WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.240 worship of God. We're singing firstly tonight Psalm 103, Psalm 103, and this is from the 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:12.120 Scottish Psalter version. You'll find that on page 369 of the Blue Psalm books. 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:20.719 Psalm 103, the tune is London New, and we're singing verses 1 to 5. 00:00:21.740 --> 00:00:27.960 O thou, my soul, bless God the Lord, and all that in me is, be stirred up his holy name 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:34.280 to magnify and bless. Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be of all his 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:40.120 gracious benefits he hath bestowed on thee. We'll stand to sing these verses to the end 00:00:40.120 --> 00:00:42.039 of verse 5 to God's praise. 00:00:46.040 --> 00:00:57.939 O thou, my soul, bless God the Lord, and all that in me 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:24.140 he is. Be stirred up his holy name to magnify and bless. Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:47.140 and not forgetful be of all his gracious benefits he hath bestowed on thee. 00:01:47.140 --> 00:02:02.140 All thine iniquities who doth most graciously forgive. 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:04.140 who thy diseases, all and pains, doth heal and be relieved. 00:02:04.140 --> 00:02:19.139 Who thy diseases, all and pains, doth heal and be relieved. 00:02:19.139 --> 00:02:35.139 Who doth redeem thy life that thou to death mayst not fall down. 00:02:35.139 --> 00:02:37.139 who thy goodness, all and pains, doth heal and bless you. 00:02:37.139 --> 00:02:51.139 Who thy with loving kindness joth and tender mercies crown. 00:02:51.139 --> 00:03:05.119 Who with abundance of good things doth satisfy the Lord, and all that in me is, be of all 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:27.120 grace by thy mouth. So that in us the eagle's age, renew it is thy youth. 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:32.120 Let's join together now in prayer. Let's call upon the name of the Lord. 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:40.120 Almighty God, in whose presence we appear once more in this place of worship. 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:49.120 We give you thanks again, O Lord, that we are found here, and that we are here with a desire to worship you. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.120 That we are here, O Lord, to listen to your voice speaking to us through the scriptures, 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:58.120 and seeking to bring praise and honour and glory to you. 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:02.120 We give thanks, Lord, for every opportunity you give us to do this. 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:07.120 We know that each opportunity we have is far more than we deserve. 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:14.120 We deserve only to be forever cast out from you and kept from you for our sin against you. 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:19.120 And we thank you that you have made provision, as we were reminded this morning from your word, 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:26.120 a provision where you have provided reconciliation in the Lord Jesus Christ and through his death. 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:31.120 And we pray that you would bless to us, Lord, all that we partook of this morning. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:36.120 Help us to carry forward in our hearts and lives the death of Jesus 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:40.120 in such a way that would reflect our attachment to him. 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:45.120 And, Lord, we pray tonight for any who have not yet come to receive him, 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:52.120 who have not yet come to respond believingly and repentantly to the offer of the gospel. 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:57.120 We pray that wherever they may be, and even in this gathering tonight, should there be such, 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:01.120 we do, O Lord, ask that your Holy Spirit will draw us, 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:08.120 that your Holy Spirit will impress upon us our need of repentance and confession of sin, 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:14.120 and that you would draw us, Lord, to see the Lord Jesus Christ, your dear Son, 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:18.120 as the one in whom you have made provision for us for our forgiveness, 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:23.120 for our acceptance, and for our being made righteous with God. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:26.120 We thank you tonight, O Lord, for your word. 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:29.120 We thank you for your word in its entirety. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.120 We thank you that we regard our Bibles as your word, 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:41.120 and that we come to use our Bible in such a way as would seek to hear your voice speaking to us. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:44.120 We pray, O Lord, that your word tonight, as we read it, 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:48.120 and as we seek to expound it and listen to it preached, 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:53.120 we ask that it may have that impact upon our minds and lives, 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:56.120 by which we may be turned into your ways, 00:05:56.120 --> 00:06:02.120 by which those of us who are ready your people will be confirmed in our walk with you, 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:08.120 and will be further established and rooted and grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:12.120 We thank you, O Lord, that you are risen from the dead, 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:18.120 as we remembered this morning your death on the cross at Calvary. 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:24.120 We give thanks tonight that we address you as one who is risen from the dead and exalted to glory, 00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:28.120 one who is set at the right hand of the Father on high, 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:33.120 and who presides over the matters that take place throughout the universe. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:39.120 We give thanks, O Lord, that you are Lord of all things, 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.120 that we are answerable to you, 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:48.120 thereby that we know that we can come to a God who is marked by longsuffering and kindness 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:53.120 and patience toward us, graciousness and lovingkindness. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:57.120 And, Lord, we ask that we may not take these things for granted 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:02.120 or forget that there are other attributes that belong to you as well. 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:06.120 Your view of sin, your wrath against sin, 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:10.120 your power in dealing with human beings such as we are 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:13.120 and with the world in which we live, 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:18.120 your justice by which all things will ultimately be made right, 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:23.120 right in the sense in which you will deal with all as you see fit 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:29.120 and as we deserve to be and as Jesus deserves on behalf of his people. 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:34.120 And we ask, Lord, your blessing tonight to be with us in the fellowship afterwards. 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:37.120 We pray for Scott as he leads the fellowship. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:42.120 And we pray that once again as we are able to gather together in this way, O Lord, 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:47.120 we do give thanks to you for being back together in this way. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:50.120 We pray for Murdy as he gives us this testimony. 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:56.120 We ask, Lord, that we, as we listen to him, may hear of things which will convince us, Lord, 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:03.120 of our own need of Christ and convince us of how secure we are in Christ 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:06.120 as you bring us to be joined to him. 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:09.120 And we pray that you would bless each and all tonight 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:12.120 who meet in other places throughout this town, 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.120 throughout our whole land, indeed throughout the world. 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:20.120 We pray for those again who meet in very different circumstances to ours, O Lord. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:28.120 We so often hear about your own believing people surrounded by adversity 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:34.120 and surrounded especially by persecution and war and terror. 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:40.120 And, O Lord, we commit to you tonight all those of your people who are in these circumstances. 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:47.120 Remember those throughout the world who deal with tragedy on a large scale. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.120 We think of the war in Ukraine. 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:53.120 And ask, Lord, that you would bring peace about. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:56.120 And you would be pleased, Lord, to come to intervene. 00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:04.120 And we pray for the people of Ukraine who have shown such resilience and determination against the aggressor. 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:11.120 And we ask, O Lord, that you would bless the aggressor as well, that he may be turned from his way. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:21.120 And that those who are serving in the army of the Russian army will themselves see the futility of all that they have been driven to do. 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:22.120 We pray, O Lord, to you. 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:31.120 We pray, too, for places in the world, Lord, tonight where there is severe drought, where there is lack of food and resources to keep people alive. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.120 We pray for all those in refugee camps. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:36.120 We ask for all who seek to bring them aid. 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:47.120 And, Lord, we ask that in all of these different circumstances, so very different to our own, we pray that you would be at work. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:10:07.120 And, Lord, show us, as you have shown many times in the past, that these acts of your providence can be means by which you reveal yourself, by which you draw people to yourself, by which out of desperation itself they may come and place their trust in you and look to you for relief. 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:10.120 We ask your blessing again for our children. 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:25.120 We thank you for them, for all who attend this place of worship, for all who come to creche with their children, for the children who come, for the tweenies, for the Sunday school and the different age groups, for the Bible class, for the youth fellowship. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:33.120 Lord, we pray that our children and young people and young adults will be further nurtured in your ways. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:36.120 Help them to resist the pull of the world. 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:43.120 Help them, Lord, to set their face daily towards you and to seek prayerfully that you would guide them through life. 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:54.120 Hear the prayers of their parents and Sunday school teachers and all of us here in the congregation, O Lord, who pray for ourselves and for our young people and for the upcoming generation. 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:57.120 Remember us then, Lord, we pray. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:06.120 We pray that you would continue to bless every effort to witness to the Lord's day as important to our society. 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:09.120 Remember the rally at the end of this week. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:17.120 And help us to value your day, O Lord, and to realize the great blessings that are attached to its keeping on our part. 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:24.120 We pray that you would enable us to see how relevant your day is yet for our society. 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:30.120 Forgive us, Lord, we pray as a people for having done so much against the keeping of your day holy. 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:40.120 Forgive us for our despising of your day, for our neglect of it, for treating it as if it were no different to any other day. 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:50.120 And especially forgive us, Lord, we pray for abandonment of worship and of giving God the glory on this day of rest. 00:11:50.120 --> 00:12:05.120 We ask that throughout our land, your Holy Spirit will once again work to bring our people to see the importance of the Lord's day, of the ordinance of your church on the Lord's day, of the services of worship. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:15.120 And we ask that in all of these things, Lord, you might be pleased to come with your blessing and restore and revive and quicken us again as a people. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:18.120 We ask now your blessing for those who are ill. 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:21.120 We pray that you would bless them, those who are bereaved. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:30.120 We commit to you all the families who tonight mourn the passing of loved ones, whether during these days or else in times gone by. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:34.120 Remember them all and comfort them, console their hearts, we pray. 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:45.120 I receive our thanks now and as we offer to you our thanks and confess our sin, we pray these things seeking pardon and cleansing for Jesus' sake. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:46.120 Amen. 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.120 Now we're going to read from God's word. 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:53.120 We're reading tonight from the book of Acts. 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:55.120 Acts chapter 17. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:56.120 I'm going to read from verse 16. 00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:01.120 I know it says in the bulletin from verse 22. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:08.120 But if we read from verse 16, we can see where Paul begins this incident. 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:14.120 So Acts chapter 17 and at verse 16. 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:21.120 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:28.120 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:33.120 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:37.120 And some said, what does this babbler wish to say? 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:44.120 Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:52.120 And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:55.120 For you bring some strange things to our ears. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.120 We wish to know therefore what these things mean. 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:06.120 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:14.120 So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:18.120 For I passed along and observed the objects of your worship. 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:23.120 I found also an altar with this description to the unknown God. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:28.120 What you therefore worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:35.120 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:45.120 Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:52.120 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:57.120 Having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:02.120 That they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him. 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:05.120 Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:09.120 For in him we live and move and have our being. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:15.120 As some even of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:22.120 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone. 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:26.120 An image formed by the art and imagination of man. 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:29.120 At times of ignorance God overlooked. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:33.120 But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:39.120 Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:44.120 And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:49.120 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. 00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:53.120 But others said, we will hear you again about this. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.120 So Paul went out from their midst. 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:58.120 But some men joined him and believed. 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:02.120 Among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite. 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:04.120 And a woman named Damaris. 00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:07.120 And others with them. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:13.120 Once again we pray that God will bless to us that portion of his word. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:18.120 Our next item of praise is Psalm 130. 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:20.120 Psalm 130. 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:22.120 That's again in the Scottish Psalter. 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:24.120 To tune Martyrdom. 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:27.120 Lord from the depths to thee I cried. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:30.120 My voice Lord do thou hear. 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:34.120 And to my supplications voice give an attentive ear. 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:38.120 Lord who shall stand if thou O Lord shouldst mark iniquity. 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:44.120 But yet with thee forgiveness is that feared thou mayest be. 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:46.120 So the whole of Psalm 130. 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:51.120 That's on page 421. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:56.120 Lord from the depths to thee I cried. 00:16:56.120 --> 00:17:09.119 Lord from the depths to thee I cried. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:10.119 My voice Lord do thou hear. 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:16.119 My voice Lord do thou hear. 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:36.119 And to my supplications voice give an attentive ear. 00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:55.119 Lord who shall stand if thou O Lord shouldst mark iniquity. 00:17:55.119 --> 00:18:14.119 But yet with thee forgiveness is that fear thou mayest be. 00:18:14.119 --> 00:18:25.119 I wait for God my soul doth wait. 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:33.119 My hope is in his word. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:44.119 More than they laugh for morning watch. 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:52.119 My soul doth wait for the Lord. 00:18:52.119 --> 00:19:03.119 I say Lord than they laugh to watch. 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:11.119 The morning night to see. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:22.119 Let Israel, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord. 00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:30.119 Our with him mercy speak. 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:48.119 And plentious redemption is ever found within. 00:19:48.119 --> 00:20:07.119 And from all his iniquities he is shall redeem. 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:17.119 Now we're going to look for a short time this evening at some verses from the passage read in Acts chapter 17. 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:22.119 Acts 17 and beginning at verse 30. 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:26.119 Or we can take verse 29 as well. 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:39.119 The times of ignorance God overlooked. 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:43.119 But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:50.119 Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. 00:20:50.119 --> 00:20:57.119 And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:11.119 Paul's presentation of the gospel and the gospel message was very much shaped by the circumstances in which he found himself at any given time. 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:17.119 We don't mean by that, of course, that he changed the shape of the gospel itself. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:20.119 That he changed what the message actually was. 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:24.119 But he changed the method sometimes by which he presented it. 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:28.119 Or the ways in which he emphasized certain things. 00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:32.119 Such as you find here in this passage. 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:36.119 You go back to chapter 13 and verse 16. 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:40.119 You'll find that there he was dealing with Jewish people. 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:43.119 And so he took them to the Old Testament. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:52.119 Because he knew very well, of course, that they would actually understand what he had to say. 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:54.119 Chapter 13 and verse 16. 00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:58.119 Well, you find him saying to these people of Israel. 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:00.119 So, men of Israel and you who fear God. 00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:07.119 Listen, the God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:08.119 And so on. 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:13.119 And he went through then various details about the history of the Jews. 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:15.119 And the history of God dealing with them. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:17.119 Right through to the early times. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:20.119 So there he is actually presenting the gospel. 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:28.119 Using a method or a shape of message that he knew would very well fit in with his audience. 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:31.119 He wasn't pandering to his audience. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:33.119 He wasn't giving them what they wanted to hear. 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:37.119 But he was shaping the message knowing the kind of situation he was in. 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:42.119 And then when you come to chapter 17, he's in very different circumstances. 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.119 He's actually in Athens. 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:46.119 In a pagan city. 00:22:46.119 --> 00:22:49.119 A pagan city that's crammed full of idols. 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:54.119 And as he went through the streets there, we read there in verse 16, 00:22:54.119 --> 00:22:56.119 His spirit was provoked. 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:05.119 He was intensely moved within him as he went through the streets of Athens and saw that the city was full of idols. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:11.119 And then he came across this altar which had an inscription to the unknown God. 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:15.119 And that was the basis on which Paul approached his message. 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:19.119 He shaped the message to suit the audience of the time. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:27.119 He shaped the message not by emphasizing the God of the Old Testament, which they would not understand, but God the Creator. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:37.119 And then from there, God the Creator coming through to emphasize Jesus and coming to emphasize in these verses we're looking at tonight, 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:45.119 the way in which Jesus has been appointed to be the judge of the world at the end of the age. 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:54.119 So you can see how different the shaping of the message is given the difference in the context with which Paul is dealing. 00:23:54.119 --> 00:24:06.119 But whether it's to the Jews or whether it's to these pagan people in Athens, the message always comes to this point of presenting Jesus. 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:09.119 Presenting Jesus as the Savior. 00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:17.119 Presenting Jesus as God's provision against the plight of human beings in their sin and in their lostness. 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:21.119 That's the point to which Paul always brings his message. 00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:23.119 That is the core of his message. 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:26.119 That's really above everything else what he wants to emphasize. 00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:35.119 Whether he starts with the Old Testament scriptures or starts with even quoting some of the pagan poets as he did in Athens. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:42.119 He ends up always emphasizing Jesus, his death, his resurrection, his return. 00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:49.119 And it's that emphasis that you find in these verses 30 and 31. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:56.119 Because the focus there is not just on Jesus, but especially Jesus and his resurrection. 00:24:56.119 --> 00:25:02.119 But also the implications of that for the final judgment for the day of judgment. 00:25:02.119 --> 00:25:05.119 Now the day of judgment is an awesome thing. 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:10.119 It's something which the world of our day disbelieves by and large. 00:25:10.119 --> 00:25:15.119 It's not something that we ourselves naturally want to think about or hear about. 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:20.119 But it's such an important and integral part of the message of the gospel. 00:25:20.119 --> 00:25:30.119 And it's very much attached, as we'll see, to the person of Jesus himself and where he stands in relation to the judgment of the world. 00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:33.119 So we want to look at two things from these verses tonight. 00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:42.119 First of all, there's what Paul actually calls the times of ignorance God overlooked. 00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:45.119 God overlooked the times of ignorance. 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:52.119 Now remember, Paul is dealing here with idolatry, the massive idolatry he found in Athens. 00:25:52.119 --> 00:26:01.119 And as he deals with that, and as he seeks to bring a message that takes account of that, he says to these people in Athens, 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:15.119 the times of ignorance, that's to say, when people in the past, before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, were very much given to making idols of different substances, 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:22.119 the times of ignorance, gold and silver and stone formed by the art and imagination of man, as he puts it in verse 29. 00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:27.119 The times of this ignorance God overlooked. 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:37.119 And that's sometimes maybe a strange thing for us to read because it's very clear from the Old Testament, right through the Old Testament, what God thinks of idolatry. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:42.119 Because idolatry is substituting someone or something for God himself. 00:26:42.119 --> 00:26:45.119 It's worshiping an idol instead of God. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:54.119 Whether the idol is carved out of wood or stone or gold or silver, or whether the idol is just our own philosophy, our own person, our own self, 00:26:54.119 --> 00:27:04.119 whatever it is, as it's replacing God and the worship that God is due, that is what the Old Testament all the way through is saying is abhorrent to God. 00:27:04.119 --> 00:27:13.119 And that really involves other religions other than the Christian religion other than the faith that is in Christ. 00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:28.119 I know that's not popular today at all in our own society, in our own world, because we are so used to hearing of equality that there has to be equality given to every sort of thought, 00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:35.119 every kind of philosophy, every kind of lifestyle, every kind of religion, that they're all on the same platform. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:46.119 And ultimately it doesn't really matter whether you exercise your faith in relation to God and to Jesus, or whether it's to Buddha or in Islam. 00:27:46.119 --> 00:27:51.119 We're told that they come to the same thing, and that's of course not what the Bible teaches us. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:57.119 And we have to reckon seriously indeed with what the Bible calls idolatry. 00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:07.119 That doesn't mean you go out and untactfully actually address people in a way that just makes them aggressive, although that may happen anyway. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:23.119 But we present the gospel lovingly and yet with a certainty that every alternative to Christ is idolatry and is offensive to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:36.119 And we mustn't be afraid in saying these things and saying that we believe the teaching of the Bible, even if that draws attention to us and if it draws opposition to us. 00:28:36.119 --> 00:28:38.119 We don't do that deliberately. 00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:41.119 We don't set out just to provoke people. 00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:47.119 We don't set out to denigrate people, to belittle their freedom of choice. 00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:57.119 We believe in freedom of religion, even if we don't necessarily believe everything that's in the alternative religions to Christ. 00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:00.119 And so God's view of idolatry is very clear. 00:29:00.119 --> 00:29:02.119 Look at all the times in the Old Testament. 00:29:02.119 --> 00:29:08.119 In fact, the very beginning of the Bible, the first two chapters of Genesis, 00:29:08.119 --> 00:29:14.119 and the first chapter in particular is really a polemic against idolatry. 00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:18.119 Now, that doesn't come out necessarily on the surface of the page. 00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:26.119 But when you go through the way that the first chapter of Genesis tells us about God creating the heavens and the earth, 00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:33.119 and then giving shape and order and substance on the different days of the creation, bringing things into being, 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.119 including the sun and the moon and the stars. 00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:44.119 Well, all of that is directed against the pagan ideology that there are many gods and all of these deities exist, 00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:48.119 such as the sun and the moon, as you know yourselves. 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:54.119 That was something that pagans and pagan idolatry included in their worship. 00:29:54.119 --> 00:30:00.119 And there is the very first chapter of the Bible actually setting out, actually God created this. 00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:04.119 The Christian God created these. 00:30:04.119 --> 00:30:10.119 And all the way through, especially you'll find it, of course, in the prophets of the Old Testament, 00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:19.119 because very often they were actually meeting with idolatry in the practices of Israel, of Judah, of God's covenant people. 00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:23.119 They had imbibed the teaching of the pagans around them. 00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:32.119 When they entered the land of Canaan especially, they took some of the Canaanite idols and attached them to their own practices and worship. 00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:38.119 And some of the behavior attached to these idols also was imported into the practice of Israel. 00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:53.119 That's why you find people like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea and these prophets of the Old Testament denouncing in the strongest terms the behavior of the people they belonged to because they had turned to idolatry. 00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:57.119 So what does it say here? 00:30:57.119 --> 00:30:59.119 What does it mean when it says here, 00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:03.119 the times of ignorance God overlooked? 00:31:03.119 --> 00:31:13.119 Is this really suggesting to us that after all, the Old Testament description of the prophets and of even the opening chapters of the Bible, 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:23.119 that does it mean that God overlooked them in their idolatry in the sense that he was indifferent to them and didn't really bother to think too much about it? 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:26.119 Does it say that it wasn't really that serious to God after all? 00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:28.119 Well, it doesn't at all, of course. 00:31:28.119 --> 00:31:30.119 So what does it mean? 00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:38.119 It means that while God did not approve of the idolatrous ways of the pagan nations, 00:31:38.119 --> 00:31:45.119 he made a certain allowance, we might say, for their ignorance, for their darkness. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:51.119 You see, the gospel had not yet come to these pagan nations, nor could it indeed, 00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:55.119 until Jesus had come and died and risen again from the dead. 00:31:55.119 --> 00:32:04.119 That's really what provided the basis and the foundation for the gospel message as Paul is bringing it here to the people of Athens. 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:12.119 What he is saying to them, yes, God treats idolatry as really serious, but he's a God who is patient. 00:32:12.119 --> 00:32:20.119 He's a God who overlooks in the sense of not bringing his judgment immediately upon something that deserves it. 00:32:20.119 --> 00:32:31.119 Because God, in his long suffering and patience, allowed for that ignorance, not approving of it, not allowing it in that sense, 00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:41.119 but acknowledging that these people lived in darkness, the light of the gospel and of God's truth that not penetrated to the pagan nations of the world. 00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:45.119 And so God made an allowance. 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:50.119 We can call it that, the times of ignorance God overlooked. 00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:58.119 Until the coming of Christ, until the coming of the gospel age, and then things changed. 00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:01.119 That's why you've got these very strong words, 00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:04.119 But now. 00:33:04.119 --> 00:33:06.119 You see the emphasis on these words? 00:33:06.119 --> 00:33:09.119 The times of ignorance God overlooked. 00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:11.119 But now. 00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:13.119 Now that this has happened. 00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:17.119 Now that the very event we commemorate and remember this morning in the Lord's Supper, 00:33:17.119 --> 00:33:19.119 the death of Jesus on the cross. 00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:22.119 Now that Christ has risen from the dead. 00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:25.119 Now that the gospel has gone out to the nations. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:29.119 Now that the darkness is being penetrated by the light of the gospel. 00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:35.119 Now that the ignorance that existed before, the darkness that existed before, 00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:40.119 has actually come to have the light of the gospel shining toward it and into it. 00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:47.119 Now, he says, God commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:33:47.119 --> 00:33:52.119 It's no longer a pre-gospel age. 00:33:52.119 --> 00:33:57.119 And it's the cross of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, 00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:02.119 the light that came with Christ and with the work of Jesus. 00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:03.119 That's what's made the difference. 00:34:03.119 --> 00:34:08.119 That's the turning point between the times of ignorance, the times of darkness, 00:34:08.119 --> 00:34:11.119 and the times of gospel light. 00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:16.119 Now he commands all men everywhere to repent. 00:34:16.119 --> 00:34:19.119 And you see the emphasis there too. 00:34:19.119 --> 00:34:26.119 Now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:34:26.119 --> 00:34:28.119 It's a command. 00:34:28.119 --> 00:34:34.119 The gospel comes to me and comes to you in a way that addresses our need. 00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:39.119 In a way that highlights our guilt and our sinfulness and our sin against God. 00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:46.119 It comes to us in such a way as, yes, presents us with the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:34:46.119 --> 00:34:52.119 But alongside of that, and related to that, God commands repentance. 00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:56.119 You see, the gospel message tonight, if I were to stand in this pulpit tonight and say, 00:34:56.119 --> 00:34:58.119 this is the gospel message. 00:34:58.119 --> 00:35:00.119 Here is God saying, there is salvation for you. 00:35:00.119 --> 00:35:01.119 Take it or leave it. 00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:03.119 It's up to you. 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:05.119 Make of it what you will. 00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:07.119 And leave it at that. 00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:15.119 You know very well that I wouldn't be true to the Savior, to God, to the gospel itself in saying that. 00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:22.119 Because God commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:35:22.119 --> 00:35:24.119 That's not a mere offer. 00:35:24.119 --> 00:35:32.119 It's not just an extending to us of good news without anything else attached to it by way of imperative. 00:35:32.119 --> 00:35:35.119 Here is God saying, here is the gospel. 00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:39.119 Here is the great event that makes all the difference in the world. 00:35:39.119 --> 00:35:44.119 The event of Christ's death and resurrection. 00:35:44.119 --> 00:35:51.119 And now God commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:35:51.119 --> 00:35:54.119 And that's me and you. 00:35:54.119 --> 00:36:00.119 God is not saying to you tonight, if you have not yet repented, 00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:06.119 or even if you are a Christian and there is sin in your life, that you have not yet repented and confessed to God. 00:36:06.119 --> 00:36:09.119 He is not saying, well, I advise you to do this. 00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:13.119 He is not saying, you know, it would be really a good thing if you could consider doing this. 00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:16.119 And an appeal on those grounds on the part of God. 00:36:16.119 --> 00:36:19.119 God is saying, do it. 00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:22.119 That's something that I require of you. 00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:25.119 Something that I demand of you. 00:36:25.119 --> 00:36:28.119 It's a command to repent. 00:36:28.119 --> 00:36:32.119 And when we don't repent, or refuse to repent, 00:36:32.119 --> 00:36:39.119 we are actually sinning grievously against God because we know that God has commanded us something, 00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:42.119 and we've not obeyed that command. 00:36:42.119 --> 00:36:45.119 And that's why it's so serious. 00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:51.119 I know that this sounds, in the world of today, it sounds rather harsh. 00:36:51.119 --> 00:36:53.119 And I don't mean to present it harshly. 00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:55.119 Forgive me if you think that's what I'm doing. 00:36:55.119 --> 00:37:02.119 It's maybe sounds harsh in the ears of a world that really doesn't want to know anything about God, 00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:08.119 about Christ, about the Christian religion, about following Christ, about any of those things. 00:37:08.119 --> 00:37:14.119 But the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is saying, repent. 00:37:14.119 --> 00:37:16.119 Do this. 00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:17.119 Do this. 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:18.119 Believe. 00:37:18.119 --> 00:37:19.119 Turn to me. 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:22.119 Turn from your sin. 00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:31.119 All of that is within the context of an imperative, a command from God Himself. 00:37:31.119 --> 00:37:34.119 And what is it that He's commanding? 00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:37.119 Well, He's commanding repentance. 00:37:37.119 --> 00:37:43.119 Now He commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:45.119 And what is repentance? 00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:54.119 Well, repentance, as I'm sure you very well know, can be described as a U-turn spiritually and morally. 00:37:54.119 --> 00:38:03.119 Because our life is going in one direction naturally in our sin, in our sinfulness, in our lostness. 00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:05.119 That's the direction we're heading in. 00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:10.119 There's the prodigal leaving home with us back to his father's house, 00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:13.119 and he's heading in one direction, and it's away from his father. 00:38:13.119 --> 00:38:15.119 It's away from the security of his father's house. 00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:17.119 It's away from everything he could have in abundance. 00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:19.119 That's what a sinner is. 00:38:19.119 --> 00:38:21.119 That's what you and I are naturally. 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:23.119 That's what you and I do naturally. 00:38:23.119 --> 00:38:32.119 That's what our sinful hearts, if you like, are programmed by sin to do. 00:38:32.119 --> 00:38:35.119 God is calling us back. 00:38:35.119 --> 00:38:42.119 God is calling us to turn round, to repent, to do a U-turn. 00:38:42.119 --> 00:38:51.119 Remember the famous incident where the late Margaret Thatcher, as Prime Minister, at a conference, I think it was, 00:38:51.119 --> 00:39:00.119 where people were calling her and her government to do a U-turn, just to turn round from the direction they were taking in their policies and do a U-turn. 00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:07.119 And you remember how famously, I'm not preaching politics, whatever you think of Margaret Thatcher, that's your business. 00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:13.119 But you remember how famously she said, people are saying to me, do a U-turn. 00:39:13.119 --> 00:39:18.119 Well, the lady's not for turning. 00:39:18.119 --> 00:39:21.119 U-turn if you want, she said. 00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:23.119 The lady's not for turning. 00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:28.119 Now, unfortunately, some people react that way to the Gospel. 00:39:28.119 --> 00:39:31.119 God is saying, do a U-turn. 00:39:31.119 --> 00:39:35.119 Turn round from the direction that sin is taking you in. 00:39:35.119 --> 00:39:38.119 Turn away from death and back to life. 00:39:38.119 --> 00:39:48.119 And sadly, we find some people saying, this lady, this man, this person is not for turning. 00:39:48.119 --> 00:39:51.119 I'm fine as I am, thank you. 00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:56.119 I can be religious without that sort of U-turn, that commitment. 00:39:56.119 --> 00:40:04.119 Well, tonight, I hope, if there is anyone here tonight who needs to make that U-turn, 00:40:04.119 --> 00:40:13.119 who has not yet come back to Jesus, back to God through Christ, who has not repented of sin, confessed their sin, 00:40:13.119 --> 00:40:17.119 and desires to get back to fellowship with God. 00:40:17.119 --> 00:40:19.119 Listen to what God is saying. 00:40:19.119 --> 00:40:23.119 I command you to repent. 00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:24.119 Of course, it's an offer. 00:40:24.119 --> 00:40:27.119 It's an offer of life. 00:40:27.119 --> 00:40:30.119 It's an offer lovingly made on the part of God. 00:40:30.119 --> 00:40:40.119 It's an offer that's based on the staggering event of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, at Calvary dying the death of the cross. 00:40:40.119 --> 00:40:43.119 That's what we remembered this morning. 00:40:43.119 --> 00:40:51.119 And on the basis of that, and in relation to that, God is saying to you and is saying to me tonight, turn back to me. 00:40:51.119 --> 00:40:53.119 Give your heart back to me. 00:40:53.119 --> 00:40:56.119 Turn round from the ways of sin. 00:40:56.119 --> 00:40:59.119 Accept what I have to offer. 00:40:59.119 --> 00:41:07.119 But it is my authority, and I'm commanding it, is what God is saying. 00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:08.119 And you notice what he's saying. 00:41:08.119 --> 00:41:13.119 He commands all people everywhere to repent. 00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:17.119 Here is Paul in the Areopagus in this public square in Athens. 00:41:17.119 --> 00:41:28.119 And here he is actually addressing these pagan people and presenting this God that he knows himself as his Savior God, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:41:28.119 --> 00:41:31.119 And to these pagan people, that's what he's saying. 00:41:31.119 --> 00:41:35.119 He commands now all people everywhere to repent. 00:41:35.119 --> 00:41:37.119 Every pagan nation in the world. 00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:39.119 Every single kind of person. 00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:40.119 Every background. 00:41:40.119 --> 00:41:42.119 Every kind of viewpoint. 00:41:42.119 --> 00:41:44.119 Every kind of philosophy. 00:41:44.119 --> 00:41:47.119 Whatever it is, he commands us to repent. 00:41:50.119 --> 00:41:57.119 And it sounds not just ridiculous, but it's actually very offensive to people. 00:41:57.119 --> 00:42:06.119 If you were to say this to them even lovingly and tactfully, that God commands their repentance. 00:42:06.119 --> 00:42:08.119 But he does. 00:42:08.119 --> 00:42:12.119 You see, it doesn't matter whether we accept this as the truth or not. 00:42:12.119 --> 00:42:16.119 The truth does not go away just because we reject it. 00:42:16.119 --> 00:42:24.119 It doesn't become other or different to what it actually is, depending on our reaction to it. 00:42:24.119 --> 00:42:30.119 It commands people, all people, everywhere to repent. 00:42:30.119 --> 00:42:38.119 And that's the problem, one of the problems, many problems, that we are facing today with presenting the Gospel to people. 00:42:38.119 --> 00:42:45.119 Because the whole idea of repentance is repugnant to the world in which we live. 00:42:45.119 --> 00:42:50.119 And it comes into all sorts of areas of human behavior. 00:42:50.119 --> 00:42:57.119 Where you find such things as conversion therapy mentioned as something very distasteful. 00:42:57.119 --> 00:43:01.119 Something completely against what people should be presented with. 00:43:01.119 --> 00:43:08.119 Well, of course, that terminology itself is open to lots of interpretation. 00:43:08.119 --> 00:43:16.119 We're not in the business, as we've said many, many times, of forcing people into any point of view, even the Christian point of view. 00:43:16.119 --> 00:43:19.119 That's not what the Gospel is really about. 00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:21.119 The Gospel is not forcing people to repentance. 00:43:21.119 --> 00:43:26.119 The Gospel is actually saying, God is actually commanding you to repent. 00:43:26.119 --> 00:43:30.119 You can choose to ignore that if you like, but it's not going to go away. 00:43:30.119 --> 00:43:35.119 And this is the truth of what God is actually saying. 00:43:35.119 --> 00:43:42.119 And it's everywhere and for everyone to repent. 00:43:42.119 --> 00:43:45.119 There's no getting away from it. 00:43:45.119 --> 00:43:48.119 That's what God is commanding of us. 00:43:48.119 --> 00:43:54.119 And tonight we should be thankful that we have this message. 00:43:54.119 --> 00:44:00.119 You will find it dealt with far better than I'm able to deal with it tonight. 00:44:00.119 --> 00:44:03.119 You'll find much, much better preaching. 00:44:03.119 --> 00:44:08.119 You'll find much, much better presentation of the truth of the Gospel in this way. 00:44:08.119 --> 00:44:09.119 I know that. 00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:16.119 But I know also that you will not find a different Gospel, a better Gospel, as Spurgeon put it, 00:44:16.119 --> 00:44:20.119 than the Gospel that Paul commended to the Athenians. 00:44:20.119 --> 00:44:23.119 The Savior that God spoke of to the Athenians. 00:44:23.119 --> 00:44:29.119 The God that Paul presented to the Athenians as the God who commands repentance. 00:44:29.119 --> 00:44:38.119 And for you and for me tonight, that's something, of course, that we must never ourselves overlook 00:44:38.119 --> 00:44:46.119 or treat in any other way but to accept it as God's own command to us. 00:44:46.119 --> 00:44:59.119 And he then goes on to say, because, he commands all people to repent everywhere, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness, 00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:05.119 by a man by whom he means, by which he means Christ, of course, by a man whom he has appointed, 00:45:05.119 --> 00:45:12.119 and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." 00:45:12.119 --> 00:45:15.119 You see, it's a fixed appointment. 00:45:15.119 --> 00:45:19.119 God has his own diary. 00:45:19.119 --> 00:45:25.119 And in God's diary, this day is marked down and fixed. 00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:28.119 He's made this his appointment. 00:45:28.119 --> 00:45:32.119 He's going to judge the world by this Jesus Christ. 00:45:32.119 --> 00:45:36.119 At this particular point, whenever it may be, only God knows. 00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:41.119 But it's there and it's fixed in his diary, and it's not going to go beyond it. 00:45:41.119 --> 00:45:47.119 He's not going to go beyond it or be short of it. 00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:56.119 He has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. 00:45:56.119 --> 00:46:03.119 And it's a universal appointment, because it's everyone who is going to be judged, not just one or two people. 00:46:03.119 --> 00:46:07.119 He's going to judge the world in righteousness. 00:46:07.119 --> 00:46:14.119 All the despots who have ever lived, all the dictators who have ever lived, all the mass murderers who have ever lived, 00:46:14.119 --> 00:46:18.119 all those who have persecuted Christians as well as Christians themselves, 00:46:18.119 --> 00:46:22.119 every single person who ever lived, whatever the circumstances of their life were, 00:46:22.119 --> 00:46:29.119 however long ago they were in this world, however long before this they died and were buried 00:46:29.119 --> 00:46:32.119 and went out of existence in people's memories, 00:46:32.119 --> 00:46:39.119 He will judge the world. 00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:46.119 There are no fugitives from this judgment, from this judge. 00:46:46.119 --> 00:46:49.119 Nobody can turn up on that day and say, 00:46:49.119 --> 00:46:55.119 Can you accept my apology? I've got other things to do. 00:46:55.119 --> 00:47:01.119 He will judge the world in the day that He has fixed. 00:47:01.119 --> 00:47:03.119 And that means you and I as well. 00:47:03.119 --> 00:47:08.119 2 Corinthians 5 9-10, I often quoted at gravesides, 00:47:08.119 --> 00:47:15.119 that we commit these remains to return to the dust until the return of Christ. 00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:22.119 When, as the Bible tells us, we shall all appear before, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, 00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:27.119 so that we may receive the things done in this body, whether good or evil. 00:47:27.119 --> 00:47:32.119 See what he's saying? The judgment is a judgment of everybody. 00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:37.119 Christians, saints, those who have placed their trust in Jesus, 00:47:37.119 --> 00:47:46.119 will be judged and acquitted and counted righteous and displayed as righteous with the righteousness of Christ. 00:47:46.119 --> 00:48:00.119 On the other hand, there will be the remainder of mankind who will be sent away from God to everlasting damnation. 00:48:00.119 --> 00:48:06.119 That's the judgment with which God is going to judge the world. 00:48:06.119 --> 00:48:09.119 And you see, He's doing it in righteousness. 00:48:09.119 --> 00:48:16.119 Because the standard that God uses to judge the world is not a human standard. 00:48:16.119 --> 00:48:21.119 It is God's own standard. He's going to judge the world in righteousness. 00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:27.119 Remember Paul, when he came to his final letter to Timothy, 00:48:27.119 --> 00:48:32.119 where he said, I am already being poured out. The time of my departure has come. 00:48:32.119 --> 00:48:35.119 I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. 00:48:35.119 --> 00:48:39.119 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, 00:48:39.119 --> 00:48:44.119 which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. 00:48:44.119 --> 00:48:48.119 And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. 00:48:48.119 --> 00:48:51.119 He's talking there about Jesus, the righteous judge. 00:48:51.119 --> 00:48:56.119 What is your guarantee as a Christian, as a saved sinner? 00:48:56.119 --> 00:48:59.119 What is your guarantee that when the Lord returns, 00:48:59.119 --> 00:49:04.119 He will actually invite you into His everlasting kingdom to be with Him there forevermore? 00:49:04.119 --> 00:49:08.119 It's the fact that He's the righteous judge who judges righteously. 00:49:08.119 --> 00:49:16.119 And none of those who are righteous in Christ will be anything other than accounted righteous 00:49:16.119 --> 00:49:20.119 and displayed as righteous when the Lord comes. 00:49:20.119 --> 00:49:26.119 But you see, the fact that the Lord is the righteous judge means that, as 2 Corinthians 5 puts it, 00:49:26.119 --> 00:49:31.119 that we may receive the things done in this body, whether good or evil. 00:49:31.119 --> 00:49:39.119 And His righteousness, His judgment, His justice is included in His judgment. 00:49:39.119 --> 00:49:49.119 You know, one of the things that should convince us of the reality of God, the very existence of God, 00:49:49.119 --> 00:49:51.119 against those who may come to you and say, 00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:54.119 do you believe in someone you cannot see? 00:49:54.119 --> 00:49:56.119 You're just being foolish. 00:49:56.119 --> 00:50:03.119 Why do you believe in God when science has really pretty much almost disproved the existence of God, 00:50:03.119 --> 00:50:06.119 or certainly the teachings of much of the Bible? 00:50:06.119 --> 00:50:10.119 Well, one of the things you can say in reply to that is, 00:50:10.119 --> 00:50:11.119 do you believe in justice? 00:50:11.119 --> 00:50:13.119 Oh, yes, I believe in justice. 00:50:13.119 --> 00:50:15.119 Do you believe in ultimate justice? 00:50:15.119 --> 00:50:18.119 It's a big question, isn't it? 00:50:18.119 --> 00:50:24.119 Where is there going to be justice for the victims of the Holocaust? 00:50:24.119 --> 00:50:33.119 Where is there going to be justice for those who were murdered in this world by evil people, 00:50:33.119 --> 00:50:40.119 who then did not actually face up to the charge or the penalty they ought to have had? 00:50:40.119 --> 00:50:56.119 One of the things that convinces me about God and the reality of God is that human society needs ultimate justice. 00:50:56.119 --> 00:51:05.119 Because the justice in our court system must itself be based upon the righteousness of God, 00:51:05.119 --> 00:51:09.119 upon the justice that God speaks of in His Word. 00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:14.119 And that justice, of course, is justice in God Himself. 00:51:14.119 --> 00:51:19.119 He is the just judge, as Paul put it to Timothy. 00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:26.119 And as you come to think of meeting the just judge, 00:51:26.119 --> 00:51:30.119 be afraid if you're not a Christian. 00:51:30.119 --> 00:51:34.119 Be thankful and rejoice if you are. 00:51:34.119 --> 00:51:41.119 Because at one and the same time, His justice ensures that you will be accounted righteous. 00:51:41.119 --> 00:51:47.119 On the other hand, His justice, if you die unsaved, 00:51:47.119 --> 00:51:52.119 is what persuades you that you will not be accounted righteous. 00:51:52.119 --> 00:51:57.119 That God must deal with you as your sin deserves. 00:51:57.119 --> 00:52:06.119 He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed. 00:52:06.119 --> 00:52:09.119 And there's a certainty about this. 00:52:09.119 --> 00:52:12.119 And in fact, what He's saying here is, 00:52:12.119 --> 00:52:17.119 Of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. 00:52:17.119 --> 00:52:22.119 You see, when we think about, when we speak about the judgment of God, 00:52:22.119 --> 00:52:29.119 and God, the Son of God, the righteous judge, the Lord Jesus Christ coming as the judge of all the earth, 00:52:29.119 --> 00:52:30.119 people will scoff at that. 00:52:30.119 --> 00:52:31.119 Of course they will. 00:52:31.119 --> 00:52:35.119 Just as they did here, some of them in Athens. 00:52:35.119 --> 00:52:37.119 But Paul is actually saying, 00:52:37.119 --> 00:52:42.119 Actually, God has given proof of the truth of this. 00:52:42.119 --> 00:52:47.119 Where is the proof that there is a coming day of judgment? 00:52:47.119 --> 00:52:51.119 Well, of course, it's there in the word of God, which ought to be enough for us. 00:52:51.119 --> 00:52:53.119 But for these pagan people in Athens, 00:52:53.119 --> 00:52:57.119 Paul was actually preaching the resurrection of Christ, the risen Christ. 00:52:57.119 --> 00:52:58.119 And he says, 00:52:58.119 --> 00:53:01.119 That is the proof that the day of judgment is coming, 00:53:01.119 --> 00:53:07.119 because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world by the man whom He has appointed. 00:53:07.119 --> 00:53:12.119 And He has given assurance or proof of this, in that He has raised Him from the dead. 00:53:14.119 --> 00:53:17.119 And if you remember your catechisms, 00:53:17.119 --> 00:53:22.119 there's one of the questions there that asks where the exaltation, 00:53:22.119 --> 00:53:25.119 what the exaltation of Christ consists of. 00:53:26.119 --> 00:53:32.119 And the answer is that it consists of His being exalted to the right hand of God. 00:53:32.119 --> 00:53:34.119 But it finishes by saying, 00:53:34.119 --> 00:53:39.119 And in coming to judge the world at the last day. 00:53:39.119 --> 00:53:45.119 You see, this is part of Christ's own office as the exalted Lord. 00:53:45.119 --> 00:53:51.119 You cannot leave out the element of the final judgment, 00:53:51.119 --> 00:53:56.119 because it belongs properly to Christ as God's appointed judge. 00:53:56.119 --> 00:54:01.119 And if we're saying the judgment is just something that people would, 00:54:01.119 --> 00:54:04.119 that weary people can hardly believe in that, 00:54:04.119 --> 00:54:07.119 where is the proof that such a thing will ever take place? 00:54:07.119 --> 00:54:08.119 Well, the proof is here. 00:54:08.119 --> 00:54:12.119 If you believe tonight, as I hope you do, that Jesus rose from the dead, 00:54:13.119 --> 00:54:16.119 that He's exalted to glory, that He's in heaven with the Father, 00:54:17.119 --> 00:54:19.119 then you believe in the day of judgment. 00:54:19.119 --> 00:54:23.119 Because that's why God raised Him from the dead. 00:54:23.119 --> 00:54:28.119 And He has given assurance to us that He will in fact judge the world by this man, 00:54:29.119 --> 00:54:32.119 because He has raised Him from the dead. 00:54:34.119 --> 00:54:38.119 So if you believe in Jesus and in His resurrection, 00:54:38.119 --> 00:54:41.119 it follows that you believe in the judgment. 00:54:42.119 --> 00:54:46.119 The two things are inseparable here in the teaching of this passage. 00:54:46.119 --> 00:54:48.119 And you can see the mixed reception. 00:54:48.119 --> 00:54:49.119 I'm finishing with this point. 00:54:49.119 --> 00:54:52.119 The mixed reception that was given to this, 00:54:52.119 --> 00:54:58.119 this preaching to this message that Paul actually pronounced to the Athenians. 00:54:58.119 --> 00:55:01.119 You see, there are three categories of response. 00:55:02.119 --> 00:55:05.119 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. 00:55:06.119 --> 00:55:08.119 Others said, we will hear you again about this. 00:55:08.119 --> 00:55:10.119 In other words, they're not dismissing it. 00:55:10.119 --> 00:55:13.119 They want to actually learn more of what Paul is saying. 00:55:13.119 --> 00:55:19.119 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Areopagite, 00:55:19.119 --> 00:55:25.119 a member of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris and others with them. 00:55:26.119 --> 00:55:30.119 And it's great the way it finishes there, others with them. 00:55:31.119 --> 00:55:39.119 It mentions these specifically, Dionysius, Damaris, this woman, and then just says others with them. 00:55:39.119 --> 00:55:45.119 And so it leaves it open to you and to me to place our own name in this passage. 00:55:46.119 --> 00:55:49.119 And to ask ourselves tonight, well, what's my reaction? 00:55:50.119 --> 00:55:56.119 What's my response to the teaching of this passage with regard to Jesus, the just judge, 00:55:57.119 --> 00:56:00.119 and the judge of all at the end of the world? 00:56:00.119 --> 00:56:06.119 I hope it's not in any way mocking. 00:56:07.119 --> 00:56:09.119 I'm sure it isn't on you, pardon. 00:56:10.119 --> 00:56:11.119 You know the gospel. 00:56:11.119 --> 00:56:13.119 You respect God too well for that. 00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:19.119 I hope it's more than just, well, I want to hear you again about this. 00:56:20.119 --> 00:56:23.119 Let me delay it for the moment until I find out more about it. 00:56:23.119 --> 00:56:26.119 That may not be possible. 00:56:27.119 --> 00:56:30.119 You may have to go and face the judge tonight before morning comes. 00:56:31.119 --> 00:56:33.119 So don't leave it like that. 00:56:34.119 --> 00:56:38.119 I hope that it is, in fact, as it was for some of them. 00:56:39.119 --> 00:56:41.119 They joined Paul and believed. 00:56:42.119 --> 00:56:45.119 They placed their trust in Christ. 00:56:45.119 --> 00:56:53.119 And so they came to follow the people of God and join them as they followed Jesus. 00:56:54.119 --> 00:56:57.119 I may finish with a hymn that I came across. 00:56:58.119 --> 00:57:00.119 It's written by Paul B. Henkel. 00:57:01.119 --> 00:57:05.119 He lived from 1754 to 1825. 00:57:06.119 --> 00:57:14.119 And I like these very simple words that he uses for such a profound and solemn thing as this judgment. 00:57:14.119 --> 00:57:20.119 The last judgment, the judgment of the just judge of all who have ever lived everywhere. 00:57:21.119 --> 00:57:25.119 Must I in judgment stand before my Lord appear? 00:57:26.119 --> 00:57:30.119 Shall I appear at his right hand or sentenced to despair? 00:57:31.119 --> 00:57:34.119 Will then my Savior say, come, join the heavenly hosts? 00:57:35.119 --> 00:57:39.119 Or must I then be driven away to the infernal coasts? 00:57:39.119 --> 00:57:44.119 Oh, what will be my state when I from hence shall flee? 00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:48.119 Oh, matters of the greatest weight to launch eternity. 00:57:49.119 --> 00:57:52.119 Oh, how shall I appear in that tremendous day 00:57:53.119 --> 00:57:58.119 when I, my judge's voice, shall hear, say, come or go away? 00:57:59.119 --> 00:58:01.119 Oh, Savior, hear my prayer. 00:58:01.119 --> 00:58:02.119 Such witness grant to me. 00:58:02.119 --> 00:58:10.119 Make me assured when I appear that I shall go with thee. 00:58:11.119 --> 00:58:20.119 May you and I be found among the saved on that momentous day when the judge returns. 00:58:20.119 --> 00:58:21.119 Let's pray. 00:58:21.119 --> 00:58:22.119 Let's pray. 00:58:23.119 --> 00:58:28.119 Lord, we give thanks for the reminders that you give us so often in your word 00:58:29.119 --> 00:58:34.119 of how we need to come back to the main teachings that you give to your people. 00:58:34.119 --> 00:58:39.119 How you come to present us with the truth of the gospel 00:58:40.119 --> 00:58:46.119 and how we find so much in it that to our own natural sense and to our own lost condition 00:58:47.119 --> 00:58:50.119 is unpalatable and we often reject. 00:58:51.119 --> 00:58:53.119 Lord, bring us, we pray, to love your word. 00:58:54.119 --> 00:58:59.119 Love your word for all the things that are solemn in it, as well as those that make us rejoice. 00:58:59.119 --> 00:59:06.119 We cannot properly rejoice, O Lord, except as we have already reckoned with the seriousness of our sin, 00:59:07.119 --> 00:59:08.119 our lostness, our guilt. 00:59:09.119 --> 00:59:14.119 But help us to rejoice in forgiveness, in salvation, in acceptance, 00:59:15.119 --> 00:59:21.119 in anticipation of your coming as the just judge who will take your people to live with you forevermore, 00:59:22.119 --> 00:59:25.119 whose justice ensures that in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:59:25.119 --> 00:59:27.119 Bless us each one, Lord. 00:59:28.119 --> 00:59:30.119 We are so familiar with the gospel. 00:59:31.119 --> 00:59:32.119 Forbid that we should be lost. 00:59:33.119 --> 00:59:36.119 But we come to face the judge when he comes 00:59:37.119 --> 00:59:39.119 and only expect to be turned away from him. 00:59:40.119 --> 00:59:43.119 Be pleased, we pray, to bless your word to that end. 00:59:44.119 --> 00:59:45.119 For Jesus' sake. Amen. 00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:46.119 Amen. 00:59:46.119 --> 00:59:47.119 Amen. 00:59:48.119 --> 00:59:51.119 We are singing now in conclusion tonight from Psalm number 9. 00:59:52.119 --> 00:59:55.119 Psalm 9 in the Sing Psalms version. 00:59:55.119 --> 00:59:56.119 And that's on page 8. 00:59:57.119 --> 01:00:02.119 And to the tune Martyrs, we are singing verses 7 to 11. 01:00:02.119 --> 01:00:05.119 The Lord forever reigns on high. 01:00:05.119 --> 01:00:07.119 His throne for judgment stands. 01:00:08.119 --> 01:00:10.119 He'll judge the world in righteousness. 01:00:10.119 --> 01:00:12.119 With justice rule the lands. 01:00:13.119 --> 01:00:15.119 The Lord will be a hiding place for those that are oppressed. 01:00:16.119 --> 01:00:20.119 And he will be a strong defense for those who are distressed. 01:00:20.119 --> 01:00:22.119 And those who know your name, O Lord, 01:00:23.119 --> 01:00:24.119 in you their trust will place. 01:00:25.119 --> 01:00:29.119 For you do not abandon those who seek your gracious face. 01:00:30.119 --> 01:00:33.119 Sing praises to the Lord who sits in Zion on his throne. 01:00:34.119 --> 01:00:38.119 Among the nations of the world proclaim what he has done. 01:00:39.119 --> 01:00:40.119 We'll stand to sing these four verses. 01:00:40.119 --> 01:00:54.119 The Lord forever reigns on high. 01:00:55.119 --> 01:01:01.119 His throne for judgment stands. 01:01:01.119 --> 01:01:11.119 He'll judge the world in righteousness. 01:01:12.119 --> 01:01:20.119 With justice rule the lands. 01:01:21.119 --> 01:01:30.119 The Lord will be a hiding place. 01:01:31.119 --> 01:01:38.119 For those who are oppressed. 01:01:39.119 --> 01:01:47.119 And he will be a strong defense. 01:01:48.119 --> 01:01:56.119 For those who are distressed. 01:01:56.119 --> 01:02:06.119 All those who know your name, O Lord. 01:02:06.119 --> 01:02:13.119 In you their trust will place. 01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:25.119 For you do not abandon those who seek your grace. 01:02:25.119 --> 01:02:33.119 To seek your gracious face. 01:02:34.119 --> 01:02:51.119 Sing praises to the Lord who sits in Zion on his throne. 01:02:51.119 --> 01:03:10.119 And on the nations of the world proclaim what he has done. 01:03:10.119 --> 01:03:11.119 Amen. 01:03:11.119 --> 01:03:12.119 Amen. 01:03:12.119 --> 01:03:13.119 Amen. 01:03:13.119 --> 01:03:14.119 After the benediction. 01:03:16.119 --> 01:03:22.119 Lord our God we ask that you would bless us now as we come to a time of fellowship together. 01:03:22.119 --> 01:03:26.319 We ask that you would bless the food prepared for us, make us thankful for it. 01:03:26.960 --> 01:03:34.519 We pray that you would bless the speaker, Murdy, and help him, Lord, as he gives an account of his testimony of your dealings with him. 01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:36.839 And we with Scott as he leads the fellowship. 01:03:37.319 --> 01:03:45.920 And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and evermore. 01:03:46.519 --> 01:03:46.880 Amen. 01:03:52.119 --> 01:03:54.119 Amen. 01:04:22.119 --> 01:04:24.119 Amen.