With your Bibles open to Acts chapter 17, it should almost just fall open to that page, given the time we have spent here following the Apostle Paul. Please look with me at verse 22 of Acts chapter 17. So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said important words that should catch the attention of most Christians. Paul, the great apostle and missionary to the world, is about to speak. Imagine if this morning, instead of introducing Pastor Julio from Haiti, I had introduced to you the Apostle Paul from Jerusalem. And he stood in our midst and said... That's one of the beautiful things, really, about the Bible. These great men and women of God who committed to the work of His grace in their lives and thereby submitted wholly to become powerful vessels of His mercy to the world around them, we can still listen to them, we can still hear them, and we can still learn from them. But to do that effectively, to be affected by it, we have to be very careful to understand the context from which and into which they speak. We have to be careful to understand what they said. But more than that, why they said what they said. Who were they talking to? What was the audience like? What was the circumstance around them when they said what they said? We have to build then a good historical context when we read the words from the Bible. It matters. It matters what was going on when Paul said what Paul said here in Acts chapter 17. Now, it is certain that the Bible carries many truths that are just true truths just simply stated. We call that the perscopuity of Scripture. It can be easily understood in so much of its words, so many of its truths. But even that, to say that demands some really careful consideration. Because you see, when we read those words printed in our Bibles, we're reading those words, most of us, in English. We're not reading them as they were first written, as they were first spoken, because in our New Testament they were first spoken and then penned in Greek. So you see, language matters, doesn't it? Before we can hear from the Apostle Paul, it matters that we have some understanding, some sense of the grammar and the usage of the Greek language that is being spoken. It goes to the meaning of the words. It goes to the intent of the author. But more than that, more than understanding the context and understanding the language, we need to understand when we read our Bible that it has a variety of genres. That's important to consider that when you're reading scripture. You see, I can understand David's context as the king of Israel. I can build a historical understanding around that most famous of Israel's kings. I can work to build a historical understanding of what's going on even when he wrote what he wrote or said what he said or did what he did. And I can even gain confidence as I'm doing that in the words that I'm reading in English that they're a right representation of the words he spoke which would have been in Hebrew, which is what most of the Old Testament language was. But unless I also acknowledge the genre of the words being written, of those words being spoken, speaking of a king and of the circumstances, well, I might miss entirely what it was he said or what he meant by what he said. For instance, sometimes what David said was prophetic. I need to understand that when I'm reading it so that I can understand what he meant by what he said. And sometimes that prophecy, well, wasn't just about a coming king and a messiah deliver about Jesus, so often it was, but sometimes it was a telescoping type of thing. Sometimes David was actually talking about his son. Sometimes he was talking about his grandson. He was talking about the children of his offspring. and at the same time was talking about the Messiah and the coming Deliverer. So you see, I need to understand that sometimes what David said is prophetic, or I'm not going to understand what he said. But he didn't just write in prophetic terms. He also wrote in prose. He wrote in poems. I need to understand that when I'm reading David, that sometimes what he said is a little curious because, well, he was trying to make it rhyme. He was trying to give it a cadence. He wanted Pam to be able to play it and us to be able to sing it when he wrote what he wrote. I need to understand that so that I can understand what it was he said. what he meant by what he said. So do you understand when you read the Bible, history matters, language matters, and the genre matters. But more than that, I'm still not ready to understand what it says unless I understand that the Bible has a meta-narrative. It has a grand theme. You see, all of these collections of stories written over hundreds, even thousands of years, are in fact just one story. They are His story, the story of Jesus Christ. They're the story of our redemption, the story of our forgiveness and our hope and our promise. I need to know that or I'm not going to get what was said the way it was meant. So I have to know the history. I need to know the context. I need to understand something about the language. I need to know what the genre is. Is it prophecy? Is it prose? Is it a hymn? What is it? Is it just a narrative? Is it just a story? I need to understand that so that I don't misunderstand what it is that the Bible is saying. Now, sometimes that's hard work. Sometimes it just comes really easy. But never should God's Word come without an understanding of those essentials. You need to understand those things to understand the Word of God. You see, you need to understand those things to understand any literature. this incredible tool that God has given us so that we might know and understand so many things, so much information. You need to understand the historical context of that information you're reading. You need to understand the language. You need to understand the genre. What's the point and the purpose in it? You need to understand, does it fit into a grand schema? You need to understand that anytime you read something. And it's no different when you read God's Word. And oh yeah, then there's that. When you come to the Bible, you need to understand that what you're reading is canonized. And what that simply means is that what you read in your Bible is sacred. They are the very words of God. Some have understood that as the only reference point for reading their Bible. You know folks like that. God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Well, that is true as far as it goes, but if all you base your understanding of scripture on is the fact that God said it, then you have disconnected it from what? The fact that God used people to say it in a historical context, using a particular language to be written to develop a particular genre so that it fits into the grand redemptive story. You see, what we believe about this Bible is that it is 100% God. But we also believe, as Christians, that it is 100% man. God used men to carry forth His words that are carried forth in the words of men, carrying forth the words of God that are carried forth in the words of men, and on and on it goes as it regards this book. You say, well, why are you giving us that little primer on how to read our Bibles? Well, to begin with, We live in a Christian age that has turned the Bible into just so many post-it notes. We rip and tear verses out and stick them on our mirror and make those our life text. Christians have become accustomed to just opening up their Bible and ripping out these truths out of their context, out of their genre, separated from the original language, separated from the grand story of Scripture, and separated from the reality that God said it. And they stick it here, and they stick it there, and they stick it in your face, And guess what they've done? They've robbed it of its meaning. All the words they say may still be true, but they're not truth. They're not God's truth. What gets lost then is the ability to know God, who reveals Himself to us in the pages of this book. And man must know God. Man has been created to know God. We've been studying that for a few weeks now. Knowing God makes all the difference in life. Knowing God is the key to purpose in life. It's the key to life making sense. It's the key to this life having any hope or promise for the life to come. You must know God. Knowing God is the beginning. We've seen this already a couple of times in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. Without faith it's impossible to please Him. For the one who comes to God must believe that He is. and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. We must know God. We must believe that He is, and then we must seek after Him. And what we're seeking after when we seek after Him is the right understanding of the knowledge of Him. And when we find the knowledge of Him, we get this great big package wrapped up that He calls here, the writer of Hebrews calls here, a reward. Now, what is that reward? What's wrapped up in that package? Well, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 2, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. There's grace and peace wrapped up where? In the knowledge of God, in knowing God. Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him. Now you get everything pertaining to life and godliness. Everything, not just some things, everything that matters. How do you get that? You've got to know God. That's how you get that. It comes through the knowledge of Him. Verse 4, for by these, by this knowledge He has granted to us His precious and magnificent Promises you get all the promises of God. You say I want all those promises I know about some of those promises. Give me some of those promises. How do I get them? You gotta know God You have to have the knowledge of God in order to benefit from those precious and magnificent promises. And then, well, you have this participation in the divine. Do you see that tuck there in verse 4? By those promises, you become partakers of the divine nature. He lives in you. He abides in you and you in Him. And there is a supernatural manifestation of incredible Spirit-filled living wrapped up in what? Knowing God. And with all of that, as though all of that's not enough, you get the last part of verse 4 which says you are now delivered from corruption. You get real freedom, real deliverance. All of this is wrapped up in what? Knowing God. So is it any wonder then that when Paul stands up with this opportunity there in Athens in Acts chapter 17, is it any wonder that he has this opportunity to speak that he would focus these men and those assembled around him on the need to know God. Makes perfectly good sense. There's a lot at stake in knowing God. Now look again at verse 22 there in Acts chapter 17. It says, So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription. to an unknown God. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you." Now that's his introduction and we've seen that already and some of you by now can quote those verses. You've heard them read over and over again in our morning time and study together. There is a God you do not know, he says, and you know it. You know you don't know him because you built an idol to him. Which says to me, Paul says, in my keen sense of awareness, that you know that you don't know this guy. You know that you don't know this person. You know that you don't know this personality. You know that you do not know God, even though you know that he is. And that's a good place to begin, right? It's a good place to be when you don't know God and know it. It's a really bad place to be when you don't know God and don't know it. That's another subject. That's another sermon. That's the self-righteous condition. They don't know God, but they don't know they don't know God. But now Paul says this because, well, he spent some time in Athens. Remember, he's alone. He's, you might say, on a holiday. His missionary mates have been left behind, and here he is alone, strolling around, looking at all these things, and he becomes overwhelmed. In fact, he gets angry. We've studied it already. He's filled with this zeal. And he's now becomes engaged again in communicating the gospel first to the Jews in the synagogue and the Gentiles that gather. But now he's in the marketplace. And now, well, now he's in front of this council, the Council of Mars Hill, the Areopagus. Not everybody got this opportunity. And he says, I'm going to declare something to you. I know the God you don't know. And I declare him to you. And with that introduction, he embarks on what is perhaps his most famous sermon of all, the sermon in the midst of Mars Hill. Paul's boldness here, I think, is admirable. His prowess is admirable. His training is giving him confidence, I believe. His secular training, his religious training. I hope to believe that his worldview is giving him confidence. He's seeing things that, well, the Athenians weren't seeing, the idolaters weren't seeing. I think the gospel gives him confidence to stand here in the midst of this important council of men and all those perhaps hundreds that have gathered. And I trust that the Holy Spirit is giving him confidence as he takes his stand now and begins to deliver this message. Now let's look again at what he said, verse 24. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far, from each one of us. For in him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, for we also are his children." So what's he doing there? Well, it's simple. We call it common ground. He's finding common ground with these Athenian idolaters. He's finding common ground with the pagans assembled there in the marketplace. You see, it's common ground because we know Paul knows something about human nature. Paul understands that even though these men are idolatrous, even though these women are pagan, even though they are committing themselves to all manner of false gods and false worship, he knows, by knowing human nature and God's revelation about humankind, that within them, God has shown Himself to them. He has revealed who He is to them in their heart, and more than that, around them. He has revealed Himself to them. We've heard that talked about already this morning multiple times. We're surrounded by the testimony of God. And Paul knows that. Paul looks at this crowd and he knows that even though they are fallen, sinful, despairing idolaters, they know God because He's shown Himself to them inside and outside. We said last week He has suffocated them with the reality of who He is. So He takes that common ground. that you and I have with every other human being, and that's where He begins. And the common ground includes the fact that God is the Creator. Everybody knows that. God's told them that. You don't have to tell them that. God's told them that. He's told it to their heart, and He's told it to them in His creation. And secondly, He has told them that He rules. He is the ruler. Look at the words. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. They are overwhelmed. Every human being at some time in their life is overwhelmed by the reality of a God and that God is in control. He rules everything that is. And more than that, they know He's the giver. Paul says He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. He's not served by human hands. He doesn't need us. But we need Him, and out of that position, into that relationship, He gives, what? What does it say? Look at it in verse 25. All things. There is nothing that is that He hasn't given. And He doesn't just give it to some people. It says here, of general grace, of general provision, that He gives all things to all people everywhere. So we don't have to wonder about that aborigine somewhere on that isolated plot of land separated from all humankind as to whether or not it's fair that they be in some sense held responsible because no Christian has ever reached them with the good news of Jesus Christ. We don't have to worry ourselves with that because we know better. We know that He, like every other human being, has had the revelation of God spoken to Him in His heart and revealed to Him in creation. And he is, therefore, like all other humans, without excuse if and when he rejects that God. We don't give him anything. We don't confine him to anything. We don't serve him as though he needed anything from us. He is the giver to us of all things, and everybody knows that. But more than that, he says in verse 26, he's also the determiner. He made from every man one nation and has set the course of human history and has established how wide it'll be, how narrow it'll be, who'll be king, who'll be emperor, who'll be president, who'll be senator, how long they'll stay, what they'll do while they're there. He is navigating history. He is controlling history. He determines things by decreeing things and whatever he decrees to be, most certainly will be because nobody has the power to stop it. Now we saw all that last week, and I have to hurry. We just won't get through this sermon. We looked at Paul's message to these Athenians. He's declared to them that there is a God they don't know, but yet he begins with what they do know. And now he says, you're ignorant and you're groping around. There are self-evident truths. Romans 1.20 tells us that. They've been there since creation. You're accountable to that. You're without excuse. But listen, knowing that is not enough. If all you know is all of that, that God is, that He's the Creator, the Sustainer, the Giver, the Determiner, and that He can be known, if that's all you know, you don't know enough. You only know enough to be what? Responsible for what you don't know. You only know enough to be responsible for what you do know and the fact that what you did know you rejected, and you exchanged, and you perverted, and you chose to worship the creation rather than Creator, but you do not know enough yet. to be anything other than responsible for your own judgment. In other words, now get this, Christian, you may want to write this down. Every unbeliever must first go backwards before they can go forward. They first have to go back to what they already knew before they can ever move forward into what they must now know. if they have any hope and any promise of everlasting life. So understand that evangelist, understand that Christian who desires to engage the culture in a saving way, in a life-giving way, the first thing you have to do is build common ground by taking them back to what they knew because God told them, to what they knew because God showed them, and beginning at that point, once they acknowledge the reality that there is a God, then and only then are you able to move forward. It is the starting place of the Gospel. I submit to you that it is time we woke up and realized as Christians that we live in a post-modern world who is not helped when you reach out an evangelistic message and say, open your Bible to John, the Gospel of the glorious testimony of the Savior of the world. Because they don't have a clue that they need to be saved, and they are absolutely foreign to them that there is even a God that might send a Savior if they thought they needed one. You got to start at the beginning. And we've lost that idea in our evangelism that the story of redemption begins with the reality that there's a God. In the beginning, He. And when you read those words, or recite those words, or reference those words, understand, Christian, with confidence, you are speaking common language with the unbeliever. You are on common ground, though they may be ignorant to that. It is that, nonetheless. This the Bible declares. So take them back to the beginning, this is what Paul did. But from that point of knowing God, what has happened? They have rejected that knowledge. They've exchanged that knowledge. We could and perhaps should spend more time in Romans 1. You can't spend enough time in Romans 1 if you want to understand the human condition and where you need to begin with those friends and neighbors and family members who you love and desire to see responding to the grace of God. You've got to go all the way back to the reality that they rejected the manifest knowledge of God. They rejected it. They exchanged the truth for a lie. But now they need to know this God. And so, verse 27, they would seek Him, they would grope for Him, and He's not far away. And Paul says, even your poets knew that. Even your poets knew that we live and move and exist in a God. Now it is for certain those poets were not talking about the one true and living God. They were talking about Father Zeus. But even they knew that much, that they owed their existence to Zeus. Or, as the latter part said, even they know that we are also his children. And I think that's an expression of hope. Even your poets know that maybe there is a God out there who actually knows us. And that we might be called his children. That's significant, Paul says. And even your people know that. And we know, of course, he's quoting here actual Greek poets. He's not quoting Scripture. He's telling them what they say about this reality of a Creator. So what do we have? Starting point. That's what we have. Starting point. That's all this is, is a starting point. A place to begin. Because having known that there is a God and having known about this God and even His divine attributes of creation and sustainer and giver and that He wants to be known, You have no hope until what? Until he speaks to you. You need to hear from this God. It won't do these Athenians or any other unbeliever any good unless they now hear what God said. You see, without the special revelation of God, the general revelation of God only condemns us. And it doesn't offer us any hope. We need to hear what this Creator, Sustainer, Giver, Deliverer, Determining God has to say. First about us, and then about Him. We need to hear that. Or we still have no hope. So look at what He declares. Verse 29. Being then the children of God. Assuming a position that even your poets would say. Look what he does next. We ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Let me tell you what Paul says. Everything you thought about the God you don't know has been wrong. Everything you thought about the God you do not know has been wrong. Listen, in one sentence, the Apostle Paul absolutely annihilates their entire system of religion. It's like he takes a sledgehammer and one by one shatters all 30,000 of their idols. He says, the God you do not know, you've been wrong about him. He says, you cannot think, you ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone or an image formed, look at it, by the thought and art of man. You ought not to think about God that way. In other words, you cannot think, you ought not to think that a right understanding of God will come out of your head. Because it won't. Even on your best day, on your most creative and ingenious day, that day when all the light bulbs go off and you have the full capacity of your human understanding, you will never arrive at any understanding of God. He's going to have to speak to you if you're going to know who He is. You see, friend, who God is cannot come from within you. Because He is without you, and exists without you, and doesn't need you. And so right away He looks at that idolatry, this idolatry, this idolatry, and your idolatry, and your idolatry, and your idolatry, and in all of that He says, folks, you got it all wrong. You didn't get any part of it right. Because you thought that human ingenuity and creativity could make a God. In other words, all your thinking is stinking thinking. That's what Paul says. You ought not to think like that. Because in the end, all you get is a God of your own making. And here's the problem with that, and they know this. You keep asking those God's questions, don't you? Yeah. You want to know what they say lately or better what they say ever. What's the answer? Nothing. They don't speak to you because they are not. So listen to me, Christian friend, imagined Christian friend, or un-Christian friend. If you would know God, you would know Him on His terms, not your terms. I don't care how reasonable your ideas of God are. I don't care how rightly oriented you think your perception of justice and righteousness and all the rest of that is. I don't care about that. The only thing that matters is the God of the Bible that reveals His justice to us and reveals His righteousness to us and reveals His mercy and grace and where the boundaries are around His active sovereignty and your human responsibility. That's the only God that matters. I don't care how bright you are. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how brilliant you think yourself to be or all those people around you think you are and how often they applaud your insight. If you're making this stuff up, guess what? You're just making it up. It doesn't matter if it sounds good when you make it up. Well, this is what Paul tells them. You don't have any idea what you're talking about. And you ought not to think that way about the Creator of the universe who you know exists. But you just don't know Him. Verse 30, Therefore, watch, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men, you need that underlined in your Bible because this is what it says, God's about to say something. God is about to speak. He is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. And this is shocking to that... I mean, this is like blow-your-hair-back stuff. To all of those council of Mars Hill and all... It's like, they have to take a step back. You say, yeah, repentance will do that. No, no. That's not why they took a step back. They took a step back at a notion that a man standing in front of them claims to speak on behalf of God. You mean he speaks? Yeah. And sometimes he shouts. And I think this is a shouting moment. He is declaring, Paul says, and he's got their attention. I mean, they're on the edge of their seat if they were seated, but they're not. So they're on the edge of their toes like, what's he going to say next? I can't wait to hear this. I've been waiting all my life to hear this from a God. If there's any interest in the crowd at all, if there's any curiousness there, if there's any despairing there, if there's any longing and seeking after God there, they are on the edge of their toes. They are absolutely focused. What might He say? This is the moment of moments for an evangelist. Yeah, you've got their attention now. So tell me. What does this God say? Anyway, what is it? Look at it in your Bible. He is now saying that all people everywhere, a curious string of words there that simply means everybody. He is now saying that everybody must repent. You see, what Paul said was, you ought not to think the way you think about God. What God says is, you better repent of what you think about me. And that's what repentance means. It means you've got to change the way you think. It's a change of thinking. Paul says you ought not to think like that. And God says, turn away from thinking like that. Repent from thinking the way you're thinking about me. You see, all men everywhere are responsible for the knowledge of God that they reject. They're responsible then for their ignorance because they knew better. And now they're told, well, you're going to have to change your thinking. You're going to have to repent. And Paul didn't say that. God said that. I didn't say that. God said that. God said, you've got to change the way you think about him because the way you think about him is not how you ought to think. You're going to have to agree with what God says about who He is and stop making up what you think He ought to be like. So what does He say? You want to know what He says? He says, you're all damned. Verse 30, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now speaking. He is declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He, God, has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead." Now, here's what happens. Listen to me. Here's what happens. Our Christian mind kicks in right here. And we hear what we think Paul said. We just automatically hear what He must have said, and when we do that, we probably miss what He said. You see, we see the word repent. Come on, Christians, this is what you do. You see the word repent, and you naturally connect that to the Gospel. It's subliminal law, and you don't even have to think about it. You see the word repent, and you naturally connect it to the Gospel. And so we say, look, Paul just gives them the Gospel. Well, does he? Look at it. You say, well, there it is. All the elements of the gospel are there. He speaks of a man, capital M. He speaks of proof about that man. And he speaks of the resurrection as the sure proof of that man. He does all of that. And I would say to you, you're right. He did every one of those things. God's message to the lost seeker is a message about a man, and it is a message about the resurrection from death to life of that man. And then what we do is what? We just fill in the rest. Yeah. We as Christians say, well, he's talking about Jesus. We just fill that part in. We fill in the part about Jesus' teachings of grace and mercy to the lost. We fill in the part of His perfect life and the powerful miracles that He performed that testified that He was the Son of God. We just fill that in. We fill in the part of His sacrificial death, His necessary atoning death, satisfying the wrath of the Father and therefore affording the world forgiveness. We just fill that in. We fill in the part of the resurrection as proof of the fact that He actually did satisfy the Father's wrath and thereby becomes for all humankind the central hope of eternal life. We just put all that in there because it ought to be in there because, well, it comes after repent and it's supposed to be after that because that's the gospel. But look at it, friend, it ain't in there. None of it's in there. He doesn't say any of those things. And that just leaves me scratching my head. that Paul's most famous sermon introduces the reality that you've got to change the way you think about God, and is absolutely silent on Christ, and forgiveness, and mercy, and hope, and His perfect righteousness on our behalf, and all of that attested to by the life-giving power of the resurrection. I want it to be there. But it's not there. No Jesus in there, not explicitly. No teaching of grace and mercy, no perfect life, no mention of powerful miracles, no sacrifice for sins, no, no hint at forgiveness, no hint at hope. And while there is, in fact, resurrection declared, please notice, it's not a resurrection to prove that Jesus has now satisfied the Father's wrath and now extends the hope of everlasting life. No, in fact, it's a resurrection in view here that makes a completely different point. Do you see it? It is proof, not of life, of judgment. That's what it proved in this perspective of the apostle Paul. Look at it again. Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. Why? Why do you need to change your thinking about God? Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. You need to repent because there is a fixed day of judgment coming. And that judgment, look, will come through a man whom He has appointed. In other words, this judgment will have a judge, capital J, a capital N man, M man, that God appointed to this task, to judge sin. Having, look at it, furnished proof to all men by raising that man from the dead. And we should say, proof of what? proof that this man who God raised from the dead will be your judge. He proves it by raising him from the dead and appointing him to the task to come in judgment and wrath on a fixed day. So what do you actually have here? What you actually have here is Paul on a street corner with a sign that says, if I can borrow a cliche, turn or burn. You've seen those signs. I brought a few with me. That's what he said. And friend, listen to me. That is where the gospel begins. But hear me again. That is not the gospel. It's a wake-up call. Not to their hope, but to the reality of their despair. You see, Paul is committed. And if the Spirit is at work in Paul, the Spirit is committed. And it is committed to the task of convincing these Athenian idol worshipers, fully aware of their idolatry, of convincing them that there are consequences for thinking about God that way. The Holy Spirit has engaged the Apostle Paul to convince unbelievers gathered in this marketplace that they will be held accountable for thinking that way about God. You see what Paul is doing is he's committed to the task of sealing their fate before he ever offers them any hope. Are you committed to that? That's hard work. That's the part nobody wants to do. How much easier is it to say God loves you and has a beautiful plan for your life? Way easier. You don't have to answer. How much easier is it to say Jesus loves you and died for your sins? You want to go to heaven, right? Let's go. Way easier. But Paul didn't do that. Paul said, you got your thinking wrong about this God. You can't shape him out of your mind and out of your creativity. You got to hear what he says. And here's what he says. You're damned. You are destined for judgment because you think that way about me. And you knew better. You knew better. And that teaches us something. But listen to me. I'm not altogether sure what it's supposed to teach us. I am sure of some things. Let me show you what I'm sure of. I am sure that judgment is a part of the gospel. I am sure of that. This isn't the only place you find that in gospel presentations. You can only look at our Lord's gospel presentations and you'll find the reality of judgment there. So I'm certain that judgment is a part of the gospel. In fact, elsewhere, under entirely different circumstances, with an unmatched care and precision, the Apostle Paul himself commits himself to this reality when he wrote Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3. He is careful, he is studious, he is disciplined and grounded in biblical theology, and he has one purpose in three chapters, and that is to seal every mouth shut and condemned before a holy God. So I am certain that judgment and the reality of the coming day of judgment is a part of the gospel. But then it gets a little foggy for me. It just remains curious to me that Paul would look at this crowd and say, repent or else face the consequences. Not just a temporal judgment of consequences that every human being knows when you sin, it doesn't go well. Especially if you get found out. And sometimes it doesn't go well in spite of the fact that you thought you got away with it. We understand sin has consequences. It's all around us and we know that it's all around us because, well, bad people do bad things. But what we aren't really convinced of is that one day everybody will give an account for that. That one day, in a day, God will judge every sinner. What we're not convinced about is the one that worked in resurrecting power to raise Jesus from the dead didn't just raise Him as your Savior, He raised Him as the judge. He raised Him as the one who would come one day, on a fixed day, a determined day, to exercise God's judgment against sinners. So you see the resurrection, Christians, the resurrection before it declares Jesus' power to give life declares Jesus' power to judge life. Those are tough, powerful, necessary words from God. Paul says God is saying that. Now what happens when Paul says that? What happens when you stand up and you get a crowd's attention and you speak on behalf of God and declare the very words of God, which say that the Son of God, Jesus Himself, will come one day and judge your sin? Well, look at verse 32. We'll see what happens. Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, we shall hear you again concerning this. Well, what happens there is very interesting. First of all, it was the resurrection that caught their ear. That idea of life after death caught their ear. When they heard, look at it, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, when they heard about a man who rose from the dead, some of them did what? They sneered. There's always the sneerer. I don't know if that's a word, but there they are. They sneered. Like, what a silly idea. I am the master of my soul. I am the captain of my fate. What ridiculous notion that somebody someday, because he was raised from the dead, has now been appointed my judge and jury. And so they just sneered at it. They wrote it off as so much silliness. And, well, many people will often do that. But notice there were others who said, we shall hear you again concerning this. There must be more to the story. We want to hear the rest of it. Or maybe we just want to hear that again. fascinated by this idea of anybody being raised from the dead. Pretty fascinating idea, don't you think? That somebody was actually raised from the dead. I'll deal with the judgment part later, but tell me more about this resurrection from the dead. But with this message, on this day, in the marketplace, in Athens, listen to me, nobody got saved. No. Some sneered. Some said, maybe we'll hear more. And then we read the next words. It's hard even to read it if you have any appreciation of the biography of the Apostle Paul. He left. He went out of their midst. No, there were no conversions that day. You know why? You do now. There was no gospel that day. Only judgment. Only the certain reality of a fixed day. When the creator God, the sustainer God, the giving God, and the determining God has determined that all men everywhere, unless they change their thinking about who He is, will be judged. And He left. He just walked away. He told them what they must turn from, but He didn't tell them what they must turn to. And you haven't preached gospel repentance until you do both, have you? No. So you see, on the street corner, you can hold up the sign that says, Turn or Burn, and I submit to you, you're doing exactly what the Apostle Paul did here, but I think you also need to come to grips with the fact that you are not declaring the gospel. The best you can do is seal men in their fate with those words. And I'm not altogether sure what to make of this scene. And I'll tell you honestly, X is on my paper here, I'm not altogether sure what a preacher is supposed to do with it either, right now at this moment. I thought to myself, maybe I should just walk away. It's what Paul did. You know, kind of seal it dramatically in your mind. Just to leave you all gripped in fear of the judgment of God. But without any desire to take anything away from the Apostle Paul, and we'll spend a lot of time next week trying to think about this scene. I'm a gospel preacher. And I can't leave you there. No, this is bad news. This is really, really bad news. And I want you to hear it. And I want you to hear God say it. But I also want you to hear Him say this. It's in John chapter 3 verse 16. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. but that the world might be saved through Him. You see, the bad news is, is that Jesus is coming to judge the world. But the good news is, is He came once already to save it. Amen? He came to save. And whoever believes in Him will not perish under the threat of this appointed judgment. Verse 18 says, He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment. The light came into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. All men who will finally be judged will be judged according to what they love. And what they loved was darkness rather than light, and they love that darkness because they were wicked and because they are wicked, they will be judged. But whoever believes that he came already wants. Not as judge, but as savior. and that He did, in fact, live that perfect life, establishing righteousness on our behalf, that He did, in fact, perform those miracles so that we would undeniably know that He was who He said He was, and who He said He was was the Son of God, and that He did, in fact, go all the way to the cross in obedience to the Father's will, and He fully paid the penalty for your sin and my sin. He really did do that. And it is finished. And God on the day that He raised him from the dead said, you can know that's true because I raised him up as your Savior. But friend, if you do not believe, know this. He is coming back again. And every knee will bow. And every tongue will confess. that He is Lord. Listen, either Lord of life or Lord of eternal death. But He will be and even today is Lord. So the question this morning is not if you will bow But how will you bow? Father, we don't really know what to make of this sermon from the Apostle Paul. And so we'll make out of it what you gave us. It's true. You have declared that we need to change the way we think about you. conform it to who you actually are by what you said. And we need to understand that a failure to do that has consequences. That one day, a day appointed already, your son will come back to judge us in our unbelief. But thank you, Father, that we don't just carry Acts chapter 17 in our Bibles. No, we carry Acts chapter 2 where Peter said, this man you crucified, God raised from the dead. He is your hope. He is your Messiah. I'm glad we have Acts chapter three, where he said it again, this resurrected one promises everlasting life. I'm glad we have Acts chapter five, where again, the resurrection was preached unto life. I'm glad we have the gospels that declare life and hope and promise and forgiveness and all of these things realized in the resurrection. And somehow, in some way, But we must be no less glad that we have Acts chapter 17 that said that wasn't always going on that day. That Easter morn, when God in power raised him from the dead. He wasn't just affirming his life and the hope that he brings. He was affirming that this man will be the judge of the universe. So Father, we'll leave that there, where your Spirit takes us. May we hear your words today. May Christ be glorified in our repentance. In his name we pray and all God's people said amen. You have been listening to Pastor and Bible Teacher Steve Wilson of Grace Community Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We trust you have been encouraged and challenged by this message. If you would like to listen to more of Pastor Wilson's messages, or obtain more information on the ministry of Grace Community Church, you can go to our website at www.gccbg.com, that's gccbg.com, or call 270-781-2595.