All right, so the book of Acts. Open up to the beginning of the book again. Let me remind you of the thesis because you've never heard it before. All right, Acts chapter one, the first eight verses. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." So remember, the former account is the book of Luke. This is the second volume. That's the stuff that Jesus began to do and teach. This is the continuation of what Jesus did and taught. He does it through the Holy Spirit and the Apostles, right? The Apostles are messengers. These are the formal messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so their actions are legally his actions in terms of what they're doing for him. And the Holy Spirit is Christ's vicar on earth, his vice regent, so to speak. He's sent by Christ. Okay, so we have the Holy Spirit and the Apostles. And the Acts, the Book of Acts is the Book of Acts. It's the Acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit and the Apostles. Now, the Holy Spirit gives the message to the Apostles. The Apostles are witnesses to the resurrection, and they speak the things that are taught by Jesus. Verse 4, And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. Remember, the promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit. coming at Pentecost to give strength, to give power. Which he said, You have heard from me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" So this is about the authority and power being given to the nation-state of Israel, and the answer is to separate Israel from the church. Not that they're there's no church in Israel, but there's a distinction, right? We have the elect of God, we have Israel as a nation, and we have the visible church. And those are three categories that keep having to be distinguished. And so the idea is that the church is going to bring in the nations, and that the nations are not going to become a part of the church by becoming part of the Jewish nation. They're going to retain their separate national status and be brought into the kingdom." And so that's the misunderstanding that gets corrected. Verse 7, "...and he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority." So when will Israel be restored again? When will Israel be restored? Remember we talked about Romans 11. It talks about the restoration of Israel. That occurs after the gospel has gone out to all the nations. but you shall receive power, verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So this giving of power is different from the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. And so that's the distinction that's made. The power being given to the church is not the same thing as the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. And so we have that being dealt with over and over again. And so we look at in the first 14 chapters the idea of the Gentiles being brought in and then we're going to look at chapter 15 which deals with that problem further and so the idea that the Apostles are the witnesses first in Jerusalem then in Judea and then in Samaria and then to the ends of the earth now remember chapter 8 you have the end of that time where there's Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and we start into this section where there's to the ends of the earth and we're in that section now Sorry, Judea to Samaria was chapters 8 through 12, but then in chapter 13 it goes to the other nations. Forgive me. And in chapter 15 we have this council, so we're going to go there. So now jump with me to Acts chapter 15. And forgive me, this is a fire hose of a sermon because we are doing a review of this book, and try to drink what you can from the fire hose. And let's get in chapter 15. Chapter 15. So in chapter 15, we see at the beginning of that chapter, there's a dispute that's starting to occur about the need to keep Old Testament ceremonial laws. So, chapter 15, verse 1. And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you cannot be saved. So they're teaching you have to keep these ceremonies in order to be saved. Now, then what happens is a little bit later, when you get to this conflict being escalated, verse 5. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. So that the first thing that happens is people say, You've got to keep the Old Testament ceremonies to be saved. And then it weakens to this position of, well, it's just a duty. It's a necessary thing, but it's not necessary to be saved. And so those are the two errors that are being addressed. Now, the church sees this conflict. And this is the pattern in church history. There's a conflict about doctrine. And what happens is there's dispute And in the process of dispute, then there's a need to call together people to have much discussion in order to deal with that. And so you call a council in order to have a place for public debate. And so in verse six, that's what happens. Now, the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, or you could translate that much discussion, Peter rose up and said to them, and then he gives a speech, and he acknowledges a position that gets captured. So we have Peter speaking, then Barnabas and Paul explain what has happened, and then James gets up, and James gives an explanation that basically gets taken and reordered into the letter that the council sends out. So let's look at the letter, which is the conclusion that the apostles and elders and brothers at that council end up capturing. So that letter starts at verse 23. Acts 15 verse 23. They wrote this letter by them. So this is the text of the decree of the council. The apostles, the elders, and the brethren to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings. Okay, so we have this desire to communicate to these people and to give them an answer. Before we read the rest of the letter, take a second and think about this. They're calling them brethren and they're saying they're Gentiles. Now, in the old, you know, in the old dispensation, the old covenant, it would have been nonsensical to say Gentile brothers. Because to be a brother was to be a Jew. And so this idea that you're both a Gentile and a brother, the beginning of the letter gives away the conclusion. So why do they get there? I want you to just take a step back to verses 8 and 9. verses 8 and 9. This is Peter. He says, "...so God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them..." He's talking about Gentiles. "...by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Okay, now he is saying The Gentiles, remember the word Gentile just means nations, the nations. So you've got the nation, the Jews, and you've got the nations, all the other ones. And so the Gentiles, people from outside of the Jewish nation, are being accepted into the church. And this acceptance of non-Jewish believers into the church is the point of controversy. But he's saying God has already accepted these people, and he's giving them the Holy Spirit, he's giving them faith, And so then we jump down to verse 12. Verse 12. Then all the multitude... No, I just can't read my own handwriting. Here it is, verse 11. Verse 11. This is still Peter. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we shall be saved in the same manner as they. So here we have the solos of the Protestant Reformation, right? Justifications by belief or faith. It's through grace, right? And it's the grace of the Lord Jesus. And so salvation is by faith. It's by grace. It's by the work of Jesus Christ. So the Jews and the Gentiles are both saved in the same manner. So it's by believing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's the background, and then they quote the Old Testament to try to prove this, and we get back to the letter. So, back to the letter, verse 23. The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings! Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words unsettling your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law. Remember the law there is just shorthand for the Old Testament ceremonies. You must be circumcised and keep the law. To whom we gave no such commandment. it seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul." Now you see that one accord? Remember I've been pointing that out how it's all over the place in the earlier part of Acts? Unity of doctrine seems to be important to Luke and to the Holy Spirit. It comes up a lot. And so the council says this as well. So it seems to be important not only to Luke and to the Holy Spirit, but to the other apostles and to the elders and to the brethren. So they're concerned about the idea that there's commandments going out that the Holy Spirit didn't teach, that the apostles didn't teach. Okay? And so that's superstition. When you have doctrines that are not from the scripture, that are not from the apostles, that are not from the Holy Spirit, that's superstition. And so they're saying, look, these people are going out and teaching superstition. We didn't give them this doctrine. They're teaching it. They made it up. So it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. Who's choosing these men? The council. They're picking people to say, these people are coming and they're going as witnesses along with Paul and Barnabas to communicate with this letter. Verse 26. men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Right? So, multiple witnesses, a letter, Barnabas and Paul, and these are men who have a lot of history that suggests that they're reliable witnesses. They've risked their lives. Verse 27, "...we have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." Okay? These necessary things. "...that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell." Now remember, this list of things, this is not a list of, here's everything you need to do, and this is the summary of the faith. What is this list? This is a list of the things that came from the ceremonial law. that are still retained. So blood pudding, forbidden. I'm sure you're disappointed. And in addition to that, we are not to eat things that are dedicated to idols, right? So things that have idolatry associated with them. So a little example in our culture would be something like foods that are associated with divination, like fortune cookies, right? These are foods that are a part of an act of idolatry. So you don't eat them. If you literally had food that were sacrificed to a god, that is the false god, then you would say, I'm not supposed to eat that. One of the examples that exists in our culture now is halal. which is the way of having food that is meats that are killed and their offer is a sacrifice to the Muslim God. Now, that makes it so that it's a food dedicated to a false god. So these are examples in our culture where this would still exist although it's generally still rare. Thankfully Christianity has largely removed that sort of thing. So we avoid things that are associated with idolatry so that there's no confusion about our separation from false religious practices. So things offered to idols from blood from things strangled such animals that are killed in such a way as to keep the blood in them intentionally, which the modern way of butchering we cut animals up that gets the blood out. Okay, and so but that's a practice that they used to a lot of time people would intentionally keep the blood in as a kind of vampiric or pagan practice to keep the blood because you say, well, I get to take the life force from the thing. This was a part of the superstitious practices of other religions. And so these were things that were contrary to the ceremonial laws of Moses. And then you look at sexual immorality and you go, how is that ceremonial? I mean, right, it's, it's obviously the case that that is something that's in the moral law, the seventh commandment, don't commit adultery, right? And so that's a part of the moral law. The element that is a part of the ceremonies is the creation of degrees of separation in family. Okay, so you have what are called the laws of consanguinity, which is how close you're related by blood, and the laws of affinity. And these are how closely you're related by marriage. And those are instituted by the law of God. in the ceremonies. So you can find these laws put together in the book of Leviticus. They are all organized together in chapters 17 and 18. So the things offered to idols, that's verses 1-9 of Leviticus 17. The things that have blood or just drinking blood itself, Leviticus 17 verses 10-12. Leviticus 17, 13 to 16 has the things that are strangled. And Leviticus 18, 1 through 30 has the laws relating to sexual immorality. And so these things that are related to the ceremonial law, these are things that are retained. And something that's interesting, I pointed this out when we went through the text originally before the review, but this is key. These laws are not only commanded to Israel, they are commanded to strangers in the land of Israel, which means foreigners that come into Israel were also supposed to keep these laws, which was not the case for all the ceremonial laws. You would only take on the other ceremonial laws if you were circumcised and came in to be a part of the Jewish people. And so joining the Jewish people involved taking on far more than these laws. even the foreigners in Israel were supposed to keep these laws as laid out in Leviticus 17 and 18. And so what's happening is the Apostolic Council here is telling us these laws did not separate Jew and Gentile and so they're not necessary to be abolished because it doesn't disrupt the relationship between Jew and Gentile in the church. So these laws are retained. Now That chapter is a very controversial chapter, and how to interpret that. But that is, we went through alternate interpretations before. There's a summary for you of my understanding of the text, and I gave you arguments previously. That's there. So then, we get to chapter 15, verse 30. The letter and the witnesses go out to the church. And so, there's rejoicing over that. Then at the end of the chapter, verses 36 through 41, There's a dispute where Barnabas and Paul, who have been, you know, they've been great partners. They just completed a missionary journey together. They get into a dispute. And what's the dispute about? Barnabas, who is related to John Mark, wants to take John Mark along. Remember, John Mark wrote the Book of Mark, okay? And Paul says we should not take John Mark. And the reason Paul says is because, first, he didn't go with us to the churches we're going to revisit. And he abandoned us when we were on the missionary journey, part way. And so the idea there is, is he going to have the fortitude to carry on? And do we want to keep introducing these people in these churches to this guy who has not shown the fortitude that it takes to carry on? There's going to be persecution coming. We don't want to suggest fortitude is an unnecessary virtue for Christians. And so that's the dispute. Paul is right. People try to say, oh, here's an example of there was nobody who was right, nobody was wrong, whatever. Paul's right. Barnabas acknowledges the rightness of Paul while still being upset and going with Mark, John Mark. They go back to Cyprus, which John Mark was there. He didn't abandon them before that. He was there. He was there. And this is also Barnabas' home. So he takes John Mark with him back to his hometown. And they do ministry work there. So it's like, instead of somebody going on a missionary journey, you're saying, this guy, I'm going to take him back to my home church, and we're going to do work together. We're going to do work there, and I'm going to help to disciple him and bring him up. And so that happens. And then later on, John Mark matures as a result of this. So Barnabas does a good work. He stays with him, helps him to mature. And then John Mark, later on, in some of the later letters written by Paul, Paul commends John Mark. and talks about how he's been profitable in working with him, right? So this doesn't mean that just because somebody is not fit right now, they're not fit forever, right? This is a temporary thing that this guy needed to mature. And so that's what the division is about. Now, this doesn't end Paul's relationship with Barnabas. But they can't work together when they're in disagreement about the fitness of John Mark. But Barnabas ends up going and doing like I've said. So then chapter 16. Silas, who was one of the prophets that was sent by the apostolic council back in Acts 15, right? Silas is sent to bear witness to the letter that comes from the council. So then what happens is he goes with Paul. Verse 40, Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. So Paul wants to work with Silas, and then the brethren also say, okay, we'll send you both off as missionaries to work together. And so Paul has the right to nominate too, right? We emphasize a lot that it's not just the elders who nominate people for office. It's also the heads of houses. And so here's an example, Paul, he is an officer, right? But he's also a man and he's a head of house. And so he can nominate somebody for this work. And so then the brethren commend him based upon that nomination. So then they go, they are leaving Jerusalem. They leave after working for some time. they come to Derby and Lystra. So they get Timothy. They find Timothy there. 1 and 2 Timothy are written to Timothy. He is raised by a believing mother and grandmother. And so we have Timothy joining the work. Starting at verse 6 through 10, there's a dream that comes by the work of the Holy Spirit that calls Paul to go into Macedonia. So they are going through areas after they go into Lystra and Derbe. They go to Phrygia, Galatia, they're stopped from going to Bithynia, and so instead of continuing in Asia, they move over and go to Europe. And so they go plant a church in Philippi, in Macedonia. So they're coming from the coast of Turkey. Troas, we talked about that, it's Troy, the city of Troy, Troas, and so this is the place that they come from. They land in Neapolis and they go further into Macedonia to Philippi, which is an important city. We talked about the fact that it's a powerful city there. It is a Roman colony which means it had certain special rights and privileges. It's called the foremost city in the scripture text. So chapter 16 verses 11 to 40 now we have this significant chunk of time that occurs. Paul goes on the Sabbath day to a riverside meeting of Jews. Now, this suggests there was not a synagogue. It's a very small Jewish population in the city. There's only a collection of a few people that are meeting by a river, and so it's a synagogue in the sense that it's a gathering of the Jewish people, but they don't have a building, they don't have officers, and so it's a very early kind of Old Testament church. And that gathering together is on the Sabbath day, verse 14 we have the Apostle Paul, he's preaching, he's teaching, and it says of Lydia, She's a woman named Lydia. She heard us. She's a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira. So we talked about how she's probably a wealthy woman. She's a significant household. She's a merchant woman. And so the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And so we are reminded here of this important doctrine that it is the Lord that opens our hearts. Now, she's already a worshiper of God. She's already a believer. But there's new information about the fact that the old covenant is ending. The new covenant is beginning, right? And so there's this updating of doctrine. Here's where we are in redemptive history. And that the Lord opens her heart. The Lord illuminates her mind. The Lord is teaching her. And it's through the speaking of Paul. So we need to remember that preaching and reading of Bible is not going to cause people to believe it. It's the Holy Spirit that causes people to believe. It takes the word and the spirit, the working together there, and the Holy Spirit powerfully, effectively opens people's minds. And so we preach, and we pray, and we rely upon God to do the work of causing people to believe, and of sanctifying people to grow in the faith. And so that's the work of God. Now, verse 15, she and her household are baptized, and she begs them to let her be hospitable to them, okay? So she gets baptized quickly, right? It's an important thing. It's covenanting, right? Getting baptized is covenanting, but she gets baptized quickly, and then from there she is begging them to be able to give hospitality because it's more blessed to give than to receive, right? Having been blessed by them spiritually, she wants to then materially bless them by having them into her home and being able to give them a meal. And, you know, the other beautiful thing about hospitality is if somebody is spiritually blessing you, it gives you the opportunity to talk to them more and get spiritual blessing by conversation, right? So she's desiring both to be a blessing and, I'm sure, to be able to have more spiritual conversation. Verse 16. We start a section here, verses 16 through 40. There's a slave girl who is possessed by a demon, and the demon is causing her to declare things. Now, she would have been making predictions about the future before, being empowered by the demons, and this would have been something that made the owners of this slave girl a lot of money, right? They get very mad. Paul causes the demon to be cast out of this girl, this woman, and so they get very mad. But before that occurs, this demon is saying through this prognosticating slave girl that these are servants or messengers of God who proclaim the way of salvation. This goes on for a while. Paul gets annoyed, casts out the demon. The owners of the girl are mad. The moneymaker is gone. So they drag Paul and Silas to the market. Remember, we talked about the agora, which is that Greek word for this kind of public meeting place. In Greece, it would have served the same purpose as kind of the gates. So you read in Old Testament stuff about the meetings at the gates. That's the public place where people rule and do business. And in Greece, the cities would have a place called the agora, which is the public place where everybody kind of did business. So that's the marketplace. So in the Jewish lands, you'd have the gates. In Greece, you had the market. Now, from there, the magistrates hear this complaint, and from there, they strip Paul and Silas, they beat them, and they throw them in jail. They don't just throw them in jail, they put them in the inner prison. They don't just put them in the inner prison, they put them in stocks. So Paul and Silas pray, and they sing. And so there's this evangelizing that's occurring of the other prisoners and of the jailer through their singing. So then there's an earthquake. And naturally, the earthquake causes the doors to open and causes the shackles to fall off, right? I mean, right? So then the jailer wakes up. He looks around. He says, the doors are open. I'm going to be executed because there's no way I'm going to be able to explain this. And so he's about to kill himself. And so Paul yells to him, don't harm yourself. We're all here. So the jailer, this is quite the way to wake up, is very surprised. Does not know how to deal with the fact that the doors are open, that the stocks have been opened, the chains have been opened, and all the prisoners are still there. So he responds, verse 30, by saying, what must I do to be saved? So they tell him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. How are they going to ask that question? Because they're praying and they're singing. They tell them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, you and your household. Here again, the doctrine of justification by faith alone. How do we have right standing with God? How do we avoid the punishment of God? How do we avoid the wrath and curse of God? Believing the gospel, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done. And so how is it that you and your household are saved? Well, you're saved in the sense that you are justified. by believing, and then your household is set apart, and your government of the house, your teaching of the word, you're putting your house under the oracles of God, the doctrine, and the ordinances of God. You're putting them with the teaching of the law being implemented in the house. Verse 32, then they spoke the word of God, sorry, then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. Now, verse 34, The whole family gets baptized, okay, in verse 33. So, here's a household baptism. In verse 34, when they had been, sorry, now, when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them, he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. That's a bad translation, and we talked about this, I went through the Greek more carefully with you before. Let me give you, again, the better translation. It's, he rejoiced with all his household, And then believing, the word believe, it's singular, so it's a single person believing. It doesn't mean the rest of his household didn't believe, but just as his household gets baptized, and the idea is he believes, he believes in God, and so as a result, he causes his household to be baptized. So he rejoiced with all his household, having believed in God, he having believed in God. Now, verses 35 through 40, I love this part. The magistrates realize this was a mistake. We should not have beaten him. We should not have thrown him into prison. He's a Roman citizen. We didn't give him due process. We can get in a lot of trouble here. It's a violation of Roman law that's a very serious thing. So they kind of say secretly, like, you can go. You're free. So Paul's response is, he says, I'm not going to leave. They beat me openly and they threw me in prison openly. They can come openly and get me out. Paul, my man. So, do they send us out secretly? So he's going to make them do this. This is a requiring of this kind of Republic repentance. We talked about the fact that this would provide some protection for the church there, right? He's saying, look, you're not going to persecute the church. You're going to publicly acknowledge the wrongness of what you did. And as a result, that will provide some legal protection and public awareness of this to give the church there some help as he leaves. He's not just picking a fight for no reason. He's not being belligerent for no reason. He has a purpose and he's using his civil rights under Roman law to demand protection that would be legally provided to the church. Now, chapter 17. They pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia. They come to Thessalonica. Now, we know that's where there's two letters that Paul writes to that church later. There's a synagogue of the Jews there. He reasons with them from the scriptures. He goes there first. He's always going to the Jews first, and then he goes to the Gentiles in the city. He explains and demonstrates that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead in verse 3, saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. This is the Messiah that was prophesied. And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. In verse 7, a lot of the Jews don't like this. They try to get the Gentiles to persecute Paul. So, they look at verse 7. It says that the Christians are acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there is another King Jesus there is another King Jesus and when the decrees of Caesar contradict the decrees of Jesus which one do you listen to Jesus And so there's the basic concern here is that here's another king, and he's undermining the command of Caesar. The normal Christian response is to say, no, no, no, you don't understand. The church is so spiritual, it doesn't do anything to affect your life. Don't worry about it. There'll never be a problem with the contradiction of the laws of Caesar and Jesus, because Christians don't have any sort of split loyalty. And that's bogus. The reality is that King Jesus absolutely prevents Caesar from having all the power that he wants to have. The law word of Christ rules over kings. And so it's threatening. Christianity is threatening to civil authorities as it ought to be because it makes them servants. It makes them under the law. It makes them servants of the people they rule. It makes them servants of God. They are ministers of God who administer vengeance. They punish criminals. So this charge is a legitimate charge. It is contrary to the decrees of Caesar. Verse 8, And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they had heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Okay, so there's this ending. So they leave. Paul and Silas leave. Jesus says, if they persecute you in one town, flee to the other. Paul and Silas wisely obey. They go to Berea, and in Berea, we have this excellent line. They go to the synagogue of the Jews, and this synagogue just becomes a church, a New Testament church, right? There's a continuation. The institution just reforms and says, ah, new covenant, great, we're gonna take that. Verse 11, these were more noble-minded, or fair-minded, than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. And I've emphasized this, the doctrine of sola scriptura, that the scriptures alone are authoritative, that we judge even new revelatory claims from an apostle by the scriptures. And so they listen with readiness, and then they search the scriptures to see if Paul's a liar, right? They say, is this the truth or not? And when they find that the scriptures teach the same things, the Old Testament scriptures teach the same thing as the New Testament apostle Paul, they receive it. And so we're going to take this as an example. Everything I teach you, it's your job to test it. That doesn't mean you come as a jerk and you say, I'm just going to assume what you're saying is wrong. But what you do is you say, I need to see from the scriptures that this doctrine is true. And so it's my job to prove to you from the scriptures. It's your job to test. And if it's true from the scriptures, it's your job to believe it. If it's not, it's your job to object. And if I'm wrong, it's my job to repent. So, you could do that with the Apostle Paul, you could certainly do it with me. So, many believe, and then there's the Jews that chase them down from Thessalonica, and so there's this kind of stirring up of the crowds, and so we see there's an ending there. So I want to commend you to be a Berean. Remember the Bereans, and be a Berean. Starting at verse 16, we have Paul interacting with the philosophers at Athens. He's engaging with pagan ideas, right? Just, you know, Zeus and all that. He's engaging with the Epicureans, who believe that the good is pleasure, right? Epicurean, just a hedonist. Epicureans, they believe the good is pleasure. Stoics, who believe that the good is duty or virtue, and that you need to just separate yourself from any sort of connection to life, and so the good life is disconnecting yourself, very similar to Buddhism. So you have the pagans, the Epicureans, and the Stoics in Athens. So Paul's there in Athens. They hear Paul talking about Jesus and the resurrection, and they go, you sound like two different gods. Come and talk to us about it. So he goes to the Aeropagus, which is Mars Hill, right? Mars Hill is the hill of Mars, the god of war, Ares or Mars. And then from there, we have this address, this famous speech. And in this famous speech, he starts out by saying to his audience, I perceive that you are very superstitious, which is a great way to build rapport. And from there, he then tells them, look, your objects of worship, you have a statue dedicated to the unknown God, which is pointing out their ignorance. He's telling them, you don't know who you're worshiping, but I know God, so let me tell you about him. You should listen. So he then talks about the fact that they have no excuse for not knowing God because of general revelation. And this general revelation comes down to, look, you guys are even saying things about God. Some of those things are true. So you're not really ignorant. Even if you were ignorant, you'd have no reason for the ignorance because he's everywhere. He's omnipresent. And so your ignorance is not justifiable. It's inexcusable, and you're suppressing the truth. So he gives quotes from Epicureans and from Stoics to try to show how they are self-contradictory. So he uses the method of critical analysis, and he deconstructs Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. And you'll remember, he quoted Epicureans who were contradicting their own position. And then he quoted Stoics that were contradicting their own position in a way that also refuted the other side. And so we went through that in detail as a masterful quoting, deconstructing. So he talks about the fact that God is everywhere. He's not far away. And the divine nature is not like, and he gives examples of materials that idols are often made out of. And so that material, the Stoics, going to be challenged by, as are the Epicureans, because there's going to be a certain degree to which any of them that are materialists, that only believe that there's matter and not spirit, are going to be challenged by this. Because the idea that God is everywhere and that he's a spirit is contrary to the materialist doctrine. And so these quotes are things where he then follows it by giving the gospel, communicates that they are under greater responsibility now because they've now heard the preaching of the gospel, and it talks about some of the people that believed, but most of the people did not. The response to Paul's speech here is underwhelming, so Paul gets out of town. And we talked about Dionysius, who gets referenced as one of the people who believed, and how there's this ancient document called, it gets referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius, and we talked about the false doctrines in that fake letter. So, that's the end of Chapter 17. I am basically at the end of time, so I'm going to have to stop there. So comments, questions, objections from the voting members? Mr. Nye? Thank you, Alderice, for your teaching. This isn't, it's more of a, I think, a clarification. And I think that when you, there's something that you said about that. I think you meant the right thing. But I think for the sake of clarification, it would be helpful to point it out. When you were talking about the, I believe it was the Holy Spirit opening Lydia's heart, back in chapter 16, verse... I think it's 17? Yeah, verse 14. The Lord opened Lydia's heart, and He thinks, spoken by Paul. He said something along the lines about preaching and and reading the Word isn't going to save us. And I understand you meant that apart from the effectual work of the Holy Spirit to regenerate us and to cause us to believe, the preaching and the reading of the Word don't accomplish salvation by themselves. That's what you meant, and I just wanted to confirm that. But these are the means that the Spirit uses, and so they are critical to someone believing the gospel, nevertheless. Yes. So the word preached. So thank you. The question is, when I said that the word and the spirit work together to save people, you know, what am I saying there, basically, and I think you, you communicated well, the means that are normally used is the preaching or reading of the word. The effectual cause is the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit, without means, can cause someone to understand and believe. But ordinarily, there is no salvation apart from the preaching or reading of the word. And so sometimes it happens by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that someone is given a saving knowledge. For example, with children who die in infancy or something like that, it could be that. Yeah, does that cover what you're saying? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate the clarification. Anything else? Great. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would bless the preaching of your word and the reading of your word. We ask that you would give us a deeper knowledge, that you would help us to remember these things. And to store up the word in our hearts and to have a more and more clear understanding of the scriptures as we continue to go through them, we ask that you would help us to be transformed after the image of Christ. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, so please open your Bibles to Psalm 110. Sorry, your Psalters to Psalm 110. And stand. Okay, Psalm 110, a psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. This is the most commonly quoted psalm in the Holy Testament and it has the Lord saying to my Lord, this is David, so this is how can This guy, my Lord, be David's Lord if he's the son of David is the question that gets asked to Jesus. And so God is saying to the Messiah, to Jesus, sit here at my right hand. Now Jesus is God, but he's also the human Messiah. And so the Lord says to David's Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So the enthronement of Christ. This happens at the Ascension. He's staying at the throne, at the right hand of the Father, until all of his enemies are subdued. The Lord will send your rod of strength out of Zion, and you will surely rule them all among your enemies. Your people freely come in the day of your power. From morning's dawn in holy robes, your youth are like the dew. Okay, so we have The idea of the rod of power coming out of Zion, which is the mountain of God. It's where the temple's built. It's out of the church now. And the idea of ruling all with his enemies around him. So this is not saying all of his enemies are gone. He's going to rule even while his enemies are there. And so God brings people freely to volunteer to join Christ's army, to come under his banner. And they have holy robes. They have the righteousness of Christ on them. Oh the Lord has now sworn and will not change his mind from Melchizedek's order you are forever a priest." So there's Melchizedek as opposed to Aaron. The idea is this is the new covenant priesthood and it lasts to that end. The work is sufficient to only require one sacrifice because Christ sacrificed himself. The Lord at your right hand will strike through kings in wrath He will judge among the nations and fill them with their dead." So he strikes through kings that oppose him. He fills nations with his enemies that will not submit. And so, lastly, yes, he will surely wound the heads of many lands. He'll drink from the wayside brook and therefore lift his head. This promise that the Messiah shatters kings that are oppressors, that don't submit to the law of God, is one of the hopes of the Church, that we will overcome the world. The kings of the world will not overcome the Church, but the King of the Church will overcome the world. And that will be through our work. He empowers us to do that. And so we look to the humility of Christ. He, at the brook Kidron, right, this idea that he is going down, he is humbling himself, and then he rises. And so this rising out of the humility, he humbles himself, and then he's exalted. So let's sing. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit here at my right hand, Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will send your rod of strength out of Zion, and you will surely rule them all among your enemies. Your people freely come, In the day of your power, From morning's dawn in holy robes, Your youth are like the dew. O the Lord has now sworn, and will not change his mind, from Melchizedek's order you are forever appraised. The Lord at your right hand will strike through kings in wrath. He will judge among the nations and fill them with their dead. Yes, he will surely wound the heads of many lands. and he'll drink from the wayside brook and therefore lift his head. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. You're dismissed.