The Mars Hill Sermon

[00:00:00] All right, let's turn back to acts, chapter 17. [00:00:04] Tonight we are going to look at the actual text of the sermon of Paul, of Paul on aropagus, also known as Mars Hill. All right, very good. [00:00:17] So we're going to be in acts 17 and verse number 22. We will not reiterate what we said this morning. [00:00:23] Just for time's take, we will jump right in. In verse number 22, the Bible says, then Paul stood. [00:00:33] Act 17, verse number 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. [00:00:47] For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription. To the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him. Declare I unto you God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood of all nation, all nations of men. For to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art in man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at. But now commandeth all men everywhere, excuse me to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Let's pray together. [00:02:30] Father, thank you for the chance again to look at your word. Lord, you know this is a feeble attempt to look at such an important passage of scripture as we examine what it says. But, Lord, we do ask you nevertheless to please meet with us and teach us your word. Teach us your truth. Help us to understand. And I pray we would go away with greater understanding and knowledge of your ways, and you would bless our time together in Jesus name. Amen. [00:03:01] So you'll notice, if you look at in this sermon, as we just read it, a minute ago. You'll notice that there's a couple of things, very important things, that are just missing in Paul's sermon on Mars Hill. This sermon is rather unique. [00:03:19] In the book of acts, there's a number of sermons, large, long sermons, 40, 50 verse sermons. In the book of acts, you got Peter's at Pentecost. You have Peter's before the council. You've got different sermons by Paul. You have different sermons in different places where varying lengths. And inevitably, they always start with, especially when they're sermons to the Jews and to the devout people in the various places in acts. You'll see Paul start with the scripture and how that the Lord Jesus was prophesied to come. And he talks about the various ones, talk about how that Christ died and he was buried and rose again, and he is the Lord of all and the promised Messiah and all those things. But all of that is absent here. You notice that none of that. There's no mention at all in this sermon of the scripture, not one word. [00:04:12] And there's also not a direct reference by name of Christ himself. And one commentator I read, and I think he's probably right, you get down to verse number 31, and it's almost like Paul might have been cut off a little bit by the mockery. I mean, this is just reading between the lines a little bit. But maybe he didn't get all the way to what he wanted to say. But it's interesting that two major things are missing, and I think there's a reason for that. I say they're missing. It's not that he forgot to tell them about the scripture, and he forgot to tell them about who this promised person in verse 31 is. He didn't forget. He just didn't get to it. Just didn't get to it. And as he says in verse number 22, then Paul stood and he says, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Interesting, because newer Bible versions put here religious. And some people even think that Paul is complimenting them. So he's going know he's walking through Athens, through the agora, which is the market, and he's seeing all their idols everywhere. And Paul's thinking to, hmm, quite a cultured city. This is so many different viewpoints and variations of philosophy that we find here. You men of Athens are a very religious people. No, he's not doing that. He's not doing that. Paul was stirred because of the wickedness he saw everywhere. Because note this, wherever flagrant idolatry is, so there is flagrant immorality. That's just the way it goes. In fact, especially with the greek and the roman gods are known for their immorality. In other words, all the stories that were the origin stories of these various gods that you probably learned about in school, right, in mythology of section of your literature class or something, all of that is full of immorality. It all goes together. I mean, after all, if the gods were immoral, I mean, who could say humans shouldn't be immoral, right? So that's the way this goes. And so he's not giving them a compliment. In fact, the word that's translated superstitious, is actually the combination of the word fear and is found in the Bible as demon or devil. It's found as devil. And you put those two words together, it doesn't necessarily mean fear the devil. In fact, sometimes it's used as a compliment, like a religious sense, but sometimes used as in the way that it's used here. Even the word superstitious means irrational. Faith out of mainly fear. That's what superstition is. You don't walk under a ladder. Why? Because you think something will happen to you. That's faith. It's irrational and it's based in fear. [00:07:11] That fits the bill here. Fear. That's why they're doing all these devotions. Fear, trying to please them all, even if we miss one. Verse 23. Fear. All of those things. And there is a proper and right place for the fear of God. There is this idea, this pervading Christianity, that God's basically our buddy, and he wants to sit down to the bar with us and have a drink, and he wants to be our friend and stuff. And there is a certain aspect, there's a grain of truth in that, that God wants to be a friend to us, but it negates the whole other part where he does want us to fear him. You say, well, that's not real fear. [00:07:53] That's more like respect. Yeah, well, it is respect, but it's also fear. It's also fear. And that's actually what Paul is getting at right here. That's what he's driving at in this sermon. And so, even though we don't see some of these other things that are more common in the other sermons, Paul is. He's. He's driving home a certain point, because basically this sermon is foundational. The sermon is foundational. I want to just kind of set this out there, because more and more, it's just the reality, as people from other parts of the world come to our country. And this goes without saying as far as a missionary is concerned. But as far as I know, there aren't any missionaries here, at least not yet. And so as more and more people come from with various worldviews and religious systems and faith systems and stuff, we will likely be interacting more and more with people with different views of the origins than what has become accepted in common in Greenville. So where do you start with that? In fact, people in our church have asked me that question, saying they've asked my advice. How do you start talking to someone who's a Hindu? And this is a perfect example of where you start. [00:09:14] Now, as I said, paul doesn't mention Jesus Christ directly by name. At least he mentions him in verse 31, but not by name. And he doesn't mention the scripture, and he doesn't mention a whole lot about sin, or he doesn't mention the cross at all, or even the resurrection here. Now, he was talking about that in verse number 18 because it says it. He mentioned that he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. So it's not like he left it out. But what he's doing is he's starting at zero, because he's. Remember his audience before. His audience has been first the Jews, then the devout persons, which were likely Gentiles, who were seeking after the God of the Jews, okay, but they weren't Jews, but they at least acknowledged God as the creator, the true God, and are worshipping him and seeking after him, right? And so, listen, that's huge. But these people, these Athenians are not that way. [00:10:11] They know, or rather acknowledge nothing about God and their view of God and spiritual things, especially the Epicureans and the stoics. [00:10:23] They have materialistic view. Does anybody know what materialism is? And that doesn't mean you like things. That's the way we say materialism is the love of things. But that materialism, as far as a philosophical viewpoint, does anybody know what that is? [00:10:42] Yes. [00:10:44] Exactly. What you see is all that there is. And that's, in essence, what some of these philosophies held. In other words, if there is a God, he's distant and has no relation to us. That's a deist idea. That's what Thomas Jefferson believed. [00:11:01] Sacrosanct. Thomas Jefferson was a deist. Indeed he was. God wound the world up and let it go. He doesn't bother us. He doesn't mess with us. [00:11:13] So these ideas are not new. These ideas are old. [00:11:17] But Paul is addressing a group of people who have no foundational understanding of who God is. Now, here's the key. Why, of course, you know, Paul's destination is always going to be the cross and the resurrection. Every time Jesus is Lord of all, that's what he's getting to. [00:11:36] But how can you know about the cross? How can you believe in the cross and what Jesus did for us? [00:11:44] If you are still confused about who God is and the nature of God, that's the point. In other words, if you think about the. [00:11:52] And this is going to be a bad illustration, but if you think about the gospel is like a series of stairs, right? And at the top of the stairs is the gospel that Christ died for us, was buried, rose again. Those who trust in him have eternal life and are forgiven. Right? [00:12:08] If that's at the top of the stairs, there are a series of necessary steps of knowledge, not steps to do, but things you got to know and accept and believe in order to get to the top, right? In other words, you can't just leap to the top. [00:12:24] So that's what he's trying to instruct them on the various stairs that get them to the top. How can you believe in Christ if you don't know who God is? [00:12:33] Right. That's what he's doing. He's starting at zero now, you think? We think, well, this seems kind of elementary. God that made the world, verse 24 and all things that are there. Well, that, yeah, we look at this and we might think, yawn, I know this. [00:12:50] Well, he's not preaching it to you, though. Remember that. He's preaching it to people that didn't know it. But it's an important point to make. [00:12:58] He's returning to foundational principles upon which Christianity is built. The truth of Christ is built upon those truths, and those truths cannot be denied. And listen now, and in some way, even though these people are in a different world than our world, right? All these gods and idols and superstition and mythology, that was the basis for all their faith, right? Even though that's so much different than our world, there is a way in which it overlaps with our world today. This is becoming more and more relevant because as you talk to people like the age of Caleb and Joshua up here and Zach, more and more people of that generation, the Gen Z generation, the gen y generation, is more and more people in that group are to a greater degree not averse with these basic truths. In other words, they have been taught. And I was the same way, but to a lesser degree, I was taught about evolution and those kinds of things in school. But I mean, even in high school, my biology teacher, I don't know if she was like a born again Christian or not, but she actually skipped the chapter in the textbook about evolution. She skipped it because she didn't believe it and didn't want to teach it, so she skipped it and she was allowed to do that. But more and more, that's not the case. More and more, these people that are coming out of college have been trained, have been indoctrinated with these ideas of science, so called. And they have been trained to such degree that they are themselves warriors for these ideas. They're warriors. They are going to use their place to impose this philosophical, indoctrinal idea, and then they're going to, at the same time, say, oh, no, this isn't about religion. This is science. [00:15:08] This is science. It's the ultimate Trump cardinal, is it not? Science is whatever you can shove into the science box is untouchable. [00:15:21] It is above religion, it is above faith. Faith is down here. Faith is like fantasy. And then you have science right now. Were they like this? Not exactly. [00:15:37] Well, I'm going to get at that. Quit trying to upstage me, Joseph. [00:15:46] So they. So they do that. And here's the point I'm making, is where Paul started is often going to be the issues where more and more, we have to start, because how can you get to the gospel when you're talking to someone in 2024, if they deny or assert that they have no idea if there's a God, or assert that, well, there might be a God, but he really had no role to play in the creation of the universe, or to say that, well, God created something way back when we have no idea. But all that science loosely termed has said has brought it to being over. [00:16:30] What are we up to now? It's like the US debt clock. The debt clock continues to rise. So the number of the years of the existence of the universe, it used to be when I was in school, it was like, what, 6 billion? Now it's like 13.7. And it'll be more and more because that's the only way you can explain some of these things. So the universe is now 13.7 billion years old, and God has nothing to do with that. [00:16:58] This is the philosophical doctrine. You say, well, people don't believe that. They absolutely do believe this. [00:17:05] They absolutely do believe this. [00:17:08] And some of them, as a result of this faith in science, have become hostile to God. They're actually hostile to God. Where do we go from there? We start right here. [00:17:24] You can't believe in Christ. You can't accept, we might say accept Christ or accept Jesus while simultaneously denying all of the truths upon which the gospel is based. As an example. [00:17:43] God made the world in six days. You say that's crazy. Science doesn't say that. I don't care. [00:17:49] I don't care. [00:17:50] We wait a decade or two and they'll change their mind about something like that. And everything they said was absolutely proven true will be different. Just like it was 1020 years ago and just like it was back when you were in school, right? It was all different then, and it's constantly changing. And it will. [00:18:07] The scripture tells us that God made the world in six days. [00:18:11] And when he made the world, there was no sin, and he made the first man and the first woman. And sin entered into the world through Adam's sin in the garden. All right? These are foundational truths. I don't just believe that Jesus believed Christ, you know, the one know was God who knew all things, right? The one who died on the cross and then rose again the third day. He is the Lord of all right? And he's coming back that same one. He believes in Adam and Eve and the crazy fantasy creation story that is constantly scorned and mocked. He believed that. [00:18:49] Okay, he said it. [00:18:52] But see, that is foundational to the very idea of sin. [00:18:58] If evolution is true, death has been in the universe forever because it's just constant death. Constant death. But if the Bible is true, sin caused death. Death didn't exist until sin existed. And this is exactly what the Bible says. So how can you deal with the issue of sin and how it's affected man and man's alienation from God and personal responsibility and all these things unless you had the foundation. [00:19:25] See, you can't get up to the top unless you get up the stairs one at a time. [00:19:30] Now, up to this point, Paul has been going to places where the Jews and these devout persons already have accepted that. So he can start at a different place on those stairs, but here he's at the bottom. [00:19:44] He's at the bottom. [00:19:46] So listen, it is required in order to understand and receive Christ as your savior. [00:19:56] It is required to first acknowledge the very basic tenets about God's nature and his relationship with the world. [00:20:08] You can't receive Christ if you do not believe that God made the world, right? You can't receive Christ until you first understand what sin is and that sin is ultimately something that is an offense to God. And that goes, listen, if you think that you can take one string, and because of science on the claim of science, you can pull out one thread out of this tapestry of the scripture and say, well, I don't like this part. And science says thus and so. And you start pulling, it'll unravel the whole thing. [00:20:43] It's all or nothing. [00:20:48] And just like these people, it says verse 23. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. [00:20:57] And you think their devotions were not few. Their devotions were abundant. But mankind has always been inclined to devotions to a deity. And of course, in our day, you look across the world, and really in the west, it's a little bit kind of different. Most places in the world, they have an actual deity that they worship, right? There's a God of some kind, right? Whether it's Islam, Buddhism, Hindu, whatever, there's a God of some kind. But in our world, what is being traded for God is something kind of abstract, like science is science, but the question of God as the creator, which is Paul's first point, verse 24, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, notice that because God is the creator. All right, there is no argument, because he is all right. And listen, anybody that comes to the Lord has to face this question. You can't come to the Lord denying God's creation. You can't do that. [00:22:11] So when you come to God, there are difficult questions you've got to ask. And sometimes you won't have the answers as to how science and what parts of science are valid, what parts are just absolute theory and guessing. [00:22:26] You're not going to be able to answer all the questions. But the Lord says, you come to me. Well, this is a basic tenet. God that made the world, he is Lord of all. [00:22:35] He is Lord of all. We don't make Jesus Lord. He is Lord. We are just merely acknowledging that fact. [00:22:45] The universe and everything in it came into existence and had their origin in God. He is the beginning. This is what. What's in. This is verse number 24. This is Paul's first point. He has seven of them. I'll go fast, I promise. [00:23:02] And the question of God's place as creator is still a central issue. [00:23:08] Now, as I said, we talk about science, and of course, science, it seems, in our time, has been set in direct opposition to faith in God as the creator. It has been and in our day, believing in science. Notice what I said? Believing in science is far more accepted, right. It's believed that those things are far, far more reliable. [00:23:47] But if you consider the enormous amount of faith that is required to accept the theories of the origin of the universe and life on earth. I mean. I'll give you two questions. I'll give you two questions. These are questions Stephen Hawking never could answer, which, by the way, he was on that Jeffrey Epstein plane, right? The science guy, right? The guy that was, like, super smart. Nobody denies he was smart, but he wasn't moral, even a little. [00:24:17] I mean, that's wicked. That is wicked. [00:24:24] But anyway, I get distracted. [00:24:34] There's two questions that can be asked that are really problematic. Number one, if there was a big bang, where did all the things come from before the bang? [00:24:46] Well, now they're saying, oh, well, always existed. [00:24:51] The eternality of matter. They're saying everything in the universe has always existed. What? [00:24:58] That is contradictory to the very definition of the universe, that it doesn't have a beginning. [00:25:05] You see how much faith is required in that? There's no explanation. You're just because science has declared it, you are expected to believe it. [00:25:16] Number two, how did life come on earth? How did life originate on the earth? [00:25:27] Honest scientists will tell you they have no idea. [00:25:30] And they can talk about how that they've experimented and have, in the laboratory, put together amino acids using electricity and various chemicals under a tightly controlled and laboratory environment. But that's not real life. [00:25:44] They can't do it. It's never been done. It's never been proven. They just expect us to believe that because science says that life did miraculously come to being. All of a sudden, there was no life. It was just rocks. And then there was life like that. In fact, Stephen Hawking himself floated the idea. I'm not joking with this Stephen Hawking himself, which he's already met his maker now, he floated the idea, an idea called directed panspermia. [00:26:21] You know what that means? I'll read it. [00:26:25] The idea that life was deliberately seeded on earth by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. [00:26:33] Well, we don't know how life came into the world, but we'll float this idea that perhaps aliens came and deposited life and then it evolved from there. [00:26:46] And they think our faith is great. [00:26:50] You see, when you don't have anything to believe, anything that's sound and solid, you believe anything, like anything that listen, that is not science. That is crazy. [00:27:07] That is acts 17 Athenians running around chasing, worshipping statues of people with wings on their feet and all kinds of other deformities and half man, half goat and all that stuff, that is no different. [00:27:23] And yet it's science. We're expected to believe it. [00:27:30] But listen with all of that as it changes. Remember this. [00:27:34] The scriptural view of where this world came from remains constant. It has not changed from the time that Moses wrote it by the direction of God in Genesis, chapter one until this moment, it remains constant. God made the world and all things in it by his direct act. [00:28:00] And that is a pivotal and essential point that is required to get to the gospel. [00:28:12] All right, number two, his second point. And these will go a little bit faster. Now, verse number 24 says, he dwelleth, the Lord is the. He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing. He giveth to all life and breath and all things. God hearsay. Second point. God needs nothing of man. [00:28:37] God needs nothing of man. See, men deceive themselves into believing. They slowly accept, little by little, this idea that their worship, our worship, somehow benefits God or adds to him or sustains him. I mean, after all, if we don't worship God, God lacks something. He lacks our worship. God doesn't lack anything ever. [00:28:59] As if we deceive ourselves into thinking that in some way we're giving God a favor by building big buildings and shrines and all this stuff and worshipping in the pilgrimages and all these things that people worship when they worship God, as if God needs it. He doesn't need any of that. Before he made the world, he was perfectly complete. [00:29:24] Our service to God is not a favor. [00:29:28] You see, we try to think, mankind tries to think that God is in some way subservient to us. He needs our temple. [00:29:36] We're doing him a favor. [00:29:39] But that's just not true. And that's one thing God was trying to teach the children of Israel. Remember, there was so much idolatry in Egypt. He was trying, as he led them through the wilderness, he was trying to get them to understand. You need me. [00:29:52] You don't have a temple. You don't have a place to worship. You don't have any of these things. You don't have food, you don't have water. You don't have anything at all. You don't have a way to make clothes. You have nothing. And God says, you need me. I don't need you. You need me. [00:30:09] That's what he proved to them for 40 years. You need me. And that's what's unique about the God of the Bible, is he doesn't need us. He wants us. He wants us. [00:30:21] He drives no benefit from us. [00:30:25] He wants us to love him, to follow him. [00:30:31] We are wholly dependent upon God. Number three, verse number, verse number 26. And hath made. God hath made of one blood all nations of men. For it to dwell on all the face of the earth. Well, there's an issue with racism there. You kind of strike that because God made all the nations, right? Of one blood. Originally, Adam and Eve weren't white. I think you see the books that the Mormons have put out and of course, Adam and Eve and every character is white because that suits their religious theology. Right? But in reality, Adam and Eve weren't white. They weren't black, they weren't any particular race because race didn't exist. They were one blood. [00:31:21] God is the singular God of all people, for he is the Lord of all people. He made all the nations. [00:31:29] And so God is not, and this is a common belief. God is not the God of one particular nation. And listen, please get this right. [00:31:37] God is not just the God of America. That's what a lot of people outside this country think. Americans believe have their God, Jesus. [00:31:47] That is not true. We do not own God. We are. The United States is one of the nations of the earth, one. One of the people groups. [00:31:58] But God made all of them. God made all of them. [00:32:05] So the Lord is not a national God. [00:32:09] He is the Lord of all the nations. And even though the nations do not know God as we see in verse 23, or acknowledge him, yet he is the ruler of all. [00:32:22] In verse number, he says in verse 26, and hath determined the times before appointed. One commentator I read says that means that God has determined everything that would happen. [00:32:37] Well, I've talked about this a number of times. You remember the idea of determinism, that God determines everything that happens in the universe. This is the verse they use. It's like this doesn't say that. [00:32:47] This doesn't say that. [00:32:50] But he does say this, verse 27, that they should seek the Lord, if happily, they might feel after him. You imagine a blind man, someone who can't see, groping, feeling, trying to find God, doesn't know exactly where to look. This is the description here, that they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. Here's this, the fourth point. God can be found. [00:33:22] This is what Paul is teaching them. God is not far from us. He is not hiding. He is not distant. [00:33:30] The issue is, man does not seek God with a pure heart. [00:33:37] He seeks the gods of his own imagination. That's exactly what's happening here in Athens. Here, look at Romans one, if you would. You were close to Romans here. Just hold your place in acts and look at Romans. Chapter one, verse 21, or verse 20, rather verse. Romans one, verse 20, says this. [00:34:01] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So if God says, look, I have clearly revealed myself to all people, they can see me. The question then is, why don't they? [00:34:24] We talk about science, those who have placed their faith in science, right, in the constantly changing and dynamic field of science. [00:34:39] The question is, why can't they see God? I look at the same set of stars they look at at night. You know what I see? [00:34:48] I see God, right? Not that God is the stars, but I see God's handiwork. I look at the same flowers, the same plants. If I read and I look at. Use a microscope or electron microscopes or different ways to evaluate dna and different parts of the human body and different things in nature, I see this is the same data everybody else sees that. You see, if you read an article and you nerd out with stuff like that, I like to look at that kind of stuff. You ought to do it. It's interesting. I see the same thing they see. But you know what I see? I see God. [00:35:21] Why? What is the difference? Here's the difference. [00:35:28] Verse 20 says in Romans one, they are without excuse. God has shown them verse 21 because that when they knew God, they glorified him. Not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [00:35:46] That's the difference. [00:35:49] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. [00:35:56] You see, God can be found. He has revealed himself. [00:36:01] But because of the darkness of the heart of man, they have blinded themselves to that which God has revealed. And so they don't see it, even though they're looking at the same thing. [00:36:16] But there were people that found God. [00:36:19] I'm not even talking about Jesus yet. We're not even to the top of the stairs. There were people that found God. That Paul ran into, the devout persons who had come out of idolatry and darkness and had embraced the God of the scripture, the God of the Bible. [00:36:41] People had found the Lord. So there is no excuse. [00:36:45] I don't care if it's a college professor or a common laborer. God has revealed these same things to all people. It's just a matter of the darkness of the heart, you see, because there's a lot that goes into whether someone is willing to acknowledge God. You think about these professors again. I know I'm harping on science a lot, and I like science. Science is fine if it's observable, repeatable science, which is what science is supposed to be, right? It's not supposed to be theories and guesses to fill in gaps and questions you can't answer. That's not what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be observation, hypothesis testing. That's what it's supposed to be. Well, in this realm of science, there's a lot that goes into this acknowledging God. [00:37:32] The implications of it really affect someone's openness and whether their heart is dark or whether it's open and allows the light to come in. [00:37:42] And every once in a while you'll meet with, you'll see some person in that world that is honest enough to say, no, I don't want there to be a God. [00:37:54] I don't want there to be a God. [00:37:56] I like living my life too much. [00:37:59] I don't want there to be a God. Well, that's going to alter what you see, is it not? [00:38:05] And all of those things go into people's reception of God before we even get to the top of the staircase. Verse number five is in back in acts 17, verse number 28. For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art, man's device. Don't get confused by the word Godhead. That's only a reference to God's nature as God. You might say divinity. You could say it like that. But this is the .5 is we are made in God's image. It is not now that God is like. No, no, it is that we are like him. You see that in Greece they made the gods in their own image. And so that's why the gods were always sinful and immoral. But what the Bible says is the opposite, that God made us in his image, but because we're made in his image is for this reason we should not think of God as a graven image. But God is a living God. He has personality, he has affection, he has a will, he has desires toward us, he can communicate with us. All these things are in the nature of God and are reflected in our fact that we are created by God in his image. [00:39:44] If we are made in God's image. Whatever God is. [00:39:48] Rather, whatever we are, God is that in far greater measure. Right. [00:39:55] God is love. We can love. [00:39:58] God is alive. We are alive. And you can go on with that. This doesn't mean we're divine. We're definitely not that. [00:40:06] But it does show something about God's nature. Number six is in verse number 30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at. Now, that doesn't mean that God overlooks these things. And so everybody's going to go to heaven. No, that's not what it means at all. It just means that God withheld his judgment even though men turned from him and turned his glory into an image which is highly offensive to him. [00:40:39] He commands all men everywhere to repent. God commands repentance. This is the standing command of God to every person on earth. Now. And when God says he commands repentance, you know what that means in that word? It's implied that mankind is sinful. God wants man. God wants man. That is each one of us, everybody out there. He wants all of us to come face to face with our sin and our breach in our relationship to him and get it right. [00:41:16] This is what God has commanded us. And then the last one, the last point is in verse number 31. [00:41:25] Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Just Jesus, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Notice what it says in verse 31, because he hath pointed it so. God has commanded all men to repent because there's a day of judgment. And God doesn't want to judge people like that. He doesn't want to condemn them. [00:41:49] He says, repent now. I don't want to judge you. Repent now because there's a day of judgment coming. Christ is going to judge the world. Lastly, look at, I'm sorry, Jude, next to last book in the Bible. [00:42:04] Jude verse number 14. [00:42:16] Jude speaks of Enoch. Enoch the 7th from Adam. In other words, he was 7th in the lineage of Adam, Adam and then Seth, and then whoever after that, the 7th person was Enoch. This goes way back before Noah. Okay, listen what it says. And Enoch also the 7th from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed. And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him now. Remember the time which Enoch lived. There was no Israel. [00:43:02] Jesus had not come yet, way back in time. Listen, this is the message. You talk about dispensations. This is the message that God had for people that were his creation, way back when the world wasn't like it is now. That is, it wasn't divided up. And the religious scene and all these things, it was God's same command, repent, because there's coming a day of judgment. [00:43:31] The God that we've been talking about, that Paul is address speaking of in acts 17, is personal. [00:43:39] He will examine our life and deeds by his holiness. [00:43:44] And this should strike fear into the hearts of each and every person. [00:43:51] God has given each one of us a conscience, and he's trying to prick that conscience that man might seek after the Lord. So in this sermon, Paul's just taking them up the steps one step at a time, trying to get them to the point where their conscience is pricked. And they're aware of who God is. [00:44:16] They're aware of what their relationship to God is. Right now, maybe this is all new information, but it's all in order to prepare their heart so that he can then introduce them to the savior. [00:44:31] Let's pray.