Well, hey man, good morning. I know it's been a while since we've been in fellowship with you all. Just to let you know, we have been blessed in the midst of this pandemic. We have in the last week, We've experienced a family member going on to glory. One of our close brothers, as we call him, he is not a brother by blood, but he is a brother in the Lord, went on to be with the Lord last week. And then the following day, one of our relatives, a cousin in California, lost his life to COVID. We are not so sure about him and his relationship with the Lord. His family was, he and his family were both involved in the Jehovah Witness cult. And we don't know whether or not he came to faith in Christ. But in the midst of this pandemic, I know people are concerned with people dying. And me and my wife are talking about this. And aren't we all dying? I share with my wife, at the end of the day, we're all going to die from something. The death rate is still one per person. And we're all going to make it there unless the Lord tarries, right? That is our passage on to glory to be with him. And there seems to be this intensive emergency because of the pandemic that people are dying, but people are dying on the daily basis. And we are so concerned with the physical death of people, we've forgotten about the spiritual death of people. The Bible makes it clear that it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. And I've said this over many years to several churches that we've served in and to my children. Unlike our earthly appointments, where we can be late for them, we may not make it to a dentist appointment, we may not make it to a job interview. Unlike those appointments, the appointment that God has set for us, we will not miss. We will be right on time. And so in the midst of this, I was thinking about what should be our priority this morning in preaching. And I thought the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts presents the Apostle Paul and his missionary journeys in preaching the gospel to a lost and dying world. I thought this morning we would look at Acts 17 verses 22 through 34. And I'm reading from the ESV this morning. So Paul's standing in the midst of the Ariel Pagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. What therefore you worship is unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by men. Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything. since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with him. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. And we thank you for the power of your word, as the Apostle Paul has said in Romans 1, 17, for he was not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power unto salvation, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile or the Greek. Father, more than your word, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that in your eternal counsels and your triune being that you, you chose to not only save man, but you chose to create man. But in your eternal counsels, you, from the foundation of the earth, you, slain your own son, that he might be the propitiation for our sins. We thank you, Lord, that it is by your son that we are made alive. We thank you, Lord, that it is by your son that we are made right with you. We thank you, Lord, that it is by your son that right now he is standing at your right hand making mediation for we, your saints. And we thank you, Lord, that one day he will return, that the very elements himself will give away. As you have said from your word, that the sky itself will crack open and the trumpet will blow. and His glorious presence will be revealed and we will be with Him. We will be gathered up and taken with Him to live for all eternity. We thank You. We pray in Jesus' name. Well, So we look at this particular passage of scripture, and we look at the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys here. I want us to notice some things here from the previous verse, not just 22, but if we look at 21, Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. This Greek religion was a mere deification of human attributes and the powers of nature. This was written by Cunybear and Howson in their classic Life and Epistles of Saint Paul. They stated that it was a religion which ministered to art and amusement and it was entirely destitute of moral power. The Greek myths spoke of gods and goddesses that in their own rivalries and ambitions acted more like human children than gods. And there were plenty of these deities to choose from. One Roman scholar gestured that in Athens, it was easier to find a god than a man. Upon Paul's arrival to this great city of Athens, not as a sightseer, but as a soul winner, he saw a city that was wholly given to idolatry, and it broke his heart. Paul viewed this idolatrous city and his spirit was stirred. It is the same word that is used in Acts 1539 for contention. He was deeply disturbed that these people were under or serving or worshiping all of these false gods. And I ask the question, will we be like Paul when we look out into our city of Las Vegas or we look out into the world? Are we deeply disturbed by what we see and by what man worships? I mean, we look around ourselves, and we look on TV, and we look to media, and we see that men are steeped in religious pluralism and pantheonism. and religious pragmatism. And this was the lot of the Greeks. I mean, it was like a smorgasbord or an all-you-can-eat religious feast. I mean, if you didn't believe that God was everything, you could believe that all religions were equal. And if you didn't believe that, just try anything. If it works, do it. This was the lot of the Greek culture. that Paul was speaking to. Today we admire Greek sculpture and architect as beautiful works of art, but Paul in his day directly associated these architectural buildings and sculptures as being what they really were. They were worshiping the false gods. And novelty was the chief pursuit both for the citizens and the visitors in Athens. And as I said earlier, their leisure time was spent telling and hearing some new thing. The city was so devoted to philosophy. When we think of Greece, our minds automatically think of Socrates and Aristotle and a host of other thinkers whose works are still read and studied today. Newspaper columnist Frank P. Adams once defined philosophy as the unintelligible answers to insoluble problems. But the Greeks would not have agreed with him. They would have followed Aristotle who called philosophy the science which considered truth. So here is Paul on Main Street disputing with two rival schools of thought. You had the Epicureans and the Stoics. We today associate the word Epicurean with the pursuit of pleasure and the love of fine living and especially fine foods, right? But the Epicurean philosophy involved much more than that. In one sense, the founder Epicurus was an existentialist in that he sought truth by the means of personal experience and not through reasoning. The Epicureans, you see, were materialists or atheists, and their goal in life was pleasure. To some, pleasure meant that which was grossly physical, but to others, it meant a life refined of serenity, free from pain and anxiety. The true Epicurean avoided extremes and sought to enjoy life by keeping things in balance. but pleasure was still his number one goal. The Storks, on the other hand, taught that one should accept his lot in life and bravely make the most of it. Theirs was the idea of individual self-sufficiency. They were pantheistic. They believed God was everything and everything was God. They viewed God as the world's soul. We see this today in today's media and movies. I'm sitting down and watching a movie that is a little old now with my son. I remember watching it years ago when it first came out. Avatar. And you look at this movie by Spielberg, and everything is God, and God is everything. And when one dies, he is absorbed by nature itself. And he becomes one with nature, and then he begins to be able to give wisdom to all life. This was the lot of the Stoics. Everything is God, and God is everything. They were very moral and had a sense of duty, but they were very proud. The Epicureans thought that pleasure was the chief goal of life and that one should seek to avoid pain and superstitious fears. They believed in the gods, but viewed them as remote from man's concerns. These were the two schools that Paul would debate with or engage with. This was his audience. It is amazing now that we live here in this culture and as the evangelical church, very little of our members are willing to witness to unbelievers. In 1993, 89% of Christians who had shared their faith agreed that this is the responsibility of every Christian. But today, just 64% say it's a 25% drop. This was a study done by Barna Group for the Southern Baptist Convention. And there are three alarming points that I'd just like to point out about this study. The study reflects that 65% of Christians share their faith in the way they live rather than speaking about it. I want to say that again. 65% of Christians share their faith in the way they live rather than speaking about it. That is very important. The idea is that if I live an upright life and I show people that I'm a good father and a good husband, that somehow that will cause people to come to faith in Jesus Christ. So 65% of Christians, 65% believe that it is better to just live out their faith in order for lost unbelievers to respond to the good news of the gospel. And secondly, 37% versus 37% today versus in 1993, there was 59% that believed that challenging other religions to defend their beliefs was a good thing. Now we don't believe that. We don't believe that we should challenge anyone because we think that we may offend them. Many millennials are so unsure about the actual practice of evangelism that most, that almost half of the millennials, 47%, agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one's personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith. So much for Matthew 28, 18, and 20, right? I didn't think that was a suggestion, I thought it was a command. But this is the evangelical church. They go on to say that American evangelicals are deeply confused about some of the core doctrines of the Christian faith. In the fourth century, the heretic Arius would have been pleased according to the new survey. Why would he be policed? Because one of the things that Christians believe about Christ is that he is not deity. He's not deity and he is not unique. They go on to say, overall, US adults appear to have a superficial attachment to well-known Christian beliefs. For example, the majority agreed that Jesus died on the cross for sin and that he rose from the dead. However, they rejected the Bible's teaching on the gravity of man's sin. They didn't believe in the total depravity. Here's another part of the story. The importance of church gathering together for worship. It says more than two-thirds, 69% of Americans disagreed that the smallest sin deserved eternal damnation. And then another 60% said that gathering for worship is not important. They believed that it was okay if they worshiped alone or with one's family. And then a majority of them believed, 59%, that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being. Listen to what evangelicals, again, believe. Most people, they believe most people are basically good. That's 52% of evangelicals. God accepts worships of all religions. That's 51%. Jesus was the first and greatest being created by God the Father. That's 78%. Did you hear that? Jesus was the first and greatest being created by God the Father. Where do we hear that from? The Mormon Church? The church is in crisis mode when it comes to sharing the gospel. Not only that, but it's not only getting the gospel out, but getting it right. In verse 22, so Paul standing in the midst of the area of Pegasus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. This is Paul's famous message on Mars Hill. And he said, I want you to notice that this discourse on religious philosophies and ideologies happens on a hill, not just any hill, but on Mars Hill. Look at this. On Mars Hill. Men have always been intrigued with the high places on Earth and their correlation with the vast galaxy stars and planets and our connection to them. We can look at our race to the moon and now to Mars. And it is very telling that in the last 60 years of the existence of NASA, it has spent over $23.5 billion on the exploration of Mars alone, from its first Mariner mission there. It will spend $22.6 billion in this fiscal year alone on space exploration. And since its inception in 1958, it has spent on average of $19 billion per year. That is a shocking $1.17 trillion in the past 62 years. Neil deGrasse Tyson, I don't know if you know him. He is a world-renowned scientist and astrophysicist. You've seen him on TV. People describe him as a man with a brilliant mind. He stated in September of 2018 his most astounding facts about the universe. He said that the universe, or the cosmos, is all that there ever was. and that matter and energy and time are all that ever was. He states this as a fact, but in fact, it is an assumption. Right? I mean, how does he know? Was Neil here when everything was created? How does he know that? This is not a statement of scientific fact, but a philosophical argument on the nature of existence. It is good old Forge and fueled materialism. Right? Degrassi in another interview on CBS Sunday Morning, I don't even know why there's even news on Sunday morning, right? I mean this is something just, Absolutely mind-boggling that there is news, and I remember this when this started years ago. We're faithfully in church and now they've got news on Sunday. They're always trying to replace God, right? We've got something better for you on Sunday morning than that God stuff. Come listen to our news, which is always outdated, right? He says this in this interview on CBS Sunday Morning in 2017. He stated why he does not believe in any higher power. That's nice, right? People like to call it higher power. You know, talk about that higher power stuff. We'll talk about God, but we can talk about the higher power. That may be me, that may be you, that may be the plants outside, that may be the animals, but the higher power, mother nature, you know. He says, this is what he says about this. He says he does not believe in any higher power. Because of the suffering and misery he sees in life, it proves that there is no God. This sounds like Morris Hill. This sounds like the Stoics and the Epicureans. Because of the suffering and misery of men, there cannot be a God. You hear this posited all the time, right? I mean, we've heard this for, I've been around 55 years, and I've heard it as young, when I was probably in my teens or even younger. God can't exist because people are hurt, and people are dying, and people are sick. If God truly existed, God wouldn't allow people to die and he wouldn't allow my children to suffer. He wouldn't allow my mother or my wife to have cancer, right? God can't exist. And Neil goes on and says that he refuses to believe in the idea of a higher power. Because as he observes the universe and sees how it works, he is inclined to believe that there can't be a God. I mean, this strikes against Psalms 19, right? And Romans 1. But what are we to expect from an unbeliever, right? No matter how brilliant his mind is, he's an unbeliever. He's depraved, he's in darkness. What do we expect from those around us, our neighbors? We are to expect this type of understanding. There can't be a God as I look to the universe. Classic Romans 1. We ought to look to the universe and see the glory of the universe and see that God created all of these things. And when we look to the universe, we ought to recognize that there must be a divine creator. But instead, we'd rather look at the creatures rather than the creator and praise them. One Christian professor thinks that Mr. Degrassi is a brilliant scientist, but the Bible calls him a dummy. As Fred Sanford would say, a big dummy. It's a little early for some of the young people's time, Sanford and son. But I like what the word of God says in Psalms 14.1. The fool says in his heart there is no God. Man believes if he can traverse and conquer the known universe and solve its mysteries, he will then understand his meaning and purpose in life, which will allow him to decide his own fate and master his own destiny. But in all of his intellectual prowess, he keeps going down. This is Romans chapter 1. Verses 18 through 24. The more man desires to go up, he goes down. The further we climb upward towards the stars, the lower man becomes downward towards the tar. You know, there's some places in the world that tar just naturally bubbles up out of the earth. Muckety, gooky stuff. And as man tries to gaze into the stars to understand the stars, to understand his purpose in life, he becomes more like a creature that is crawling on his belly on the earth. The more knowledge he gains, the more foolish he becomes. This is what Paul is dealing with here. Paul says, I perceive that in every way you are Religious. In the Greek, this word religious actually has two kind of words to it, that they are worshipful, that they are very involved, that they are given to their worship. But the other meaning is also, I see that you are very superstitious. Paul's walking through the city, and he sees this statue, and this God, and this God, and another God, and all these gods. And he says to these men, who are of brilliant mind, that I see that you are, in every respect, very religious. For as I pass, I observed the objects of your worship. And I found an altar with the inscription to the unknown God. I mean, they had covered all what they knew as the gods, right? Every god that they could cover, but if we don't get it right and there is this god we don't know about, which that word unknown is the word where we get agnostic, the unknown God, Let's set up an altar to him also. So Paul says, what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. Listen. Man's intellectual cognitive reasoning has not led him to the highest heights, but to the lowest lows. Listen to what the Bible says about this in 2 Timothy 3, 7. Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Right? And the backdrop of that particular passage is chapters one and two, but more specifically verses one through six. In that same chapter where he sees man's degenerate, debauched degradation in light of his cumulative knowledge. Man has become lovers of himself, hateful, but yet he's gaining more and more knowledge. We look around us and we look at the technology that we have, but we see the evilness of man. The more technological advance we become, the more evil and wicked we become. We see the stories of men going out and kidnapping little children and doing all kind of terrible things to them. We see cults that convince people to take their own lives. And we see these intellectual high places. But there's something more here than the intellectual high places. These high places represent places of worship. And if we look throughout the history of the people of God in Israel and Judah and their kings, there was a common theme of faithfulness to God, namely through their fettered worship to him. The kings themselves were judged solely on their stable commitment to the true and living God, which brought blessings, and their idolatry and adultery that brought curses. There seemed to be this pervasive syncretism, the mixing of the two, that had attached itself to their expressions of worship. We see this merging as early as their exodus from Egypt while Moses is still on the mountain in Exodus 32. And Aaron is being instructed by the people to fashion a golden calf so that the people could worship the true God through the image of an animal. And at that very same time, God is addressing this repulsive rebellion against his holy nature by giving the first three commands, which is an act of his mercy and grace. And so here we are in Morris Hill, and they are worshiping all these strange God, and Paul says, let me proclaim to you. Let me proclaim, that's important. Let me proclaim to you this unknown God. He says, the God who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. The God who made heaven and earth Look at this. This is the greatness of God. He is creator. The Epicureans who were atheists said that all was matter and matter always was. The Stoics said that everything was God and that he was one with the universe. God did not create anything according to them. He only organized matter and impressed on it some law and order. But Paul affirmed that in the beginning, this is John 1.1, in the beginning, right? God created the heavens and earth. In the beginning, God And I believe if we're going to address man's need for God, we must begin with God. Any missional attempt that fails to recognize God as the first principle in evangelism is man-centered and will not work. Paul describes God as the creator of the universe. He corrects the stoic idea that matter is eternal as well as their pantheism for God as creator and distinct from his universe. So Paul begins his discourse with the fact that God has made the world, the cosmos, which means he has ordered it all. When Paul adds the term cosmos, the phrase, and all things, it stresses the orderliness of creation that finds its origin in the one personal God. that God has placed everything precisely, that he has put it all together, that it works in fine tuning. He is the maker of the heavens and the earth and everything contained in it. John 1.3 says it this way from God's word translation. Everything came into existence through him and not one thing that existed was ever made without him. Not only does Paul state that he is creator of all things, but he is sovereign ruler over all things. Right? And we as Christians need to understand this. Because sometimes we think that, you know, some things are not under his control. And, you know, this must come to a surprise to God. God couldn't have known this. But not only does he know it, he controls it all. I mean, this blows away the idea of the faith movement, that somehow we are little gods and somehow we can kind of speak things into existence. God controls the entire universe. This blows away their idea that somehow that Satan kicked God out of his universe and God had to go to a man and the man had to give him rights to come back into the world. This blows that out of the water, right? God is sovereign over his universe. And he's sovereign over the affairs of men. I mean, we act somewhat surprised when some kind of war breaks out in some foreign country, and we're all freaked out that Korea has a nuclear bomb now. I'm sorry, some other country, not Korea. What's the country that the president calls Rocket Man? North Korea, that's right. We're all worked out of shape and concerned. We're concerned because of the buildup of the Russian's arsenal with nuclear weapons. We get all pushed out of shape. But God is sovereign. This is what the Apostle Paul is saying to these men who have all these ideologies. God controls it all. There is nothing outside of His control. He knows it all. He controls it all. And what Paul says here, that he, Christ, has absolute power and authority and possession over the heavens and earth. He owns it all. The Bible rightly says that he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. That doesn't mean that literally, but it means that he owns it all. It all belongs to him. We belong to him. And this may come as a surprise, unbelievers belong to him. They are not outside of his control. You look back into the history of the children of Israel and God's people, and God controlled everything and every event that happened. God controlled Joseph and him going down into Egypt by allowing his brothers to throw him into a pit. They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Psalms 24, one through two says this. It states, the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell in it. He is sovereign ruler, he is Adonai. It is the Hebrew word, or the Hebrew Adonai is the Greek word kyrios. Just the mention of this name in the Old Testament, which was Yahweh, in the community of the Israelites in the Old Testament wrought fear in the hearts of those who were charged with having to pronounce it. Because in the very pronunciation, they did not want to violate the third commandment, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. We're dealing with an unbelieving world and we must say to them, we must speak to them about God creating. God establishing his universe and God being judge over his universe. Listen, the Roman centurion soldier understood the Lordship of Christ. He had a servant in his home, in Matthew 8, 5-13, that was very sick and ill. He understood this supreme authority and lordship of Christ when he said of Christ, I, like you, and I'm paraphrasing my own words, I, like you, am a man under authority, giving men under my authority direction, telling them what to do, telling them where to go, do such a thing, and they do it as I order. He says to Christ, you don't even have to show up at my home. In fact, I'm unworthy for you to show up. You don't even have to show up because you are a man of authority. Your lordship, all you have to do is speak the word. He understood this. The Roman soldier acknowledged the lordship. The Samaritan woman at the well acknowledged his lordship. Jesus confronts her with her adulterous life, and she's asking for water from the well, and Jesus says to her, if you drink of this water, she didn't understand what he's saying, you drink of this water, this well has been here for many, no, that's not the water I'm talking about. And he asked the woman a question about her relationship. He says, go and get your husband, right? And the woman says, I have no husband. He says, you rightly speak spoken, right? You've had five husbands and the husband you're with right now is not your husband. And the woman forgot about the water. and then ask the question, well, where should we worship? Is it on this hill? Because the Jewish people said this hill, and Jesus says, oh no, it's not about a hill. It's not about where you worship. It's about who you worship. You don't know who you worship. We know who we worship. I am looking for, God is looking for those who worship me in spirit and in truth. The woman ran away from the well and began to tell everybody in the community about a man who told her all about himself. She's completely changed. The question is, will these Epicureans and Stoics recognize and obey his lordship? Will they abandon their deaf, mute, and blind false gods of stone, wood, and fine metals? For Jesus says in John 8, 24, I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. He goes on, he says, not only that he's made everything in it, but being the Lord of heaven and earth, he does not live in temples made by man. Right? It probably strikes you when you're going out and you go to, and this is no fun intended, but if you go to certain Asian restaurants, when you walk in the door, you see a little Buddha sitting there. And you see all this little money and crackers and stuff in a plate, right? And it amazes me after you see the crackers start getting moldy, because their god is not eating it. And it is amazing that most of the major world religions always encase their God in a home. We gotta protect him, right? Gotta keep him in there. Not only do we need to protect him, we need to feed him, right? And we need to appease him. and we need to domesticate him. We need to control him because if we don't control him, he may strike out at us. The apostle says here that he does not live in temples made by man. Nor is he served by human hands. There's nothing we can do for God. Say that again. There is nothing we can do for God. It is not as if God needs us for his existence, right? I mean, some people have the idea and some evangelical Christians have the idea that God created us out of necessity because he was lonely, right? I mean, that's what you hear. He created us because he was lonely, right? Misunderstanding of his nature, that God is triune. I mean, we live in a community called solitude. And we live on a street called solitary. You know, when people talk about, I just love the solitude. You don't have to be all alone by myself. I'm just quiet. Solitary, this kind of idea of solitary confinement. God didn't exist in solitary confinement, right? He existed in himself as three persons in one God. Communicating and loving one another. He didn't need us, right? He created us for his glory. Not that He needed anything from man. He created us as an expression of His glory. So that we may glorify, man's chief end is to glorify God. God is not served by our human hands. We can't feed Him. We can't give Him anything. There's nothing that we can offer Him. He needs nothing from us, but we need everything from Him. He gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. He needs nothing from us, we need everything from Him. I mean, this covers the full gamut. God gives us everything in creation that we will ever need. The reason why we're walking around on this planet, the reason why we're breathing the way we do, the reason why the sun rises and it falls, the reason why the oceans come forward and pull back is all because of design by God. God gives us everything. If God was to even take away his existence, that's why the Bible says, and this is why he'll say later on here, that in him we live and move and have our being, quoting their poets, but that is exactly right. If God was to pull back and not sustain this world, we would cease to exist. He covers the full gamut. We are breathing because of Him. We are walking because of Him. We are thinking because of Him. We are eating. And He provides the very food. Right? The reason why man is even intelligent is because of God. Right? I went with my son about, I don't know, a few weeks ago to pick up a car in Northern California that he had bought. It always amazes me when we get on this large airplane, this jet. This thing is probably twice the size of any bus, right? It amazes me that this thing starts going down the runway there, and then all of a sudden, you feel that thing lift up. I mean, this thing is absolutely heavy, right? I mean, we could have the full church. I mean, we could have a church of 5,000 people and not be able to pick up an airplane. And this thing lifts up, and it begins to take off, and it defies the idea of gravity, right? It takes off and it's going up and it's climbing and taking on altitude. And then it stays up there. The fact that it even took off. And then it just stays there for hours at a time, right? Wow. It's just amazing. We exist because of him. And he provides everything that we need. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. Now, this is very important in light of what we see in the culture today. And the whole idea that, and I will say it, black lives matter. Well, all lives matter. We ought to be saying, and unfortunately I'm hearing Christians say black lives matter, we ought to be saying no, dead lives matter. Unrepentant lives matter. Unbelievers matter. Right? We ought not be concerned. And the reason why the Apostle Paul does this is because the Epicureans, I mean, or the Athenians, had this idea that they had come up from the very soil of Athens. And they thought they were a greater breed. They thought they were stronger, faster, and smarter. They were a racist group. Nobody was like the Athenian. We came up from this very soil. by random chance, right? By a series of unfortunate events. This muck was laying around for thousands of years, and all of a sudden, because of this muck, well, we can start back even further than that. The space dust was flying through the air, oh, a little bit further than that. There was nothing that existed, but it just all came into being all of a sudden. And then this dust comes across, and it finds this place that's not inhabitable for life, and it sits there for thousands and thousands of years, and all of a sudden, life just starts to spring forth, right? Well, the Athenians thought that they had come from the greatest stock, that they were so great. So the apostle Paul says this, that he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth. That every, you know, they're really, my daughter says this all the time, There really are no different colors, right? We're all the same color, actually. It's just that some of us have a little bit more melanin in our skin than others. Thank God for that. But people talk about races. There are no different races, right? We're all part of the human race. There are different ethnic groups, ethnos is the Bible use, right? And so the Apostle Paul says here that from one man, that is Adam, he is the progenitor. He is what we call in Christian terms, he is the federal headship. He represents all mankind, right? That's why the Bible talks about in the first Adam we all die, but in the second Adam, who is Christ, we can have life, right? Adam represented all mankind, right? So that when he and Eve fell, we fell with him, right? And so the Apostle Paul says that he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. having determined the allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place. The reason why cultures have fallen and have been built up is because of God. The reason why cultures have, or nations have subdued other nations And the reason why they've been strong and weak is because of God. The reason why nations have borders and they're separate is because of God. But more than that, He has made all of these nations having to turn in their allotted periods and boundaries and dwelling places so that they may seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Right? I mean, here are these Epicureans and Stoics, and they've got these temples and these statues to all these gods, and to this god, and to that god, and even to the unknown. In case we've missed one, let's even get one that we don't know of. God has set the boundaries of nations. God has set the periods and the dwelling places so that man may seek Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us. Why does He say that? Because they had the idea that God, if there was a God, He just started up this thing and He left it to itself. The Apostle Paul says, no, he has made all of this and we are all accountable. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought to not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by art and the imagination of man. Don't think that this God is like your other gods. Don't get it, as the kids would say today, don't get it twisted. This is the God that created all of us. This very stuff, this material, the gold and the stone and all this stuff, God made the stuff out of no stuff. God existed when there wasn't any stuff, right? I mean, we understand the creative order. We understand creation. When God created, there wasn't anything but God. We don't even phantom that, right? Because all we know is stuff. We know atoms, stuff, stuff we can touch and feel, right? We don't know of a time that nothing existed but God. As we get up in the morning and we see the sunrise and we see the sun, what we call fall or set, we feel the rain, we feel the heat and we see nature and we see flowers, we see things and we see stuff. This God is not like that. This God is not like your God that you fashioned and made out of gold and silver and bronze and wood. This God created those very elements. And this God, in times past, because of ignorance, he overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. God commands it. Now, let me say this. I've seen many men get on TV and pastors and talk about all the stuff that is happening with the pandemic and with BLM and all this stuff. And we sound like the rest of the world. With the exception of a few. And I don't mean to build him up. John MacArthur is one of my favorite teachers, with the exception of a few, but most of them sound like the world. We need to be unique at this time. When we see what is happening around us, and we see what happened to George Floyd, what we ought to say, yeah, you know, that's a sad situation. It's very sad. But what we ought to do when we have a platform to speak to the world, we ought to be saying is, yeah, that is a sad situation, but do you understand that that has been happening since the creation of man? Cain slew Abel. And that will continue to happen until Jesus returns. And what we ought to be saying to a lost and dying world, whether it be the anchor on Fox or CBS or ABC, we ought to be saying, yeah, that's sad and man is depraved. But we ought to be saying, you too, likewise, shall die. And we ought to be confronting that unbeliever with the truth of God's judgment and God's gracious redemption. We ought to be saying, yeah, you're going to die also. Remember the story of the Temple of Salome, right? And some of the religious leaders and some of the Jewish people asked Jesus about the men that had died as a result of this temple falling over on them. And they asked the question, were they any more wicked or righteous than us? And Jesus said, no, they weren't, but you too likewise shall perish. When we have a platform, we ought to be proclaiming the truth of the gospel. Ours is a message to be proclaimed. That is important. As we looked at the earlier, as we looked at American evangelicalism and the idea that we can just live our life out and people will simply come to faith in Christ. That is not what the word of God says. We have a message that must be proclaimed. The apostle Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power unto salvation for everyone who believes. Paul's message confronts the humanistic views of the Athenians with a stinging view of God's sovereignty. And he says the only reason men have been successful in their campaigns and the building of their nations and the maintaining of their borders is because God In Daniel 2.21, the contemporary version says this, you control human events, you give rulers their power and take it away, and you are the source of wisdom and understanding. The NSAB says it this way, it is he who changes the times and the epochs and seasons, and he removes kings and establishes kings, and he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to man. So, We've looked at several things. I want to conclude this with these last few verses. God is a God of grace, and he is Savior. Look here. In the times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, right? to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world. One thing we can say about this judgment is that it is absolute. It is predestined and it will happen. God has fixed a day on which he will judge the cosmos. Right? And unlike earthly judge, God will judge with complete righteousness, with just judgment, and he will get everything right. And let us not be confused. God will even judge judges, presidents, kings, priests, Men, women, boys, girls, blacks, whites, I don't care if you're purple or blue, God will judge you. He's going to judge it all. And He will judge it based on His own righteous Son, Christ. He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by the raising from the dead. He talks about the judgment to come. He talks about the resurrection. The apostle Paul confronts them with the very law of God. God is going to judge. The idea that some Christians are saying that God is, all God is just love. God is love. God is just sweet love. But God is not just love. He is holy, holy, holy. He is thrice holy. I don't see the Bible saying he is love, love, love. He is holy, holy, holy. And God will judge everything by his righteous son, Jesus Christ. He gives further proof of this by the very resurrection itself. And it says, now when they heard this resurrection of the dead, some of them mocked. Paul, concludes his message with a personal application that left each council member facing a moral decision. Would these Epicureans and Stoics respond in faith as the Philippian Jailer did in the prior chapter 16 of this book? Would they be as the hearers in Acts 2.37 who asked what must they do after hearing the gospel of the crucifixion, death, and burial, and resurrection expounded on and proclaimed in Acts 2.22-36? And as a result were cut to the heart and were commanded to repent? Or would they be as those who stoned Stephen to death in Acts 7.54-58? Or would they be like Felix in Acts 24, 24, 24, 24 through 25, who in fear ordered Paul's removal from his presence after the apostle discoursed a three-point message on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come? Because if you understand, Felix had gained his second wife, Drusilla, from her husband through the help of a Cypriot magician, He was living in adultery, and Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. These people wanted, Felix wanted to be entertained. He says, okay, Paul, make your first point. Okay, let's talk about righteousness. Oh, let's pass that point. Make your second point. Let's talk about self-control. Oh, I don't wanna hear that. Oh, then let's talk about the judgment to come. Oh, let me dismiss you. I may hear from you another day. What did these Stoics do? Well, the majority of them dismissed what the Apostle Paul had to say. They mocked. J.B. Phillips said that some of them even laughed. You know, as you look at this, the passage of scripture, and when we first started, they called Paul a babbler. He's some babbler of some new religion. Paul was not some great oratator, right? but he simply shared the gospel. Some sneered, some even burst out in laughing, as J.B. Phillips said. Listen. For the Jews desire a sign. And the Greeks study hard to be wise, but we preach Christ and Him crucified. A stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jew and Greeks, Christ is the power of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Christ and His Crucified. If you've got a neighbor, preach Christ and him crucified. If you've got a neighbor, start with the law of God. This is what the old church did. It was a healthy preaching of a law and gospel. The Apostle Paul says that the law of God is our schoolmaster, pushing us on to the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. If man does not hear the law of God, look, if there's good news, there's gotta be bad news, right? The bad news is that God's wrath is against all ungodliness. But we are they, unbelievers, can have life through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God bless you. Father, we thank you for your goodness, your mercy, your grace, your comfort, your joy, your peace. We thank you that you are the creator of the universe and you're also sustainer. We thank you, Lord, that you are merciful and that you are a God of grace. We thank you that it is not us that have reached up to you, but you have reached down to us and that you have found us. That even while we were at enmity against you, you sent your son to die for us. We thank you, Lord, that it is by your marvelous grace that any of us are saved. And we thank you that it is by your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.