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Reaching Hearts SDA Church - The Unknown God · Adventist Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's have a prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we would be
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: lost in a hurry without Jesus. We ask for you
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to come into our hearts. Help us to know you,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: not as the unknown God, but the known God, because
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we have Christ. Be with this instrument of clay, because Lord,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: there's nothing great in me. I'm just thankful for the Bible.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Help us to know it. and to learn and grow
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and love you. In Jesus' name, amen. The title of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the message today is The Unknown God. The Bible teaches
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: us that we worship the unknown God. The world is
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: full of religion, yet the true God is the unknown
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: God who has revealed himself in Jesus. We don't have
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to guess who God is. We don't have to strive
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to figure out who God is. Since the coming of Christ,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: we're not looking at a demigod like Thor. We're not
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: looking at someone who was birthed in eternity. Christ is
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the Son of God, not because of an event. He's
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: not a son by action. He's the Son because He
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: has always been that by His role. He is the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: God who comes from God. He has the fullness of
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the Godhead in Him. And if you know Jesus, friends,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: if you really know him well, you know God. John 17, 3.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: This is a very important verse in the New Testament.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: It's as important as John 3, 16. And this is
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: eternal life, that they know thee, the only true God,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. In fact, the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Greek word and can be a henodes, and it can
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: mean And this is life eternal, that they might know thee,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the only true God, that is Jesus Christ, whom thou
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: hast sent. It can be taken either way. And both
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: are true. Because Jesus says, I am the way, the truth,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and the life. So you can't separate the eternal Son
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of God from the eternal God who is truth. Because
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Christ is the truth. He is God with us, Emmanuel.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Life eternal is to know God, but meaningful life is
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to know God. Here, John 10, 10. The thief comes
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: that they might have life and have it abundantly. John 1, 9,
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  Speaker 1: and 10. Here's what John says of Jesus. The true
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Verse 10. He was in the world, that means in
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the Old Testament era, And the world was made through him,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: yet the world knew him not. And then it says
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: later on, he came to his own people and they
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: received him not. To know God, who is the true God,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: is eternal life. But the whole world doesn't know God
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: at all. We live in a world that is ignorant
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of the knowledge of God. We live in churches that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: are ignorant of the knowledge of God. People can play
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the rounds of religion and really not know who God is.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And I ask you the question this morning, Do you
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: know Him for yourself? You see, if life eternal is
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to know God, then the question is, do I know God?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Do I really know Him if that is life eternal?
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: There are between 4,000 to 10,000 distinct religions in the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: world today. Christianity is the largest global religion with approximately 2.4
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: billion followers. Islam... is the second largest religion with roughly 1.9
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: billion followers. Hinduism follows up with about 1.2 billion people.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Buddhism is 500 million people. Folk or indigenous religions practiced
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: by hundreds of millions of people throughout the world in
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: communities everywhere, undefinable. Religiously unaffiliated people includes atheists, agnostics, And
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: those who do not identify with a specific institutionalized faith
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: making up nearly a quarter of the global population. And
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: by the way, secular humanism is a religion because you
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: have to have faith in humanity instead of faith in God.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: It's a religion. And so that's the picture, the snapshot
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of the world we live in today. The Bible says
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in John 1.10 that Jesus was in the world and
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  Speaker 1: the world did not know him. Friends, Christ is the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: revelation of the unknown God. And the world did not
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: know Jesus for centuries until Jesus appeared, until he was
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: revealed as a human being, isolated right there in Galilee,
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  Speaker 1: who would die later in Jerusalem, pinpointed in history to
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: reveal the unknown God. The prophets used the word mare.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Why don't you practice that word with me? Mare. Mare.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: That's the prophetic word in Isaiah and Daniel for the appearance,
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  Speaker 1: the revelation, the manifestation of the unknown God, of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: the mighty man who would come and appear. In New
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Testament eschatology, that means the study of latter events, New
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Testament eschatology is rooted in the word mare, that one
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  Speaker 1: day the Son of God would appear. And when the
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  Speaker 1: Son of God appears, God appears. You can look into
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  Speaker 1: the eyes of a human being, you can see God
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  Speaker 1: looking back. You can touch the face of God because
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  Speaker 1: it's the face of a man. God in that man. Emmanuel,
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  Speaker 1: God with us. The appearance. Paul says in Romans 3,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: he says, but now a righteousness apart from the law
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  Speaker 1: has appeared in the Greek. He's referring to Daniel 9,
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  Speaker 1: 24 and Isaiah 53. Christ showed up as the light
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: of the world. Here's the bookends of Scripture. You go
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to Genesis 1, and God said, let there be light.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And light appeared. Before there was a sun, moon, or star,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: there was the light of the world. Now think about it.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: The first word of God in Genesis 1 is the
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  Speaker 1: first light that comes from God. And Christ will say,
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  Speaker 1: I am the light of the world. I am the
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  Speaker 1: living word. Christ was manifested as light from darkness at
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  Speaker 1: the dawn of time. And at the very end of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible, the book of Revelation, Revelation 22, 16, I, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: have sent my angel... He goes on to say, I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: am the bright and morning star. The Bible begins with
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  Speaker 1: the light of the world. Before there was a sun, moon,
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  Speaker 1: or star on the fourth day, there was Jesus on
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  Speaker 1: the first day. It ends in the book of Revelation
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  Speaker 1: with the bright and morning star, a new day, a
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  Speaker 1: new beginning. And the appearance is in the middle. It's
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the coming of Christ, the light of the world, as
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: a human being to reveal the glory of God. Now,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: that's not in my manuscript. I got excited about Jesus.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Desire of Ages, page 19. Beautiful book. Important to take
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  Speaker 1: to note. Now, by the way, I want to say
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: something about Gavin here real quick. Didn't he do a
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  Speaker 1: great job up here reading the Bible? Gavin, God be praised.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: God be praised. But you may be a preacher one day.
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  Speaker 1: I'm hoping. Desire of Ages, page 19. His name shall
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  Speaker 1: be called Immanuel. Immanuel. God with us. The light of
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of the glory of God is seen in
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  Speaker 1: the face of Jesus Christ. From the days of eternity,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus was one with the Father. He was
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  Speaker 1: the image of God. The image of the greatness and majesty.
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  Speaker 1: The outshining of His glory. It was to manifest this
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  Speaker 1: glory That he came to our world. To this sin
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  Speaker 1: darkened earth. He came to reveal the light of God's love.
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  Speaker 1: To be God with us. Therefore it was prophesied of him.
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  Speaker 1: His name shall be called. And what does it say
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  Speaker 1: on the screen? Emmanuel. God with us. The author here.
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  Speaker 1: inspiring draws from Hebrews 1, 2, and 3, which really
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  Speaker 1: affirms the same thing, that Christ is the revelation, the manifestation,
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  Speaker 1: the appearance, the light that comes from God that is
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  Speaker 1: God that shows us the way to God. Now, by
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the way, dear heart, if you believe that Jesus is
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: a demigod, and there are people running around today saying
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that Christ had an origin in the past, that somehow
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: that God begat him in the sense he had a
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: birth event. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: he was begotten in the resurrection in Acts 13, quoting
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Psalms 2-7, Psalms 110, 3 and 4, and other places.
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  Speaker 1: But it never teaches that Christ had a beginning and origin.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: It teaches that he was with God as God in
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: John 1. He was an eternal being, one in the Godhead. Now,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: think it through a little bit with me. If God
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  Speaker 1: is a monad, if God is a single being that
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  Speaker 1: does not have plurality within his oneness, then God is
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  Speaker 1: lonely from all eternity. Am I right? A monad is lonely.
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  Speaker 1: A trinity is not lonely. And if God is a monad,
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  Speaker 1: God created the universe out of need. His loneliness to
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: supply the need. And dear heart, that is a form
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  Speaker 1: of selfishness. But if God is love, if there exists
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  Speaker 1: within the triune nature of God the Father, God the Son,
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  Speaker 1: God the Holy Spirit, a circle of love that is
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: not exclusive because three are one, the Godhead, the Holy Trinity,
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Trio, as my favorite word, author has referred
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to these three heavenly beings, which we affirm at every
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: baptism in the New Testament. Then, dear heart, when He created,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: He didn't create the universe out of need. He created
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  Speaker 1: the universe out of love. Now, what kind of God
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: do we want to worship? A God of love or
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  Speaker 1: a monad? So God is one. Here Israel, the Lord
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: our God is one. And some people say, well, you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Yahweh is only referring to God the Father. Well, that's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: not true. If you read Exodus 24, verse 1, Yahweh
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: is speaking to Moses. He says, come up to Yahweh
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  Speaker 1: on the mountain. Isaiah 44, 6 refers to Yahweh the King,
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  Speaker 1: the Father, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts. That's Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: They're both Yahweh. And the spirit of Yahweh is a
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  Speaker 1: person who speaks to who commands, who even leads Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And so, to deny the three persons of the Godhead
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  Speaker 1: is to ignore the empirical, obvious evidence of the Scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: And in this matter, the Reformers gave us a clear
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: understanding of what the Apostolic Church knew before the Council
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of Nicaea, that God is one, and there is a
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: triune-ness to that Godhead, affirmed in the New Testament. Now,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: that's also not in my manuscript. Now, in the first
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: book of the Bible in Genesis 1-1, Jesus is the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: light of the world who reveals the unknown God from
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: darkness to light in the creation of the world. The
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: last book of the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: like the mare of Jesus Christ, where Jesus is the
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  Speaker 1: bright and morning star. And in the middle of the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Bible is Christ's incarnation in life and death. He has
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  Speaker 1: appeared once and for all, the book of Hebrews says,
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  Speaker 1: at the end of the ages to put away sin.
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  Speaker 1: by the sacrifice of Himself. Friend, Jesus is God. Did
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  Speaker 1: you hear that? You can say amen to that, and
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  Speaker 1: Lord the Father would be pleased to hear that. He
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  Speaker 1: is the revelation of the unknown God, the unseen God.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: When you look into the eyes of Jesus, you have
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  Speaker 1: seen God the Father. That's why Isaiah the prophet said,
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  Speaker 1: He'll be Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father. God the Father
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  Speaker 1: is the light that dwells in the darkness. Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: the organic light connected to the eternal light of God
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  Speaker 1: the Father on the move that finds us in time.
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  Speaker 1: And the Holy Spirit is light that permeates the created
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  Speaker 1: order so that Christ is God is over all, through all,
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  Speaker 1: and in all according to the Bible. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: that matches the universe that science has identified by space-time.
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  Speaker 1: A God like that is everywhere. You need the Trinity everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: as God is one. Hebrews 1, 1-3, in many and
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  Speaker 1: various ways, God spoke to us of old, to our
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: fathers by the prophets. Now take your Bible out, and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: please hold it in your hand. Can you? Hold it
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: in your hand. Now, we don't have just one way
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that God has revealed himself to us. In the Bible,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: he has revealed himself to us in many ways. There
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: are things that you may like in the Bible, like Proverbs.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Some will say, I like the book of Job. Others
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: will say, boy, Genesis is my book. There is something
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  Speaker 1: for every person in the Bible. Verse 2, but. So
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: even though he's revealed himself in the scriptures, it says, but.
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  Speaker 1: In these last days, he has spoken to us by
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  Speaker 1: a son whom he appointed the heir of all things.
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  Speaker 1: Now here is Jesus' credentials. Through whom he created the world.
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  Speaker 1: You see that in your Bible? Now the Greek doesn't
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: say world there. The Greek says eons. It's the Greek
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: word for time ages. It can mean the universe, but
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: not just a space, but it's time. Friends, to talk
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: about Christ having a beginning in time is to deny
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that very verse. The Bible teaches that before there was
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: a was, there was Jesus. That Christ is the potentate
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: of time. He created the universe of time-space time. The eons.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And so, dear heart, Christ is an eternal being. In
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: 1 John 1, John will say the eternal life that
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: was with the Father, that is Jesus Christ, the life
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: and light of the world. Verse 3, he reflects the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Now let's ask a common sense question there. Has there
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: ever been a time which God was just totally darkness
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: or is God light? What does the Bible say? God
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: is light. Light. Now, if he reflects the glory of God,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: he is God on the move. He's light that comes
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: from God. Organic light that comes from God is God.
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  Speaker 1: You can't talk about it being secondary. It says here,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: he reflects the glory of God and bears the very
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by the word
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of his power. I'm sorry, that's not the credential of
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a created being. Christ upholds every atom, every quark, every
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: subatomic particle, every electron. It is sustained as reality as
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  Speaker 1: we move through time-space in our space-time continuum. Christ is
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  Speaker 1: over all, through all, and in all. He is the
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  Speaker 1: Word of God. When He made purification for sins, He
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: The One who made us saved us. It takes God credentials.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: When Paul came to Athens... He understood the gospel of
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: God that is Jesus Christ, pure and simple. God with us, Emmanuel.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Paul carried the good news with him of the knowledge
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: of the unknown God that shines in the face of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Acts 17, 15, the narrative begins. Those who
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens and receiving
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him
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  Speaker 1: as soon as possible, they departed. Now while Paul was
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within
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  Speaker 1: him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
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  Speaker 1: And then it goes on, verse 17, so he argued
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  Speaker 1: in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons
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  Speaker 1: and in the marketplace every day with those who chanced
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  Speaker 1: to be there. I mean, Paul got a bee in
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: his bonnet to start speaking out about this ignorance that
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: was all around in this university city called Athens. Paul
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: quickly left Berea, which we talked about last week, By night. Why?
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Because of the Jews from Thessalonica who had stirred up
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: hatred and mobs. And so the believers got him out
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of there so he wouldn't be killed. As a result,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Paul found himself alone at Athens waiting for Silas and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Timothy to come to him. And Paul was not an
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: idle kind of guy. He just wanted to use the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: time wisely. So as his custom was, Paul first argued
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: with the Jews in the synagogue. But there at Athens,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Paul extended his debates further to include the devout religious
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: people outside the synagogue. And finally, Paul finds himself in
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the marketplace just proclaiming Jesus and the resurrection. For anybody
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  Speaker 1: who will hear, so his time is worthwhile. Athens was
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the intellectual center of the Greek world. Its rival city
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: was Alexandria, but Athens was it. That's where the philosophers
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: of Socrates, Plato, I could go through a list of them,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Epimenides if I said it right, Now here Paul suddenly
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: found himself there catching the notice of the academics, the philosophers,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the Greek theologians for the theology of paganism, and the
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: pseudo-intellectuals of his day. Philosophers are a dime a dozen
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in every age, but men of God are rare and
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: hard to find. Did you hear me? So if someone
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: comes into your life and says, well, I've got this
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: theology of philosophy about God. Do you want to hear it?
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: And I'd say, no. And so why? Because I don't care.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I want to hear the Bible. I want to hear
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the truth. You may have a philosophy, but it's not God's.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Philosophers are a dime a dozen. Men of God are rare.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Paul was a man of God who studied philosophy. Why?
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: To be relevant. But he relied on the Holy Scriptures
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: for his life. Now, what would you like to rely
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: on in your life? The ideas of men or God?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: How many God raise your hand? It's good to raise
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: your hand for stuff like that. Good. Acts 17 verse 18.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: It says some also of the Epicurean Stoic philosophers met him.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: And some said, what would this babbler say? I'm trying
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to pronounce that word. Babbler say? Others said he seems
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he preached
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: and brought him to the Areopagus saying, May we know
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: what this new teaching is which you present. Now the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Greek word translated babbler literally suggests a picking up of
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: seeds like a bird that scavenges for food. Have you
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: ever seen a bird picking seeds? That's like you're just
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: picking little things up so you can look smart. That's
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: the idea, a babbler. They're suggesting that Paul is a
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: scavenger of old ideas to try and look important and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: say something new. It's most likely that the Epicurean Stoic
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: philosophers assumed that Paul was introducing two new gods. Jesus, Jesus,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and his female consort in their mind, Anastasis, the resurrection.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: That's probably what they were thinking of. Now these lazy
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: intellectuals at Athens were hot actually. They were hot-loaded for
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: new ideas and new gods. They just wanted to talk
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: about something that would be exciting. Now, I've been in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Sabbath school classes where somebody just wants to look smart
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: all the time and act like they've discovered new truth
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: every week. You ever hear that? Now, what I really
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: like about a good Sabbath school class on a Saturday
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: morning As we get into the Bible, we discover old
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: truths and new insights, but we affirm the old more
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: than the new because that's more helpful. Now, these lazy
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: intellectuals at Athens were on the wrong side of things. Now,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: look at verse 20. Here's what, verse 20. For you
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: what these things mean. That's good. Verse 21. Verse 21.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Now what do we call people like that? Help me.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: There's one word for people who do nothing but sit
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and talk and have ideas. It's the word lazy. Am
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I right? Isn't the word lazy? You've got to say
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: amen to the truth. These are lazy intellectual slobs. Now
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Paul was a tent maker, not a lazy academic. He
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: was not a lazy man at all. Paul didn't visit
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to just do nothing. He didn't sit in a room
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and think about religion and philosophy all day long as
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: he wrote books on theology and didn't preach and teach
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and give Bible studies. Paul was committed to working for
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ and God his Father. Now a
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: pastor ought to be the same. A pastor shouldn't be
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: always in the office just studying. He should be sharing. Now,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: these philosopher king types were lazy men. Lazy men seldom
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: arrive at truth. You can write that down. Lazy men
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: seldom ever arrive at truth. Bible study and the study
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: of nature and science, very similar. It takes time, effort,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: and humility and persistence to discover truth. Friend, you can
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: be religious and yet be very lazy and and you
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: will gain nothing from your lazy religion except ignorance. The
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: objective study of the Bible, I use that term because
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: it described what came out of the Reformation in the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: 16th century. Objective study of the Bible gave rise to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the objective study of nature and the appearance of the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton, the great monotheist, the father
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: of modern science, in his book Physica, quotes the book
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of Daniel, chapter 2, to affirm his discoveries of science.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: He studied the Bible more than he studied science and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the natural world. And from the study of Scripture, he
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: discovered optics, physics, the laws of mass and acceleration and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: so on. Jeremiah 29.13, a good verse. God says, you
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: will seek me and find me when you accidentally come
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: upon me. Does it say that? Isn't that what it
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: says there? Are you looking at the Bible? What does
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: it say? You will seek me and find me when what?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: You seek me with? All your heart. So when you
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: have your Bible, how do we study our Bible? I'm
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: going to read a verse for the day. Or do
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: we really study the Bible to compare Scripture with Scripture,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: to dig in and to get to know God? All
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: your heart. Back to Acts 17.22. So Paul, standing in
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the middle of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens... I
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: perceive that in every way you are very religious. Areopagus
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: means the Ares dome. Ares was Greek for the Roman
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: word Mars, and he's the god of war. So they'd
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: get together, and they'd study, and they would go back
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and forth like they're at war, debating and the like.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Very religious. People can make war with bad ideas about
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: God and nature. Back to verse 23. Verse 23. For
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: as I passed along, he says, and observed the objects
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: of your worship, I found also an altar with this
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: inscription to an unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: some translations will say ignorantly, the Greek word for agnostic
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: is used here, this I proclaim to you. Now there's
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a historical context for Paul's reference to an unknown God.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Years earlier, around the vicinity of Athens, there was a
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: massive plague that hit the people. People began to die.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: And they prayed, they sacrificed to their gods, and nothing worked.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: And finally they called on the great philosopher Epimenides, who
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: realized that all the religion of the priests were bankrupt.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: He says, I got an idea. Get white sheep and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: black sheep, good and bad, send them throughout the land,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: and wherever the sheep settles down, sacrifice to an unknown god.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Sacrifice to whatever god you can. Maybe there's a God
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: we don't know about out there that can stop this thing.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And when they did that, the plague stopped. And so
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you go through Greece and you would find many altars
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: with no names on them because they were altars to
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: an unknown God. And so Paul is drawing attention to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the fact that when you were suffering the most in
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the past, it was an unknown God that saved you,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: not the gods that you are familiar with. Verse 24.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Let's read it through here. I want to read 24
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to 28 to capture Paul's statements to them in context
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: before I comment on them. He says, The God who
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Verse 25. Nor is he served by human hands as
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: men life and breath and everything. And he made from
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: one every nation of men to live on all the
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: boundaries of their habitation that they should seek God in
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the hope that they might feel after him and find
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: him yet he's not far from each one of us
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: verse 28 for in him we live and move and
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: have our being as some of your prophets have said
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: for we are indeed his offspring Amazing discourse. Now I
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: want to take it apart with you very briefly. Let's
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: go to the next slide. Paul makes 10 basic assertions
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: about God in Acts 17, 24, 28. Number one, God
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: as the Lord of heaven and earth is the creator
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: of the universe. Number two, God does not live in
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: temples made by man. Number three, God does not make
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: us No, God did not make us because God needed
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: us for his needs. Number four, God is the source
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: of all life and God continues to give life to all. Five,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: God made all men and all nations from one man. Six,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: God sets boundaries and space and time for all nations
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and peoples. Number seven, God is a personal God who
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: made man to seek Him and to find Him. Number eight,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: God inspired hope in the human heart to find Him.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Number nine, God is near to each one of us.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Paul doesn't limit it to each one of us, and
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: God can be found. And number ten, God is our Father,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and we are God's offspring as children. Now that's the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: truth in ten statements that Paul makes to these intellectuals
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: right there in Athens. And boy is it profound. Here
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Paul proclaims the most important truth that this unknown God
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: is our Father God. To know God without knowing Him
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: as our Father God is to have an empty, meaningless, no-knowledge,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: worthless religion of God. Theoretical ideas about God without a
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: personal relationship with our Father God. will not get you
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: out of the ground on resurrection morning. If you just
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: know about God, but you don't know God, you really
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: don't have God. Jesus said, Our Father. That's what he
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: said in the Lord's Prayer. Our Father. In Greek it says,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Father of ours. Starts with pater. Our Father who art
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Means his character, his law.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: At the center of the epistle of Romans, Paul says
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: we cry out, Abba, Father God. The linguistic center says,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: of the gospel of God in the book of Romans,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: chapter 8. Friends, when you worship an idol, you cannot
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: worship a father God. An idol is not a father.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: God is our Father, and He loves each and every
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: one of us. And so He's saying, look, you Greeks,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: you're smart and everything, but you're worshiping material things, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: God is a Father God. There are practical implications to
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: this vital truth that God is our Father. Look at
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: verse 29. Acts 7, 29. Being then God's offspring, which
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: means His children, we ought not to think that the
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: deity is like gold or silver or stone, a representation
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: by the art and imagination of man. Since God is
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: our Father, we need to treat God like He is
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: our Father. You weren't fathered by a piece of wood
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: or a piece of stone. You were fathered by a
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: being who is your superior, our Father. As Christians, we
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: don't worship a God of gold and silver. Some do.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: We return to God a faithful tithe and we give
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: offerings why because God is our father not because we
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: want to impress God earn our way to heaven it's
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: because God is our father we don't do this to
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: earn salvation we do this because God is our father
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: is God your father Or do you keep his gold
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and silver for yourself? You know, if you really love God,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you're going to show it by being faithful and how
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you return to the Lord what is his. Do you
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: bow down to these things in your life? Do you say, well,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I just got to make sure I have enough to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: get into the future. But you don't give for the
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: cause of God. Do you bow down to these things
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: in your life instead of bowing down to God our Father?
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: As Christians, we don't believe that God is a hard-hearted
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: God of stone. So he's not a God of stone,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: not a hard-hearted God. He's a soft-hearted God. We worship
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: a warm-hearted God who is love. Do you bow down
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to a God of stone in your life? If God
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: is rigid, if God is legalistic, if God is cold
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and hard and personal, then He's a God of stone.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Or do you worship the Father God of love that
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Jesus revealed? As Christians, we don't worship our own ideas
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: and creativity. We are not the truth. The church is
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: not the truth. The remnant church in the book of
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Galatians is not the truth. It has the testimony of Jesus.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: It bears witness to Christ who is the truth. God
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: is truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Your picture of God will never be good enough to
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: capture God. So let God be God on his own
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: terms with you. You can't draw God. You can't make God.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: You can't thank God. You must surrender to God, our
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Father God of love. C.S. Lewis describes a story. How
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: many of you have ever read the Chronicles of Narnia
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: by C.S. Lewis? Masterful literature written to really describe the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: plan of salvation in very creative terms. In his last
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: book of the Narnia series, called The Last Battle, C.S.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Lewis describes Taslan as the Antichrist, Aslan as Christ. And finally,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: when the last battle occurs, one of the soldiers of Taslan,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the Antichrist, suddenly discovers that he's in the new Narnia.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Somehow he got to the new Narnia, which represents the
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: heavenly future. And Aslan, representing Christ, walks up to him.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And he says, how did I get here? And Aslan,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: representing Christ, says, you were always here. You see, you
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: had the principles of Narnia in your heart, even though
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you were on the other side. You were never really
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: belonged to them. And I have brought you here. See,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: it's not what we know. It's who knows us that
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: matters most. in the judgment day, the unknown God can
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: know people who have very little knowledge of him. So
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: how does God, give me a second, yeah. How does
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: God treat people who don't have a clue who God is?
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Have you ever asked that question? How does God relate
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to people who've never had a chance to know? Well,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the cheap and easy answer is, well, he just banishes
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: them to hell. I've heard that coming from people. Well,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: they don't have a chance. They weren't destined to be saved.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: They never heard the gospel. They never called on the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: name of Jesus. They have no chance. Now, what kind
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: of God would create people and give them no chance? Now,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: John 1, 9 says, the true light that enlightens every
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: man was coming to the world. All right, every man
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: means every man, not just some. So how does God
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: treat people who don't have a clue who God is?
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: How does God save people who may never have a
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: chance to hear the information of the What kind of
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Father God is the unknown God revealed in the Bible?
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: These are the questions Paul answers on Mars Hill in Athens.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Verse 30. The times of ignorance, what does it say?
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: God overlooked. But now he commands all men everywhere to repent.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Verse 31. Verse 31. Why? Because he has fixed a
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: day on which he will judge the world in righteousness
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: by a man whom he has appointed. And of this
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: he has given assurance to all men by raising him
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: from the dead. See, Christ has come. He's changed the equation.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: The knowledge of Christ will reach the world in time.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: And Christ becomes the central issue for knowledge in the
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: judgment day. But he says the times of ignorance God
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: winked at. He overlooked it. There will be people, and
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make a statement here based on Scripture.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: I like the sound of music. That's good. I wasn't
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: trying to point anyone out because I drop things all
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the time. You ever drop things? Let me show you
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: right here. It didn't burst. I had kids too. That's fine.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: There will be people saved at the end who have
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: never heard of Jesus. Did you hear me? I mean, really.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I heard John MacArthur, who was a very committed Christian,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: couldn't buy that idea. There will be people saved at
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the end who have never heard of Jesus, who have
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: never had a knowledge of the unknown God. Romans 2,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Paul says, when Gentiles who have not the law do
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: by nature what the law requires, they are allowing to
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: themselves their consciences bearing witness or perhaps excusing them on
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: that day when God judges the secrets of men's hearts
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: by Christ Jesus. That's Scripture. There will be people saved
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: at the end who have never heard of Jesus, who
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: have never had a knowledge of the unknown God, who
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: have never had a Bible in their hand, who have
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: nothing but something reaching them. Friends, God does not hold
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: people accountable for their lack of Bible knowledge if they
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: don't have a Bible. The Bible says the times of
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: ignorance got overlooked. God holds people accountable. Now, brace yourselves.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: He holds them accountable for what they do to others,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: how they relate to all people who are brothers and
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: sisters in one human huge family. In Psalms 87, the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Bible provides an insight into the investigative judgment. Now, some
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: people say, what do you mean the investigative judgment? Well,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: it's a biblical teaching. You see in the book of
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Daniel chapter 7, the books are opened and Jesus receives
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: his kingdom in the judgment. Christ says, I'll confess your
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: names before my Father and the holy angels in the judgment.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: The parables of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, Daniel 7,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: may be likened to a king who wished to settle
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: accounts with his servants in investigative judgment. I could go on.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: The thief on the cross. Remember me when you come
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: into your kingdom. He's thinking of Daniel 7. When the
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Son of Man comes into the presence of the Father
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: to receive His kingdom, when the books are opened, in
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the investigative judgment, remember me, confess my name before your
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Father and the holy angels. So this nonsense that there's
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: no investigative judgment is evidence of people who don't study
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: the Bible, who don't study the teachings of Jesus, who
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: are ignorant of prophecy and the New Testament. There is one.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: So what's God going to do in that investigative judgment?
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: In Psalms 87, The Bible provides an insight into the
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: investigative judgment when the peoples will be enrolled at the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: very end of time in Mount Zion. When the names
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: of people from the heathen nations of the world are
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: enrolled into the kingdom of God as citizens of the
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: heavenly Zion. When the peoples are enrolled, it will be said,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: this one and that one was born in Zion, not
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: where they came from. Psalms 87, 4 and 6. Among
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: those who know me, I mention Rahab, that's Egypt and Babylon.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: These are pagan countries. Behold, Philistia, the enemies of Israel,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: like Taslan in Narnia, and Tyre with Ethiopia. This one
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: was born there, they say. The next verse, verse 5.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: And of Zion it shall be said, this one and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: that one were born in her. For the Most High
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: himself will establish her. Verse 6. The Lord records as
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: he registers the Jews only. What does it say? The peoples,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: all of these nations, this one was born there. This
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: one's born there. Look, there'll be people in God's kingdom
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: that are saved because Christ said in John 10, 16,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: I have other sheep and other foals. I must go
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: and gather them. There'll be one shepherd and one foal.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: At that time, Judaism was the only foal. Outside of
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Judaism were the world religions. He says, I know of Cornelius,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: who's going to listen to the preaching of Paul, I
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: have others like the Syrophoenician woman. And don't think for
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: a minute that I'm the God of the Jews only.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I'm the God of the whole world. For God so
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: loved the what? The world that He gave His only
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: begotten Son, Managane, His unique Son, that whoever believes in
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Friends, God
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: didn't send Jesus to die on a cross and shed
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: His blood as a stingy atonement. He sent Jesus to
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: die on the cross for the whole world. And the
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: whole world would not accept him, but Christ died for them.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Ellen White, The Czar of Ages, page 638. Beautiful statement.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: I forget the theologians. This book here is amazing. All
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: who have been born into the heavenly family are in
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: a special sense the brethren of our Lord. The love
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: of Christ binds together the members of his family. And
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: wherever that love is made manifest, there is the divine
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: relationship revealed. Everyone that loveth is born of God and
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: knoweth God. Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: have known little of theology, but they have cherished his principles.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Through the influence of the divine spirit, they have been
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness. Before
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the words of life have fallen upon their ears, they
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: never brought by human instrumentality. Yet they will not perish.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: heard his voice speaking to them in nature. She's aligning
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: with Romans 2 right there. And they have done the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: things that the law required. Their works are evidence that
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts and they are
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: recognized as the children of God. Paul ended his discourse
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: at Athens about Jesus and God. The resurrection from the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: dead caught the ear of those intellectual, lazy, snobbish, you
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. Whether smart or not, friends,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: we all have an innate fear of death. and they
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: heard about the resurrection. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 26,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: that death is the last enemy to be defeated in
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: the resurrection at the end of time. Friend, your religion
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: isn't worth anything if it doesn't get you out of
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: the ground in resurrection morning. Dead religion, be it legalism, libertinism,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: or lukewarm laodiceanism, will not save you from death. The
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: right and the left in politics have no saving answers
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: for your life. Friend, The Bible says, Jesus said, I
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: am the way, the truth, and the life. If you
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: have Jesus, your zero plus his everything equals eternity. Jesus
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: is the light of the world. Christ is the fullness
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: of the Godhead who has appeared in time and manifested,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: revealed to die for our sins, to show us the
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: love of God, and to atone for the law of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: God that requires justice, both. He is the way to
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: the unknown God who is our Father God. Now friend,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: if you've been worshiping God as a ruler, as a master,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: a smart educator, a stern judge, an AI kind of
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: God only, or a moral judge, or some theological construct
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: kind of God, but not as your Father God, then
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: you're worshiping a different kind of God than the unknown
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: God that Paul revealed to be our Father God at Athens.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: That Christ said, Father... They know not what they do
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: on the cross of Calvary. The story ends with a
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: few believers, not many at Athens. He doesn't win the crowds.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: He wins a few. And that is how it sometimes goes.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: A few people are willing to hear and believe that
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Jesus is the Savior of the world. And those few
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: that believe will be saved. Acts 17, 32 and 34.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: But now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead...
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: about this. So Paul went out from among them, but
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: some men joined them and believed. Among them Dionysius, the Areopagite,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Some believed.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I ask you the question today, do you believe that
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: God is your Father God? That he's no longer the
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: unknown God? Do you believe that Jesus is the way
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: to the Father? He has revealed him? And let's sing
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: that song into my heart, Lord Jesus, before we do
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: our clothing song again. Dear Heavenly Father, a single photon
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: of light experiences all events as one moment. And you
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: dwell in light that is unapproachable. And somehow from that
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: eternal point in time where the triune God was always there,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: you made time out of love so we can be
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: with you. Father, may we never surrender the truth about
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: God for any lie. In Jesus, we see you. We
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: know you. We are drawn to you. In Jesus, one
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: who is God dies because the law was broken. He's
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the law giver. But Lord, we need more than law
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: in our lives. We need a Father God. Thank you
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: that he is the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: If we've seen Jesus, we've seen you. Bless your people
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: with mercy in their lives. Forgive them. Bless them to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: know you. But more importantly, you know them. And keep
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: it that way so we'll be yours. And remember us
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: when Jesus, when you come into your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen.