Matthew chapter 7. I told James he had me worried.
He read from chapter 6 in the men's meeting. And we see warning and beware
signs quite often. When we see a sign that says,
beware, bad dog, we know that if we enter to the yard of that
dog, we are likely to suffer bodily injury or maybe even death. Just down the road at the corner
of Dunbar and Lantana Road, there's an electrical substation. The
fence around it is covered with warning high voltage signs. Anyone with any sense at all
won't go near those transformers. To do so would likely result
in certain death. These warning signs are for our
protection and our safety. In Matthew chapter 5, our Lord
begins what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon
is quite lengthy. It takes up three chapters. And
at the very end of it, he gives us four warnings. These warnings
are for our safety and our eternal good. If these warnings go unheeded,
the result will be certain death of the soul. The first warning is a warning
of a false way. In another place, our Lord said,
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. And then in chapter 7 of verse
13, our Lord says, enter in at the straight gate, for wide is
a gate and broad is a way that leads to destruction. And many
there be go in thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. The second warning is of false
preachers. False preachers are to be treated
like bad dogs. Don't trust them. Don't have
anything to do with them. Don't turn your back on them.
for they are capable of causing you great harm. If it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect. Our Lord says in verse 15, Beware
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are raving wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather fruits of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree brings
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth
good fruit is hewed down and cast into fire. Wherefore, by
their fruits you shall know them. The third warning is of having
a false hope. Is your eternal hope, is your
hope of eternity and life eternal based on something you have done?
Or is it based on what Christ has done? Verse 21, our Lord
says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven. but he that doeth the will of
my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. And the fourth warning is a warning
of having a false foundation. Is the foundation of your belief
based on the Word of God, or is it based on church doctrine
or family tradition? Are you standing on the rock
Christ Jesus, or are you standing on seeking sand? Verse 24, our
Lord continues, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built
his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened to the foolish man which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended, And the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall
of it. And it came to pass, when our
Lord had finished the Sermon on the Mount, that people were
astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having
authority, and not as a scribe. Let us pray. Our most gracious Heavenly Father,
I do pray that You would keep us from these false prophets.
These men that say there's another way. These men that give sinners
a false hope. Founded upon an unsure foundation. Father, keep us settled. seeking, keep us trusting, keep our pastor,
give him an unction to proclaim Christ, to exhort him, to magnify
his name, and point us not to himself, but to our Lord and
our Savior. Give us grace in which to believe,
for we ask you in Christ's name, amen. Everybody is waiting for
somebody to come home. Our Lord ain't waiting for us
to come home. He's got us a day. He's taking us home, ain't He? Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter
17. Acts chapter 17. Acts 17. The apostle Paul had been in Thessalonica and
got in a lot of trouble up there and they run him out of town.
Wherever he went, there was always trouble. People got converted
and people got angry. He was so hated and despised,
he spent a lot of time held in bonds because the Jews envied
him so much. And he went through Berea and
they said they were more noble there because they read the scriptures
to see whether these things were so or not. And then it says down
here in verse 15, And they that conducted Paul, got him out of
town, where they was looking for him, trying to put him in
prison. And they that conducted Paul
brought him into Athens. 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 wholly 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 said, What will this babbler say? Or some other, he seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. Now this is out in the market
square. This is out in town. This is where everybody come
together to buy their food and buy and sell their wares. Paul
would sit down and he would be talking and people would pass
by and he'd teach them some things. And these fellows, they heard
him and they sat down and listened to what he had to say. And they
said, you're a babbler. You're a setter forth of a strange
God. And so they took him, these philosophers
did, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this
new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? And Mars Hill, it says there,
Areopagus, is Mars Hill. It was the highest court in Athens.
And they said in verse 20, For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what
these things mean. for all the Athenians and strangers
which are there spent their time and nothing else but either to
tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill, right in the middle of that court, surrounded by
people all over the place, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things you are too superstitious, for as I passed
by and beheld your devotions, And it says in the margin, the
gods that you worship, I found an altar with this inscription.
To the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare
I unto you. Now Paul was a great man. God used him mightily. And he
leaves Berea and goes to Athens. Now Jerusalem at that time was
the religious center of the world. It was the religious center of
the world. People came from all over the world there for the
feast days, the Passover, all the ceremonies that they had,
three feasts a year. And they came from all over to
do those things. Rome was the legislative capital
of the world. Rome ruled the world at this
particular time. Had the Roman center and the
emperors. And Athens was the intellectual center of the world.
This was the place where anybody that was anybody went to show
off their learning, to show off their wisdom, to show off how
smart they were. And some of the greatest philosophers
in history came out of Greece. But now I want you to notice
some things here. We want to start out with the preacher.
We're talking about Mars Hill. My message tonight is Mars Hill
preaching. And here's the preacher, Paul.
He was the preacher. It says in verse 22, then Paul
stood in the midst of Mars Hill. Paul was a very educated man,
exceptionally educated, sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew
the wisdom of these philosophers and how vain it was. Look what
he said about them down in verse 28 and 29. For in him we live
and move and have our beings as certain of your own poets
have also said. for we are also his offspring.
So Paul knew what these poets and some of these philosophers
taught. For as much then as we are the offspring of God according
to your own people, your poets, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is like under gold or silver or stone, craven by man's
art or device. So he even quoted their own poets. And this man's conversion to
to the Lord Jesus Christ was radical. It was a radical conversion. Here was a man on his way with
warrants in his pocket, warrants to arrest people, to put them
in jail, to put them in prison, even deliver some to death, even
children, women. And he was a man, he was a hater
and despiser and a blasphemer and injurious. and he counted
everything before this, before his conversion to Christ that
was so radical, after that he counted everything that ever
happened in his life but dumb, but garbage that he may win Christ
and be found in Christ not having his own righteousness but the
righteousness of Christ. And look over here, you keep
Acts and you look over here in Galatians chapter 1. Paul, when
God Himself, Christ Himself taught the Apostle Paul the Gospel.
The Lord Jesus taught the Apostle Paul the Gospel. He smote him
down on the Damascus Road, and I mean he radically changed that
man. He went from hating Christ, three
days later he went to preaching Christ. And how could he preach
Christ so quickly? Because he knew the Scriptures. And he understood quickly that
all those things that's talked about the Messiah was the Lord
Jesus Christ concerning him. And straightway he started preaching
Christ three days after he received his sight. And here's the thing, this man,
when God teaches us the gospel, he teaches us through preaching,
through hearing of the word, and through men teaching us and
preaching to us and opening the scriptures. But this is not what
happened to Paul. Look what he said here in Galatians
1.11. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. He says nobody up in... I didn't
get it from Simon Peter. I didn't get it from James. I
didn't go up to Jerusalem. I didn't go set at somebody's
feet for somebody to teach me the gospel. And I didn't receive
it of man, but I was taught it. and how was he taught it? By
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Our Lord, he says later that
he spent three years on the backside of the desert, and the Lord Jesus
taught him the gospel, and he dealt with things that nobody
else ever did. And Peter even said this about
him, said, Our beloved brother Paul teaches some things that's
hard to be understood. And so, you see, he preached
the gospel, and the preachers, the apostle Paul, he had already
suffered much for the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's a man who
had no fear. Here was a man who was willing
willing and then he did suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ he
was not afraid of anybody anytime under any circumstances he preached
to kings he preached to centurions he preached to emperors he preached
to slaves it made no difference who this man was when he preached
it made no difference fearless fearless And he was willing to
face the wisdom of all these Greeks, all these Greeks around
with all these philosophers. He's willing to stand up and
deal with them and all of their philosophy and all of their wisdom.
And in the name of his master, and he was willing to stand the
hatred of the Jews and their despising of him. And yet with
all that that was going on, he was a man with a definite message. And he was fearless to declare
it, wasn't ashamed to declare it and tell it. And look what
happens now, look what happened back over here in Acts 17. Oh,
what prepared him for this message today? What prepared him, the
preacher, he's Paul standing on Marsh Hill. What got him so
stirred up about his message? It says in verse 16, Now while
Paul waited for Silas and Timothy, for them at Athens, his spirit
was stirred in him, when he saw that the city was completely
holy, given to idols, full of idols. He got to this city, and
he came into Athens, and everywhere he looked, there was an idol.
There was a statue. There was a temple. And some
people say that there were 30,000 of these different idols around
there. Great statues, great temples,
all these temples all over the place. And they had statues made
out of silver, had them made out of gold. And men would walk
up to them and bow to them and worship to them and go in those
temples and pray to them and do all these things. See, Paul,
when he got there, most folks, when they go to Athens, Greece,
they go there to sightsee. and they take pictures of all
the things, but he wasn't there to sightsee. He wasn't there
to say, boy, look at all these beautiful temples. Look at all
these, oh, look at that, look at that gold statue over there.
Oh, look at, I've never seen such, oh, look at all these great
idols, and oh, I just went on and on about it. He wasn't there
to sightsee. He wasn't there to admire them
and brag on them and their wisdom, no. He looked upon this city
in light of the revelation of God in Christ and of eternity. He saw men worshiping sticks
and stones and silver and gold and idols and trusting in their
wisdom, trusting in their own power, trusting in their own
intelligence. And he looked at that city in
light of the revelation of God in Christ and in eternity. Others
saw when they got there, they saw Grecian handiwork, they saw
Athens, saw all their devotions, but he saw a city wholly, completely
given to idolatry. And believers like Paul, we're
like Paul, our spirits get stirred in us sometimes over the idolatry
that goes on in this world. How does your spirit ever get
stirred when we have people worship? Oh my, worship entertainers. Oh, magazines got some big entertainer
all the time on it. They're worried about who's marrying
who and who ain't. People worship. And then sports worship. Make
heroes out of sports people. Make heroes out of the most ungodly
people you can think of. Make heroes out of them. They
make idols out of them. And there are numbers all over
them and all that stuff. And then there's preacher worship.
And there's this entertainment worship, preacher worship, oh
my, you get so stirred up over all the false worship that goes
on in this world. And will worship, you know what
will worship is? Will worship is you thinking
that you've got the power, that you're so, that God is so
far, and angels and things is so, and that's what catharsis,
it's all will worship. Because see, there's a false
humility. They say that I can't come to
God the way I am, so I've got to go through a saint. I've got
to go through an angel. I've got to go through Mary.
I've got to go through somebody. And so, you see, that's will
worship. Setting up His will in the place
of Christ. Setting up His will in the place
of the Scriptures. Setting up His will in place
of the blood of Christ. And then there's creature worship.
Oh, my. We love our children. We love
our grandchildren. We love our mothers. We love
our fathers. We love our brothers. We love
our sisters. But I ain't going to worship
nobody but the Lord Jesus Christ. You'd think when somebody has
a baby, you know, and it is. I'm not, please don't misunderstand
me. I'm not making fun of people having babies. But when somebody
has a baby, they absolutely lose their mind. They start, that's
the greatest thing since electric light. And they say, well, I
can't go to church. I got to take care of this baby.
I got to take care of that. And so they forget all about
the gospel man because they've got a baby. Oh, but I tell you that, No worship
of the Creator, no worship of God. They worship and serve the
creature more than God. And that's awful. But look at
his pulpit. Oh my, here's the preacher. His preparation was,
just all he seen was that city wholly given to idolatry. And
I'll tell you, you know, down in Mexico, in every village down
there, in every Pueblo, the center of every Pueblo and every town
is the Catholic church, the cathedral. In every Pueblo and every little
old burb down there, there's a Catholic, and that's right
in the center of the town. And they always got a big square
around it. And people, you know, and people
got a big court out there, and they got the big steps, and some
of them's small, some of them's huge. But everything's in the
middle of town. And everybody, you know, these
folks, they come there and like to go in them great big cathedrals
and watch, you know, and see how some of them's built back
in the 1500s and 1400s. And they want to go there, but
you know Walter or Cody or nobody will never take anybody to go
in one of those Catholic cathedrals. I don't care how famous it is.
How many saints they got in there, you know why they won't do it?
Because somebody that they've preached to or somebody that
knows them and knows what they stand for, if they watch them
walking up the steps going into a Catholic cathedral, they say,
I told you, I told you, I told you they'd end up going that
way, and they would use it against them. And we're not gonna go
worship no idols either, huh? And that's why Paul, he was wholly
given to idolatry. And then look at his pulpit. Look at his pulpit in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill. He stood right in the middle
of Mars Hill. Here's this great Areopagus right at the top. Oh
my. How in the world did he get here?
Look how he labored before he got there. It says in verse 17. He had to labor before he got
there. He didn't just walk up there and start preaching. He
disputed in the synagogue with the Jews. Them Jews always wanted
to argue and always wanted to debate with him and with the
devout persons. And then not only that, but he
labored in the market every day with those that would meet with
him. He said, I'll be at such and such a place, and I'll be
there. If you want to talk, if you want to listen to what I
got to say, come over there. And so they did. And then certain
philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics. And I'll tell
you something about, and I know I've told you this before, but
the Epicureans, their God was their belly. Their God, Epicurean,
their God was their bellies. They, all they thought about
was pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. Whatever
pleased them. Food, wine, drink, pleasure. Oh, they was just that way. And
the Stoics was just the opposite. They kept the stiff upper lip.
And no matter how much they suffered, they would never let you know
how much they suffered because there was virtue in their suffering. There was virtue in them being
stoic, keeping that stiff upper lip, never letting anybody see,
you know, just, oh, well, this ain't gonna hurt me. And they
were just very stoic. And oh, they come and they encountered
Him. They saw Him there in the marketplace and they come and
encountered Him. You see, it says they encountered
Him. He didn't encounter them, they encountered Him because
they stood and listened to Him. And some said, what will this
babbler say? Huh? And other some, some other
of them said this, he seems to be sent forth as strange gods
because he preached unto them Jesus and Nazareth. And I'll
tell you what, when you start preaching the gospel to most
people, it's really strange to them. There's strange, the scripture
said we saw strange things today, there's strange gods, and then
there's strange flesh. And they took him, and look what
it says, and they took him and said, come with us. And they
brought him up to Areobagus, and they said, oh, here's all
these people. Oh, all these people that come
up here. May we know this new doctrine. It's a new doctrine,
it's a new teaching. May we know this new doctrine
that you're setting forth. May we know whereof you're speaking
of. For you bring certain strange
things to our ears. I mean, we never heard anything
about a resurrection. We never heard about one man
dying for another man and that righteousness becoming theirs.
That another man could save a man who's dying could save all people
who never did die. And we never heard of anybody
that was ever buried and resurrected from the dead. We never heard
about God coming down here and dwelling among men in the person
of a man. And He was still God and He was
still man. We never heard of anything like
that. We never heard about a sinless man. We never heard about a perfect
man. We never heard about someone
who lived his whole life before God and God Himself would say,
I've always pleased my Father. And so, oh my, they said, you're
bringing strange things to our ears. Oh, we know that if you
follow this philosophy, and if you follow that philosophy, and
you find this way and go that way, then you'll find some peace,
and you'll obtain some peace, and you'll find some way to rest.
But no, no, no, no, no. And so they took him, and then
he says in verse 21, Tell us this doctrine. And you know this
doctrine was not new doctrine. It's new to them. It was as old as God himself. Ain't that what Paul said? He
says, you know, he says the gospel. He said, I'm separated under
the gospel of God, which you're promised to for by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is of the seed of David, according to the flesh. And I
tell you, you bring strange things to our ears. The gospel's always
strange to ears until God gives you new ears. And they said to
us, tell us what these things mean. Tell us what these things
mean. Tell us what you're telling us.
Tell us what you're telling us. And then see in verse 21, for
all this is the main place where all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time and nothing else but either
to tell something new or to hear something new. And oh, they read
their books and they would come up and tell, oh, I read this
book of this author, I read this philosophy, I read this guy said
this, this other fellow said that, and they went on and on
about that. I'll tell you a true story. We
was in a meeting here a while back and Shirley and I was sitting
at the table with some men. I'd preach that night and Don
Fortner would preach that night. And we sat down with these men
and they went to a church over in Birmingham and they said it
was a grace church. But all they talked about, they
never mentioned Christ, they never mentioned anything that
was said in the services. All they talked about was men
that was dead and gone. Did you ever hear so and so?
Or been gone for years and years. Did you ever hear this preacher?
Did you ever hear that preacher? All they talked about was dead
preachers. And how good those dead preachers
was. Didn't care about the living preachers. Didn't care about
the preachers they just heard. Then they never talked about
Christ. They never mentioned Christ. Never mentioned the gospel. Now all they talked about was
this poor preacher. Did you ever hear him preach
that? Did you ever hear him preach this? What do you think about that
preacher and this preacher? And they just went on about all dead preachers. And these fellas got here to
tell something new. They didn't want to, they wasn't
interested in Christ and the gospel. They was interested.
And this is the main place where men stood and told out their
philosophies. And there were great, great audience. And look at his audience. Now
look at his audience. He said, and Paul stood in the
midst of Mars hills and said, ye men of Athens. And this is a very, very critical
audience. This is a very, very critical
audience. They made it their whole life
to sit and listen intently to somebody tell something new.
Or get up themselves and tell something new. And things haven't
changed. Things haven't changed at all.
And I'll tell you what, he's face to face with the wisdom
of Socrates and Plato. But in Him and His message, they
were brought face to face with the wisdom of God. Brought face
to face with God Himself. Brought face to face with the
Gospel. Brought face to faith with that
power and wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me
ask you, do you know anybody that's ever been converted from
sin by worldly wisdom? Do you know anybody that's been
saved from self-righteousness by philosophy? Do you know anybody
that's ever fell in love with Christ by the wisdom of this
man's words or any wisdom of men's words? No, you know they
haven't. But now let's look at his message.
Oh, he says this, I perceive that in all things you're just
too superstitious. You all are just absolutely full
of religion. That's what he said. And I passed
by. And here's the thing about it.
He didn't have no notes. He didn't have no manuscripts.
He was full of the Holy Ghost and Scripture. His heart was
burning. And look what he said. I passed by and beheld your devotions. And I found an altar with this
inscription to the unknown God. Now watch this. Whom therefore
you ignorantly worship. Now here's His message, Him,
Him, I declare unto you. The only one in the place that
you say is unknown, He said, that's the one I'm going to tell
you. I'm going to let you know who the living God is. The subject
was Him, whom you ignorantly, ignorantly worship. And I'll
tell you, beloved, look what He says. He says here in verse
1, verse 24. First thing He said was this,
God that made the world and all things therein. See in these
Lord of heaven and earth don't dwell in temples made with hands.
We're talking about God. He said I'm telling you about
God that made the world and everything in it. He's Lord of heaven and
earth. He's sovereign over this world.
He's sovereign over this Lord, over heaven and earth. And since
He created this world, He's Lord over heaven and earth, what in
the world would make you think that these idols, these gods,
would dwell in temples made by hands? That He'd dwell in a temple
made by hands. And look what else He said. And
not only does He not dwell in temples made by hands, but He's
neither worshipped with men's hands, You don't worship God
with your hands. You don't worship God physically.
You don't worship God with things that you do with your hands.
You don't have to lift your hands. You don't have to fold your hands.
You don't have to hold your hands in a certain way. Most people,
when they pray, they fold their hands. I don't know why they
do that. But all I said here, neither
is he worshipped with men's hands. And look what he said. He don't
need anything. He don't need a thing from you.
He absolutely needs nothing from you. And I tell you what, in
fact, you get everything you've got, you get it from Him, seeing
He gives to you life, He gives to you breath, and He gives to
you all things. You ain't got nothing of yourself.
He said, He's the one that gives it to you. And oh, and listen
to this, and I tell you, He goes on preaching and says, He's made
of one blood, all nations of men. What did he mean, one blood? Everybody come from Adam. Everybody
descended from Adam. Huh? And I tell you, he said,
and he hath determined all the nations for to dwell on the face
of the earth. And listen to this, and he said,
he determined the times before appointed. He set the time that
you'd get here, and he set the time that you would leave, and
the bounds of your habitation. He determined when you'd come
into this world. He had determined when you leave
this world. He's the one that set up the nations, and He determined
where the nations would be, and how their boundaries would be,
and how long they would exist as a nation. Look in Deuteronomy
32, and I'll show you that. Deuteronomy 32, in verse 8. He took one blood, one blood, Everybody descended from Adam.
All came from Adam. And look what God said here in
Deuteronomy 32 and 8. When the Most High divided the
nations, their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam,
He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel. He set the bounds. You're going
to go here, and this is where you're going to live, and this
is where you're going to live, and this is where you're going
to die. This is the nation you're going to be raised in, this is
the nation you're going to stay in, and this is the nation you're
going to die. And so everybody that's in this world come from
one place. And then back over here in our text, he said he's
determined these bounds and these habitations. And he said in verse
27 that they should seek the Lord. And oh, he set these bounds
and these habitations, and he's not worshipped with men's hands.
It's still in one sentence here. And that they should seek the
Lord, if happily they might fill after him and find him. And what
does he say? Though he be not very far from
every one of us. What does he mean he's not far
from every one of us? I mean all you got to do is look
at creation. You look at all things around
you. And he said he's not far from us. And you know why he
says that? For in him we live and move and have our being.
He's the creator. He's the sustainer. And I tell
you, if you seek after Him and you go after Him, you'll find
Him because He's not far. He can have us all of eternity.
There's not any place you can go where God's not. David said,
if I ascend up into the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed
in hell, you're there. If I go over here and get in
the darkest place there is, he said, it's just like daylight
to you. There's no place to hide from you. And he said, for as
much then as we're the offspring of God, if God, where God created
us and God made us and God gave us our life and we live and move
and have our being by Him, we ought not then to think that
the God is like gild or silver stone. We're not, we're flesh
and blood, we're flesh and bone, we're living creatures. What
would make you think that God would ever, if he made us to
be the offspring of God, why do you think God, why would you
think he's made out of silver or gold or devised by some man,
whittled him out of the stone? Oh, I'll tell you this, do you
ever see this? That Pope, he wears his gold.
You know, these guys wear these gold. I mean, they're so wealthy. And they think that's the greatest
thing in the world. And they think that's something,
boy. And look what he says. And look
what Paul says in verse 30. In the time of this ignorance,
God winked at him. God said, I've let you live in
ignorance long enough. You've lived in ignorance. And
he says, and now God has come. And He makes you know who He
is and what He's like. And He winked at it. Now that
don't mean that God actually winked. But Paul's saying that
God ignored this. Let people go on in their own
way. Now it's time. Now it's time for the light to
come on. Now it's time. And look what he says. But now
He commands all men everywhere to repent. That means you Epicureans. That means you Stoics. That means
you, Plato, that means you, Socrates. And God winked at the Cygnus,
but now he commands all men ever were to repent. Oh, why? Because he hath appointed a day. He's got a day appointed in the
which he'll judge the world in righteousness. This whole world
judged in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he raised him
from the dead." He said, God's going to judge you, and He ain't
going to judge you by these idols. He's not going to judge you by
this gold. He's not going to judge you by these temples. He's
going to judge you as God Himself. He's going to judge you through
one man, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's raised
Him up in righteousness, and raised Him up from the dead.
And look what it says in verse 32. And when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead, oh my. You know, there's a different
reaction from everybody to the gospel. There's a different reaction
to God being presented as God. There's a different reaction. And when he talked about the
resurrection, some mocked. Look at the results here. Some
mocked. They said, oh, I could just see them jumping up and
hollering, oh, this fellow's a fool. Oh, this is the craziest
thing I ever heard. Who ever heard of a resurrection?
People don't rise from the dead. And others said, well, listen,
we'd like to hear you again. We'd like to hear what you got
to say again. Some mocked, and others said,
we'll hear you again of this matter. And look, but Paul departed,
and look what happened here. And some believed, howbeit certain
men claimed unto him, and believed, and believed. Among the witch
was Dionysus, and Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and
others with them. Some of them all, but God sent
him to that city, among the wisest men of his day, supposed to have
been the wisest men of his day, but nobody, nobody was ever converted
by anything they ever taught. Not one thing, nobody ever was
taught anything by the things them men taught. But after Paul
preached God, and declared the unknown God to them, creator,
sustainer, giver of life, giver of all things, He said, everything
you fellas got, God gave it to you. You know that? You got any sense? God gave it
to you. That's what he's talking about. And all thank God for the resurrection. Bless God for the resurrection. Our Father, in the blessed name
of your Son, Thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth
of your word. And Lord, we sometimes fail to honor you. And Lord,
I ask that your forgiveness for me not honoring you the way you're
worthy to be honored, the way your name is to be magnified
and glorified. But Lord, in spite of me, in
spite of my frailty, my flesh, please have mercy and cause the
scriptures to find a lodging place. May seed be sown, may
a place be found in the heart for what truths are told, what
things are said. And Lord, I pray that through
your blessed sovereign mercy that you would bring glory to
yourself through this body of believers. And we ask for Kathleen
that you'd continue to bless her and strengthen her. Ask for
Shirley's brother-in-law and sister. Please be merciful to
them and gracious to them and kind to them. Let that kidney
start working as it pleases you. Pray for Danny. God that you'd
bless him and have mercy on him. And do for him what only you
can do. We ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.