Latest / Scripture Unscripted / Acts chapter 17
Transcript
- 0:01Acts chapter 17, Let us pray, Oh Heavenly Father, we love you.
- 0:11We love you with all of our heart, with all of our mind,
- 0:14with all of our strength. God, help us to love our
- 0:17neighbors as our self. God, I pray that you give a
- 0:21supernatural zeal for your house.
- 0:23Let it consume us, God. Lord, I pray for the Holy Spirit
- 0:28to fill us today. Lord, I pray that as we open up
- 0:32your word today, we will hide it in our hearts.
- 0:36Lord, I pray that this two edged sword divides between soul,
- 0:43between spirit, God between marrow and bone.
- 0:46God, help us to rightly divide the word of God, your word, Your
- 0:51spoken word, the Rhema. Father, we thank you for this
- 0:56time, for such a time as this. Well, we thank you for this
- 0:59exciting time that we live in. Father, I pray against fear of
- 1:04man. God, I pray against the fear
- 1:08that tries so easily to creep in.
- 1:12Father, I pray against anxiety today in the name of Jesus.
- 1:17Lord, I pray against depression today in the name of Jesus.
- 1:21God, I pray against the suicidal spirit in the name of Jesus.
- 1:26God, I pray against all malice and deceit in the name of Jesus.
- 1:31Lord, I pray that you'll make us warriors for your name's sake.
- 1:36Lord, help us to put on the full armor of God.
- 1:39Help us to live in the fruits of the Spirit.
- 1:42Lord, I pray that we can have love that only comes from you.
- 1:47Help us to love you more. Father, I pray for joy, God, joy
- 1:53inexpressible. I pray that we will have joy in
- 1:58the midst of trials and tribulations.
- 2:01God, joy unshakable. Lord, I pray that you'll give us
- 2:08peace, Lord, peace that surpasses all understanding.
- 2:12Lord, give us the peace that this world cannot give us.
- 2:17Lord, I pray for the peace, Jesus that you won for us.
- 2:23Lord, we know that you overcame the world.
- 2:27I pray right now for patience. Lord, help us to be patient with
- 2:34all those around that we come in contact with, even those that
- 2:37are just outright hostile and delusional towards you.
- 2:42Those that are uncompromising, those that are bent towards
- 2:48destruction. God, I pray that those that are
- 2:52unreasonable by definition, Lord, that we can have patience
- 2:57with them. Help us not to throw our pearls
- 3:00amongst swine. God, I pray that we can have
- 3:08gentleness. Lord, help us not to be rough.
- 3:12Help us not to be sharp tongued. Help us not to be brash.
- 3:17God, help us not to jest. God, I pray that we can
- 3:26encourage our brothers and sisters.
- 3:28Lord, let us be gentle and lowly as you are.
- 3:33King Jesus, I pray that we'll be faithful.
- 3:38God, increase our faithfulness today.
- 3:42Lord, I pray that you will help us to lay down all of our own
- 3:50reasonings and own ideas and own natural instincts and self
- 3:57preservation. God, all of our emotions and
- 4:00circumstances, our feelings, God, let us make those subject
- 4:05to your word, the word of God. I pray that our faith will
- 4:10increase over what our mind and body is trying to tell us, what
- 4:16culture tries to sell us, and God what the doctor is reading.
- 4:22Lord, I pray that our faith will rise higher than any of the
- 4:29situations that we find ourselves in.
- 4:32God, I pray that we can be good and godly.
- 4:38Lord, we know that goodness is godliness and so God, we just
- 4:44want to be not just hearers of the Word, but doers.
- 4:48Let us be godly men and women. Let us be good, Lord, so that we
- 4:54can draw men and women to you, Father, let them.
- 5:01Let us draw them out of darkness and into the light by the
- 5:04witness, Lord, by being godly and being good.
- 5:09Today, Lord, I pray for kindness.
- 5:14Lord, you are so kind. Your face is kind, Lord, All of
- 5:20your words are kind. They all lead to life.
- 5:24And so God, as we are patient and as we are godly, and as we
- 5:29are loving and faithful, God is. Our joy springs up not from any
- 5:37of our situations, but just because of the reality of the
- 5:42truth that we hold in our hands. Let that exude kindness towards
- 5:46those who don't even deserve it. Father and I pray God for
- 5:52self-control. Lord, in the name of Jesus.
- 5:55Lord, let us not act impulsively.
- 6:01But Lord, as everything buys for our attention, commercials,
- 6:06advertisements, God, all of the things that pop up on our phones
- 6:12every day, God, I pray in the name of Jesus, we can have
- 6:16self-control. The things that make us snap,
- 6:23the things that make us flip, the things that cause us to go
- 6:29off on a tangent. God, I pray that we will kill
- 6:32those things, Lord, that we'll put them to bed, put them to
- 6:37rest, that we will not allow that beast and that animal to
- 6:43rear its ugly head. God, I pray for self-control
- 6:47today. Let us put away anger.
- 6:50God, let us put away rage. God, let us put away lust.
- 6:56Lord, let us put away indecency. Let us put away carousing and
- 7:04all of the filthy joking, God. Let us put away the murdering of
- 7:09our brothers and sisters with our tongue.
- 7:11God, let us have self-control today.
- 7:14Let us meditate upon these words, Lord.
- 7:16And as we open up these words, Father, I pray that you'll be
- 7:19well pleased. Holy Spirit, you guide us and
- 7:22teach us. It's all about you.
- 7:25I decrease as you increase, and it's in the mighty name of Jesus
- 7:29Christ, I pray, Amen. Let's start in verse one.
- 7:38Now when they had passed through Antheopolis and Apolliana, they
- 7:45came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
- 7:50So this Thessalonica, we know that this is not just was, but
- 7:55this is a major city in Greece, and there's actually a history
- 8:00of Jewish people that were there before the Holocaust.
- 8:04Unfortunately, that Jewish population has been minimalized,
- 8:10but there is a remnant and there is a lot of history there.
- 8:17It proves the Bible proves itself and here comes Paul and
- 8:22he's coming on in there and he's looking for the synagogue, which
- 8:26was his custom to. And Paul, as his manner was,
- 8:31went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
- 8:39out of the Scriptures. This is the call that we're to
- 8:43walk in, friends. We are to reason with people who
- 8:49are reasonable about the Scriptures.
- 8:53Some people are just outright hostile.
- 8:56They will not accept the truth. They will not accept anything
- 9:00that we bring to them, no matter how honest and truthful it is
- 9:05because they've already made a love decision.
- 9:08And the Bible tells us to warn a divisive person once and then
- 9:13warn them again after that have nothing to do with them.
- 9:18For you can be sure that they are warped and self condemned.
- 9:22And that is why we do not throw our pearls to swine.
- 9:26That is why we don't waste our time or else those dogs will
- 9:31turn and bite us. And we need to know that God
- 9:34gives us provision and we need to look for those who are a
- 9:40divine appointment and those that God has opened their hearts
- 9:45and they are hungry for the Word of God and they need someone to
- 9:48teach it. And I pray that you and I will
- 9:53be found going and teaching the scriptures.
- 9:57Don't think that just because you did not go to seminary
- 10:00doesn't mean that you shouldn't be teaching the Word of God.
- 10:04That is one of the worst things that has ever happened to the
- 10:09Christian walk, to the Christian community is we have
- 10:15professionalized the teaching. We do not need to be found
- 10:20teaching heresy. We do not need to be found
- 10:23teaching false doctrine. We need to stay within the
- 10:26parameters and the guardrails that Jesus is the only way.
- 10:31But by and by, if you've been walking with the Lord for any
- 10:35amount of time, you're going to find here, when we start going
- 10:38into the book of Hebrews, you're going to find that by now you
- 10:42should be teaching. And that is a calling that is
- 10:46placed on every profession, not just the professional pastor.
- 10:52That is called for architects and lawyers, doctors and nurses.
- 10:57That is a call for chefs. That is a call for garbage
- 11:01collectors and janitors alike. We all need to be found teaching
- 11:07the Word of God. If you've been walking with the
- 11:09Lord for any amount of time, you are called to teach and to
- 11:13preach, and this is the mandate that has been placed upon us. 3
- 11:25opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and
- 11:32risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach
- 11:38unto you, is Christ. So here Paul found people who
- 11:43were willing to listen and then he reasoned with them and he
- 11:51opened the scriptures and he alleged that Christ had to
- 11:56suffer and that Christ did rise from the dead and that he is the
- 12:03long-awaited Messiah. And he was walking them through
- 12:07scriptures, perhaps in the book of Isaiah, but he was walking
- 12:11them through many scriptures. You find it in the minor
- 12:14Prophets, you find it all throughout the Old Testament
- 12:18that shows the suffering servant must come first before the
- 12:23victorious 2nd advent of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to
- 12:31annihilate all the opposition. And that's what they were
- 12:35looking for. They wanted a military political
- 12:38leader that was going to push Rome out.
- 12:41And here we see that Christ had to come and have his beard
- 12:45plucked out, and his face spat upon, and struck with many
- 12:49blows. For and some of them believed
- 12:54and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks
- 13:01a a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few.
- 13:06So you can see here that some of them believed.
- 13:12Perhaps these were the Jews that were there in that synagogue.
- 13:17But then you see that these devout Greeks, these Hellenists,
- 13:22you can see that these God fears, they came in great
- 13:27multitude. And then it says, not just a few
- 13:31of the women also believe, 5 But the Jews which believed not
- 13:38moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the
- 13:45baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on
- 13:51an uproar, and assaulted the House of Jason, and sought to
- 13:56bring them out to the people. So here we can see that these
- 14:00Jews were moved out of envy. Isn't this a recurring theme
- 14:04amongst all of the heresy of the Pharisees?
- 14:08Isn't this a common theme of those who are hostile towards
- 14:15Christianity, towards Christ? You can see this envy.
- 14:24Envy is something that we must deal with.
- 14:29You cannot let your emotions get the best of you.
- 14:33You cannot let the fact that somebody who has a lesser degree
- 14:39than you, someone who is less learned than you, an unlearned
- 14:47man, you cannot allow that to cause you to tear them down and
- 14:55to look for ways to usurp your authority over them.
- 15:02God will deal with anybody who does not recognize when he is in
- 15:08the room and speaking through someone who has been emptied out
- 15:12of themselves and are full of the Holy Ghost.
- 15:16God will deal with anybody who stands in opposition of what the
- 15:21Lord Jesus is doing in their midst.
- 15:27So they find this Jason who perhaps was housing them, and he
- 15:34was soft on Paul, and he was a believer, a new convert there. 6
- 15:42And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain
- 15:49brothers unto the rulers of the city, crying these that have
- 15:53turned the world upside down or come here also.
- 15:58So here you can see this ripple effect of what happened in
- 16:02Jerusalem when they murdered their Messiah, when this miracle
- 16:08worker from Nazareth who claimed to be the Messiah was put on the
- 16:14cross and died a violent criminal's death and then went
- 16:21into the tomb and on the third day resurrected back to life,
- 16:27appeared to many and ascended to the right hand of God.
- 16:32This has caused an uproar in all of the known world and these
- 16:37people here have had time to sit and study what Paul was
- 16:43preaching to them. And now out of envy they snatch
- 16:49one of the believers, Jason, with some other brothers and
- 16:52they claim that they have come there to turn the world upside
- 16:56down. And isn't that what Jesus Christ
- 17:01did with his disciples? He actually turned the world
- 17:04right side up. Friends seven whom Jason has
- 17:12received and these all due contrary to the decrees of
- 17:17Caesar saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
- 17:23So this would have been a great point of contention for the
- 17:27Roman authorities and for all of Caesar's subjects is to hear
- 17:35that there's somebody who claims to be a king and they knew what
- 17:39they were doing. It was the same thing they did
- 17:41at the mock trial whenever they brought Jesus before Pilate and
- 17:46says that he claimed to be a king and that they shouldn't pay
- 17:50taxes to Caesar. And so they were trying to drum
- 17:54up a bunch of political hoopla on Jesus.
- 17:57And then finally they got to the point and said that he claimed
- 18:00to be the Son of God and they had a law that said that he
- 18:04should be put to death. And this is the hypocrisy of
- 18:09duplicity. You can see it all getting
- 18:11played out here, friends. These people, they don't even
- 18:14know what they're saying. They're all, they are envious
- 18:18and they're delusional and they love greed and they love money
- 18:22and they have made a love decision for the world and they
- 18:26cannot stand that these men are coming in and trying to help
- 18:31others and trying to point others to life and life
- 18:35abundant. But you know the blood of the
- 18:38martyrs, the seed of the Gospel, and that's what you're going to
- 18:41find anytime you try to person Jesus Christ.
- 18:44It only spreads it like wildfire because men are not willing to
- 18:50die for a lie. And whenever you know the truth,
- 18:54and He is the truth, and the truth sets you free, you can die
- 18:59for the truth, friends. 8 And they troubled the people and the
- 19:08rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 And when
- 19:12they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them
- 19:16go. So imagine that you're seeing
- 19:20this Jewish opposition at Thessalonica.
- 19:25You can see how there is this subtle persecution.
- 19:30But they were let go. Tim and the brothers immediately
- 19:36sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming
- 19:43there, went into the synagogue of the Jews.
- 19:46So for Paul and Silas's safety, they got them out of the city
- 19:53and sent them roughly 40 miles away to Berea.
- 19:57And we're going to see a famous group of people who are students
- 20:01of the Word of God, and it's a model for us, these Bereans. 11
- 20:09These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they
- 20:16received the Word with all readiness of mind and search the
- 20:22Scriptures daily. Whether those things were so, so
- 20:26here, not only did they just sit and absorb all the teachings,
- 20:30but they also went and fed themselves, feasted on the word.
- 20:37They were not just looking to be spoon fed.
- 20:40They were making sure that what Paul was teaching was in line
- 20:45and was actually in the Word of God.
- 20:48And that is the mandate and that is the calling on us.
- 20:52You cannot just sit in the congregate and be LED astray and
- 20:56be made twice the sun of hell as the teacher there who believes
- 21:01all kinds of apostasy and heresy.
- 21:04The teacher who is not actually a person sent from God, but they
- 21:10are a wolf and ravenous, A ravenous wolf in sheep's
- 21:14clothes. And you can see that it is our
- 21:17call to go and search the scriptures to make sure what is
- 21:22being taught is in line with the Word of God.
- 21:25And there have been so many cults that have sprung up out of
- 21:30false teachers. There have been so many people
- 21:32LED astray from false teachers. And you must get into the Word
- 21:37of God for yourself. And don't take my word for it.
- 21:41Make sure that you search the Scriptures for yourself,
- 21:44friends. 12 Therefore many of them believed also of honorable
- 21:53women, which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
- 21:58So here again they're adding to the numbers of the church.
- 22:01The church is growing like wildfire.
- 22:04Friends, you can see that God's stamp of approval is upon all of
- 22:10these missionary journeys, and all of these churches are
- 22:13springing up out of the obedience of these few men. 13
- 22:20But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that
- 22:24the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came there
- 22:30also and stirred up the people. How pathetic that these men
- 22:39would hear that the authentic, reliable, trustworthy, God
- 22:48breathed inspired word is being spoken and they would come down.
- 22:54You can see how Satan is trying his best.
- 22:58He's grasping at straws. He's trying his best to thwart
- 23:03any of this early movement, this 1st century church movement that
- 23:08God has ordained. And anytime that you are
- 23:12fighting against God, you're going to lose. 10 times out of
- 23:1710, it might look like you have the upper hand.
- 23:22Just stay tuned. Just wait and see.
- 23:25It's never amounted to anything other than many more people
- 23:32being saved. Don't forget it.
- 23:35We cannot live in this perpetual state of fear because we're
- 23:39trying to save our skin. Friends, you must count the cost
- 23:44before you come to God, and you must know that death is on the
- 23:49table and at the very outset. Death to self, death to your
- 23:57passions, death to your desires, death to lust and flesh.
- 24:04You must kill it, friends, you must lock eyes, put your eyes on
- 24:09the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Author and the Perfector of
- 24:12our faith, and watch Him and only do what He tells you to do
- 24:17and sit still and wait on Him until He gives you the very next
- 24:23move. If you are sitting in a calling
- 24:27and you feel stagnant, pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, but don't
- 24:31move in your own strength. Make sure that you wait for God
- 24:37to tell you what it is that he desires of you, and then move in
- 24:42that. 14 And then immediately the brothers sent away Paul to
- 24:49go, as it were, to the sea, but Silas and Timothy abode there
- 24:55still. So you can see here that God is
- 24:59just using this divine division here, and he keeps breaking up
- 25:07these little bands of disciples and he knows what he's doing.
- 25:13And all of it in the moment felt as if it was upended and things
- 25:19were going awry. But from a bird's eye view, from
- 25:22a helicopter view, 2020 is hindsight.
- 25:27And you can see as we look back at the full, complete word of
- 25:31God, you can see how God ordained it and used all of
- 25:37these divisions to start many more churches.
- 25:41And you and I are eternally blessed because of all of the
- 25:45opposition that these men were facing.
- 25:48And it's no different today. It's no different today.
- 25:52This doesn't call for church splits because we are the church
- 25:57friends. The church is not a building.
- 25:59Everywhere you go you can have church, where two or more
- 26:02gathered, you can have church. There he is.
- 26:06Make sure that you acknowledge him. 15 And they that conducted
- 26:13Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto
- 26:18Silas and Timothy, for to come to him with all speed, they
- 26:23departed. So here Paul is hanging out in
- 26:26Athens. He's sending 4 Timothy.
- 26:31He's sending for Silas 16. Now while Paul waited for them
- 26:36at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the
- 26:41city completely given to idolatry.
- 26:46When was the last time that your spirit was stirred within you?
- 26:54When was the last time you were broken hearted and grieved over
- 26:58the idolatry that you see all around you?
- 27:03It's no different in our day. It's no different in our our
- 27:07friends. Just look around.
- 27:10The harvest is plenty, the workers are few.
- 27:13Look around. When was the last time you were
- 27:17completely undone because of all of the idolatry that you see all
- 27:23around you? 17 Therefore disputed he in the
- 27:33synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the
- 27:39market daily with them that met with him.
- 27:45So here Paul is on a mission to dispute with them all of their
- 27:51blasphemous idol worship, all of their false gods, lowercase G.
- 27:58He's disputing with them and showing them that Yahweh is
- 28:01everlasting, the only uncreated. He is the most high God.
- 28:06He is the only God. Every other God is an idol.
- 28:11Friends cannot see and they cannot hear this man made bunch
- 28:16of objects. That's all it is.
- 28:18And we give false devotion to it.
- 28:21We pour out all of our energy to these inanimate objects.
- 28:27We should pour our entire selves, spill our entire selves
- 28:33out for Yahweh, spill our entire selves out for Yeshua. 18 Then
- 28:44certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics
- 28:50encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say?
- 28:57Other some he seems to be a setter. 4th of strange gods,
- 29:06because he preached unto them Jesus in the resurrection.
- 29:11So here you need to understand that we worship a triune God,
- 29:15God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. 3 and 1
- 29:21And here you can see how Paul is correctly, accurately describing
- 29:28this triune nature, describing Jesus Christ, the Son of God
- 29:33coming back from the dead, who is God.
- 29:36And here these men are trying to figure out if this was just a
- 29:42bunch of bibble Babble baloney or was he actually speaking the
- 29:49truth and they just missed it and they were were trying to
- 29:54figure it out. These Stoics were known for
- 29:59being people who were very resolute in their convictions.
- 30:07And these Epicureans were very loose and found that life was
- 30:11just about having fun. They could not agree 19.
- 30:21And they took him and brought him unto Oragus, saying, May we
- 30:28know what this new doctrine whereof you speak is?
- 30:32So here he gets center stage, here he gets front row, here he
- 30:38gets the mic, and they say, Why don't you tell us what it is
- 30:44that you actually believe? 20 For you bring certain strange
- 30:49things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what
- 30:53these things mean, and then 21's going to tell us.
- 30:58A little background to the men who wanted to know what Paul
- 31:01believed. 21 For all the Athenians and strangers which
- 31:06were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell
- 31:14or to hear something new. So you can see here that the
- 31:22culture of this city was just to sit around and debate and to
- 31:27talk about anything that was New South.
- 31:31Paul had caught their ear by preaching Jesus Christ and Jesus
- 31:37Christ resurrected. 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill
- 31:49and said, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you
- 31:58are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by and beheld your
- 32:06devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown
- 32:12God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship him declare I
- 32:20unto you. So he's telling them that their
- 32:24little unknown God statue, he's going to draw a line.
- 32:30This is the only one true living God. 24 God that made the world
- 32:38and all things in it, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and
- 32:44earth, dwells not in temples made with hands, 25 Neither is
- 32:50worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything,
- 32:55seeing He gives to all life and breath and all things, 26 and
- 33:03has made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on
- 33:09all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before
- 33:14appointed in the bounds of their habitation.
- 33:20So he is pointing them towards God who gives all life force its
- 33:26very ability to live. He is the one who created all
- 33:32the cells, all the molecules. He created every single thing
- 33:38that gives us life, whether it is the microscopic life that's
- 33:43inside of the soil or whether it's all the life that is
- 33:48pulsating above us and beneath us.
- 33:51There is no life outside of God. And He spoke everything into
- 33:57existence and He sustains it all with the breath of His mouth.
- 34:02There is nothing that is created that was not created by God
- 34:07Almighty. And here Paul is showing them
- 34:11that all of their other worship is idol worship and it is going
- 34:15to amount to nothing and they must come to the Jewish God, the
- 34:20God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is the only way that
- 34:25they're going to be saved as a relationship with God through
- 34:29Jesus Christ. And Paul is going to paint this
- 34:32masterpiece here. 27 that they should seek the Lord, if happily
- 34:44they might feel after him and find him, though He be not far
- 34:52from every one of us, even the unreached people groups, the
- 35:02rocks are crying out every day. All of creation is groaning
- 35:08towards His coming. God has placed eternity into the
- 35:14hearts of men. We know that there is one true,
- 35:22living God, and we become hostile when we try to reason
- 35:27that away when we're agnostic and we won't acknowledge that it
- 35:32is Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- 35:38We are hostile when we will not come to Him honestly.
- 35:42And it's been happening ever since the fall.
- 35:46It's been happening ever since Cain killed Abel.
- 35:50It's been happening all the way back from the beginning of time
- 35:56that people are hostile towards God and they do not want to come
- 36:00to him honestly. And Paul here is painting this
- 36:04beautiful masterpiece and showing them that God is not far
- 36:09from us. He's closer than the skin on
- 36:12your body. He's closer than the breath in
- 36:15your lungs. Friends, you have no life
- 36:17outside of God. And if you woke up this morning,
- 36:22he's not done with you. His mercies are new every day.
- 36:30Give your life to Him. Happily we feel after Him,
- 36:39happily we find Him. Happily he found us friends. 28
- 36:48For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also
- 37:01of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
- 37:07So you can see that there is no life outside of God.
- 37:12We live and we move and we have our being because God allows it.
- 37:19Because God is sustaining you for today.
- 37:23And if you get to live 120 years, he's going to sustain you
- 37:27till then. And if you only live to be 50-60
- 37:31years, he will sustain you until then.
- 37:34If you get snuffed out early in your life, he was going to
- 37:38sustain you until then. There is no life outside of God
- 37:42sustaining us. We do not self will our life.
- 37:48And if you try to hold on to your life, you will lose it.
- 37:52We must lose our lives for His name's sake, and we will find
- 37:58abundant life, we will find eternal life, we will be saved.
- 38:0529 For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought
- 38:12not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or
- 38:18stone, graven by art and man's device.
- 38:23So he's saying all these man made idols, these man made
- 38:28images, these man made statues are a bunch of garbage.
- 38:33Take them out in the street and burn them.
- 38:39If your devotion and worship is towards a celebrity, it is an
- 38:46idol. If it's towards your own self
- 38:49and all of your abilities, that's an idol.
- 38:52If your devotion and worship is your phone, that's an idol.
- 38:57If your devotion and worship is towards mammon money, it's an
- 39:01idol, Friends. If your devotion and worship is
- 39:05towards nationality, it is an idol, friends.
- 39:12If your devotion and your worship is to a political
- 39:17person, that is an idol. Friends, we have to worship God
- 39:22and we must do only what God tells us to do and get rid of
- 39:27all of the distractions in our lives. 30 And the times of this
- 39:34ignorance God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to
- 39:44repent. So this is what you need to
- 39:49know. There was a time where we were a
- 39:57law unto ourselves. You can see it even in the
- 40:01nation Israel as they were giving birth, when they had
- 40:05judges and everybody just did what was right in their own
- 40:08sight. And you can see here that God
- 40:12winked at that. But once the divine revelation
- 40:18of the Lord Jesus Christ came on the scene, and once we
- 40:23understood that He is the only way and there is no way unto the
- 40:28Father except through Him, He's the Way, the Truth, and the
- 40:31life. Friends, now we have a grave
- 40:37responsibility to make that decision.
- 40:41You are not ignorant. Once the Gospel is presented to
- 40:47you, you have a grave responsibility.
- 40:52And we should not blasphemy the Holy Spirit by rejecting Him
- 40:57calling us unto Himself. We need to repent.
- 41:03Turn from wickedness, turn from yourself, turn from sin.
- 41:08Do not delight yourself and evil friends.
- 41:13Repent. Turn from those things.
- 41:15Turn towards a holy and loving and gracious God who loves you
- 41:21so much that he sent his one and only Son to die for you so that
- 41:29you could be there with him. Do not reject that calling.
- 41:33Do not reject that reality. 31 because he has appointed a day
- 41:41in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
- 41:48man whom he has ordained, where of He has given assurance unto
- 41:57all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
- 42:01Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, that's the answer key to the test.
- 42:09You might. This might be your last day on
- 42:11planet earth, friend. Take the test.
- 42:17Pass the test. Here's the answer key.
- 42:20Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God appointed a day in which he will
- 42:32judge the world in righteousness by Jesus.
- 42:39He ordained Jesus, and he has given us assurance by Jesus, and
- 42:48he raised Jesus from the dead. 32 And when they heard of the
- 42:53resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, we will
- 43:00hear you again of this matter. So here Paul just preached a
- 43:04fire sermon, one of the greatest sermons ever preached in the
- 43:08word of God. We've seen many Jesus gave the
- 43:12greatest prayer, and then we know Stephen gave them the
- 43:19history. And then we see Paul multiple
- 43:23times and Peter going through and telling us the history of
- 43:28the Jews. In here, Paul is showing us and
- 43:32showing them how God is, period. He is, I am, period.
- 43:42There is nothing outside of God that was not created by God.
- 43:48And he just showed them that. And their response is mocking
- 43:52and then marginalizing Him. And it's no different in our day
- 43:57when men speak the truth and people are not ready to hear it.
- 44:03They will mock, and they will marginalized, and they will
- 44:06ridicule, and we must count it all as joy. 33 Sir Paul departed
- 44:15from among them. 34 How be it certain men clave unto him, and
- 44:24believed? Among the witch was Dionysus and
- 44:31Erapogite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
- 44:39So you can see here that Paul had preached to many, and just a
- 44:43few came on board. But thank God that it was not
- 44:50wasted. God wastes nothing.
- 44:54We need to be found preaching the Word.
- 44:56We need to be found teaching the Word.
- 44:58We need to be found fanning the flame and encouraging our
- 45:02brothers and sisters. We need to be found expounding
- 45:06upon God's Word and helping people to understand these
- 45:09marvelous truths. I hope you've been blessed by
- 45:14this chapter. I know I sure have.
- 45:19I love you. I'm praying for you.
- 45:29We'll see you back here tomorrow.
- 45:31God bless you.