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Verse number 1, Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manor was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. So Paul's following his normal pattern of showing up in a town. The first place he goes in order to preach the gospel unto people is the synagogue. And I think the reason that he goes there first is because those are the people who had already been exposed to most of the Old Testament Scriptures. They had the most exposure to God's Word. So he figures that, you know, the seed of God's Word has already been planted. Hopefully it's been watered. He can go there and reap a quick harvest of some people that are ready to get saved, and then, you know, move on to reach all the Gentiles and just everybody in the city. So he shows up at the synagogue, and he reasons with them out of the Scripture for three Sabbath days. Now I like the fact that he uses that word reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. You don't have to turn there, but in Isaiah 118 the Bible reads, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. See, God's a very reasonable God. God's a logical God. God's not someone that doesn't make sense. And today we're told sometimes that those who believe in reason and logic are at odds with Christianity. And a lot of people who are atheists, they'll say, you know, Our God is reason. Our God is logic. And we basically worship rationality and so forth. And this is the mantra of the atheists, those who do not believe that God even exists. But I'm here to tell you that rationality and reason and logic are all things that God possesses and are all things that we should possess as we read the Scriptures. Paul wasn't just going in there and being emotional and just, you know, just ranting and saying all these things. No, he was reasoning with them. He said, look, let's just reason together. Come now and let us reason together. Look at what the Scriptures say. He's showing them line upon line, precept upon precept. He was proving unto them all things from the Scriptures using reason, using logic. You see, we need to use reason and logic when we read the Bible. A lot of people are very unreasonable. They don't understand what reason even means. Let me give you an example of reason or logic. Two contradictory things cannot both be true. Okay, right? This is just basic logic, just basic reason. Two things that are contradictory to one another cannot both be true. I can't say the wall is white, but the wall is black. Well, both are right. No, they're not both right. And see, when people read the Bible, sometimes it's like they leave their logic or they leave their reason or they leave their mind at the door instead of just using basic reason, you know, in regard to salvation. Perfect example. If the Bible says that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life, reason and logic tells us that there is no one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ who does not possess eternal life. I mean, that's just basic logic of just looking at that scripture. If it says that everybody who believes is saved, then that means that there's no one who believes that's not saved. Therefore, there can't be some other requirement to salvation that he's not bringing up in that verse that he's going to bring up and hit us with somewhere else. You know, the only requirement for salvation is faith. By grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. And a lot of people will be opposed to using that kind of logic and they'll say, well, you know, you just got to follow the Spirit's leading. Yes, but the Spirit is going to lead you to reason and logic and the truth, okay? And that's what Paul is using here with these people, the truth. Now, he reasons with them for three Sabbath days and it says in verse 3, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed. It's always going to be the minority that believes. You know, the majority does not believe. The Bible says broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in their act because straight is the gain and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. But some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks a great multitude and of the chief women not a few. So there's a pretty good crowd that believes the minority but it's still a pretty good group. It says in verse 5, but the Jews which believe not moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the base or sort and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar. And does it sound like these people are using reason and logic? No. See, Paul is reasoning with them from the scriptures. He has all the facts, he's got all the evidence. You know, he's just clearly preaching them the truth and they cannot resist the truth. They have no reasonable way to defeat his argument and so they just go out and get a bunch of lewd fellows of the base or sort. You know, just basically translation, derelicts. They go out and get a bunch of derelicts to create this big uproar and just to assault this guy's house and just mess up his house and vandalize the place. It's the same thing that we saw back in Acts 7. Stephen stood up and preached God's word. It says they could not resist his preaching. They couldn't resist the knowledge, the spirit by which he spake and so therefore they just got arrested, lied about him and, you know, just took care of it that way. And so don't ever feel like you as the believer in Jesus Christ somehow don't have reason and logic on your side. Of course, God has the corner on the market for truth and reason and logic and knowledge and that's what we see here. But they basically get all these derelicts together and they go to attack the house of Jason because that's where Paul and Silas were staying. So basically they figure they're going to get them there and attack them. But when they get there, it says in verse number 6, And when they found them not, they drew Jason. So basically they get there, Paul's not there, so they just grabbed Jason, the guy who had him staying at his house, his host, and they're just going to basically punish him. So they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, it says in verse 7, whom Jason has received and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. Now, that's a great testimony right there that they described it as, These who have turned the world upside down. That would be a great thing to be said about us or about any Christians. It reminds me of Acts chapter 5 when they say, You filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. And here he said, You turned the world upside down. That's basically what we ought to be doing. We ought to be like these great believers in the book of Acts, these great preachers who weren't content to just do the minimum, just to kind of show up to church and maybe just put in a little time. No, these guys were out to turn the world upside down to fill their whole city with that doctrine. They were motivated, they had a powerful message, and they basically made a huge impact on the area for these kind of things to even be said about them. And then it said in verse number 7, their big crime that they're being accused of before the law now is that they're basically doing things contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. Well, that's true. There is another king, Jesus. And in fact, Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords and exalted above every king and principality upon this earth. And so, they're trying to spin this in a different way, but really it's true. And if Caesar had made some kind of a decree, I don't really know, but maybe Caesar had made some kind of a decree that there could be no other king besides Caesar. Well, sorry, Caesar, but we ought to obey God rather than men. There is a higher power, there is a higher authority than the Caesars of this world, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 8, And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things, and when they had taken security of Jason and of the other lady that let them go. You say, what does that mean, taken security? This is like a bail bond. There's nothing new under the sun. When they took security of Jason, basically they're going to have a trial for him another day, so they basically let him out on bail. They took some money as a bail bond in order to let him out of jail. It says in verse 10, And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night. Because they can tell that Paul and Silas have a warrant out for their arrest, they're going to get these guys out of town. And so it says that they sent them by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. So they get to Berea, and they basically just start the exact same pattern over again. They get thrown out of Thessalonica, and okay, let's start here. Same thing, going to the synagogue, preach the same message. But it says in verse 11, These were more noble than those in Thessalonica. Basically the people in that synagogue were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. So keep your finger there and go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, toward the end of the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 2, it says in verse 13, 1 Thessalonians 2.13, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. This is how we should receive the word of God when we hear it. Not as the word of man. When the word of God is preached, we can't just say, well, that's just his opinion. Well, not if it's the Bible that's being preached. And it says that the good thing about them there in Thessalonica, those in Berea also, different crowds obviously, in Thessalonica did not receive it, some did. But he said that they received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God. But hold on. Does that mean that they just blindly followed everything that Paul said? No. They acknowledged what Paul was preaching as the word of God because of the fact that they also verified it by searching the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. And so we should not come to church and hear preaching and just blow it off and say, oh, that's just his opinion. What we ought to do is get in our Bible and see, wait a minute, is what Pastor Anderson is saying right? Search the Scriptures every day. Verify whether what you're hearing at church is right. And then if it is right, receive it as God's word, not man's word, when you've gotten it from the Bible, when you got it from the Scriptures. You see, God's word is what's being preached across this pulpit, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. And if it's not, then disregard it. But you know what? It is the word of God. And if you search the Scriptures every day, you'll see that that's the case. And then you ought to take heed to what's being preached. And if there's something that I do preach that's wrong, then disregard. You know, because God's word is the authority, not me or not anyone else, okay? But the Bible is clear here that we need to be searching the Scriptures daily. God's complimenting them on that. The Bible tells us in the book of Deuteronomy to read in the book of the law all the days of our life. David meditated upon the word of God day and night. We need to search the Scriptures. What does it search? You're looking for something. You're looking for the answers. You're looking for doctrine. You're looking for truths. You're looking for whether what's coming across the pulpit matches what you're reading in the Bible. Now, I remember when I was about 16 years old, I decided that I was going to read the Bible for the first time cover to cover. You know, I'd read a lot of portions of the Bible growing up, but I had never read the whole book cover to cover. So when I was 16, I made the decision, you know, I'm going to read the whole book. So I got off the table of contents. This is what I would recommend doing, by the way, if you've never read the Bible cover to cover. I took out the table of contents, and I first X'd out all the books that I knew for sure I had already read on other, you know, younger failed attempts at trying to read the whole thing. You know, I knew I'd gone through Genesis. You know, you start out, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. So I basically checked off Genesis, Exodus. I knew I'd done that. You know, I knew that I had done Matthew. I knew that I'd done Revelation. You know, I went through and found all the books I knew for sure. If there was any doubt, I didn't check it off. But if I knew 100% for sure, hey, I've read this book, I checked those off, and I began to read all the books that I had not for sure read. And when I was 16, I started to read the entire Bible cover to cover. And let me tell you something. It became readily apparent to me that the church that I was attending and the preaching that was coming across that pulpit had nothing to do with the book that I was reading. I mean, it was just so dramatically and drastically different than what I was reading. I mean, I'm reading one thing, and I'm hearing something completely different, just a completely different attitude, completely different doctrines coming across the pulpit. I started asking my parents as a 16, 17-year-old boy, you know, why this? Why that? And my parents looked at me and said, you're right. It's true. And I said, you know, why is the pastor, you know, preaching this? That's not true. Why is he saying this? Why will he never even mention the word hell? It's like, does hell even exist to this guy? And he literally had never said the word hell in years of me attending that church. And there were many other things that he was preaching that were false. And I brought this up, brought this up. You see, I was searching the scripture daily whether what I was hearing was so. Unfortunately, it wasn't checking out. And so, thank God, right after my 17th birthday, we got into a good church that was lining up with the scripture where we did, where I learned how to go soul-winding and learned a lot of other great things. But we need to be careful not to just blindly just believe everything that we hear. Now, the only way to not just be a sheep that's just blindly believing everything you hear and being spoon-fed is to search the scriptures daily. Because no matter how smart you are or intelligent you are, unless you're searching the scripture daily, you can't really be a judge of whether what I'm preaching is right or not. You know, I have so many people tell me that my preaching is wrong and they haven't even read the book. They haven't even read hardly any of the book. And so, they're not qualified to tell me that what I'm preaching is unscriptural. But if you've read the book, okay, then you're able to discern whether what's being preached is scripture. I mean, how can you say, well, that's not what the Bible teaches. Have you ever read the... This is what really cracks me up. When people who will admit to you that they've never read the Bible will say, well, the Bible doesn't say that anywhere or the Bible doesn't talk about that. Wait a minute, if you ever read the whole book, how can you say the Bible doesn't say that anywhere? Maybe it's just the part that you didn't get to yet. You know, and when you get there, you'll see it and realize, remember me saying it. You know, and people think that they know what they're talking about, but if they don't search the scriptures daily, they don't. And there's no way for you to even know whether what I'm preaching is right or not unless you read the scriptures daily and search them daily. You can show up here week after week after week after week. And yeah, we're turning to the Bible, but how do you know it's in context? You know how you'll know it's in context? When you go home and read the whole book and read the whole story, then you'll see the context. It is so easy, my friend, to just take a verse out of context and make it mean something completely different than what it really means. And to be very convincing about it. And that's why there are many, the Bible says, many deceivers are in and into the world. There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers. There are many antichrists, there are many false prophets, and it's easy to deceive someone who doesn't read the Bible. They're just a sitting duck just waiting to be deceived, waiting to be tricked, because they have no way of verifying what is being preached. And so let that sink down into your ears in verse 11. Search the scriptures daily. What am I looking for? Whether these things be so that you're hearing preached. That's what you're looking for. It says in verse 12, therefore many of them believed. So a whole bunch of people in Thessalonica believed. A whole bunch of people in Berea believed. I mean, Paul is getting results everywhere he goes. Even in a hardened area, one area was more hardened, one area was more receptive. But in either place, there's always going to be somebody who believes. I've noticed that. Certain areas in Phoenix are a lot more receptive than others. You go into central Phoenix, usually you end up having a lot more people saved than going in, say, Tempe, downtown area of Tempe. Or, say, Mesa, for example. Those are going to be areas that are a little tougher. But you know what? You're going to get people saved in Mesa. You're going to get people saved in downtown Tempe. I went to an apartment complex a few days ago and did a bunch of soul-winning in Tempe here, and it was the most unresective place, and I did about half of it. It was a big old apartment complex, and I did about half of it. And I said, this would be good for Brother Dave on Wednesday to finish this. I think I'm going to go somewhere else. So I made a little map for him and everything and checked off the half that I did and left him with the half. And I said, here you go, Brother Dave, here's a good soul-winning for you. But they went there and had two people saved. So they were able to crack through that place because that was really unresective. Who got the people saved over there? I think Scott had one saved and Leslie had one saved. And so you're able even to go into the most unresective place, somebody's going to get saved. And a lot of people will try to say, well, it just doesn't work in my area. Soul-winning is just not going to work in my area or in my country or in my city. It works everywhere. In some places, you just have to work a little harder. You see, when you're in a really receptive area, man, you're just talking to one person after another. Everywhere you knock, even if the people don't get saved, they'll at least listen. Can I show you? Sure. That's a receptive area where you're just showing the gospel to one person after another. Now, in an unreceptive area, you might spend 45 minutes or an hour being told no, but you just blow through those doors. You just blow through and blow through, and eventually you'll get to the one that wants to be saved. And even in the most unreceptive possible area, some rich Tempe neighborhood, you keep knocking those doors. You will get someone saved. He that goeth forth and weep at bearing price to see each other, doubtless coming in with rejoicing, bringing his cheese with him. I went soul-winning in Norway, which is probably one of the hardest places in the world to go soul-winning, because of the fact that everybody's religious. Everybody is wealthy and well-off. I couldn't find a bad neighborhood. Everybody's wealthy. Everybody's religious. 95% are members of the state Lutheran church, baptized as a baby, but they don't really believe in it. But when you ask them if they know for sure they're going to heaven, it's, oh, yeah, I'm covered. I'm fine. I've been through all that. I've done that. Because they got baptized and catechized or whatever. Even though they don't really believe in it, it's just something that they... This is what they call it. Their kindertrode. They say, my childhood faith. Because basically they don't believe in it as adults. It's something they're taught as a kid, like a story about Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. And then they just grow out of it. But they've already heard it all, and so when you get there to try to preach in the gospel the truth, not some watered-down Lutheran Norwegian government message that's supposedly from their state church that represents the gospel, but actually the real gospel of Jesus Christ from the Bible, they're going to blow you off. And they're wealthy. And it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. But with God all things are possible. And we went to Norway, probably the hardest place, and yet after hours and hours of rejections, in the course of four days, several of us had a total of ten people saved on that trip that I was on. That right there shows that if it can be done in Norway, I believe it can be done anywhere. And you've got to work a lot harder over there than you do here. But you know what? It can be done. Because God's Spirit is powerful everywhere, and God's hand is not shortened that He cannot save. We just need to do the work. And so we see that in both places there were many that believed. Therefore many of them believed, verse 12, also of honorable women, which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul and Berea, they came there also. So now the opposition is actually following them from Thessalonica to Berea to try to get them in trouble there. They came there also and stirred up the people. Why do they care? Think about this now. Why do they care? It's a totally different city. It's a totally different area. What skin is it off their back that the truth of the Gospel is being preached in some distant city? Why do they care? Because I'll tell you something. They're the tool of the devil. The devil is the opponent and the adversary of the Gospel. And he uses people's jealousies and envies and whatever was motivating them humanly speaking in order to oppose the Gospel. And he's on the attack. He's always on the attack. And that's why you see them just with a relentless pursuing of the disciples all the way to distant cities. Excuse me. It says in verse 14, And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea. So he kind of has to move on to the next place because the heat begins to be turned on in Berea as well. And so he sent as it were to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. They stayed in Berea. And they conducted Paul. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they departed. So basically Paul is shipped out by the Bereans for his safety unto Athens. Same city as modern day Athens which is the capital of Greece today. The modern day country of Greece. And Paul gets there and he sends back to Silas and Timotheus telling them to come as well. So it says in verse 16, While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. You know our spirit ought to be stirred when we see false religion. We ought to have a tear in the eye and we ought to have some compassion on those who are not saved. You don't know the gospel. And not to just be so cold and hardened that we just don't care. We just care about ourself. We don't want to go through our day and our life. You know Paul had other things on his mind. I mean he's running from the law. He's got to feed himself. He's got to have a place to stay. He's being shuffled from one place to the other. But yet that wasn't his focus. I mean his focus is looking around at the new city. The first thing on his mind, while he's waiting, he could have just said, well I'm going to wait for them to get here. No, he's by himself. He doesn't have a soul-winding partner. He's all by himself waiting for them to get there. His mind is on, well we've got to get these people saved. Look at this idolatry. Look at this false religion. My spirit is stirred within me. And as the Bible says in Lamentations 3, my eye affected my heart. You know we ought to look upon the unsafe world around us and it ought to stir us. It ought to move us to compassion. You know when I think of a city totally given to idolatry, one city that comes to mind is Guadalupe right down here. I mean who's been soul-winding down in Guadalupe with us? A lot of people. We've knocked every door in Guadalupe twice already. And in Guadalupe you just see a ton of idolatry. I mean you just see just graven image after graven image after graven image and the worship of Mary. You rarely will see a graven image of Jesus, which I'm against graven images of any kind. But it's all Mary. It's all graven images of Mary and they have this Mary statue and shrines to Mary and everything is all about Mary in that town of Guadalupe. You know and it's really sad that these people are deceived and you try to preach the gospel to them and sometimes it's just, well that's just our culture here. That's what they try to do. No, it's not culture. It's a false religion. And they say, oh it's our culture. It's our identity. Well get a new identity. The Bible. God's word. The truth. Get saved. Let that be your identity. You know there's more to their Hispanic culture than Catholicism. They need to reject Catholicism and continue to eat tacos and wear a sombrero, but they need to reject Catholicism. And Catholicism, unfortunately, Mexican people and Hispanic people always think that it's just our culture. We're just going to die Catholics. You're going to die and go to hell if you remain a Catholic. You need to believe on Christ and not let that false religion take you down. Hey, let's change the culture of Guadalupe. Let's make it a culture of being Baptist. Let's make it a culture of believing the Bible. Don't just get locked in and say, well I can say, well I'm Scandinavian, so I'm just going to be a Lutheran. I'm just going to die a Lutheran. You know, that's garbage. Somewhere you've got to break that chain. And Hispanics need to reject Catholicism and become a Bible-leading Christian. You know, Scandinavians need to reject the Lutheran cult. And this is a cult, following man. Instead of Christianity, it's Lutheran. Worshipping man, following man, who was a false teacher, by the way. And so we've got all this false religion around us. Why doesn't it stir us when we see idolatry in Mesa? Who's seen that temple in Mesa? I've never been there. I've never been there, but I was in Sacramento, California, yesterday and they didn't have this when I lived there. But now they have a Mormon temple in Sacramento, California where I live and I saw it and I think all of them have this. Somebody tell me of the people who see it. There's like a golden idol on some kind of pedestal at the top of the temple. Does that exist in Mesa? Isn't there like a golden molten image of some kind of a whatever blowing a trumpet or whatever it is? You know, I'll tell you right now, the Mormons are not worshipping the God of the Bible. They do not even believe that there's one God. They believe in multiple gods. It's a pagan religion. It's a total false religion. That ought to stir us. And we ought to say, you know what? It's a hard job. It's a difficult job. It's no fun knocking doors in Mesa. That's the least fun place to knock doors. I'll tell you what. I'll leave that to Monday and Friday night crowd. I'm going soloing. And a lot of times, somebody said to me, do you meet up with them on those days? And a lot of times, we'll be going solo. Brother Garrett and I, we're doing a lot of soloing on Monday nights. We don't meet up with them. We go with Phoenix. We go with Tipi. But I'm just kidding. I've done a lot of soloing in Mesa. But I'll tell you what. It's not fun. It's not receptive. It's wholly given unto Mormonism. And I'll tell you what. Somebody's got to roll up their sleeves, though, and just do that work. And I mean, it's a hard job. And I salute you, those who do soloing in Mesa, and those who live in Mesa, and do all that. You know, I salute you, because it's a hard job. But you know what? Be not weary in well-doing. For in due season, we shall reap if we fain not. And if you keep on going, and keep on going, and work hard, you will see the harvest in Mesa. And many times, you already have. And so let's just keep going. I mean, look. I've given the Gospel to so many Mormons. And it just seems like you're just talking to a brick wall. But you know, a few months ago, I was able to win a devout, dyed-in-the-wool Mormon to the Lord for the first time in my life, just a few months ago. Because I've won a lot of the Jack Mormons, but I've never won the dyed-in-the-wool Mormon. And I thank God that I was able to get a Mormon saved after all these years of seeing a lot of people saved of a lot of different religions, but just that was the one thing that's tough right there. But keep going. Keep working at it. Let that stir you to service and say, you know what? Somebody's got to do this. And you know, we're the church that needs to be doing it, by the way. There are other churches out there that dabble in so many, but you know, we are the soul-winning powerhouse. You know, let's just face it, all right? And so we need to go out there and knock the doors and really do something in that city and all these cities around us. Those are just a couple of examples. We could say, you say, well, is this just Mesa and whatnot? No. Then you look at some of the wealthier areas. You know, they have an idolatry of worshipping mammon. And the Bible talks about worshipping money as a god and calls it mammon. And that's the idolatry of America today in many cases, worshipping the almighty dollar, worshipping money, and others worship all manner of false gods. But it says in verse 17, therefore, disputity in the synagogue. Now, it does not say, therefore, he shared in the synagogue. Dude, dispute is a word that basically says, you know, you're contradicting something there. That's what dispute means. I mean, if I gave you a certain fact or figure or number and you disputed that, you're saying, hey, that's not true. And you know, we need to sometimes realize that when we go soul-winning, you know, sometimes it involves telling someone that they're wrong. Not rudely, not unkindly. You can speak the truth in love. You can be, you know, what is it, wise as serpents and harmless as doves, the Bible says. But you know what? You have to tell people the truth. And a lot of people today are just afraid to ever tell anyone that they're wrong. You know, and they'll go soul-winning and they'll give somebody the gospel that's of some false religion such as Mormonism or calls it, and then that person will walk away. I mean, they'll talk to that person for 20 minutes and that person, when they walk away, thinks that they both agreed on everything, that everything's fine and that everybody's going to heaven because that soul-winner was afraid to tell them, hey, wait a minute, that's not true. Wait a minute, no, it's not salvation by works. There is only one God. The Lord Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. That is a false teaching Jehovah's Witness that Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead. You know, you've got to be willing to dispute with somebody. You can't just go around just being Mr. Yes Man. Just Mr. Go With Everybody's Flow, and I just tell people the truth, and I have people tell me that, you know, just tell the truth. You don't have to tell people they're wrong. Just say what's right. But the problem is today, people have decided that everybody's right. We can both be right. But no, we can't both be right. One is right and the rest are wrong. And so when we talk to someone, we have to be willing to use the word no, wrong, bad, God. No, there we go. We have to be willing to dispute something. But today we've got a bunch of preachers who don't want to dispute anything. They just gave a positive only message, you know, and I'm not saying to be rude or unkind or to be a jerk. You don't have to be a jerk, but you know what? You know what? You need to just in love tell someone the truth and say, hey, wait a minute, that's religion. This is another gospel. This is not the gospel of Jesus. Paul was not going into this synagogue just saying, oh, you know, you guys are really great. You know, I really love what you're doing here. Let me just add a little bit. Maybe I can just share something that might, you know, kind of take your spirituality to the next level. You know, he went in there and disputed with them and said, hey, you're following a false religion here, you know, and obviously he did it wisely, but he didn't just go in there saying, you know, here, let me add unto, you can't put, let me put it this way. You can't put new wine into old bottles else the bottles break and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish. You've got to put new wine into new bottles. And when you're preaching the gospel, you can't build upon the foundation of false religion. You know, you can't put new wine into that old bottle. You have to start over. You have to tear down, you know, and then rebuild the truth there. Other foundation can no man lay, then that is laid Jesus Christ. You can't sit there and build on Catholicism and build on Mormonism. No, you've got to dispute Catholicism. You've got to dispute Mormonism. Usually I give the gospel first. I preach the truth first because that's the carbon of salvation. But you better know that I always take the time to tell them why their religion is false. Because otherwise I could just be going around praying a prayer with a bunch of people who when I walk away, they're still a Catholic, they're still a Mormon, they still believe false doctrine and they didn't get saved because they didn't change what they believe. They believe the same thing that they believed when I got there. They still believe it works. They still believe Jesus was just a good teacher. They still believe that he's not the Lord God in the flesh. And so you've got to dispute some things. And you can't be afraid to dispute, to rebuke, to tell someone that they're wrong. And again, we're not talking about being untactful but you have to tell someone that they're wrong in order to lovingly get them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't have a positive only message. It's not going to work. Paul didn't do it. He disputed in the synagogue, and we're going to see a little bit later some things where he tells people that they're wrong too. What they call confrontational soul winning. You know, a lot of people say, I'm against this confrontational evangelism. I'm for it. People need to be confronted with the truth and confronted with a choice between the truth and a lie. And so it says he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met with him. So he's out soul winning every day and on the Sabbaths he's going to the synagogue and talking to those people. And preaching unto them. And it says in verse number 18, Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? Now isn't it interesting how the philosophers of this world, the intelligentsia, this is like the university crowd. Isn't it funny how pompous they are? Oh, what will this babbler say? You know, they're just so high and mighty. Oh, this tent maker. Oh, this Jew. What does he know? They're just blowing him off. Calling him a babbler when they don't even know what he's saying yet. They don't even know what he's saying. And they're already criticizing him because they think that they have all the knowledge. And we run into people like this all the time, don't we? The university. They've got their little B.A. and B.S. behind their name and they know everything. They're so educated. It's so funny to me how many people I meet with degrees in various disciplines who don't really have a huge amount of knowledge in that discipline. It blows me away. I've talked to two people that had a four-year degree in nutrition. I started to ask them about nutrition and they literally said, I don't know anything about nutrition. I mean, I literally said, I don't know. I asked Joe, didn't he graduate? He's just like, he's healthy. And then just laughed. He's like, I don't know. Hey, I'm not criticizing him. Who cares? I'm just saying, it's funny how people go and they study these subjects. It doesn't mean that you learn that subject. How many people have you met? You ask them, hey, do you speak Spanish? No, but I took four years of it in high school. Yeah, I took Spanish three and four in college. I don't know. Yeah, I took four years of French. Do you speak in French? No. But people today, they worship their little worldly education and they look down on others who don't have their learning. I literally spoke to someone who was someone who graduated with a degree in philosophy who had never read Plato's Republic, which is considered the cornerstone of Western... I'm not promoting it. It's worthless garbage. It's preaching of a totalitarian government. It's like the Communist Manifesto on steroids. But yet, it is considered the cornerstone of Western philosophy. And it is the big book. I have read Plato's Republic, cover to cover, unabridged. And I'm not recommending reading it because it's the wisdom of this world. It's foolishness with God. Read this book cover to cover. But yet, you'll run into... I bet you if we went and took a poll of philosophy majors, I'm wondering how many of them would say that they've never read it. And they'll say, I've learned about it. And that's what it is too with the Bible. People go to Bible college and they learn all about the Bible. But they don't learn the Bible. But they learn all about the Bible. They learn... And literally... Let's turn this into a Bible college classroom right now. I'm Professor Anderson. Let me... Do I have my glasses here? I don't have my glasses. That's too bad. The kids must have ran off of them. They're in there, Zuzia? Where are my glasses? Because I just don't feel like I can really transform this place without my glasses. Oh, here we go. Now, I don't wear glasses, but put on my educated glasses. Let's transform this into a Bible college classroom tonight. First of all, let me go around and charge everybody money for being here first. Because you've always got to pay for these college classes. There's the Faithful Word Bible Institute. If we were in a Bible college class, you know what we'd be studying about Acts 17 right now? We'd be learning all about what the Epicureans are. Who's been to Bible college before? You're the only person qualified to answer this. Would we be talking about all about what the Epicureans believe? All about what the Stoics believe? Hey, I don't care what the Stoics believe. I don't care what the Epicureans believe. It doesn't matter. It was false. And Paul tells them that. He doesn't care what they believe either. And yet, if we were in Bible college tonight, literally, we'd be learning all about the Epicureans. I've been to Bible college. I've been to these classes. I've been to Christmas school. It'd be all about what the Epicureans believe. Because we've got to get the content. It doesn't matter whether they were Epicureans, or Stoics, or Mormons, or whatever. Who cares what the pagans, whatever. So what? Who cares whether it was Zeus, or Mercury, or Jupiter that they were. Did it really matter? No. You know, I mean, I don't care how many rings Jupiter and Saturn have tonight. You know what I mean? And I don't really care about all their mythology. Because it is just a big myth. Who cares? But yet, if we were in Bible college, and we had real education, we would learn about the Epicureans, the Stoics. We'd be learning exactly how far it is from Thessalonica to Berea. You know, that's what's really important. To figure out how to get all the distances of the geography. You know, that's not what we need. But yet today, people with a so-called education, they get puffed up, but they don't have real knowledge. Real knowledge is not when you know about the Bible. It's when you know the Bible. You know, it's when I can talk to you. And by the way, you know, I talk to so many people in this church. I can tell who knows the Bible in this church. It's pretty easy to tell who knows the Bible when you start talking to them. Because you'll start talking to them and say, hey, you know this story right here? And they know exactly what you're talking about. They know the chapter. You know, they know what's going on. They see the picture of the Bible. They understand what's going on. You know, you run into how many people. You ask them a basic. I mean, I remember this guy came to our church one time. He says, book of Revelation expert, prophecy expert. And I asked him all, every question I asked him about Revelation, he said, well, I'd have to have it in front of me. You know, because it's like, he doesn't know what chapter 14's about. You know, and you may not know what Revelation chapter 14's about, but are you coming to me telling me you're a prophecy expert and a book expert on the book of Revelation? You know? And this guy, I'm asked about chapter 14. He's like, well, I'd have to have it in front of me because he didn't even know what I was talking about. So we have to go get the Bible and I'll read it to him. And then he goes, oh, here's what I think that means. You know, instead of just already knowing what the Bible says because you're an expert. But you see, education and degrees after your name, let me just give you Pastor Erickson's philosophy of education. You can take the horse to the water, but you can't make him drink. You know, and education is something that has to be taken in voluntarily. You know, you have to go to Spanish class with a desire to learn how to speak Spanish. You have to go to college with a desire to learn about nutrition if you really want to learn, you know. And if you're just trying to get a degree in nutrition because, you know, the girl in front of you in line, you liked her and that's what she put on her card. You know, you're not going to learn anything about nutrition. Or if it's just, I heard it was easy. You're not going to learn anything. Because learning comes from desire. The Bible says through desire, Proverbs 18, 1. Through desire, a man having separated himself seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. Wisdom, knowledge and understanding come from a strong desire to have knowledge. The Bible says that we should desire knowledge as silver and gold and treasure. We should have a desire to learn. And that was just kind of a little rant on these educated people who are looking down upon... I got to hurry for the sake of time. I got a little off track there. But it says in verse number 18, What will this babbler say? Other some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods. Oh yeah, talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Strange gods? I mean, we're talking about the people that have this woman turned into a tree and this guy throws lightning bolts. He's only preaching one god, first of all. Not plural strange gods. He's setting forth a god. They're the ones teaching a bunch of strange gods. And so it says, Because he preached unto them Jesus in the resurrection, verse 19. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would therefore know what these things mean, for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. That sounds like a pretty productive life. It says in verse 22, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very educated. Is that what he said? Okay, well hold on a second. Let me get out my NIV here. You know, the King James belongs in a museum. Let's get out the NIV here. Something that we can understand a little better. It says in, what verse are we in? Somebody help me out. 1722. It says in Acts 1722 here, Paul then stood up in the midst, Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus, the Holy Spirit tripped me up when I tried to read this book. Men of Athens, I see that in every way you're very religious. Now is that the same thing? This is a compliment. I mean, if somebody tells you, by the way, here's a shock for you. Religion is good. The Bible says that, you know, you're a religion, an undefined, before God the Father is this. You're very religious. Now, actually, in the real Bible here, he's telling them, no, you're too superstitious, which fits the context, because he's criticizing them, because he says, you know, you're too superstitious, for as I pass by and behold your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. I mean, they're worshiping so many false gods, they said, well, hey, just in case we missed one, you know, let's worship the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship. Now that wasn't a very nice thing to say. 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 give it to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood 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. Let me just say quickly, the word race is not in the Bible. God did not ordain. Some people teach three races. You know, you've heard people talk about three different races. The Bible does not teach that. The Bible says God made all nations of the earth of one blood. Now, everyone is of one blood here. We're all related. We all go back to Adam. And even closer than that, we all go back to Noah. But we are divided into nations, as we ought to be divided into nations. God divided people into nations at the Tower of Babel. But those nations are not based upon skin color, not of three races, but actually a multitude of nations, which has nothing to do with color. For example, the nation that we are a part of is the United States of America. Now, there are black people that are Americans. There are Chinese people that are Americans. And you go throughout the world, and there are different nations. There's Germany. There's France. There's England. There's China. There's India. And people might be ethnically a descendant from totally different people, but they're still a part of that nation, because a nation is a political unit. It's a government structure. And so the Bible does ordain nations. We don't believe in a one-world government, a one-world global village. But we do believe in separate nations, but it's not based upon ethnicity or race, which are two concepts not found in the Bible, because, let's face it, even in the Old Testament, when God had his chosen people, wait a minute now, the Bible says that anyone of any nation could join themselves unto the nation of Israel, become circumcised, and join the nation of Israel. Okay? So they could eventually have the identical status. There were certain nations that they were supposed to keep out because of various reasons, and certain people had to wait so many generations before they'd be totally accepted. But the Bible said, you know, thou shalt have one law for the stranger as well as for him that's born in the land. Same laws apply to everybody. If you're an immigrant, if you're born in the land, same laws apply to everybody. The only law in the Bible that was different was that the king had to be somebody who was born in the land, and all God's people said, Amen. All right. So the king had to be born in the land, but every other law was the same. There was not a double standard for people who immigrated in. Everybody was under the same code then. So, basically, in the Old Testament, an African man or whatever man could join himself unto the nation of Israel, become circumcised, and have every right and privilege of somebody who is descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So nations are not races. Nations are political groupings that God has ordained, just like he ordained churches, just like he ordained families, just like he ordained nations. It's not a racial thing. It's just a government, structural thing. It's just an authority thing. And so let me blow past that. It says he made all nations of men report as well on all the face of the earth, and had determined the times before appointed in 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. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone or graven by art a man's device. Now, a very important point here on this part. A lot of people will take this and say, see, Paul was trying to reach them where they're at. So he's using some of their poetry to reach them. He's using some of their mythology. He's trying to meet them in the middle. No. The reason that he quotes their poet is to say, you're not even believing what your own religion teaches. He's showing a contradiction in their teaching. He's not using that as an authority. Yeah, we're all his offspring, just like your poet said. It's just like John Lennon said. Imagine all the people. He's not trying to use their poetry. He's saying, your poet said we're his offspring, so why are you bowing down to a piece of metal? If we're God's offspring, that doesn't even make sense to worship something that could be engraved with gold and silver and stone by man's art. So he was showing a contradiction. He wasn't throwing them a bone. Hey, I respect your culture. No, he was just exposing a contradiction there in their belief. And he said in verse number 29, basically a verse against idolatry. I don't have time to dwell on it. Verse 30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Now, it blows my mind how people will quote this verse as proof that in order to be saved, you have to repent of your sins to be saved. Now, hold on a second. Does this say anything about being saved? Number one. Number two. Does it say anything about repenting of your sins? Was Paul preaching a sermon against sin? Was he preaching against drinking and covetousness and adultery and murder and stealing? No. What is he talking about? People worshiping false gods. Now, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, you don't have to turn there, but the Bible says in how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. He's not telling them to repent of their sins, their sinful lifestyle. That would be work salvation if it were about salvation. He's telling them, turn from false gods to the living God. That's the context. If you actually get the context, he's saying turn from that false god, Mercury or whatever he was, Zeus, and turn to the living God. But do you see how people add to God's word? They take a verse out of context and say, see, this proves that if you're not willing to give up drinking, you can't be saved, because you've got to repent from your sins. No, that's not what it says. They needed to repent of worshiping the wrong god. Obviously, you can't believe on Jesus Christ if you're believing on some other false god. You can't have it both ways. You can't have both. You've got to love the one and hate the other, hold to the one and despise the other. I mean, you have to reject a false god in order to embrace the true and living God. You can't say, well, I'm Christian and Buddhist. You can't do that. You have to decide and choose this day who you'll serve. And here, they're being told that they must repent of ignorance, the ignorance that was causing them to worship a statue and call it God. Because, verse 31, he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead, and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them, albeit certain men clave unto him and believed, among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with him. So, three reactions. Some people made fun of the message, blew it off, mocked it. Other people said, you know what, we'll hear thee again of this matter. You know, not today, but let's talk about this again. And then other people believed right then and there. That's pretty much the three reactions you're going to get when you give somebody the gospel. Some people you give the gospel, they're going to mock, they're going to just blow it off. Other people, they're not going to get saved, but you've planted a seed. You've watered the seed. Hopefully another day they'll get it. And then other people will believe right then and there. And that's exactly what happened here. The sad thing is that many people say, we'll hear thee again of this matter, you know, and then next time never comes. The opportunity never comes. They never get another chance, or they become hardened, or whatever the case. And so that's why it's important for people that are not saved. You can say they, and that's why when I talk to people and they say, you know, and I can tell that they're really getting what I'm saying, and it seems like they're close to just believing on Christ. And they try to say another day, I like to quote the verse where he says, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Because you don't know when it's going to be too late for people. And so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God, and this great chapter in the Bible about a great man, Paul, and his love for lost souls, his spirit being stirred everywhere he goes, consistently in Thessalonica, in Berea, in Athens, in season, out of season, preaching the gospel everywhere he goes, disputing, reasoning, preaching with power. God, help us to be like the Apostle Paul, help us to follow his example and to preach his message. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, let's go ahead and just quickly sing one song before we go.