Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 450. 450. There will never be a sweeter
story, Story of the Savior's love divine, Love that brought
him from the realms of glory, Just to save a sinful soul like
mine. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful it is to be. Boundless as the universe
around me, reaching to the farthest soul away, saving, keeping love
it was that found me. That is why my heart must truly
say Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful Isn't the
love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to ? Love beyond our human comprehending
? Love of God in Christ, how can it be ? This will be my theme
in never ending ? Great redeeming love of Calvary ? Isn't the love
of Jesus something wonderful Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
361. ? Sweet hour of prayer ? Sweet
hour of prayer ? That calls me from the world of care ? And
bids me add my Father's throne They call my thoughts and wishes
home. In seasons of distress and grief,
my soul has often found relief. And oft escape the tempter's
snare By thy return Sweet hour of prayer Sweet hour of prayer To him who's truth and faith
is strong. Engaged a waiting soul to bless
And since he bids me seek his face Believe his word I'll cast on him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer. ? Sweet hour of prayer ? Sweet
hour of prayer ? May I thy consolation share ? Till from Mount Pisgah's
lofty tower I feel my hope and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop
and rise to seize the Everlasting. ? And shout while passing through
the air ? Farewell, farewell sweet hour of prayer. Acts chapter 17. You remember last week we dwelt
on, these were more noble than those at Thessalonica. Tonight we got a preacher preaching
in the things we're dealing with. Start at verse 15. And they that conducted Paul
brought him unto Athens, Greece, and receiving a commandment unto
Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. Now while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city holy. holy given to idolatry. Therefore
disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout
persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics
encountered him. And some said, What will this
babbler say? What other some? He seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods. because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
were of thou speakest? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know therefore what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were with there spent their time in nothing else, but either
to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you are too superstitious. For I passed by and beheld your
devotions. I found an altar with this inscription,
to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him declare
I unto you. Oh, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
you're our God and you're our Savior. You're blessed God over
all. And Lord, we're so thankful and
bless your holy name. And we come to you, Lord. We come to you for everything
we need. We need your presence. We pray you give it to us. We
need your grace, we pray you'll fill us with that. We need mercy,
we ask for you to give us mercy. We need strength, give us the
strength. We need upheld, so uphold us,
Lord Jesus. Lord, you're the vine, we're
just the branches. Severed from you, we have nothing.
But joined to you, we have everything. And so, Lord, bring glory to
yourself. May your name be exalted. May your glory be magnified. May sinners understand the gospel,
be brought to faith, be brought to submission to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Please bring glory to yourself
tonight. Lord, be with those who are not with us through the
weakness of their own bodies. I know that there are some that
would be here tonight but their bodies are, their spirit's willing,
but their body's weak. The flesh is weak. They're sick. They've had things in your providences
kept them from coming. But Lord, for those who are through
the flesh, through the weakness and sickness of their flesh,
we especially pray for them. And Lord, we know that your grace
is sufficient and you've upheld them to this point in time. Please
help us honor you tonight. Help me to speak, help the saints
to hear. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' blessed and holy and glorious name. Amen, amen. Page 33 in our course books.
I'm saying my sins are all taken away. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away, away
Your sins are pardoned and you are free They're all taken away They're all taken away, away
They're all taken away, away They're all taken away, away
My sins are all taken away ? I praise the Lord for sins forgiven
? ? They're all taken away, away ? ? While onward pressing my
way to heaven ? ? They're all taken away, away ? They're all taken away, away
They're all taken away, away They're all taken away, away
My sins are all taken away My sins are all taken away Paul is preaching to men who
are ignorant of God. He says down there in verse 23,
whom therefore you ignorantly, ignorantly worship. And he said, I'm the one you
ignorantly worship, I'm going to tell you about him. Wherever
Paul went, there was either revival or a riot. and sometimes BOTH
of them at the same time, because then God would be blessing and
the Jews would show up. And it was out of ENVY that they
moved the Jews to turn on Him, and it wasn t Him PERSONALLY
that they despised, it was His MESSAGE, because His message
was from the SCRIPTURES and they would not believe the Scriptures
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, so they despised the Lord Jesus
and despised the Gospel that Paul preached. That's what they
didn't like. He was turning folks from the Law, turning people
from Moses, turning people from the Ceremonies and all the Rituals
and all the Feast Days and Fast Days and New Moons and all of
those things. He turned people from those. But they treated our Master the
same way. Last Sunday morning you might
remember that they said, our Lord told the man in the bed,
the man paralytic, our Lord told him, said, Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee. And the first thing those fellows
said, said, Well, he speaks blasphemy! He speaks blasphemy! Ain't nobody
can forgive sins but God only, but I tell you, Christ, and they
just could not stand the things that He did. But Paul leaves
Berea, down there where those folks rejoiced in the message,
searched the things, whether they be so or not. He went to
Athens, capital of Greece, went to Athens. There's three things
that was common in those days. Jerusalem was the religious center
of the world. and a lot of people still think
it is. They call it the Holy Land. God never once called Israel
the Holy Land. He calls Himself holy, calls
His people holy, called His Son holy, but He never, ever called
Israel the Land of Israel Holy Land, and people, that's what
they do. They consider that was the religious capital of the
world. Rome was the legislative capital
of the world. We got a lot of our senate and
things from THEM, a lot of our laws and the way we deal with
laws from Rome. It was the legislative capital
of the world. And Athens, Athens was the intellectual center of
the world. Everybody that says there, you
know, what did it say down there in verse 21? for all the Athenians
and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else. They come to hear something that
somebody would tell them, or they had some new thing that
they wanted to do. That's why Paul says, you know,
the Greeks seek after wisdom. They was constantly wanting to
hear something new, hear something new. And so here comes along
the preacher. preachers Paul, it said there
in verse 16, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, Paul the
preacher was a very, very educated man. He himself said he was raised
at the feet of Gamaliel, and he knowed the wisdom of these
philosophers. He was educated, he knew these
philosophers and the things that they taught. Look what he said
down in verse 28, For in him we live, and move,
and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said. He said, For we are also his
offspring. That's what the poet said. So
he KNEW these fellas and what they do. And his conversion to
the Lord Jesus Christ was radical. I mean, it was radical! He went
from being a Pharisee to being bowed down on the Damascus Road. He counted, his conversion was
so radical that he counted everything that he ever learned, everything
that he ever knew, everything that he ever accomplished, everything
that was gained to him, he said, I count it loss. It's absolutely
loss. I count it done. The only thing
I want to know now is Jesus Christ. I want to know Him. I want to
win Him. And I want to be found in Him.
I don't want to be found in myself or anything that I've ever done.
And that's what He's done. And that's what anybody does
when God saves them. They count everything they believed,
everything they've ever been taught. They look back on it
and say, Oh, Lord, thank you for saving me such a thing as
that. And you know how He was taught the gospel? You know how
he's taught the gospel? Christ taught him the gospel.
You keep Acts chapter 17. Look with me over in Galatians
chapter one. Look in Galatians chapter one.
Galatians is right after second Corinthians. And here, look in
Galatians chapter one. And I'll tell you how he learned
the gospel. You know, he didn't go up to
Jerusalem to learn from the apostles. He didn't do that. In fact, he said he spent three
years in the Arabian Desert and Christ teaching him. But he said
in Galatians 1 and 11, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which was preached of me is not after man. Man didn't teach it
to me. Man never created it. Man never
even thought about it. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but listen to this, but by the
revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ himself taught the apostle
Paul the gospel. He spent three years in the desert,
and Christ taught him the gospel. It was like Moses. Moses, you
know when Moses got his call? When Christ appeared to him out
of the burning bush, and that's when he got it. And that's when
Paul got his call and his conversion. He said, Oh, God did it. How
am I going to learn the gospel? God taught him, Christ taught
him. And he had already suffered so much for the cause of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And he knew no fear and he was
willing to face the wisdom of these Greeks. He was willing
to face the hatred of the Jews. for the name of his blessed master.
He was a man, but he was a man with a definite message, and
he wasn't ashamed of it, and he wasn't ashamed to tell it.
And it says there again in verse 16, Now, while Paul waited for
Silas and Timothy to come to him, his spirit was stirred in
him. The city was wholly given to
idolatry. I mean, he said, Everywhere you
look, there was idols. His spirit was stirred in him.
He said the city was full of idols. Some say that there were
30,000, probably 30,000 different idols in that city. And great
statues, great cathedrals, great temples, lots of works made out
of silver, lots of works made out of gold. But let me tell
you something, he wouldn't go to Greek to sightsee. He didn
t go there to look at all the scenery and look at the things
that was there and the temples and all those, and you know,
He seen all them idols and everybody giving to idols, and His Spirit
got on FIRE for Him! It stirred up in Him! Stirred
up in Him! Everywhere He looked, He saw
an idol! And you know, that's the way, down in Mexico, everywhere
you look, there's idols. Everywhere you look, they got
little things with little statues in them. And in a truck that
don't have a saint hanging off the window or Jesus hanging off
the window, candles everywhere. I mean, everywhere you go. And
when I was in Vietnam and all those poop Buddhas, everywhere
you went there was a Buddha Pagoda. And a little fat man sitting
in it. A little bald-headed fat man sitting in it. And everywhere
you went, there they were. And some of them was great big. And the bigger they were, the
greater they worshipped. And go to India, go to India,
they worship cows. They'll starve to death, but
worship a cow. And they'll starve to death,
and they've got temples over there with rats running in them,
and they feed the rats. They worship anything, they worship
anything, and oh my goodness, how many, how, Hare Krishna,
and every kind of person you can imagine over there has got
an idol. They go to the filthiest rivers
that they got over there, and they say it's for to be washed
and be clean. They go to the nastiest river
they got and get in and say they're washed. I don't know. And then there's
people that they think that if they step on a bug, they won't
step on a bug. You know why? Because if they
hurt anything, they believe in reincarnation. And if they hurt
anything, they may come back as a bug. And they don't want
to be a bug. But that's how ridiculous people
are, and that's what Paul seen here. He saw everywhere he looked,
he saw an idol. Caesar was worshiped. And I tell
you why, you know why a sturdy many of me saw nothing but idols?
Those people in Athens didn't see idols, they seen something
to worship. He looked upon this city in light of the revelation
of God in Christ, and in the revelation of eternity. And everybody
else saw Grecian's handiwork. Athens full of all kinds of idols
and all kinds of worship. And he saw a city wholly given
to idolatry. And I'll tell you something about
believers. We have our spirit stirred in us whenever we see
people worship. People worship, people worship.
Politicians worship, star worship, idol worship. The bigger the
star, the more they worship them. The how big they are, the more
popular they are, the more they're worshiped. And then there's sport
worship. Everybody's gotta, you know,
you gotta have some team that you gotta be a part of and you
gotta give your whole life to supportin' that team. Or some
star on that team. And then there's preacher worship.
Oh, lots and lots of people worship preachers. Oh, they worship preachers. My and don't want none of that
and then there's will worship. What's will worship? I'll decide
what I'll worship and I'll let and I don't care who cares I'll
worship my free will I'll worship destiny. I'll worship fate I'll
worship an idol. I don't care what anybody else
thinks. I'm going to worship the way I want to worship and
then there's creature worship and setting some creature up,
some person up in the place of Christ. But I tell you what Paul
said, there's no worship, no true worship of the Creator,
of God Almighty, no worship of Him. He said, you worship everything
other than the Son, but you don't know God. That's what he said.
And look where his pulpit was now. In verse 22, look at his
pulpit. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill, You know Mars Hill, that was
where everything was judged. That's where everything was judged.
Great big outfit, you know. And oh my, and oh, listen, his
labor to get here before he got here. Look what it says back
up in verse 17. Let's go down through here and
look at these things. He's in the city given to our doctrine,
therefore disputed He in the synagogue with the Jews. They
wanted to argue with Him, He disputed with them, and with
the devout persons. And listen, He was in the market
daily with them that met with Him. Oh my, He was out in the
marketplace, He's in the synagogues out in the marketplace, and then
look what happened in verse 13. Then certain philosophers Did
you not hear that? Certain philosophers, certain
philosophers of the Epicureans and other Stoics encountered
him while he was in the marketplace now. They were not in the synagogue. And some said, what will this
babbler say? called him a lowlife, he s a
babbler, he s just nobody. Others some said he seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, my,
He, you know why they said He seems to be a setter forth? He
said, He's babbling, you know, we don't understand what He's
saying. That's the first thing they understood, He's just a
babbler. And the second thing they said, He seems to be a setter
forth of strange gods. You know why? First of all, He
preached the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior. He preached
Jesus Christ as God Almighty. He preached Jesus Christ as God
manifest in the flesh. just as sure as I'm standing
here, that's the first thing he done. And then he says, you
know, and he talked about what happened to him and why he was
on a cross. And then he talked about him
dying. And he says, you know what? God raised that man from
the dead. And when they heard that, they
said, oh, never heard nothing like that. That's a strange thing.
That's a strange thing. And oh, then look what it says
in verse 19. And they took him and brought
him unto Areopagus, it's called Mars Hill, and saying, may we
know what this new doctrine is? Oh my, and what they said was,
tell us this new doctrine. It was new to them, but it's the old, old gospel. The gospel started in Genesis
chapter one, and oh my, it's new to them but the gospel. And
the doctrine that he was talking, teaching, started out, this is
old as the scriptures themselves. Paul, you know, Romans 1 says,
you know, that God promised before by the prophets, Jesus Christ
that would come, made of the seeded of David. And so here
he was, and then, you know, this is new doctrine to them, but
as old as the scriptures themselves. And look what they said now.
Wherefore you speak this new thing. You speak this new thing. Tell us what they mean. You bring
strange things to our ears. That's what they said in verse
20. You bring certain strange things to our ears. Oh my. The gospel's always strange if
you ain't got ears to hear it. It's always strange to people
that ain't never heard it. It's strange to folks that don't
know anything about it. I remember when it was first
strange to me, but I'll tell you what, when I first heard
it, I said, That's something going on right here. When I heard
about an election the first time, I said, my goodness, that's something. Then I heard about particular
redemption, said, oh my, Christ died. And then I looked in the
scripture and said, yep, he laid down his life for the sheep.
And then I heard about how lost a man was, how depraved he is
and how sinful he is. And I said, oh, I know that's
true because that's me. That's me. And oh my. I tell you, the gospel, he said,
you bring strange things to our ears. The gospel's always strange
to people's ears, unless God gives them ears. And then they
said down there, and verse 20 says, therefore, tell us what
these things mean. Tell us what you're talking about.
You talked about Christ, you talked about the death, you talked
about the cross, you talked about Him suffering, you talked about
Him being resurrected from the dead. Tell us what these things
mean. Oh, my, tell us what they mean. This is the main place where
the Scriptures tells us men, it says there in verse 21, for
all the Athenians and all the strangers, that means that they
weren't Greeks themselves, were there, spent their time. They'd
go out there in the morning and they'd sit down And they sat
there either to tell something new that they knew, get up and
start doing like I'm doing, or else they had learned something
new from somebody else that was doing the talking. This is the
main place where the philosophers met and gathered together. And
oh, my, well, Paul stood in the midst of this place, and you're
talking about a huge audience. That's a big audience here. That's
a lot of folks here, and every one of them's men, and every
one of them is studying philosophy. Every one of them's going there
to just listen to something, let somebody tell me something
new. And oh my, look at the audience. He said in verse 22, you men
of Athens, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things
you're too superstitious. This was a very, very critical
audience. This is a very critical audience.
They made it their life to just go hear something or tell something,
something new. There's always wanting things
new. And things haven't ever changed yet. People are always
looking for something new. always looking for a new doctrine,
a new preacher, a new fad, a new thing, you know, and the preachers
are always accommodating them, they?re always working. I remember
years ago I went to a grace church and I was there several different
times over the years preaching, but But I come to find out that
about every year, the church, there was about 10 or 12 people,
25 people there that stayed, but every year that congregation
turned over. You know why? Because it was
based on more music than it was on the gospel. It was, if somebody
come in and could play a guitar, y'all come up here and play.
Somebody could sing, come up here and sing. And that's why
there's more interest in that, and they just, the congregation
constantly change about every year. If you don't build a congregation
on the gospel, then it ain't built. If it ain't built on Christ,
it ain't built. If Christ is not the foundation,
you don't got a foundation. And that's what Paul was saying
here. And he said, look what he, you know, we're talking about
these Epicureans that found him, and the Stoics. Now let me tell
you, you're talking about two diametrically opposed philosophies. You Epicureans as people who
lived for nothing but pleasure, lived for nothing, their God
was their belly. Eat, drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow we may die. Their whole purpose of living
was to do everything that their flesh
wanted to do. That's what their philosophy.
Now the Stoics were just the opposite of that. The Stoics
is kind of like people say, well, keep a stiff upper lip. And here's
what the Stoics believed, that when they suffered, any suffering
that they had, don't show it, and there's virtue in their suffering. There was virtue in what they
suffered. And so they was diametrically
opposed. And I tell you, the Stoics denied
a future judgment. And here he is, he's face to
face with the wisdom of the Greeks, the wisdom of the Grecian people,
the philosophy of Socrates, the philosophy of Plato. But I'll
tell you something, he wasn't a bit intimidated. These fellas
didn't impress him one bit. No, I don't care how smart they
was, how philosophical they were, it did not impress Him a bit.
But oh, in Him and His message, they were face-to-face. They
had their wisdom, but now they're face-to-face with the wisdom
of God. Who you reckon gonna win? Oh, Paul told them, he said,
the wisdom of this world, you know what God thinks about it?
He said, it's foolishness. All you fellas up here with your
philosophy. He said, it's just foolishness. God said, your wisdom
is foolishness. He counts it as nothing. And
he said, you know, Scott Richardson has this question. Who's ever
been converted from sin by worldly wisdom? Who's ever been saved
from self-righteousness by philosophy? Whoever fell in love with the
Lord Jesus Christ by the wisdom of men's word, of this world
and this man in this world, who's ever been done by it? Well, he
gonna tell them a message. And I didn't get to the message,
but we're gonna go through it a verse at a time. And all he
says here in verse 23, now he had been by there before. He
had done been, this is one reason why he is so stirred. For as
I pass by, I've been here, I passed by, and I beheld your devotions. And in the margin it says, the
gods that you worship, that's what that means. And superstitious
means that that's exactly right. They were superstitious. In case
we forgot a god and said, we got us an altar to an unknown
god. In case, just in case we missed
one, just in case there's one we don't know nothing about,
we'll make an altar. And if we'll learn about him,
said, maybe we'll know him. And then Paul said, whom therefore
you ignorantly worship. Now watch, I want you to notice
what he starts with. Him, Him declare unto you. Not what? Him, Him declare unto
you. And here's the first thing he
said. He said, God, this God that you don't know, God that
you ignorantly worship. God that made the world and all
things therein. First of all, He started out
with God Almighty. God's the creator of this world.
Everything you're looking at here in Athens said God made
it. God made you and everybody in it, seeing that He is Lord
of heaven and earth. He's the sovereign in heaven
and He's the sovereign on earth. He's the Lord. And you see this
big temple here and temples all over where these idols are? God
don't dwell in temples made by man. He don't have, Paul said,
God's not in this place. That's what he said. And he's
not in that temple over there. He's not in that building. Oh
my, I remember years ago, folks would go in a building and said,
ah, the spirit of the Lord's here, you know. But oh my, here he said, oh my,
subject was him, him. And he began to say, God, this
creator, he doesn't dwell in these temples. You can't find
God in this temple. God's not here in this temple.
You got your gods, but the God of the Bible's not in here. And
then the other temples you got over there, all these altars
you got everywhere. God's not in these buildings. And oh my. And then he goes on
to say, verse 25, neither is worship with men's hands. Oh
my. What he means is the works of
men's hands. He said, your man can do anything
he wants to. You know, they make them crosses
and people to worship. Make them candles and people
to worship. And that's what they done here. Neither is worship
with men's hands. Men's hands has got nothing to
God. Listen, as though he need anything. You think God needs
anything from you? You think God needs your silver,
your gold? You think he needs anything from
you? He's the one that gives. Seeing that, he gives. You got
life, He gave you life. You got breath, He gave you breath. And everything else you got in
this world, God gave it to you. That's what He's telling us.
And listen, he goes on to say, he said, you fellas think you're
smart? Think you're wise? He said, God hath made of one
blood all nations of men. What blood's he talking about?
Adam's blood. We all come from the same, same
place. Adam's blood. He made out of
every nation on this earth, every single descendant on this earth
come from Adam and Adam's blood. Out of one blood, all nations
of men to dwell on the face of the earth. God made this to happen.
And listen to what He says now, and folks don't like this, but
this is true, "...and hath determined the times beforehand appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation." What does that mean? That means
that God said, I'm going to let you live this long, I'm going
to let you live over there, I'm going to let you live this long,
and I'm going to bring you into the world at this time, and I'm
going to set the bounds that you're in this world, I'm going
to let you live this long and live in this place, and I've
set the bounds of how long you're going to be in this world. That's
what He said. He said, You think you've got
some bounds? He said, God set the bounds. God set the bounds. And I tell you what, you can
find that in Deuteronomy 3, 2, and 8, where God said exactly
that same thing. That's what He said. He said,
oh my. He determined everything about
your life, when you'd get here and when you'd leave. I've got
my appointment, and you've got your appointment. And that's
one appointment that you won't have to sit in the doctor's office
and wait three or four hours whether he shows up or not. and
you ain t going to have to take you and put you in a little room,
and then you wait there until somebody shows up. No, no, when
God s appointment time comes, it s an appointment every single
soul s going to keep. We can t break this appointment,
and we won t be waiting. No, no. And then look what he
says there in verse 27, And he done this, and set the bounds
of their habitation the times before appointed. He's already
appointed the time and the bounds of where you're going to live.
And He did this that they should seek the Lord. Since you understand
that He's the Creator, that this world didn't come into existence
by itself. And that you should seek the
Lord. That's the reason He done these
things. If happily you might feel after Him and find Him. And look what he says, now this
is what he says, though he be not very far from every one of
us. Now how can he not be very far from every one of us? All
it takes, calling on him, looking to him. There's nowhere that
God's not, nowhere that God's not in heaven or in earth. And then he goes on to say this.
And he said, here's why you should seek after him. For in him, in
him we live, You fellows are here right now, you know why
we're living? Because of Him. You know why
you have a being right now, why you exist right now? Because
of Him. And one of your poets said that
we're also His offspring. If we are God's creation and
God made us, for as much then as we are the offspring of God,
God made us and we are, Since we're not like that, we ought
not think that the Godhead is like us in any way. And since
we're living creatures, we live, move, and have a being, you don't
think God is worshiped by gold or silver or stone or anything
engraven by art and man's device, do you? God don't need any of
those things. We need Him. He gives to us.
We don't give to Him. And look what he said in verse
30. And the times, the times of this ignorance, the ignorance
that you're all living under right now, this time of this
ignorance, God winked at. And he used his language for
us to understand. But oh now, he's not winking
anymore. He's not winking anymore. You know what he says? All you
fellas gotta repent. You philosophers, you wise men,
You great men, you fellas sitting here in this audience, you Epicureans,
you Stoics, and everybody else that's among you, every single
one of you, God says repent. He didn't ask you to repent,
He commands you to repent. That's what He says. Commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. And why should you repent? Because
He hath appointed a day. Oh my, a day. One day. That day's coming. in which he
will judge the world, but he'll judge it in righteousness." Oh,
my, you fellows talk about righteousness. He'll judge the world in righteousness.
Well, who's going to be the man to do the judging? That man whom
he hath ordained. Who is that? Our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's gave this assurance
unto all men. He gave this assurance unto all
men that he raised him from the dead. Gave assurance, raised
him from the dead. And oh my, and when they heard
this, and when they heard this, the resurrection of the dead,
they began to mock. They began to mock. And others
said, oh my, we'll hear you again. I wanna hear you again. I want
to hear you again about this subject. I want to hear you again.
So listen, Paul departed from them. Paul departed from among
them. But I'll tell you, there are
some fellows that stayed with him. Certain men joined themselves
to him and believed, among the which was Diocenes, one of the
Arab apogites. and a woman named Damaris and
others with him. And Paul left from there and
went to Corinth. But oh my, things ain't changed. People still want to hear something
new. But I still love that old, old story. Same one, don't you?
Same one. And that's what they said. He's
strange. He said that there's a Jesus and he was raised from
the dead. That's strange. Never heard nothing like that. I'm glad I heard it one day,
I certainly am. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for meeting with us here
tonight. Thank you for allowing us to go through your blessed
word, verse at a time. And Lord, the Apostle Paul, this
great servant of God, this man that you used so wondrously,
suffered so much, Lord, he started out talking about you, talked
about God Almighty, the one who made all things, made us, not
ourselves. We didn't create ourselves. We
never made ourselves. We never set the bounds of our
habitation. Lord, there's nothing we can
do. We ain't gonna bring nothing to you except our prayers, our
thanksgiving, our praise, in our hearts and souls and say,
Lord, take them and use them to your glory. We ask these things
in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Mmm. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. See you Sunday, God willing.
Lord bless you.