Turn back please to Acts chapter 17. And our meditation this morning will be on verses 26 through 28. Let me read those verses in your hearing again. Acts 17 verses 26 to 28. From one man God made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole world. And He determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being. Every schoolboy should know, but I'm sure they don't, that the name of the first month of the year January is taken from the ancient Roman god Janus. The peculiar thing about Janus was that he had two faces instead of one, and he could look in two directions at one and the same time, forward and back. Now you can imagine the advantage, if you ever got into a brawl, of being able to look in both ways. or even some of you sports enthusiasts can imagine the advantage to having two faces instead of one. Well, this first month of the year is well named because it is symbolic of the state of mind that most people have at the passing of one year and the start of a new year. Now of course there are some folks who are so immersed in the pursuit of pleasure that The New Year only means the biggest drunken brawl of the year. And they're too caught up in frivolous party-making to be thoughtful at all, too afflicted with hangovers to look back or forward. But most of you have come on the first day of the New Year with a strange mixture of memories of the past and hope for the future. Perhaps there are good memories for you. of 1983, warm, nostalgic memories. Perhaps there are painful memories for you, there are wounds that are still not healed from the year that has gone by. And I'm sure for some of you there are a mixture of both. But there are bright prospects in the future too, a better thing, or maybe there is in your heart a bit of anxiety, hoping that you do not experience further pain as you have in the past. I've chosen a text in which Paul looks in both directions, both backward and forward. We're not going to attempt to put Acts 17, 26 to 28 in the context of his sermon on Mars Hill. You can do that at other times. That's most often done when we look at the text. We're going to let these three sentences stand on their own feet this morning and begin with Paul's glance backwards. If you're going to be philosophic, then you should not be short-sighted in looking backwards. It's possible to review 1983, but why stop there? It's possible to think about your personal trials and what God has done in the experience of your family, but why not enlarge the scope of it and think in broader terms than that? After all, what is the meaning of 1983? in the perspective of your whole lifetime? And how do your family experiences fit into the drama that's taking place all over this globe on the face of the earth, with all of humanity, with the billions of people that are alive today? If you are to understand the past and gain direction for the future, you must not just keep your mind upon yourself. Surely the man, the woman has no wisdom who just sits in a closet and looks at himself or herself and tries to speculate about the past and the future. You will have a distorted sense of reality if all you think about is yourself. And you are likely to go in the wrong direction if you take your cue from only your personal experiences of the year that's gone by. In the larger picture of human history, there are two great facts which touch you and mold you and explain you and mold and explain everyone who is here this morning. Far more than those experiences that seem to have such an impact upon you. Now I may not know each one of you very well, but I can unreservedly declare that two things that Paul was talking about from the past have a great importance for you and explain your past and your future. The first of them is, as you look at verse 26, that all of you have a common origin. All of you have a common origin. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth. Some people are very strong about hindsight. They seek into their roots. They try to search out their ancestors and find out as far back as they can who their great, great, great grandfather was. Some of us can't go any further back than our grandfathers and we lose the trail of our family. Regardless of how far you can go back in searching your ancestors and those who were in your family, I can tell you where to pick up the trail again when you lose it. And each one of you will come back to the same place. You will come back to Genesis, chapter 1 to 10. And each one of you can take up the trail of your ancestry with Noah. For all of you were born of Noah, without exception. And of course, the ancestry from Adam to Noah is traced in Genesis 1 to 10. Interesting, isn't it? We talk about family Bibles, and I guess people mean by that that they keep a little genealogy in the covers of their Bible somewhere. But this is a family Bible in a more intimate sense that your relatives and their history are marked here. And that the most profound things that have ever happened to humanity are recorded in the Word of God in your family, your family tree. Verse 26 says, from one man, actually There's a textual disagreement here. Many of the old versions say, from one blood, he made every nation of men to live on the face of the earth. And I rather think that that's what Paul said, rather than the way the NIV has chosen to translate the verse, because Paul was attacking the Greek pride of his day. The ancient Greeks had a theory that they were the superior race. Did you ever hear of that before? It's funny how blue blood theories keep getting revived when anyone has a special place of prosperity or privilege on the earth. The Greeks had the theory that they were physically and philosophically superior to all the other races on the earth. And Paul was saying, wait a minute, we all came from one blood, we all came from Noah, we all came from Adam. There was only one pair of ancestral parents and we were all born of them. But God made them and God made us and He made us a community with each other. So you are not alone in your history. You are not unique in what has happened to you. And you are not a product of chance. You are not a product of an insignificant blip and mindless surge of energy and material things. the accidental meeting of amino acids in a swamp somewhere, you are more than that, God created you, God made you, and He made all humanity that lives on the face of the earth from one common blood. So you have a common origin, and then you have a common dominion. For it mentions in verse 26 also, He made from one man every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live. God determined where nations would appear and where the various nations would live and he set limitations for them. He set the limitations of time, how long these nations would be in existence or in power at least And He set the exact places where they should live, all of the limitations that come upon humanity. Now you know that coming from this, if He has set the limitations for the nations, He has set the limitations for your family. He has set the limitations for you as well. All that has occurred on earth from the beginning is under God's direction and wise and loving and gracious government. The hand of God is in the time and the place where you were born and where you live. He set the limitations. He set the boundaries of time and place. Why weren't you born in Greece during the days of Alexander before the gospel arrived in Greece? When spiritual darkness filled the land and all of the pride of their philosophy. Why was your life not spent in a Germany that was dark with heathen superstition and barbarism before Christianity penetrated the tribes of Europe? Why were you not part of an Indian tribe in North America that never met the occasional Viking explorer and never heard of the Savior who came? Why this time in this place in history? The answer is God determined it and you didn't determine it. This is not just a philosophical point of view, but this is an important fact. All of the history of your race and your family and of your own life has been directed and determined by God. Blessed is the man who looks back and sees no chance and no luck in what has happened, but sees that God has directed in what has occurred. As we sang in the hymn and as the psalmist said in Psalm 31, 15, my times are in your hands, O Lord. Do you believe that? That your time, your circumstances, your limitations, whether they be geographical, whether they be in your personality, whether they be in the circumstances that surround your home, that all of these things that have to do with your times are in His hands. the great voyage of life through this world. You may not see exactly where the course is going. If you were told, you might not be able to understand what the longitude and latitude of where you were. You might not understand if you were told. You might not be able to steer the ship in the proper direction, but blessed is the one who knows the pilot. This year's experiences were in the hands of God. Your experiences. Some of you are filled with joy as God gave birth within your household of new lives. Some of you were torn by death. But these limitations, the beginning of life and the ending in death are in God's hands. And they do not come always at the times that we choose. Some of you receive promotions at your work. And you were pleased with that. Some of you lost jobs and suffered, and your families suffered. These things are in the hands of God. Some of you had financial increase, and some had financial disaster. And these things are in the hands of God. Many had tearful days, and some had joyful months. Some have had the heaviness of spirit come over them this year, as never in their experience before, through temptation and disappointment and even unbelief in the heart. And some have emerged from the clouds into the sunshine of the joy and communion with God and near walking with Him. Our times are in the hands of God. You need to know that to come to terms with the life that you are living. You are God's creature, He made you. And your past has been fully directed at His command, and your future is under His direction as well. And whether there is good or ill in 1984 for you does not depend wholly on what you do, but it depends upon what He has decided to do in your life. It's important that your heart be still with contentment as you look back. and that you not be irritable and filled with complaint and murmuring at the year that is gone. But whatever your ethnic history, whatever your background in family and personal experience, it is the Lord who has done what he pleased. Whatever you remember in looking back, if it is pleasant and good, you need to give him thanks. If it is filled with horror and grief, you need to submit, for it is the Lord who has done it. But then there needs to be a glance ahead. If it is God who has made us and God who has controlled all of the circumstances of our times as to the place that we live, the associations that we have, the opportunities that are presented to us, the good things and the bad things that happen to us, we need to come to a therefore. Therefore, looking at the past in this way, we need to direct ourselves for the future. We need to learn a light. Learn a lesson and shine a light upon the future. And gain direction and guidance for the year that lies ahead. If God made you and supervised your history, then God is not far away from you. And that's the lesson that Paul wants to bring to these people on Mars Hill and that he wants to bring to you. In verse 27 it says, He is not far from each one of us. In Him we live and move and have our being. If His hand is in the storms that have come into your life, then He is not far from you. If His hand has brought the sun that shines into your life, then He is not far from you. If His arm is determining whether you are healthy or ill, whether you are growing stronger or growing weaker in your body, then He is not very far from you. The Lord is not far away. He is directing all that is occurring to you socially, in your career. The Lord is at hand. That is the implication of His having made you and directed all of the circumstances of your life. Then God is not far away. In Him you live and move and have your being. Think of that for a moment. You have your being in God. Your existence is upheld by His hand and power. He cradles you in the arm of His infinite might. And that's how you stay in existence. Your very being is in Him. Each time you move, In Him we live and move. Each time you move, it is in God. It is from His strength. It is by His sustaining you. It is under His power. Your breath is personally administered as the gift of God. You see how it says in verse 25, He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything. He doesn't stand afar off. and decree that somehow by impersonal forces breath will come to men, he himself gives to you life and breath and all things. He is not an absentee landlord. It is he that lights the fire that warms the earth. It is he that turns the spigots that water the earth. It is he that moves in the hearts of kings to make war or to remain at peace. It is He that gives you sleep and wakes you to consciousness. In Him we live and move and have our being. But our text goes beyond the curious fact that God is everywhere and that daily in your home and by your side the Lord is close. You notice in verse 27 the reasoning of the apostles. God did this. He did what? He made all of the nations of the earth from a common blood, from a common ancestry, from Adam and Eve, through Noah, into everyone who is alive today and populating the earth. He did this. And he set the boundaries, and he governed all that has happened in your history. He did this. Why? So that, you notice the language, we are reaching a conclusion now. We're looking back at these facts in order to learn an important lesson. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being. God created and governed the nation that you live in, and He created you and He governed your life, so that you would seek Him and reach out for Him. That phrase, reach out for Him, is very interesting. It's the kind of phrase you would use of a blind man who is trying to find something, who is groping after it, he can't see it. He doesn't exactly know, he doesn't have the guidance system that you and I have with eyes to be able to see where to put our feet and our hands in order to get hold of what we want, that He is groping. Well, God has made you and governed your entire life so that you would grope after Him. so that you would seek to lay hold of Him, maybe not knowing where to find Him, maybe not being religious enough to understand how to go about it in the proper manner, not being well-trained like the priests and the ministers and those who give themselves to the study of religion and philosophy and the Bible, but grope after Him and reach for Him and try to lay hold of God. Seek Him and grope for Him. Yes, and find Him, the text says. so that men would seek Him and perhaps grope after Him and find Him. The past cries out to you, God has a great deal to do with you. With the whole of the human race, with the events that are big and small, with your time, with your limits, with you as you are, because He wanted you to seek Him and grope for Him and find Him. When the past is favorable, you need to see His hand in your past and say, the goodness of God leads you to repentance, you ought to seek the Lord. And when the past is harsh and difficult, you need to see that God is chastening you for having forgotten Him, and you need to seek Him and reach after Him. Do you see what the Apostle is saying? Look at your past. Look at your origin. Look at God's dominion over all that has happened to you. And the reason for it all is so that you will seek after Him. Though God has always been near to us. Interesting, isn't it? God is very near. He is here. Sometimes we come into worship services and we think that it is very difficult to get close to God. But He is very close to us. In Him we live and move and have our being. He is not far away. Man was born in communion with God, and man, when he sinned, ran far away in his heart. But God still wasn't far away. You remember the scene in the Garden of Eden, Adam hiding? It's humorous, isn't it? Like if you've ever played with a little toddler who puts a pillow over his head and assumes you can't see him, like the ostrich that hides its head in the ground and assumes that the enemies can't see him because The ostrich can't see the enemies in return. Well, sometimes toddlers do that. They cover their heads with a pillow, and they think that they're hidden. And so we say, well, where is so-and-so? And suddenly they uncover their heads. Well, so Adam thought, I'm going to hide from God. And he hid in the brush, as if God couldn't see him all the while. He hid in the very presence of God. God is not very far from us. The Lord continued to surround sinful man every day of his life, and to be in his very presence. And because man could not see God, God sent prophets to announce that God was there with him. The Jewish nation was put in the midst of the earth, and all the world heard about the Jews crossing the Red Sea and destroying the Egyptian army, and all the world heard about Solomon and his wisdom. And then the Jews were scattered among the heathen people so that they would hear more about God. And then the apostles were sent with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why doesn't God end the strife and the misery and the evil that's taking place on the earth? He doesn't because if he were to do so now, he would have to cast multitudes into hell. And he is patiently waiting. Intending that men should seek him and grope after him and find him and there's a multitude that will find him But he is not far away Well, there's some things that we can learn from this nearness of God How wicked is sin if it's done in the presence of God? Sometimes people talk about one another and then they say Here He comes. It's not saying anymore. Any sin that we have committed against God has been in His very presence. God is near. It's madness to try to deceive God. It's madness to try to run from God. He is here. In Him we live and move and have our being. Our whole world is in God. But the hopeful side of the text is really the emphasis. He is not far from any one of us. And anyone who seeks God does not have far to go. You don't have to find some way to scale the heavens and bring God down. You don't have to plumb the depths and bring God up. You don't have to travel to a far distant place to find God. In Him you live and move and have your being. He is personally near to you. And therefore He is quick to perceive any attempt to search for Him. It's interesting. When people begin to show an interest in religion, ministers don't really know if people are seeking for God or not, or whether they have some ulterior motive in their heart. And as human beings, we have to be very cautious with one another. We see a hopeful sign in someone, but the whole drift of their life has been in an opposite direction, and we say to ourselves, are they up to something? Or is this sincere? We don't really know, do we? We never know about one another. But with God, there's never a doubt. If a heart begins to seek Him in sincerity, He knows that it wants. That's why He says, you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all of your heart. When you're sincere, you will find. He is not far away. If you trust in His Son, other people may say, I'm not sure that that person has really become a Christian. But God knows at once when a person calls on the Lord Jesus Christ. And He immediately tells the angels to begin the celebration. for the son that has returned, for the daughter that has been wayward. When your prayers arise out of a sincere heart, God isn't far away, He knows. There's no long road to being a Christian, but seeking God and groping after Him with a heart that desires to find Him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But He is here. Well, that can mean in your ears that He's up front. No, He's there. He's where we are. No exception. What is the meaning of life? What is the great end of life? What is the meaning of all that has happened to you? The sad thing, the joyful thing, the good thing. When you compare your life to what has happened in other ages, in other places of the world, even today, what's the meaning of it all? What's the purpose of it all? So that you would seek Him and grope after Him and find Him. Have you done it? Have you sought the Lord? Or was 1983 a year of looking for other things and not seeking God with your heart? Have you begun the search? Well, you say, I haven't found time for that yet. There are other things I have to do first. No, this is the first. This is the basic meaning of your existence. To seek for God and to grope after Him and to find Him. Don't let another year go by without a search for Him. With the encouragement, He's not far away, and He intended that you should do so. But many of you, of course, have found the Lord, and you have groped after God. Sometimes when you think about your early beginnings of prayer, and your early beginnings of asking for the forgiveness of sins, and your attempt to become a Christian, that's all you could call it, groping. going about it in the wrong way, not using very sophisticated words, but you have found Him. Determine that this year you be aware that He is not far from every one of us. Determine this year to attempt to read everything that happens to you with an eye to God and what He has to do with it. Determined to see the Lord in what happens in your family, at your job, in your church. Cast out that cursed secularism from your own heart that only looks at material causes and effects. And practice a discernment of the Lord being near. And then seek the Lord yourself, Christians. The seeking of God which the Lord intended, that we should seek Him and grope after Him and find Him, is not that we should do so with one experience at the outset of our Christianity and then return to His arms at the end of the lifetime when we enter into His presence. But seek the Lord this year. Don't let your devotions become a mere formality. As you read the pages of scripture, reach out for Him, as our text says. Determine to find Him. If there has been some hiding of God from your heart, make it a matter, a central matter of your prayer that you may find Him again and lay hold of Him in satisfying communion. And do not allow your devotions to decline. Seek the Lord. His presence is the cheerfulness of life. In good times and in bad times, we ought to be able to say with David in the psalm, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil if thou art with me. I'm willing to be by the pleasant streams of water, or I'm willing to be in the shadow of death if you are with me. If finances improve or collapse, It really doesn't matter if the Lord is near to you. If health improves or deteriorates, it really does not matter if the Lord is with you. If you gain or lose civil freedom and peace in our world, it really does not matter if the Lord goes with you where you are. If you can hold tight to Jehovah Shammah, that's Hebrew for the Lord is there. If you can discern that the Lord is there, if you can lean upon the fact that the Lord is there, if you can draw satisfaction from the Lord being there, then whatever comes will be for your profit. Some people are going to live vibrantly this year. Some people are going to die this year. Who is going to be the happiest? The one with whom the Lord is consciously present. The one who is received from God grace through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All that God is doing in history, he is doing so that men will seek him and grope after him and find him. Have you made that a central purpose? Have you put some time into it? Have you disciplined yourself and set some goals for finding the Lord? That's the Lord's goal in what he's doing. Let's bow together in prayer. Lord our God, we are amazed at what you do reveal in scripture about your purposes for the human race. For surely you are a spiritual being so far exalted above humanity. But it is a bit incredible to us that you should stoop to give such attention to our times and our boundaries. But, O Lord, you've revealed that it is so, and that you desire men to seek you and to find you. We pray that each one here will seek with all of his heart and find. In Jesus' holy name, amen.