Amen Acts chapter 17 verse 11
is what we left off last time. I want us to briefly look at
the adjective that the Apostle Paul actually Luke who was the
author of our text human Arthur had called our attention to in
verse 11 these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in
that they received the word with all readiness of mind and Search
the scriptures daily whether those things were so we worked
on verse 11 and we talked about what it meant for Luke to use
the term noble And if you guys remember last week, what was
the Greek term that he used that I called your attention to the
word is eugenics right eugenics is the root word and we talked
about how fundamentally eugenics is a physiological term and a
genetic term that is speaking to the well-being or the favorable
or virtuous character of a person. Uo is a preposition that is often
translated good or well-favored. We talked about how we use the
term uology, eulogies, when we talk well about someone. So uogenics
is really the idea that he has, or they have, the people have
good what? Genes. Right. And so what Luke was telling
us was that these were peculiar Jews because they were not like
all the other Jews who were largely hostile to the gospel. And I
do want to call your attention to that. These were more noble
than those in Thessalonica. These who? These Jews. The Jews
in this context were more noble than those in Thessalonica. And
we could also say they were more noble than all the other Jews
that Paul and Peter and James confronted with the claims of
the gospel but when we look at this eugenic concept we understand
that it carries a larger spiritual connotation so we go on to understand
that what was noble or virtuous about them was that they had
received the word remember that they had received the word with
all readiness of mind and I think last week also I told you about
the uniqueness of that concept of receive it's a A very common
English translated word, receive, and the common Greek verb for
that is lambano, but this particular Greek term means to actually
welcome. The previous one, lambano, has
to do with simply receiving something. And as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Have you received
the Holy Ghost since you believed? And in that context, receiving
has to do with experiencing something that's delivered to you. It is
much more passive in nature. Have you received the Holy Spirit
since you believed? It would not be, in those contexts,
the question, have you welcomed the Holy Spirit? Have you received
sonship? Have you welcomed sonship? No.
This particular Greek term here, to welcome, as we saw last time,
was a term that meant to gladly receive, to open oneself up to
it. And we saw that in the context
of the gospel, what Christ had said to the disciples in Matthew
and Luke was, when you go and you share the gospel with people,
they receive you into your house when they receive you they are
receiving me and when they receive me they are receiving him that
sent me and in this context it means to welcome it means to
open yourself up and to embrace what's being said and in this
context the nobility of the people who are in Berea is that they
receive the word of God. And we talked about that too,
when we went to 1 Thessalonians 2.13 and talked about what it
means to receive the word of God, to receive it, not as the
word of men, but as it is in the truth, what? The word of
God. And when the heart is made to
be wide open to God's word, you are not arguing with God's word. You are not debating God's word. You are not game saying as the
King James would put it You're not you're not you're not questioning
the authority of scripture. You may ask what does this mean? That's different there's a distinct
difference between game saying rebuttaling and arguing and Doubting
so be careful about that too. We all doubt so doubting has
to do with simply not being sure what you have And doubting is
not a bad thing. It's an honest assessment that
I don't fully have a grasp on it. I doubt if I'm getting what
you're saying, but that's different than a suspicion rooted in a
presupposition that is opposing that thing before hearing it
out. As the proverb says, he that speaketh before he hears
a matter, it is folly and shame unto him. So James chapter one,
verse 19, I believe will help us help us to affirm that James
1 17 first, I'll start there. And then I think it's James 1
31. So if you can pull up James chapter one, verse 17, every
good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from
the father of lights with whom is no variable in this nor shadow
of turning. So we're under the assumption
that what we are receiving is a gift from God, verse 18. So
we're going to be running through the verse 18 of his own will
begot us With the word of truth That we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures James is underscoring The only reason
that you and I are receiving god's word is because it's his
will of his own will Did he begot us by this very truth that we
are receiving and go on to verse 19? I think he begins now to
admonish us Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be what?
Swift to hear. There it is. So the spiritual
nobility, the eugenic characteristic of these Bereans was that they
were swift to hear. They were open to listening.
They weren't pretending to listen. And while all along hearing what
Paul was saying, they're raising arguments in their mind. They
were wide open to what he said. They were not gullible. Because
they had a plan to do what with what they heard, search it out.
But they didn't know that in order to actually receive something,
you got to hear someone out sincerely and fully. Is that true? Because
you can actually be prejudiced against what you hear. And as
a consequence, you don't actually hear what they're saying, because
you're filtering it through your prejudices. So they took their
filter off and they heard the apostles fully. And so when it
says, let a man be slow to, uh, be swift to hear first and then
slow to speak, it's going to make sure that he's also what
slowed around. So what do we mean by that? That
means you're not going to be argumentative. This would be
one of the verses that we'll be working on somewhere in the
future when we get into our third, um, third, um, Rules of engagement
class, one of the struggles that couples have because they live
in close proximity with each other is that they're inclined
to violate this verse. Is that true? They're inclined
to violate this verse because they have failed to recognize
that the respect level for each other's views has diminished.
And when you cut someone off, you are being quick to speak
and slow to hear. So when you hear people cutting
each other off, they're violating that verse. And inevitably, the
last line is going to manifest itself. Is that true? You're
going to be quick to what? Rap. You're going to be arguing,
argumentative. This was not the case for those
of Berea. They listened patiently. They
received the word of God in a welcoming fashion. And the net benefit
is given to us in James chapter 1 verse 31. So you make your way to James
1 31 and listen to what it says here. I think this is the verse
that i want maybe maybe not james 133 there's no james 131 james
121 maybe 21 that'll help me two verses over so it's a typo
Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness
and receive with meekness the engrafted word of God. Do you
see it? And receive with humility the engrafted word of God, which
is able to save your soul. So the assumption on the part
of James is that if you understand that the aim of the word of God
is to save you, then you will humble yourself in receiving
it because truly it's the word of God that changes our mind
and changes our attitude and changes the trajectory of our
life. He uses a very interesting adjective there, too. He calls
it the engrafted Word of God. Really, it's the implanted Word
of God. When the Spirit of God is working
through the Word, He actually plants the Word into the heart.
He plants it in. That means it's not just within
the cranium to be heard. It's actually sown into the heart
to lodge there. And as it lodges in the heart,
it actually begins to germinate. and to disintegrate and then
actually to now take root in your life and metabolize into
your very DNA spiritually and change the way you think. It
has that kind of authority over your life. That's the power of
God's word when it penetrates. And this is why James says receive
it as the very word of God. So now the last thing that I
want to call your attention to is the fact that they searched
it going back to our text. They did it with a ready mind
and they searched it out. I want to go back to I think
it's verse 11 that we were at. Yeah, these were more noble than
these in Thessalonica that they first received the word and they
did it with all readiness of mind. You guys see that? I actually
didn't address that last week and I'll address it now. What
do we mean by readiness of mind? Well, everything that we just
Discussed in terms of james chapter one, but it's a unique term too. That's interesting to note It's
the uh, it's the term Pro, which is a a preposition and it really
means to be forward And to be forward means to be eager You
guys understand that? to be uh desirous So mentally,
they were eager. Mentally, they were forward.
Mentally, they were not pushing back. They were leaning into
what he was saying. That's just a preposition. And
that preposition goes on a lot of different verbs, but here's
the verb that I want you to see. Thumia is the verb that I want
you to see that is attached to the prefix pro, pros. Pro-thumia. or prothomia in the
Greek literally. Prothomia. What is thomia? Thomia
is a verb from which we get the term what? Thermometer. Thermometer. And what do we do with a thermometer?
We gauge what? Temperature. Is that right? And
so really this word is translated literally passion. So what were
they? Mentally, they were passionately
eager to search it out. They were passionate about searching
out the scriptures. So important some of these grammar
studies are. So think about it, it was more than just, they received
the word with all readiness of mind. It means that their mind,
their drive, their passion, their bit, their contemplation of what
Paul said, lean them in a direction of rushing to go search it out
to confirm it. They didn't just leave it hanging
as a cloud of proposition to dissipate, hoping that they might
hear it again tomorrow or the next day. Is that good? So let me, let me help you with
that because this happens and this is the parable of the sore
in the seat. Um, the presumption sometimes on the part of the
lazy listener, the, um, the person who has not given to expository
listening, Expository listening is the ability to listen objectively,
critically, eagerly, being able to hold and retain thoughts at
a level of analysis. I'm hearing what you're saying
actively. That's a expository listener. A lazy listener may sit there
and hear what you're saying while entertaining three or four or
five other thoughts that have absolutely nothing to do with
what you're talking about. That's the lazy listener. He
swears, she swears they are listening, but they have not grasped what
you said because that requires an active listening to grasp
it. As a rule, and this is not always
true, but as a rule, a very good listener will take notes as a
rule. As most of us who are actually
committed to learning know that for us to write kinetically,
what we heard phonetically is an echo of it and a grasping
of the term so that we don't lose it, so that we can meditate
on it down the road. So legitimate expository listeners
are committed to exercises because once I say it, it's not a guarantee
that you're going to hear it again or I'll get the CD. Right. You will get the CD and
then you will hear it Maybe again, but you won't hear it the way
you heard it this time. I can be good or bad. The point
is, is that when you are eager to learn something, you hang
on every word. That's how they did with Christ.
The poor hung on every word. They followed him everywhere
he went and hung on every word. That's the literal Greek verb
for to hang. They hung on his words. They
depended on his words. They grasped his words. And so
this is why Luke is calling our attention to the nobility and
virtue of the Bereans here. They were of a passionate drive
leaning into what Paul had stated and they were committed to searching
the scriptures daily whether those things were what. So, and
obviously they were. And here's the net effect of
that so we can begin to move forward in our study. Therefore,
which is what we call in grammar, a conclusive clause. Therefore,
many of them what? Right. So we would argue that
believing is a dynamic that takes place where the Word of God is
preached, the Spirit of God is working through it, and hearts
are open to that Word at the level of receiving that Word
actively, dynamically, eagerly, urgently, longingly, and once
it's implanted in the heart, life begins to take place there. Notice what it says. Therefore,
many of them believe also of the honorable women, which were
Greeks and men, what? Not a few. So once again, here's
what's happening in the synagogue. And this was a very prominent
synagogue in this place, obviously unique and special because many
of the Jews actually believe the gospel here. But many of
these people here believe prominent persons and tons of men. Notice what it says, and men,
not a few. So we see that the word of God
does not return what in vain or void. We see the fruit of
that. Very powerful, very powerful. What is our third point? I think
your third point says not submitting to the righteousness of God.
Is that what your outline says? Let's go back to our third point.
I want to see that pull up our PowerPoint there. Cause we can,
so we can move on now. All right. So nope, that's going
back to our previous outline. You should have that unless you
don't if you did we end with that? We ended with that We were
okay. So good. So look with me at verse
13, and I guess I'll capture that with these few Sub points
I have here in my outline verse 13 says but when the Jews of
Thessalonica Remember, these are not the Jews that Paul is
with now Thessalonica is down the road. Remember that in the
areas of Macedonia Macedonia he's in Berea in berea they're
receiving the word in thessalonica they tried to kill him they heard
in thessalonica that the uh but when the jews of thessalonica
had knowledge that the word of god was preached of paul at berea
they came there also and what stirred up the people So in my
outline, this is called not submitting to the righteousness of God.
As this year is another heading under verse 13 through 15, not
submitting to the righteousness of God, because here is the tenor
and legacy of Israel, right? Everywhere God's apostles went
to preach the gospel, what did they do? They opposed them. And
what Paul said in his conclusion about the mystery of God giving
Israel over to blindness was that they were going about to
seek their own righteousness and therefore they would not
submit to the righteousness of God. Why would you leave one
city, go hunt a brother down that's in another city to oppose
him over what he is preaching unless you are bent on stopping
him from preaching the gospel, right? So I told you that the
way that it works is like this. And when you share the gospel
with a religious person and they are committed to good works as
the basis of acceptance before God, they have to reject a free
grace offer. They have to reject the grace
of God because the grace of God strips them of any kind of human
boasting in salvation. Upon stripping them of that,
they are offended. That's what we call scandalizing. And so they are offended. They
stumble at the gospel. They stumble at Christ. And upon
stumbling, being offended, the next response for them is to
oppose what you are saying. And beyond opposing what you're
saying is to persecute those who are saying it. So the Jews
are at this third level of hostility towards the apostle Paul because
the apostle Paul came out of their camp. So the Jews are persecutors
of the gospel as we learned in first Thessalonians chapter 2
verse 15. This is the tenor of their conduct.
And in my outline, I have three, four sub points. I'm just going
to read them. Here we go again, again. Remember what I said last
week, here we go again, again. So this is gonna happen until
Paul is delivered from them to the Roman empire and completely
dislodged from their attempts at killing him. The other sub
point that I have is that there's a larger theological significance
going on with the Jews giving themselves over to so much of
an effort and energy to stop the apostle Paul that larger
effort is on a spiritual nature given to us by Paul in Galatians
chapter 4 when he says and as Ishmael persecuted Isaac so the
flesh persecutes the spirit He was again explaining the two
covenants that were operating simultaneously in the days when
Abraham had Sarah and Hagar to bring forth children. Ishmael
was the firstborn, but he was of the flesh. Isaac was born
of promise by Sarah, but Ishmael being of the flesh persecuted
Isaac. Remember that? And Paul lifted
that up and gave us a covenant paradigm saying that Ishmael
represents the nation of Israel is Ishmael the the progenitors
of our Arab brothers actually represent the nation of Israel
Which strangely enough as we kind of press into that just
briefly the model of persecution that we see in the text of scripture
is is duplicated by our Arab brothers who are zealous enough
to want to kill people who don't bow to Allah. See the paradigms? See the parallels? Right, and
so what Paul is saying is this is simply a spiritual reality
that all who are not submitting to the gospel of God's grace
in Christ ultimately will either reject the gospel and or engage
in approving of if not actually facilitating the persecution
of those who embrace the gospel. That also is a prophetic warning
for you and me today. The fixed paradigm of which the
Christian church has to embrace, and we'll see this even more
fully in church history, is that if you're going to live godly
in Christ Jesus, you're going to suffer what? That's right. And where you are suffering persecution,
if you back up objectively and look at it, you'll see that the
persecution largely comes from the flesh. because the flesh
is always condemned by the spirit when the spirit presents to the
flesh the truth you guys see that and uh it's very important
to be able to um to identify that it's a spiritual matter
because if you fail to realize when you are being ostracized
or when you are being persecuted or when you are having rights
taken away from you, or when the majority group is wanting
to dominate you, because you'll see this in any small circle,
where the majority have an opinion or a view different than yours,
they will force their view on you. That's just a basic principle
of oppression. It doesn't matter whether you're
white or black, all people do it, right? and people do it in
their own groups, right? So the majority will subordinate
the minority when they can because they're simply the majority.
Now in Christianity, we don't have that right. Israel was told
that even though it didn't honor it, you shall not follow a multitude
to do what? Right, just because the majority
is holding to a view that does not make it right. Numbers don't
make a thing right. It's possible that everybody
in the room could be wrong. Right. And so when you are a
Christian, what Christ said and what the apostles have plainly
said is look for people to reject your gospel and look for people
to persecute you. That is going to be the normative
case for Christians. And then you and I have to build
an ethic around suffering because if you don't build a biblical
ethic around suffering, you will find yourself distracted by the
conflict at a level that it will hinder your ability to continue
sharing the gospel. We'll see this as we make our
way down the line. The only reason I called your attention to it
is because if you look at what takes place in verse, let's see
here, verse 13 and 14 is quite amazing. But when the Jews of Thessalonica
acknowledged also that the word of God was preached of Paul at
Berea, they came there also and stirred up the people. That means
it took time for them to propagandize the people. And then immediately
the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the what?
Right. But Silas and Timothy is both
above there still. So what's going on? They assessed
quickly. Do we have the map up? Can you
pull that map up? I'll show you guys what we're
dealing with. They assessed quickly that Paul was in what? Danger, mortal danger. Get him out of here to the sea. So if you look up on the map
and we see Thessalonica and Berea, you guys see it in the far north
corner? Right. So now they're going south all
the way down to what? Athens. You see that? And they
did it by going on the coast by the sea. So they went like
you and I might drive highway one going all the way down to
san diego right you guys know that highway all the way down
to san diego by the coast and that's the way they went just
in case he had to jump on the ship and go to the other side
this is how serious the persecution had gotten so i want you to mark
where we are about to go now okay i corinth athens syncrete
that is the region in which now god is going to begin a whole
nother gospel work isn't that fascinating So they started in
Philippi, way at the top. He was persecuted in Philippi,
wasn't he? He found himself moving over towards Berea, Thessalonica
area, where the vision was really being cast. And then he finds
himself way down in Athens now. That's some work, isn't it? But
here is the impetus, here is the fuel driving his excursion. Persecution The fuel driving
his excursion is persecution He's not going freely as it were
simply casting lots and saying, you know, I think I'll go down
to Athens No, he's being driven by the Spirit of God through
persecution into these regions If we were to take our time and
think that through just briefly because we're getting ready now
work through our new outline a little bit tonight now that
I have a little time with you How does God work in the life
of the Christian? So now we're going to do some
application, just a touch of application. How pragmatic, how
convenient, how thorough does God employ suffering and trouble
in your life to move you into his will? So I want you to think
about that a little bit, because really largely what we do when
we read our Bibles, we read it on a very surface level without
penetrating into the providential nature of God. And we will go,
okay, he's in Athens now. Well, but how did he get there?
And why was it that he was driven to Athens and under such duress? What was that all about? Well,
a couple of things. You and I know that trouble is
designed to do what? Humble us. Humility is a continued
work of grace in the life of the Christian. Is that true?
It seems to be relentlessly given by God to keep us in a place
of dependence upon God and a right frame of mind. Does that follow? therefore by inference here's
what we can derive from that conclusion if it's true and I
know it is you and I imperceptibly inflate when we are free of the
felt hand of God in our life I use the word inflate and you
can add any adjective you want to we inflate when we are free
or absent of the felt hand of God in our life. And I'm gonna
actually treat this concept on Sunday extant. And what do I
mean by inflate? We actually fail to realize the
actual truth about our condition for a moment. We actually are
thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. This is imperceptible. This is imperceived. This is
without perception. This is just kind of an innate
natural pathology on the part of human beings. You and I will
walk with just an inch or two of our feet off the ground. We're
floating. We're floating. Especially if life is going well
for us for a few days straight. And we have said something to
somebody that has been a benefit to them or blessing to them.
And we don't even have to have done that. This is the amazing
thing about us. We don't have to have achieved
any tangible redemptive or evangelical blessing at all. It's just that
we wake up and we felt like we've done something for the kingdom.
And we start framing these ideas. And really what it is, is we're
dislodging ourselves from the reality. faith through grace
so that's what we're gonna be working on on Sunday because
Paul is gonna help us understand what it means to be a healthy
vital gospel church and it really rooted is it's really rooted
in where I am going now what you just as an exercise so Paul
would tell you that God in his mercy put a thorn in his flesh
to keep him humble a messenger of Satan perpetually with him
And he prayed three times, Lord, would you get this dude off my
back? And the Lord didn't answer except
to say, my grace is sufficient. Now, what if every time you prayed,
God said, my grace is sufficient. Either you will change or you
will leave God. Follow the logic. Because when
God comes back and says, my grace will do. What he's saying is
I'm not changing the circumstances. Circumstances are designed to
change you and this is what we mean by sanctification Sanctification
And this is what Romans 12 2 is all about when we talked about
the distinction between a schema and a true metamorphosis between
a mask of a false appearance of being something and the substantive
core Reality of what God is working in your life as a Christian The
difference between you actually manufacturing a presence and
God working in you his presence So that what comes out of you
is his grace But what's working in you is the humility of faith? Am I making some sense because
faith is the substance of things always hoped for And when you and I are always
in a hopeful mode, it requires humility to sustain. Does that
make some sense? When we are always in a hopeful
mode, it requires humility to sustain because a hopeful mode
has no tangible empirical evidence to prove anything. I'm in a mode
of hope, right? So Romans 8 verse 23 through
26 talks about we're saved by hope, And if hope is something
that is not seen, then if it were seen, then why would it
be hope? And so hope is always reaching out to that which is
in front of us, of which at the moment we can't boast in as proving
to someone that it's there, but humility of faith keeps us pressing
toward that goal, right? And that's what he's doing when
he brings about this kind of perpetual unending suffering,
at least one aspect of it in the life of the Apostle Paul
and your life and mine too. It is hard to think God's thoughts
after him when we're going through trouble. It is hard, but that's what we
have to learn out of this. Something happened to me the
other day. And it's always happening to me like everyone else. And
when it happened, I was going, Lord, why did that happen? What
I should have said was, thank you, Lord, for not allowing it
to be worse than it was. Because in reality, when I was
asking Lord what was this about, was simply I just wanted a hearing
from God. I wasn't suffering. I wasn't
hungry. You know, God has been magnificently
good to me. I just wanted in at his elbow
and I wanted him to just whisper in my ear and tell me what this
was about. But if you guys have listened
to my series on the will of God, and I've talked about the five
categories of the will of God, there's one of them that always
puts us in check. It's called what? The secret
will of God. You can beg all you want. He's
not telling you. Because if he tells you every
time you ask, you're not walking by what? Right? So he didn't tell me. And I don't
know to this day why it happened other than things happen, right? As Solomon's way of putting it.
But immediately upon asking the question, Lord, what was that
about? It came to me. No, no, no, no, no. Lord, thank
you. Thank you that it wasn't worse. Are you guys hearing? Right. So I reverted to understanding
that I was to give him thanks in all things. That's God's will
for us right first Thessalonians chapter 5 in everything give
thanks for this is the will of God concerning you in Christ
Jesus and so I thanked him for what did not happen and I moved
on in my life and I still don't know why it happened and I won't
But it's designed to humble us You understand so I was going.
Okay, Jess you going crazy, dude. I You know how things happen
and you start going, okay, you're losing it now, boy, you're losing
it. You're losing it now. You got to get somebody to take
over because you started to go crazy. You have to have a rope
tied to you before you lose yourself. Anybody think like that? You
lose it. See, even young people think like that, right? It's
humbling to have to trust God, but that's what's going on with
Paul. He learned that God's grace was sufficient. Our new outline
then, let's start working through that. We'll do a little Q and
A before we go. go. So the title of this lesson,
as we move into chapter 17, verse 15, 16, let's see here. Verse 16 is the Athens event,
the Athens event. So you can pull up our first
PowerPoint. I think it's there. Yeah, that's point number one. You have the Athens event. You
can pull up point number one. There you go. Leave it there. This
is an interesting insight into the character of Paul too. Okay,
so he gets run out of Berea because the brethren want him to live
and he's now at the southern end of California in the regions
of Achaia and Athens. Athens is a notoriously popular
city all around the world. Massive, massive, massive representation
of the whole Greek culture, which was established by Alexander
the Great. As you know, Hellenizing that
whole region there in the West and in the East. He was one of
the greatest rulers in the fourth century BC. Died at 33 years
old. Just amazing what he accomplished. And Athens was one of his major
hallmarks. And what we are told in verse
16 is this, Let me start at verse 15 and then go to verse 16. And
they conducted Paul, brought him unto 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. So that's the first point
that we have in our outline, right? Now, stirred to do what? All right, so now we get a chance
to kind of think through and psychoanalyze the Apostle Paul
because he's in Athens. Athens. And whatever he sees
in Athens, he is stirred. Whatever is going on in Athens
at this time, it has agitated him. Actually, the Greek term
here is the word for to provoke. It's like being rotted or poked
or pierced, goaded. And that goading is actually
making you mad, right? Because, you know, while goads
get you down the road, you're not an animal. So at some point
you are provoked. It's actually the word that is
used in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, 5, when it says love is not
easily what? Provoked. We fail there, don't
we? Love is not easily provoked.
And so what does that mean? That means that we're not quickly
stirred up, provoked, not quickly moved, agitated is another word,
agitated, grieved. That's the way Paul is dealing
with it. Almost angered. So we're going
to deal with this here for a moment. And this one here, I'm going
to put an asterisk right by this. Cause I don't want to justify
you who like to get angry in the name of Jesus. So let's, let's, let's, let's
check that one. But in that name of Jesus, I
was angry. Uh, very few times will you be
justifiably angry in the name of Jesus? Okay. Now there are
some times, but very few, most of the time we just justify our
anger because we are operating out of a lack of self control
and other deficits and things are going on there. You guys
know that right? But there is a legitimate holy anger that
can persist when levels of injustice rise to a point particularly
where it has to do with us or ours that would justify the kind
of antipathy we might be inclined to. So under the first point
He was stirred to say something that is was provoked. And I want
to quickly call your attention to just two sub points here called
to say something and then also qualified to say something. So
to be stirred to say something is one thing to be called to
say something is something else altogether. And then to be qualified
to say it is even an additional merit or virtue relative to being
stirred. So what if you're stirred, but
you're not called? What if you're stirred to say
something, but you're not called to say anything? What are you
going to do? Pray? That's the right religious
answer, right? That's the right religious answer.
No, it's right. It's religious, but it's right.
i'm i want to say something so bad lord let me go pray wouldn't
it be wonderful if we always did it that way always just pray
because i'm not called i'm not called to say anything um but
it's true so so this is a scenario where providence has brought
god's servants servant and you guys know what providence is
right when we use the term providence It's not a vernacular for today.
In our culture, we are much more secular and pagan in our vocabulary
than we ought to be. But for Christians, providence
means that God guides us in everything. that God brings us to places
and God sustains us in places and that everything that's happening
is happening by the providence of God's will. You guys follow
that? God has provided the scenario. He has provided the context.
He has provided the moment. He has provided you. He's providing
everything for something to happen. And in this context, God has
moved Paul to Athens because Athens will be a place where
there will be a radical testimony of the gospel. exposed here in
a moment and he has already told Paul that he's called look again
at Acts chapter 9 verse 15 Acts 9 verse 15 and I'm simply going
back there to remind you and Paul is being reminded of this
too but the Lord said unto him that is Paul go your way I mean
this is Anna and I go your way for he that is Paul is a chosen
vessel unto me see it To do what? Bear my name before the Gentiles. See, he's calling to this. So God is working in Paul the
will and to do of his good pleasure, right? He's bringing Paul by
virtue of external circumstances, persecution to another place
where he's going to work on the inside of Paul to produce in
Paul Encounter with the people that God wants to actually now
communicate the gospel He's a vessel to me to bear my name before
the what? And Kings and the children of
Israel So the Gentiles is where we are here because the Athenians
are the Gentiles par excellence So that text tells us that he's
called to do it. I Want you to see Acts chapter
26 and I'm gonna bring this up again on Sunday that he's qualified
to it It's, uh, uh, no, I won't use that one. I won't use Acts
26 for that, even though it does say that in fact, yeah, I'll
use that. Acts 26, I'll read verses 15 through 18. Now this
is remarkable. This also has major implications
theologically for those of us who, um, who, who, who often
are trying to parse the, the, the letter of the gospel. So
finally, particularly in the area of the sovereignty of God,
that we fail to understand that the sovereignty of God fundamentally
operates through means and instruments almost always, whether that's
God himself or his angels or his servants. But in Acts chapter
26 verse 15, will you mark what this says? This is Paul speaking
to the leaders in Jerusalem now, King Agrippa. And notice what
he says in verse 15. And I said, who are you Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus whom you persecute. Now we're getting
ready to talk about is him being called to this, but this really
also classifies under qualification too. Verse 16, but rise and stand
upon your feet. Remember he was knocked down.
on the road but rise and stand upon your feet for I have appeared
unto you for this purpose now here is the purpose to make you
a minister and a witness both of these things which you have
seen which is his testimony right What he's going to use as a testimony
as the door opens up is how God and Christ met him on the road
to Damascus. Now we call that witnessing.
That's not evangelism. Remember the difference between
witnessing and evangelism? Witnessing is when you tell people
what God has done for you. Evangelism is when you share
the gospel of what Christ has done for sinners. See the difference? So witnessing is when you share
with people how God brought you to himself, the unique particular
circumstances that circumscribe your conversion, not the gospel
itself. That's different, that's evangelical
in its nature. So it says here, of both the
things which you have seen and of those things in which I will
appear unto you. Now notice what he says in verse
17 and 18, delivering you from the what? Do you see that line? Delivering you from the what?
Now has God been doing that for Paul? Constantly delivering them
from the people. Inference, the people are going
to come after you. Inference, the people are not
going to accept your gospel. Inference, you're going to suffer
for my namesake, but I'm going to what? Deliver you. God was
very honest with Paul about the troubles. I'm gonna deliver you
from the people. Now, who is he talking about
when he uses the term people? Jewish people. I'm gonna deliver
you from your brethren. Like I delivered Joseph from
his brethren and Job from his brethren and David from his brethren. Right? So I'm gonna deliver you from
your brethren and then from the what? unto whom now I was." So
God takes his servant and throws him right in the midst of the
storm. I'm going to send you into the
midst of the people that are going to reject you, but I'm
going to deliver you. You got it? So the apostolic calling
is not some highfalutin ministry where you live large, drive Rolls
Royces and wear Rolex watches and sit on the top of the hill
like a king. Every one of the apostles was martyred a horrible
martyrdom, as we will learn in church history, with the exception
of John. And the only reason he wasn't
martyred is because they could not kill him, though they tried. Verse 18. And here's what I meant
by not only is he called to say something, he's qualified to
say something. Will you mark this? Not only am I delivering
you from the people and the Gentiles unto whom now I send you, But
for you to do what? Open their eyes. For you to do
what? Open their eyes. To open their
eyes and to turn them from darkness to what? And from the power of
whom? Unto who? Now, do you see what
we mean by instrumentality? Do you see why we say you don't
want to have a lopsided, hyper-Calvinist view of the sovereignty of God
because God always works through means? and of such nature and
candor that he explains that you will be the one turning them
from devils, opening their eyes so that they see the truth. Without
a doubt, without a doubt. to open their eyes and to turn
them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God. All right, let's deal with another implication out of this,
our inference that we must actually insert into this opening proposition
that the influence and power and accomplishment of the apostle
to turn their, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness
to light and from the power of Satan unto God, the influence
or power is the innate working of the spirit of God. The innate
working of the Spirit of God through Paul will be the means
by which many women will be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.
You guys got that? The innate working of the Spirit
of God in Paul to use Paul to turn them from darkness to light
is the what we call the efficient cause. So adjectives are critical. What is the cause that God uses
for sinners to be saved? The cause that he uses instrumentally
is the preaching of the gospel. Efficiently, it's the Spirit
of God. Do you understand that? But he
uses human beings as the mechanism or vehicle by which is done,
right? So sinners proclaim the gospel to sinners and God works
through that gospel to save sinners. That's what's going on here.
Now watch this. To open their eyes, turn them
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Now
that's the first line I want you to look at because that's
what we're getting ready to deal with now as we confront the Athenians. that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith, that is where? In me. So there is the exclusivity
of faith. It's always in Christ. It's always
and only in Christ. The Bible knows of no other kind
of faith except faith in Christ. Because Christ now is the source
behind which all the blessings are experienced in terms of the
eyes opening, turning from darkness, to light from the power of Satan
to God by virtue of faith in him. This inherently tells us
how all-encompassing and all-necessary the gospel is, right? When you
think about this verse, what you think about is that God has
chosen to save men and women through the preaching of the
gospel. Faith comes by what? And hearing by what? Now the
gospel is the person and work of whom? That's right. And the
person of work of Jesus Christ being proclaimed by the gospel
to men and women where the spirit of God is working in it will
turn them from darkness to light, will open their eyes and cause
them to be liberated from the power of Satan unto God. Is that
true? Right. And you know that if you're a
child of God, because it happened to you. So we could work technically
from the end of the verse all the way back up, right? The object
of our faith is Christ. Faith is given to us by proclamation
of the gospel. Those who actually believe the
gospel are sanctified and given an inheritance That inheritance
is rooted in the forgiveness of sins The forgiveness of sins
is in order that they might be turned from satan the power of
satan unto god and that darkness might be Dispelled and that their
eyes might be opened that they might see the glory of god in
christ. You guys see that Right, that's how that works that they
might see the glory of god in christ. All right, let's go back
to our First point and then underscore the second part of it So if Paul
has been stirred to say something, and he's been called to say it,
and we see he's qualified, Ephesians 6, 19 and Colossians 4, 3, 6.
Pull up Colossians 4, 3 through 6. I want you guys to take this
as a caveat on a practical level. When you and I know that we have
been called to share the gospel with people, and that God has
qualified us to share the gospel, and that we are saved, and that
we have the spirit of God, and that we actually understand the
gospel are right because no one will be saved by us in any fashion
whatsoever if we have a distorted gospel or a wrong gospel, right? People are only saved by the
truth. Remember that God does not save by lies. Never. God never saves through lies.
He doesn't save by good intentions. He only saves by the truth. You guys follow that? sanctify
them in thy truth thy word is truth john 17 17 we have been
begotten again as we saw in james chapter 117 by the word of truth
by the word of truth so it's truth that says because as john
8 31 says the truth shall set you what that's right whomsoever
the son shall set free shall be what free indeed so orthodoxy
sound doctrine is critical to people's salvation is that so
So we read here in verse 4 verse 3 of Colossians 4, which is the
same thing we read in Ephesians 6 Which is the which gives us
insight into the fact that Paul knows this Two things the door
has to be open for him to share the gospel That we don't kick
the door in We don't force our way This is the humility that
I was talking about earlier. So stay with me for a second
So God has allowed Paul to be beat up by the Jews. What does it do for Paul? It
makes him really humble about doing anything that would provoke
anyone at any time because he's used to being punched for opening
his mouth. Are you with me? I got to work
this a little bit because some of y'all still don't get it.
So the Proverbs says in Proverbs chapter 9, If you try to rebuke
a scorner, you're gonna get a punch in your mouth. And in another
place of the proverb, it says, stripes are for the backs of
fools. And it says in another place
of the proverb, a fool opens his mouth and talks whenever
he wants to. Am I putting it together? If
you talk indiscriminately, to the wrong person expects stripes. So Lord, why am I getting beat
up every time I open my mouth? Well, maybe you trying to kick
the door in. So notice what Paul says. He
says, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us
a door of what? So you and I don't get to presume
that anywhere we go, anytime we go, anyhow we go, we can say
what we want to say just because we're there. Are you guys hearing
me? You can't just say what you want
to say. I know the gospel, so I'm gonna
just share it. Okay, you might just get a block
to yourself. And this is why Christ said in
Matthew 7, do not cast your pearl before swine. Do not give that
which is precious to the dogs. And as Proverbs chapter 15 plainly
says, again, a fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man
holds it in until afterwards. A prudent man dilleth in knowledge. Knowing when and when not to
talk is sound judgment. And really what he's talking
about is the disposition of our heart to wait on God to set the
scenario so that when we talk, even if we are smitten for it,
the gospel will still advance. You and I never want to suffer
according to first Peter chapter four, because of our own human
willfulness. We want to suffer for the gospel
sake, right? So if we hold an ethic that, Lord, if you don't
open the door, I'm not going in, you're going to be wiser
for that. Only go where the Lord sends you. Only open your mouth
when God has called you to open your mouth. And you will learn
that to hold your peace is a major, major act of divine grace. And when you learn to hold your
peace, you will discover that more success will be achieved
in your ministry than opening your mouth wide and letting everybody
know for sure you a fool. You remember what the proverb
says, even a fool when he holds his peace is viewed as wise until
he opens his mouth. So with all praying for us that
God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ for which I also am in what? Right. So Paul is saying,
I need God's grace and I need your prayers to assist in opening
doors of utterance. take us back to our text, so
then we can begin to work with this. I'm just going to open
up this second point and then close. Interesting what's taking
place. So in Acts chapter 17, here's
what he goes on to say, as he has now moved on in. Verse 16. Verse 16, I'm going to read verse
16, 17, and 18. We'll stop here for tonight.
Now, while Paul waited for them in Athens, don't know how long
he waited, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry. So this is what I had stated
earlier. What did Paul see? What was it that stirred him? What did he see? What he saw
was rank, what? Idolatry. Now, you and I don't
see it, We don't see the idolatry that Paul saw. We are not in
Athens in about the year 8045, maybe 8047, right about now,
maybe even 8051 or 52. We don't see it. But imagine
yourself in a city like New York, the Big Apple, or even in San
Francisco. But in San Francisco or New York,
on every corner, and on the corner of every door on every building. And on the corner of every window
on every building. Everywhere you go, the waterfalls,
the street corners, the lampposts, everywhere you go is an image
of a God. Inside the building, images everywhere. Outside on the buildings, externally,
massive images of gods everywhere. And people venerating those gods. One historian said there were
over 300,000 gods that were designed as idols
and images plastered everywhere in Athens. 300,000. In other words, you couldn't
go anywhere without seeing one of these pagan images of a false
god dominating or controlling everything that was going on
in Athens. In other words, Athens didn't accidentally give itself
over to this level of idolatry. It was intentional. This was
an intentional habitation of demons represented by images
everywhere. Do you guys follow the logic?
So now think about this because this would require on an application
level for you to think about your own sensitivity to the environment
that you're in sometime. Don't not wanting you to embrace
what Paul is going to describe as superstition. I'm going to
explain this nuanced battle that Paul is about to get into with
these guys. It's a real rhetorical battle, but If you and I are
going places and we fail to see the symbols and understand the
symbols for what they are, the icons, the images, and their
underlying demonic connotation, it's probably that we are either
insensitive or blind spiritually, right? like the Mason symbols
and the Rosicrucians and the multiple symbols that you see
with all of these different cults that are everywhere that are
letting you know that they have marked out this territory or
this group or this region or this particular institution as
theirs. And here you and I are frequenting
these places and we are unaware that we are in a habitation of
demons according to Revelation chapter 18, right? And as such,
we may or may not be sensitive to the impact of that demon stronghold
relative to our own lives. And as a consequence, we may
find ourselves either aiding and abetting the perpetuation
of that demonic setting because of our ignorance or becoming
subject to the subtle influences of that environment. and gradually
and incrementally being trapped by the bondages of that culture. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? If our hearts are hardened to our environment and we are
able to just easily and apathetically just dwell in the midst of rank
idolatrous perversion. Do you understand what I'm talking
about? perversion, vile perversion,
without an internal reaction of soul against it as repugnant,
our hearts are hard. Right? Now, having actually painted
that picture for you, you know, you and I don't have to go anywhere
to be exposed to that level of pervasive idolatrous perversion,
do we? It's called what? The television. It's called the television. And yet what's taking place in
Athens, because there were no televisions, is that Paul is
in the city now for some time and his spirit grew agitated. He began to be uneasy about his
environment. Why? Because he's a stranger
and a pilgrim in this world. Because he has been uprooted
from this secular culture in this secular system and a new
nature has been given him and he now hates what God hates Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying he sees it the way God sees it And because he sees it the way
God sees it he now watch this cares and we started our m1 class uh two
years ago i had to go through a lengthy period of laying a
foundation as to the heart motive of an evangelist you guys remember
that we went through several messages about um being a legitimate
uh christian uh soul winner and that in order for you and i to
actually be winners of souls you actually have to be lovers
of souls first you have to love the souls of men in order to
win the souls of men. That you and I will not win anyone's
soul for whom we don't first love. And when you love souls,
then you become concerned for the condition of those souls.
Am I making some sense? So I'm laying the foundation
here for what's happening with Paul. Paul is now becoming deeply
aware of the massive demonic influence that has the people
that he is around in bondage, and in spiritual darkness and
in pagan slavery. And again, like the Bible does
not ever go into explicit details of the dark world because your
Bible is not designed for you to get trapped by that because
most people can get trapped by that outside of the Bible. You
don't need the Bible to give you all of the nasty details
of paganism. They are always rooted however
in two things dark destructive Propositions that lead to the
worship of satan and perversion of the flesh which is sexual
in nature Those two corresponding dynamics are everywhere satan
rules. You guys need to know that um
dark pagan exaltation of false gods and sexual perversion dominate
that culture. That's the problem with our entertainment
world, problem with our music, problem with our businesses,
problem with our government, problem with our schools. You
and I are dealing with a central mask that has been manufactured
by the Babylonian system and it's being foisted upon our culture
even as we speak in the name of gender expression. That's
another demonic mask that people are being forced into its mold.
You understand that? gender specificity, because they
want to continue to pervert the imaginal day in mankind. And
so that's a massive battle that you and I are fighting. And if
your hearts are hardened, you won't understand the cry of the
soul saying, deliver me from this universal and politically
charged and economically strengthened mass that's been forcing on our
children at the youngest ages. You guys understand that? Just imagine Paul seeing that.
Pliny said that the place was so absolutely given over to idolatry
that it was more idolatrous, it was more pagan than Rome itself. In other words, when the Roman
Empire would come to Athens, Athens was Rome on a turbocharger,
just boosted in its idolatrous practices. just given over to
idolatry. And so the language is clear.
Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred
in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Verse 17,
therefore, therefore, therefore disputed he in the synagogue
with the Jews and with the devout persons. Do you see it? Therefore,
when he went to church, he was so stirred up when he went to
church, it pressed him to deal with his religious folk who were
actually doing church in San Francisco, doing church in the
Big Apple, doing church right there in the Bastion of Evil
because he knew the influence of the culture in the church.
Got that? He knew the influence of the
culture and the church and he was stirred. He was stirred to
dispute with them. Now, again, the word dispute
does not carry the connotation contextually or grammatically
that you and I would have today. He wasn't picking a fight. He
was engaging them. He was engaging them in biblical
truth relative to what God's word said is, is an orthodox
worldview. So, so a lot of you may not know
that a biblical worldview is something that you must understand
if you're going to be able to tell many women why you believe
what you believe. And if you don't even understand
what a biblical worldview is, you got work to do. Because the
way Christianity is made null and void and defamed of its power
is to segregate biblical doctrines in a fashion that you have no
coherent theology relative to who God is, how the universe
was made, man's origins, man's purpose, man's design, and man's
destiny. When you don't have a clear biblical
worldview as to who God is. Who created the universe? and
mankind relative to that God, man's origin, man's purpose,
man's design, and man's destiny. If you don't have a biblical
worldview around that, you can actually believe that you have
a Christian salvation and yet embrace a lot of pagan ideas
to boot. Because you don't have a comprehensive,
coherent biblical worldview that says, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's not biblical. That's contrary to the character
of God. That's contrary to the nature
of God. That's contrary to the will of God. If you embrace that
idea, that concept, you're gonna actually lose your capacity for
salvation. So, getting back to just one
example. If we actually believe that we
can redesign our gender specificity, we have called God a fool at
the heart of redemptive matters. Why do I say that? Because Jesus
was a man born of a woman, made under the law to redeem us from
the curse of the law. And you cannot play with that
gender specificity without denying the gospel. Do you guys get that? He was a real man physically,
biologically, in the womb of a real woman physically, biologically,
to be the mediator for all kinds of sinners around the world.
And God knew he was a man and God knew she was a woman. And
to define manhood and womanhood with the fluidity that our present
culture is doing is to deny the immutability of God's redemptive
work in Christ. Am I making some sense? It's
very critical then to understand that the goal of the enemy in
his attack on man is really his attack on God. That's Romans
chapter one, by the way. When they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, but became vain in their imagination and their
foolish hearts were darker. And they changed the glory of
the image of invisible God, like unto an image of carnal, corrupt
man, four-footed beast, creeping things, birds of the air. This
is why veneration in our world now is spread to virtually everything
but God. We worship everything but God.
So we've turned it upside down. You guys understand that? So
when you as a Christian are saying, I don't see anything wrong with
her identifying herself as a dude or him identifying himself as
a girl, are them splitting it both ways? I mean, they may not
know who their gender is, what their gender is or what their
sex is. They should. They should. They should. Do you understand? They should. and where they have failed to
see the concrete empirical evidence of your physicality as the gender
that God has assigned you, you are actually denying God's handiwork. Y'all following me for a moment?
So I can be confused, but God can't. Now, once God's confused,
it's over with. Just smoke a cigar, Have a drink
and cuz it's over with Jenison as soon as God didn't know what
he was doing Which is Isaiah chapter 29 13 father, right The
pot saying to the maker you didn't have any understanding. It's
crazy but I'm getting at the the central idolatry of which
the enemy is trying to perpetuate around the world and for which
it will sustain wars for the next 100 years. This battle against
the concrete, empirical, immutable factors of binary gender to gender
specific distinct persons, this battle, because the rest of the
world is not ready for it, Western culture is forcing it on the
rest of the world, you're going to have wars for another 100
years. Do you understand that? Because it's divisive by nature.
You're trying to force people to buy into something that is
irrational. Do you understand that? It's
irrational. It's not rational. Did anyone
see, I talked about this on my Monday program about two months
ago, the little YouTube clip that was going around for about
maybe three or four weeks, five minute clips of a young lady
going up to college students. And she says, can I ask you a
question? And the college student says,
yeah. What if I told you that I was a five foot 11 Caucasian
male, what would you say? And you know what? Almost all
of them with the exception of maybe one out of a hundred says,
well, if that's what you feel you are, then that's who you
are. There's a little short Chinese lady, little short Chinese sister,
four foot nine. explicitly Asian, saying, well,
you know, I feel like I'm six foot one and I'm African-American,
really. So what you think about that?
Whatever you think, that's fine with you. And she started doing
that with every student that came along and it was discovered
that they had been operating out of this liberal progressive
postmodern ideology, which is unhinged from reality. See, they
could not tell her the truth. because the truth was taken from
them. They couldn't tell her the truth because it was taken. You can only tell the truth if
you have it. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So the truth was taken from them. So all they could
do is affirm her because that's what we've been taught to do.
Haven't we? We've been taught to affirm. that a person's feelings
correspond to their reality. So you can mark this down. This
here is a sort of an axiom. Now, today, perception is reality. Today, perception is reality. But that is a recipe for insanity. Perception is far from reality. Do you understand that? Perception
is far from reality. But because this is becoming
the underlying premise, building a whole new worldview, perception
now rules as the truth. What is your perception of truth?
Then that's true. Now, if Christians buy into that
synthetic lie, you have bought into the Antichrist system. Do
you understand that? You bought into the anti-christ
system. Now if what I am saying is true and it is be sure to
know this to hold to a biblical worldview in a world that is
unhinging every day being given over to what we call a reprobate
mind the inability to actually reason through a thing rationally
and properly so as to land on the truth. You know that the
Christian Church is set up for persecution. in that college professors are
looking for you when you show up in class this semester. Because
they have a whole arsenal to throw at you in that particular
subject that you are studying, even though that subject has
nothing to do with God. But it does have everything to
do with their wholesale objective of pushing a worldview on you
that the Bible has plainly said is patently idolatrous. So getting
back to my point, and I'll open the floor for a few questions,
we'll come back here. What's going on in Paul that drives him to want to address
this issue? What's taking place in Paul that
drives him to want to address this issue? It's an ethos that I have brought
to you many, many times. that is at the foundation of
biblical evangelism. It's an ethos that our master
had. It's an ethos that Paul demonstrated,
which excelled even the apostles. Because see, remember, the apostles
were cool in Jerusalem with their own Jewish constituents. That's
the same as being cool with church folk. You got that? Well, yeah, we cool in church.
But, but, but Paul wasn't cool with church folk, our folk outside
of the church until they had come to know Christ. So he was
motivated and driven by an ethic that God had placed in him to
become all things to all men. So that by any means he might
win some because he loved sinners. That's one of the motives. He
loves sinners. And he was also a debtor to grace. Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians
9? He says, I'm a debtor to all
men. Because God has saved me, I owe all men the truth. That's what drove him. I owe
all men the truth. I was just as blind as the rest
of them. Now that God has opened my eyes and I see the truth,
I am obligated to look for opportunities to share this truth with all
men so that they might come into a saving knowledge of Christ.
Got that? So we'll be working through the
battle next week. It's awesome. Awesome. Because
they're going to call him a fool. And he's going to call them devil
worshipers. And they both going to know they're talking bad about
each other in the spiritual dimension. the door is going to open and
a platform is going to be raised up for paul to preach to all
of these athenians in this one place because they're going to
drag him in there as the sovereign will of god puts it and he's
going to stand up and he says all these idols you got one altar
here one well y'all say y'all don't know that's the one i want
to talk to you about isn't that strategically good And here's
the noble thing about the Athenians that we don't have in the 21st
century. At least they admitted that they probably missed God. You got that? Not today. Not
today. Any questions? Any questions?
Observations? Good. I need a runner. Young
runner. Young runner. No old runners. Young runner. Raise
your hand. OK, good. So you can use that
mic and go back there and catch Tamar. And then you can catch
E right quick. Rami, right here. So after Tamar, then you can
get Leslie right here at Eats. Tamar, what's your observation?
I wanted to ask, so we know faith is in Christ alone. You got to
keep the mic to your mouth. We know faith is in Christ alone.
But so this zeal that we see people have for supposed God,
how do we explain that when we're speaking with somebody? about
when they ask, well, what about all these people who have, you
know, there are worshiping God, you know, in air quotes, I'm
saying that. So, so reframe that because I
didn't quite get it. Um, like if I'm speaking to some,
somebody, uh, about why faith is in Christ alone and, um, and,
uh, God is it's Christ. when they say, well, what about
other people that are worshiping God? You know, why is that not
God? Okay, so yeah, this is the classic
question is, is it only one way or do all roads lead to Rome?
Okay, that's the classic question that people ask. And that's a
question that is inherent and endemic to our makeup as fallen
human beings. That question is to be affirmed
to that person that you're talking about as very reasonable from
where you're standing. In other words, don't go to fighting
with them over the assumption that there has to be other ways
besides Jesus. Because the universal and classic
response that there has to be other ways besides Jesus affirms
the fall. So I want you to get that. It
affirms the fall. The fall presumed that there
was another way other than obedience to God. Right? And this is what I told you the
word heresies is in the Greek is a choice. A choice. That's what heresy means. Heresy
means a choice. And here's the fundamental lie
that all of unregenerate man holds to that you and I have
a choice. You guys got that? That we can
choose this or choose that or choose the other thing and that's
a lie. That a choice is only the option to sin as opposed
to obey. Get the CD and listen to it a
thousand times so you can get this because most people don't
understand that the idea of human freedom, freedom of the will,
the capacity and the option and the right to choose your own
way is really not biblical and it would have never ever been
a question had we still been in the garden. The only reason
we talk like that is because our foreparents chose their own
way. And now we're out here in the
wide open expanse, not knowing how to find the way back under
the assumption that we can work our way back. Right. And so here's
the second thing that inherently is implied by the question. Are
you guys ready? If a person has properly heard
the gospel and it has been made plain that Christ is exclusively
the way to God, singularly the only way back to God. And the
question is raised, what about all these other ways? Inherent
in that question is the self-righteousness of all human beings. Did you
follow the logic of that? It presumes that humans have
a righteousness by which when they stand before God, they might
be accepted before God apart from Christ. Because the propositions
of the gospel of Christ says there's none righteous. If in
fact there's none righteous, there is no other way. But if
you reject the indictment of scripture concerning your alien
status as unrighteous, then quite naturally you're looking for
another way. But if you have been shown that you are a radically
depraved sinner, shut up to God's mercy alone, you're not looking
for any other way but the mercy of God in Christ. So when people
are talking like that, we are affirming that they are still
in their native state, spiritually blind, and they are simply consenting
to what their forefather Adam and Eve has opened up to them,
that God knows that you won't die in the day you eat, you'll
be like God, knowing good and evil, you can go down this road,
that road, it all leads to God. This is the monism, M-O-N-I-S-M,
that our whole world system is headed to. Monism. God is one,
and one is God, and we are all God, and we're all one. This
is your Middle Eastern philosophy that is so sweet like honey to
the taste. Leslie, and then over here, Eric.
Pastor Jesse, you mentioned a little while ago, 1 Corinthians 9, within
19 and 23, about being all things to all people that may save some. I get into arguments, well, not
arguments, had discussions with people that are already saved,
that are believers, that are going to churches that, since I've
been coming to this study, I'm understanding a little bit more
about the apostate church. The argument comes up where,
well, that's our style that we do here. And our worship is this
way. So what if we repeat the same
thing? Hymns does not mean that you're necessarily having pure
worship. That's the argument. The other
thing that they mention is that, You know, there's a difference
between style that they're still winning souls to Christ. And
I love what you had shared, um, about the widget. And so when
I go to hear these arguments, I'm trying to hear where's Jesus
in, in this, you guys got the widget. How many of y'all got
the widget? Raise your hand. Have you got the widget? Most of y'all
don't have the widget. So my sister is telling me that she
is an expository listener, right? So the widget is the way you
determine whether when you go to church and hear that person,
minus the shouting and the hollering, hollering, I'm gonna go hollering.
The widget is the discernment to raise the question in the
preaching, where is Jesus in it? Because if Christ is not
in it, if he's not the foundation of it, if he's not the substance
of it, if he's not the end and objective of that preaching,
you haven't heard the gospel. It's not God honoring. I don't
care how nice the stories are, it's nothing but a nice, therapeutic,
psychological storyline, anecdotal story. Make you feel good, but
it's not redemptive in nature. So my other part of the question
is, why do some churches or what is their position? Why do they
choose to use that particular scripture to support the fact
that it's OK to preach a sermon based on one or two scriptures
only? Because eventually, these people that hear this, they will
come to Christ. What texts are you saying that
they use? The one that you were just mentioning
about being all things to all people that you say so. First
Corinthians chapter 9 is an ethic. which says this is, I love this.
I don't have time to develop it, but it has to do with not
you changing your ethos or your pathos or your logos. You don't change your logos.
That's your word. You don't change your pathos.
That's your zeal. You don't change your ethos.
That is your objective. Your objective is to see them
say, But what you will do is recognize that where they are
is where I need to meet them in order to bring them to a recognition
that they need Christ. That's evangelism. Does that
make sense? Now, when that subject is brought
up in terms of the church, and equate it to churches having
big screens with football logos and the pastor comes in in a
football uniform and he got linebackers to the left of him and tailbackers
to the right and they doing a football analogy that has nothing to do
with the gospel. That's a compromise of worship.
And that's because they do not have as a priority an ethic of
worship that is God-centered. Their ethic of worship is man-centered. It caters to the flesh. On Sunday, what the lost sinner
has an opportunity to do when they come into our assemblies
is see a God-centered, Christ-exalted focus on the part of true believers
towards God. We're all looking to Christ and
they get to look up and say, what they looking at? Because
we're not catering to them in that moment. Worship and evangelism
are two different things. Do you understand that? In the
worship of God, the people of God are looking upward, Godward,
Christward in their veneration, in their prostration, in their
worship, in their zeal, in their enthusiasm, so that the lost
sinner ought to feel like they're missing out on something. Do
you hear me? We're not in the worship service
catering to how they feel. That's why your music is not
to be sensual Energetic. Yes sensual. No God's centered
in its theology Absolutely, it better not be man-centered. It
better not be driven by a little trivial statements that talk
about like a rose Fallen by the talking about the sufferings
of Christ You guys know the song I'm talking about When you look
at the lyrics of that carefully, it diminishes the horror and
the holiness of Christ, like a rose trampled on the ground.
You look at it, it's super syrupy. And then it's actually man-centered.
It's not Christ-centered. That's the subtlety of a lot
of the music today. Last year, when me and several
of the guys were in conference in Jacksonville, and my son,
which is one of our worship ministers here, as you know. We were doing
a worship class with Bob Coughlin. Bob Coughlin is a Sovereign Grace
worship leader. And one of the things he was
teaching was over his 20, 30 years being in ministry, he has
seen how the church's trajectory of music has led to a very man-centered
approach, that it does not have rich Christocentric theology,
no atoning theology, no sin theology, no suffering theology. It's all
about all that God will do for you. all that God will do for
you listen carefully to me all that God will and and it makes
and it see in the subtlety about it is that it's half true do
you understand that it's half true but when you use the widget
you come to oh my goodness there's something radically missing here
you understand that That's why I laugh and I use one of the
recent songs about a year ago. I don't know if it was Hezekiah
Walker or somebody. He talked about how God saw the
good in him. You saw the best in me. When
everybody saw the worst in me, you saw the best in me. Y'all remember that song? That's a million miles away from
biblical theology. You wouldn't find one Bible verse
where it says God looks at you and sees the best in you. And
because he sees the best in you, God accepts you. That's the epitome
of humanism. There is none. They all have gone astray. All their righteousness is a
minstrel claw. The angels are filthy in God's
sight. Did you get that? Totally different
gospel. That's why there's a generation
who are pure in their own eyes, but have not been washed from
the filth of their sin in the church today. Do you understand
that? Because they have not been confronted
with biblical gospel. And the reason why they don't
do it is because the biblical gospel will run all of the elect
out of the church. So, next question. It's over
here. Eric. Thanks, pastor. I just have one
question. I want to clarify Acts seventeen eleven. Uh huh. Um
so, the Barans weren't, they, we can't say that they received
the word with our readiness. What Paul is saying, he's saying
that they weren't noble because they receive the word and the
the word with our that part, like why is he, he
calls them noble, not because they were, they, I don't know.
I'm just kind of, kind of lost there a little bit with the first
seven, first 11. Okay. So I'm going to help you there.
Fundamentally, what's taking place right there. And I'm going
to make an assumption is that, um, there is no category right
now in your theological understanding to recognize a cause and effect
in that, in that context. so remember we talked about the
word noble there grammatically being the greek term what eugenics
right it's a combination between the word good genes and luke
is the one that's actually speaking not paul right luke is the human
author i'll talk about him in sunday school luke is a physician
luke is taking a physical uh term and in developing a spiritual
reality behind it. What he's saying is these are
persons who are different than the men over in Thessalonica
whom we had already described back there as men of the baser
sort. Remember that? Men of the baser
sort. So he's establishing a contrast
between the two. And here he's describing being
noble as an individual who has been gifted and qualified to
pursue God through theological truth. So nobility in this context
is underscoring the grace of God for them to have the necessary
means by which when the gospel is preached, they can affirm
it. So they are radically different than the other group. The other
group have rejected the gospel. Men of the baser sort. this group
have received the gospel noble in that they were wide open to
receive it and then to affirm it by their own going behind
and studying to make sure those things were so that they were
talking about so what paul what luke is doing is making external
observation about the radically different response of these brothers
than those over there and and it would it wouldn't infringe
at all upon the fundamental reality that by nature these people were
uh depraved sinners who were in need of salvation. It would
simply say, as we've talked before, that a prerequisite grace had
already been employed in their life so that going to church,
they had grown up under the word of God and that word of God was
planted in their hearts sufficiently enough so that when the gospel
was preached, they fell over into it right away. Same thing
happened with Lydia at Acts 16. She attended to the word because
God had opened her heart. Same thing happened with Cornelius
in Acts chapter 10. Remember, when Peter came while
he is preaching, they received the Holy Ghost, evidencing and
speaking in languages And what we are saying is that sometimes
what God will do is he will give credit to a predisposition as
the framework for receiving those instrumental means by which grace
occurs. At the core, we are still acknowledging that these folks,
by nature, were lost, hell-bound sinners, okay? All right, anybody
else before Thomas? Real quick, you had mentioned
not to have a hyper Calvinistic view. Yeah, you when you were
in Acts 26 18 This is actually what I would this is the same
thing that I would be saying with regards to Eric's Approach
to the text be careful those of you who hold to a Calvinistic
paradigm of soteriology that you don't force a text to say
something there just to justify your theological presuppositions,
because that would make you a bad hermeneutician. You would not
be a sound exegete. If the text says, as in the gospel
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole, which Jesus said multiple times to people who
actually received healing, then the lesson there is that faith,
which is the gift of God, has been given to her and it's hers.
And God will acknowledge that it's hers. And because it was
hers, he's calling it hers that saved her. It's not denying origin. It's simply affirming the instrumentality
by which she was saved. Am I making some sense? Watch
this. In other words, when God gives you a gift, it's yours.
Christ will affirm that over and over and over again So now
I have to find a way to twist that text around and say well
really that's not her gift is God's gift I already know that
Every good and perfect gift comes from God, but once he gives it
to me, it's mine Like Paul said concerning the gospel. This is
my gospel God will judge the world according to my gospel.
So when we're gonna be faithful faithful exegetes of Scripture
Make sure you look at the text in that verse that you're dealing
with, understand that verse in light of its context, and then
its larger theological implication. If you don't do that, you're
gonna skip and jump over Bible verses so that you can continue
teaching your pet doctrines, and God will never bless that. He only blesses honest, exegetical
labors in the word of God. What people need is for the text
to be explained. not explained away. You guys
understand that? Here's how you know when you
are doing a good job. When everybody don't like what
you're saying, the Calvinist and the Armenian, um, divine sovereignty and human
responsibility go hand in hand all throughout the scriptures.
You guys understand that question? And just one more point that
I wanted to make sure I got clear from my own mind. So you had
mentioned before, and hopefully I got this right in my notes,
the mark that's on our forehead in Revelation. Revelation what?
Revelation 7 or Revelation 14? I think it's 14. Revelation 7
and 14. I'm telling you both. I'm not questioning. Okay. So the mark that's in Revelation
7 and 14, that's Would that be considered then us understanding
having a biblical worldview of things? Right. So now, Revelation
7, where it talks about God holding back the four winds that would
destroy the world until all were sealed in their foreheads, in
their foreheads. Revelation 14, they are sealed.
144,000 are sealed revelation 14-1 both of these are neo Ezekiel
prophecies going back to Ezekiel chapter 9 where God told Ezekiel
I'm going to destroy everyone in Israel, but before I do I'm
going to send the writer with the acorn in his hand to go and
mark the foreheads of everyone that sighs and cries for the
abominations that are done in Israel. They are God's elect
Now, why are they God's elect? Because he chose them. What is
the evidence that they are God's elect? They see the apostasy
in the church. What is their ethos? They are
telling men and women that they are wrong. What is their pathos?
They're crying out because of the abominations. Did you follow
that? In other words, God says, I'm
going to protect my elect from the apostasy and the judgment
that's gonna come on the apostate church, because not only are
they malelech, but they're telling men and women that they are going
in a wrong direction and they are suffering for it. But not
only are they suffering for telling the truth, they have a love for
human beings that they are wearing sackcloth, indicating they are
mourning for the lost estate of their own brethren in Christ.
Isn't this what Paul said in Romans chapter nine, verse one,
I could wish myself accursed for my brethren after the flesh,
right? so what you get in the doctrine
of election is not some static existential bizarre abstract
act on God's part absent of an ethical evidence of God's elect
not only agreeing with God the stamp is on their forehead you
know what that means they have the mind of Christ okay That's
1 Corinthians chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2. We have the mind of
Christ. We learned this last week. The natural man cannot
receive the things of the Spirit. Only he that is spiritual can
receive the things of the Spirit. So when we receive the things
of the Spirit, we agree with God concerning what God says
is going on in the world, right? But we also grieve with God over
the things that grieve Him, right? So Jesus was grieved, the Master
was grieved when He saw the hypocrisy of the Jews, wasn't He? He was
grieved when he saw that people were mourning like, I don't know
what, at the death of Lazarus, right? So we get insights into
the character of God's ethos in Jesus. And we having the same
spirit that Christ does, we are grieved when we see sin. We are
grieved when we see people in bondage. We mourn when we see
evil rampant and dominating our world. And that mourning, grieving
disposition ought to prepare us to share the gospel with people.
Does that make sense? And where we don't have that
ethic, we better be careful about claiming to be God's elect. Do
you hear me? The notion that I'm God's elect
and to hell with everybody else. No, you're probably not God's
elect. Sorry. Did you hear what I just stated? Yeah, probably
you're not God's elect. Right. And you're just stupid.
Is it CD on? Cause this is good. Is it CD
on? So let me help you understand why I say you're stupid. If you
could talk like that, because you fail to realize the responsibility you have for
your own family. If you can be apathetic and cold
and indifferent and antipathetic towards other people, to hell
with them, you're saying the same thing to your own kids. You see how we have to grow up?
So we don't ever want to get election twisted. God's elect
are always marked by humility of spirit because we know we
don't deserve being saved. And then they're also marked
by a growing compassion towards the lost because we know that
they can only be saved by the gospel and that God saved me
to share that gospel. Do you understand that? When
you follow the doctrine of election through, What you see is God's
elect go through hell for Christ's sake, that sinners might be saved. So the mark on the forehead was
the open public acknowledgement that I'm his slave. You guys
got that? And it's also a testimony that
my mind has been given over to the mind of God. So Revelation
14, one says, and having his father's name written in their
foreheads. having their father's name written
in their foreheads. What do you mean? The name that
Christ has revealed to his elect that God is in his relationship
with all of God's people is Pater, it's father. You got that? Get this if you don't get it.
You can know God in all of the different appellations with which
he is titled. And you can be lawful in your
boasting Jehovah Shammah, Jehovah Elroy, Jehovah this, Jehovah
that, Jehovah Jireh. But if you don't know him as
Abba and Partir, you don't know him in a saving way. And as God
the father, he is revealed only by God the son. He came to reveal
God as father to those who are his. Do you guys understand that? And the spirit of adoption by
which we cry of a father is the tangible evidence of our relationship
with the father through the son. Only God's born-again people
can make that claim in a substantive fashion. Does that help you guys? Last question. Martin, is that
a question? Yeah. Oh, hold on. My sister. Go ahead, sis. Okay, thanks. So you took us
to Colossians and you talked about God opening the door and
us not kicking it down. And I recall you speaking previously
about altar call and that there's no biblical base for it. It's not a precedent. And the
scripture that comes to mind that I hear argued about that
is, if you acknowledge me before man, I'll acknowledge you before
my Father in heaven. So I was just wondering if you
could speak to that. Yeah. Yeah. This is also what we meant
by contextualizing any Bible verse. Contextualizing. That's
Matthew 10 and other places. If you read Matthew chapter 10
and other places, Jesus is talking about the real authentic Christianity
that's willing to suffer for his namesake. It's not the religious
structural pretense of coming up to the altar and receiving
Jesus Christ as Lord. It's the life that we live subsequent
to actually being born again as true believers. And that confession
is perpetual. That's not a one-time thing.
You haven't confessed anything before God by simply coming up,
repeating a prayer. In fact, homo legeo and yadad,
the two Hebrew terms for confession, actually requires that you and
I have a broad knowledge of God in order to say everything that
God says about himself and about us as we share the word with
people. So homo legeo is a term that means I know God and I talk
about God to the degree that I know him. That's called confession,
okay? And that's something we do every
day of our lives as a Christian, whether it's in the church or
outside of the church. But certainly, contextually, what that's talking
about is standing before men, being ready to die for the claims
of the gospel. And so we don't want to trivialize
Matthew 10 by some altar call thing, because you and I know
We just know that to come up to an altar is not equivalent
to having a new nature in Christ and living an authentic Christian
life. And so what we who are serious about a truth-saving
experience say is we are not going to accept something that
we don't have a biblical precedent for. In addition to that, we
see so many people stumbling under the false assumption that
they are saved because they prayed the sinner's prayer, but their
lives have not changed. Right, that's what we do. So
Matthew 10 would not be a valid place to argue that practice
that's in many of our churches. I hope that helps with you. All
right, Martin, so we can shut it down. Years ago, I was involved
a number of years ago with the antiques and arts. And there are a lot of ancient
Baroque burial pieces and idols that were bought and sold. And that bothers me, you know,
because my parents, my forefathers worshipped
idols. Take the mic from me. I just
want to help. Hold on. Take the mic, because
I want to help you with that. Now, you know you're bothered by a
lot of things. My parents worshipped. crazy pagan ancestors called
on them. Y'all know, y'all know what I'm
talking about back in Louisiana and Texas and just crazy stuff
and all of the trinkets and stuff all around the house and all
the little superstitious stuff I'm going to talk about next
week. Don't do this. Don't do that. You're going to
get uncle upset. Uncle been gone for years. When you are saved you are delivered
from all that There is no residual effect that
salvation doesn't have the power to immediately relieve you from
What you're dealing with Martin is what a lot of us had to deal
with in terms of a crazy life That still plagues us in our
memory but the blood of Jesus Christ has washed us from all
of that fill all at once all at once I don't care about your mask
ain't saying nothing okay do you hear me the little idol icons
they're not saying nothing for Christians they're not gonna
rise up they're not gonna take you they're not gonna make you
levitate they're not gonna give you revelations Fear hath torment. Perfect love casts out fear. Do you guys understand that?
And so God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and
of power and of a sound mind. And the gospel has completely
exercised every sinful thing from God's elect who are trusting
in Christ. Did you guys get that? So if
you think somehow Christ, who is infinite, eternal, omniscient,
God can sit on your heart and the devil can too, your Christ
is too small. Do you understand? Your Christ
is too small. And really, that's really the
problem with a lot of our church folk. They know way too much
about the dark world and not enough about Christ. Is that
true? Question, is it a question? Can
you talk about the 144,000? Many are called, but few are
chosen. Yeah, the 144,000, you guys, is a symbolic number. You've got to understand how
the book of Revelation works. The book of Revelation is a coded
book. Colors are coded and numbers are coded. Okay? The first time
you read about 144 is in Revelation 7. The next time you read it,
it's in Revelation 14. The last time you read it, it's
in Revelation chapter 21. The 144 is a division of 12 times
12 times 1,000. And it actually is the full government
of the church, Old Testament 12 tribes, New Testament 12 apostles
multiplied by 1000, which underscores the fullness of the church in
what is called a perfect square. The church are the Kingdom of
God is a citizenry of a perfect square. And when you read Revelation
21 concerning the New Jerusalem, which is 12 stadia times 12 stadia
by a thousand a square is an impossible literal figure to
actually occupy the earth. Please understand that. So we're
dealing with symbolism in the book of Revelation. All right.
Symbolism. So that, that is very important
when you read the book of Revelation, are you going to be lost in a
lot of the literal components? Uh, one more question. We're
done. Um, you just said that, um, God loves sinners and that's
what we are. We're saved by God's grace. And
but on one of your Sunday message, you said that when you hear God
loves sinner, but not the sin. No, you said love the sinner,
but not the sin. And then you have pointed out
Malachi 1, Jacob he loved, but Esau he hated. So how do we explain
that too? Right. Several ways. First, to
say that God loves sinners is not the same as saying God loves
all sinners. Just like if I say I love you,
that doesn't mean I love everybody like you. Right? So I can say
that God loves sinners because if he loves anybody, whatever
the quantity of them he loves, what he's loving categorically
are what? Right. So that's the logic behind that
general proposition. But that general proposition
is not what we call an absolute. Here's the absolute that's taught
in most of our churches. God loves everybody. Right? That's the absolute that's
taught in all your churches. But that's different than saying
God loves sinners. You guys got that? So you have to be very
careful about language. So then logic says, if I'm a
Bible-believing Christian, And I challenge all propositions
based on the word of God, right? If that statement, God loves
everybody is true. Then Malachi chapter one is wrong. And Romans chapter nine is wrong. And three places in the Psalms
are wrong where God hates all workers of iniquity, right? So
you have to know how to actually juxtapose what appears to be
paradoxical concepts. So the other question is is if
God loves everybody Then what does his love have to do with
saving anyone? Since the vast majority of the
human race will perish under the wrath of God, right? So hell
is filled with people whom God loved Right Follow the logic
just help help some of you that haven't struggled through the
fallacy of this logic So when we teach here at Grace, we start
with basic principles. If a proposition is made, we
want to first affirm it on a propositional level scripturally. Can you affirm
that that's what God says explicitly? And the answer is no, we cannot
affirm that God says explicitly that he loves everybody. We will
say that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son John 3 16 and we will infer that means God loves everybody,
right? But the problem is is that even that verse establishes
the greatest conditionality of God's love doesn't it? Whosoever
believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life, right?
So the qualification for his love is those who actually end
up believing Right? You guys follow that? So what
we tell people is God's love is neither universal nor is it
unconditional. God's love is always conditional
and God's love is specific. So if he says that Jacob have
I love but Esau have I what? If it was just Esau out of all
of the billions of people who have come and gone, we cannot
say that God loves everybody, can we? You guys follow the logic
there? So your Bible forces you to re-evaluate
your constructs and your propositions and the way you frame things
because an honest person when they read their Bible will go,
well now I heard the preacher say God loves everybody. That
means he has a love the devil. He has a love fallen angels.
You understand that? Because God loves everybody,
right? And yet the angels and the devil
all are going to where? Right. And if God has any wrath
or hatred for anything, then God can't love everything. So
the distinction between the love of God and the wrath of God necessitates
us understanding that God's love is limited in its scope and its
design because wrath is a part of God's nature too. So if you're
going to tell me that God loves the people that are in hell equally
to those that he loves that are in heaven, You have to also admit
that god's love means nothing For those that are in hell, it
means nothing You guys follow that it has to mean nothing And
especially if god's love is attached to god's nature and his power
So i'll use one more to close just to help you struggle with
why? Uh people actually hate the bible Know more about the
bible than christians do Okay, let me show you how people
who hate the Bible hate the Bible because they actually pay attention
to verses that Christians haven't actually struggled through to
properly defend. Do you guys understand what I
just stated? Yeah, you got a lot of people will go to seminary,
a lot of men, a lot of women go to seminary and learn how
to tear the Bible apart. tear it to shreds and find every
argument in the world against the infallibility of scripture
the inerrancy of scripture and if they can't get it an infallibility
or an errancy they'll get it on doctrinal paradoxes or doctrinal
contradictions like this one jacob have i loved but esau have
i hated you guys understand that that one there they just can't
get why a good god would send anyone to hell And so now they
end up being an absolute adversary against the scriptures and against
those who are Christians. And Christians are really fit
to be tied to explain the character of God. So what we do is we don't
explain it. We just say, God loves you. God
loves you. God loves you. But we can't justify it scripturally. God's love is neither universal
and applied to everyone, nor is it unconditional. You have
no Bible basis, no Bible basis to say that God loves you unconditionally.
God deals with humanity on conditions all the time. If I do not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to hell and I am under
the wrath of God and God has every right to place that condition
on you and me. Does that make sense? he has
placed his love in his son and he says, now my son is the only
way in. You're going to reject him. You're going to hell. All
you have is my wrath. Does that make sense? Very, very
important. So here's the final analogy.
Um, yeah, but if you reject him, then God has a right now then
to take his love away from you. I mean, he can love you, but
if you reject him, then God can't do anything about that because
you have rejected him. Right? You guys see that now,
you know, basic argument of free will, right? Well, and I've stated
what good is love if it doesn't have the power of employment?
What good is love if it doesn't have the power of employment?
What if I say, I love you and you get in trouble and you get
in trouble, you, you, you, you, you, you really need help, but
because you don't call on me for help, I don't help you and
you perish. Did I love you? Say it one more time. Here I
am saying, I love you. I love you. I really, really do. And I'm omnipotent. I can do anything
I want. But I can't help you until you
reach out and ask for help. That's not love. That's not love. Love in the hand of an omnipotent
god will simply reach out and help you in spite of what you
do in order to demonstrate the power of the person who loves
you. Did you get that? Yeah. So, I'll say This is why I say
you got to be careful. So you have a little cute little
boy, you know, your, your babies are the cutest babies in the
world. You know that, right? And, uh, you tell your baby, you love
them all the time. Don't you tell your babies, you love, I
love you. I love you. Oh, I love you. You're the best
thing in the world. I do anything for you. And so
your baby runs out the door. You're going to test your love.
And he starts running down, two years old, three years old, he
starts running down the street and you see a big old Mack truck coming.
And you say, Johnny, Johnny, stop. Johnny, don't go that way. There's a Mack truck coming.
And Johnny said, no, no, no. I don't believe you. I don't
believe you. Johnny, stop. I love you. I love you. And you
actually have the power to rescue him from getting hit by that
Mack truck. but because johnny does not will to obey you you
can't do nothing but stand there and let johnny get smattered
into a thousand pieces you guys got that you just sat there and
let him you know why because as much as you love johnny his
free will allowed him to get hit by that truck and get smattered
in a thousand pieces now watch this you might as well stick
your hands out because justice is getting ready to come and
put you in jail for abuse of your child. Is that right? Justice is not going to come
and say, well, you know what? That was his free will. No. You
had the responsibility of saving your child, and you didn't, and
you're going to jail for manslaughter. And wouldn't every one of us
in our conscience agree that they should go to jail for that?
Because they had the power to save that child and didn't. See, this gets back to our fundamental
argument with this generation. It's man-centered in its theology,
and it puts the onus of salvation on the man rather than on God. And it actually makes free will
more powerful than the love of God. But do you know what the
Bible says concerning the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?
Nothing shall separate me from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus. Not heights, not debts, not things to come, not
things present, not angels, not principalities, not powers, not
dominions, not persecutions, not distresses, nothing in the
universe will ever stop God's love from culminating in my salvation
because of the person and work of Jesus Christ, not even my
free will. Let's close in prayer. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for an opportunity
to look into some of these sober realities that have gone on for
thousands of years in the annals of theological query and questioning. May we all submit to the hard
sayings of scripture. And then also just walk in the
humility of our salvation first, as you told Peter, when Peter
was curious about John. You told him, don't worry about
John, worry about yourself. So we would ask that you give
us grace to make our calling and election sure as our highest
priority and then for us to be concerned about others being
saved. And so far as the saving, you do the saving, you save whom
you will, when you will, how you will, and give us grace to
submit to the fact that you do all things well. As we go our
way, give us traveling mercies, prepare us to worship you on
Sunday, we pray in Jesus name, amen. God bless you guys.