth. He doesn't want to be Lord. He's
not asking you to make Him Lord. He is the Lord. God hath made
this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ! That's
what Peter said. You can't make Him Lord. God
beat you to that. You bow to His Lordship. And
He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. Boy, that got the
Jews there. Because He had gone into the
synagogue and preached to the Jews. That got the Jews. Neither
is He worshipped with men's hands as though He needed anything.
He doesn't need you. I remember about this time of
year, in fact, maybe a little bit later in June, we'd go to
church camp. And I was a young teenage preacher. And I'd preach this kind of foolishness. I'd say, the Lord has no hands
but your hands. has no feet but your feet. The
Lord needs you. Especially on Friday night after
I'd show the missionary movie to the regions beyond, get people
to walk the aisle and dedicate their life to Jesus. The Lord
needs you. The Apostle Paul said, he's not worshipped with man's
hands as though he needed anything. That's why the Lord said to the
Jews, you thought that I was such and one such as yourself.
You thought I was just like you. I say, I don't need anything
from you. I don't need you. If I was hungry, I own the cattle
on a thousand hills. If I want to drink the water,
I own all the rivers. I don't need you and I don't
need what you got. I tell you, our Lord is not needy,
but we sure are. We sure are. He's not a beggar. We're the beggars. He said He's not worshipped with
men's hands as though He needed anything, seeing He'd give it
to all life and breath and all things. He gives everything you've
got, God gave it to you. Why? Verse 26, We all came from
Adam, he's made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell
on the face of the earth. And this same God who made us,
He's determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their
habitation. We'll live exactly where God
says we're going to live, where He's ordained that we'll live,
and we'll live just exactly the number of years and months and
weeks and days that He's ordained. Then we'll die. And since He did all this, verse
27, that they should seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, if happily
they might feel after Him and find Him. He's not far from any
of us. He's not far by His power. He's
not far by His presence. He's not far by His providence. Because look at this, verse 28,
in Him we live and move and have our being. In fact, he says,
one of your own poets said this, for we're his offspring. He gave
us all life. What he says, for as much then
as we're the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is likened, and I bet you he pointed. Can't you imagine
him pointing? We ought not to think that the
Godhead is likened to gold or silver. or stone, graven by man's
art and man's device. Man, he is just trashing their
gods. Oh, preacher, don't attack somebody's
god. Boy, the apostle Paul did. I tell you, it's time we did
a little idle trashing, idle smashing. who was in Hezekiah when they
found the brazen serpent. He said, it's Nahushtin. Man,
he became an idol crasher. He just crushed it to pieces.
I'd like to crush your idol, but I can't do it. Only the Lord
can. I'd like to squash your idol.
Don't talk about my God, preacher. Well, if your God is not the
true and living God who does His will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou? If your God is not
the one who does His pleasure in heaven above and on earth
below and beneath the earth, if that's not your God, I'll
sure enough trash talk your God. It's like Elijah up on Mount
Carmel. Facing off against all the false
prophets of Baal. And he mocked. He mocked their
God. Why don't you cry a little louder?
Maybe your God's taking a nap. He got tired and he had to go
to sleep. Cry a little louder. Oh, and
they just cut themselves with knives and jumped on top of the
altar. And finally Elijah said, you
guys through? Yeah, we're through. And he got
a sacrifice and he said, I'll tell you what, just douse all
this with water. I mean, just bring your fire
trucks in and douse it all with water. And then he prayed, he
said, Thou art the God of heaven. Show these people you're God
and I'm your servant. Man, a lot of fire came from
heaven. Devoured the sacrifice. Oh, you don't fashion this God
out. You don't make this God. This
God made you. This God made you. The God of
heaven and earth. Now look at verse 30. The times
of this ignorance of Gentile ignorance. God winked at, God
was patient with him because He's dealing with Israel. Bringing
His Son through Israel. Through the lineage of Abraham
and David. But now He commandeth all men
everywhere to repent. Why? For this reason, because
He's appointed a day. He's established it in the which
He will judge the world in righteousness. That's the standard. That's the
standard. Righteousness. Jesus Christ is
the Lord our righteousness. He's the standard. Preacher,
I think I'm as good as you are. Judging people? Probably are.
Probably better. That don't mean anything. Because
I'm not the standard. I'm not the standard of judgment.
Righteousness is. How do you stack up against righteousness?
That's the question. Can you balance that with righteousness?
In the Lord Jesus you do. In the Lord Jesus you do. He is going to judge the world
in righteousness by that man. That man who came down from heaven.
That God-man. There is one God and one Mediator
between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. That man
whom He has ordained and He has given assurance to everybody. He raised Him from the dead. He raised Him from the dead.
And we know He's raised from the dead. The Bible says He's
seen over 500 people at one time. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, here's the response that He got. There's always a
response. Some mocked. Will you be a mocker? There might be somebody here
who will go out here and say, man, that crazy preacher. Where'd he come up with all that
stuff? Never heard anything like that in all my life. That's a
bunch of foolishness. I'll never come back here again.
Or maybe you're watching on the internet. I'll never watch this
again. That's what they did. They mocked. He's just a babbler. Others said, well, think about
this. We'll hear you again. So Paul departed from them. However,
verse 34, here's this word certain again. Here's this word certain. How
be it certain men they claimed to Him, they believed. God's
got a certain people in this world. They're going to believe.
Among them was Dionysius, the heir and a woman named Damaris, and
others with them. Some mocked. That's the craziest
stuff I've ever heard in my life. Well, go ahead and mock. I'm
going to tell you something. If God leaves you to yourself,
that's exactly what you'll do. You'll mock. So I'll never come
hear Him again. Never look at 13th Street Baptist
Church on sermon audio ever again. And some of you may be thinking,
well, maybe I'll come hear them again. I hope you do. But that's
procrastination. You've got to be careful about
that too. Thank God some believed. By the grace of God, some believed. That's what we want you to believe
this gospel. Oh God, oh God the Spirit. Would you make people, cause
people, draw people, call people to believe this gospel of Jesus
Christ?