This morning we’re going to take a little journey and we’re going to follow the apostle Paul as he visits Thessalonica, Berea, and then finally Athens. And we’re going to see what an average day was like in his life.

Have you ever thought of the different Bible characters and to be able to be there with them to find out what they went through? The way they witnessed, and so forth? Have you ever wished you could do that and be there?

If you want to turn with me to the 17^th of Acts, we will start with verse 1, and time permitting, we’re going to go through the whole chapter.

Acts 17:1 “Now when they (speaking of Paul and Silas) had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:”

Now the first thing I want you to notice is that, after the resurrection of Christ, the followers of Jesus did not consider the Jewish synagogue their church. They called it the synagogue of the Jews. They no longer referred to it as our church. And they no longer referred to the leaders of the Jewish religion as our leaders. That time was over. Why was it over? Because they were Christians. Because Jesus had been crucified and that old system had passed away. And because the Jews were rebellious people, God chose someone else. We’ll talk more about that in a little while.

But if you turn with me to Isaiah 65 and verse 15, we’re going to find out that this thing was foretold 700 years before it came to pass; this change that would take place.  Isaiah 65:15: And rather than take the time to read the context of this, you can do it yourself when you have time, if you start in verse 11 and right on through 15, you’ll see that God is speaking to the apostate Jews here. As Isaiah gives a prophecy about a name change that would occur in the future regarding those who would reject Christ and those who would accept Him. Verse 15: “And ye (apostate Jews) shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: (in other words, God says the day will come when your very name will be denounced by my true followers) for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:” In other words, the blessing that once rested upon His professed people, His chosen people, would be forever removed from them and that blessing would be placed upon another people that were called by a different name.

Now go back to Acts chapter 11 and we’ll see the fulfillment of this prophecy. Acts 11:25, 26: And don’t forget, when we read these things, we’re talking about principle here. When you read the Bible, we’re talking about principles that God wants us to follow, and He’s guiding us through these principles. And we know that God’s principles never change because God never changes. “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church (I want to you notice it says WITH the church. They didn’t assemble IN the church, because God’s church is a people. It’s a body of believers), with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

The name Christian was the new name that the heathen gave to the followers of Christ. Why was that name given to Christ’s followers? Because the main theme of their preaching, and teaching, and conversation was Christ, was Christ and Him crucified.

And you know, when I thought about this, I had to think to myself: how long does it take for me, and how long does it take for you, when you get around people that you don’t know before they know that you’re a Christian? Do they ever find out? Think of the apostle Paul. How long do you think it took people to find out where he stood? And whether or not he was a Christian? They knew, and they weren’t around him very long before they knew.

And how many times do we get acquainted with people and they don’t find out who we are? That happens, doesn’t it? And it shouldn’t. They should know us because we are preaching and teaching and conversing about Jesus Christ.

At first this name was meant in ridicule and taunting by the heathen. But later on, it became a name in which to glory.

If you turn to 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 16 it talks about this a little bit. Let’s read verses 14 and 16: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. . . . Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”  Because they call you Christian.

I will die for the name of Christ, won’t you? Why? Because Acts 4:12 says that there is none other name, under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved. And if you read verse 10 of that same chapter it will tell you what that name is. It is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I will not die for any of the hundreds of denominational names out there. Why? Because there is no salvation there. The salvation is in the name of Jesus, in the name of Christ. And that is the name that we are to uphold.

To the Jews, Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the unknown God. He’s the unknown God. He is unknown because they failed to recognize Him for who He was. And isn’t that why their name is associated with God’s curse today? God says your name is going to be a curse among My people and I’m going to call them by a different name. And that’s the way it is today. Their name is associated with God’s curse. Why? Because they rejected Christ, and when they had the opportunity to choose Christ or Barabbas, they chose Barabbas. They said, “His blood be upon us and our children.” And that’s the way it is today. God has answered their prayer.

Now, go back to Acts 17 and we’ll read verse 2: “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” And so, for a time, Paul was still able to go into the Jewish synagogue where he was not known. But that didn’t last too long. Three Sabbath days he was able to reason with those people out of the scriptures and then he was not welcome there anymore. And we’ll find out why as we continue.

And so, for three Sabbath days he reasoned with them out of the scriptures. Verse 3: “Opening (that is, to their minds) 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.” He is the long looked for Messiah.

If you look up that word alleging, that is at the beginning of that verse, “opening and alleging,” you’ll find that it’s associated with present truth. So what Paul was doing, he was opening their minds to present truth at that time. And the present truth was that Jesus was crucified and rose again from the grave. And He is the Messiah you have been waiting for all these years, and you’ve rejected Him. And he gets into a little more of that as we go along.

Verse 4: “And some of them believed (Praise God!), and consorted with Paul and Silas;” Again, words are so important. What does consorted mean? It almost sounds like something bad, doesn’t it? What it means is they unified completely with the message of present truth that Paul came to give. Today we would say they went whole hog for Christ. We can’t have just a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of self. It has to be all of Jesus and none of self. If we don’t go 100% for Christ, there’s no sense in going anywhere with Him because you can’t serve two masters. You can’t serve God and you can’t serve the devil at the same time.

“And 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.” These devout Greeks that it speaks of here were actually converts to Judaism. That’s why they were there worshipping in the Jewish synagogue with the Jews.

And so, what were Paul and Silas doing? They were proselytizing. That’s why they made their former brethren angry. Because they were trying to get them to see that they were on a ship that was not going to go through. And that’s what made them so mad.

Verse 5: “But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort (in other words, they scraped the bottom of the barrel, they got the low life of that community, those whose character was corrupt, and their morals were corrupt. And not only were they lewd, but they were of the baser sort. They were the worst of the worst. And they got those guys together, for what reason here?), and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason (in other words, they sent in a SWAT team to find Silas and Paul in Jason’s house), and sought to bring them out to the people (who no doubt would have torn them from limb to limb, had they had the opportunity). And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city (and that word drew means to drag, physically. They drug him right out of his house. They didn’t say, Will you come with us down to the courthouse? No, they drug him, they forced him to come down to), the rulers of the city crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;” These guys who have turned the world upside down are here now! We’ve heard about them in the past, now they’re here. What are we going to do?

You know, it’s a good thing that the rulers were heathen, because if God’s professed people back then would have had the rule in government, they would have killed them right on the spot. And so sometimes God’s people are safer with the heathen than they are with those who profess to be God’s people.

Verse 7: “Whom Jason hath received:” (You know, if you read in Romans 16:21 you find that Jason was a blood relative of Paul. And so, Paul and Silas were staying in Jason’s home as guests.) and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.”

And so, here, obviously, the Jews were trying to stir up patriotism among the Romans in an effort to get rid of those that did not believe like they believed. And something very similar to that is going to happen in the near future.

Verse 8: “And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.” And so, in a measure, they were successful in their efforts to stir up the rulers against these men.

Verse 9: “And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.” (In other words, when they had paid the required fine for disturbing the peace, that trumped up charge, that they had applied to Jason and his friends, they paid the fine and then they were let go.) And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither (or after they arrived) went into the synagogue of the Jews.” There it is again, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Why did they go in there? Because they knew that there were some who were honest at heart.

You know, even Jesus, when He was here on earth, speaking of a future time, He said the time is coming when they will, talking to His disciples, when they will scourge you in their synagogues. When Jesus was here it was His synagogue. Remember when He came in to cleanse the temple? He said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” But the time came, didn’t it, when He said, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” And so there came a point in time with the Jewish nation where they had crossed the line of their probation and it was no longer God’s house. It was left to them because they were rebellious people.

Verse 11: “These 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.” Now here we have a group. Paul was chased out of Thessalonica, and he went down to Berea, which was probably 25 miles away, not very far, and he met with a totally different class of people here. These people were openminded. And what made them different than the Thessalonians? They searched the scriptures daily. They studied. They were studiers. They didn’t just take someone’s word for it. You know the most dangerous thing for a Christian to do is to go to church and listen to what is being preached and take that as the gospel truth and not search it out for yourself, because I might be wrong, or somebody else might be wrong. Very dangerous thing to do.

And the same thing with our health. We are not to just go to the doctor and have him prescribe pills to us or put us through some kind of treatment program without us studying for ourselves what we ought to do for our own bodies. The Bible says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And Romans 12:1 says that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. God expects us to know our own bodies. We are not to just follow somebody’s advice because they have Doctor or PhD at the end of their name because they might be wrong just like the preacher in the pulpit might be wrong. So, God expects us to know some of these things for ourselves.

Verse 12: “Therefore many of them believed (again, Praise the Lord, there were some there who believed); also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.” We read something similar to that in Thessalonica, it was the Greeks. It’s interesting to me that the Greeks, here, were receptive to the gospel. Even more receptive, we’re talking basically heathen here. They were Jewish converts but they didn’t have the truth. They didn’t have the truth before they became Jewish converts and they didn’t have it after they became converts. But these people were receptive to the truth when they heard it, to that present truth that the apostle Paul had to give. Even more receptive than those who had been in the way a long time.

Verse 13: “But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.” Same song second verse. They followed them the 25 miles from Thessalonica to Berea to chase him out of town just like they did back in Thessalonica. Paul experienced this everywhere he went which just confirms the fact that wherever Paul went people knew he was a Christian. They knew. He preached it. He taught it. He conversed about it. And if we are to be one idea men and women, that’s the one idea we need.

Verse 14: “And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 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.”

And so here we get the picture. First, he’s in Thessalonica, he gets chased out of there. Then he goes to Berea, he gets chased out of there. Finally, he goes down to Athens. Now Athens was about 200 to 250 miles south of Berea. So, there was a little distance there. And those Jews that were trying to get Paul, it was a little bit far for them to go, and maybe they didn’t even know that he went down there. And so, he went far enough away to get away from those who were making his job harder.

And so, here we have Paul. By night they took him over to the seacoast, which is the Aegean Sea. He got in a ship, and he sailed down to Athens. And when he got to Athens, he saw something that made him tell those Bereans that accompanied him down to Athens to go back to Berea and tell Silas and Timothy to get down here right away. There’s something important here, I need their help. And so, this is where we are in the story.

Verse 16: “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” Paul’s spirit was stirred within him because of jealousy for God because those people ought to be worshipping the God of heaven, not these dumb idols. And so, his spirit was stirred within him. And that’s why he wanted Silas and Timothy to come down there and help him. There was a big field of labor here. And so, it took Silas and Timothy a little while to get there. I don’t know how long it took Paul to get 200 to 250 miles back in those days. If the wind wasn’t blowing very hard it probably took them several days to get down there. And then he turned around and said, You Bereans, go back there and tell Silas and Timothy to come down here. So, there could have been a week or two intervening here while Paul was by himself there at Athens.

And so, the whole city was given to idolatry. I don’t know about you, when I go to the big city— Is your spirit stirred within you when you go down to a worldly place like that and you see people involved in all kinds of things? And, you know, they may not be worshipping idols like they did back there in Athens. But isn’t an idol anything that takes first place in your life? That’s what it is. People are involved in the cares of this life; they’re involved with their jobs, their school. The kids are running around in their cars with their boom boom music. And all these things! And you’re witnessing all this. And you want to stand up on the top of your car and say, People! You’re missing something. Listen!

That’s the way Paul was when he went to Athens. He saw all this going on. He saw souls perishing for all eternity for a want of the truth. And so, his spirit was stirred within him.

Now look what it says in verse 17: “Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.” And so, Paul was not idle while he was there waiting for Timothy and Silas to come. He was busy, working.

Verse 18: “Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him.”  Now, back then, in Athens, there were two main philosophies. The people who were called Epicureans were called that because of man named Epicurious. He lived about 300 years before Christ and he did not believe in a creator, and he did not believe in an afterlife of any kind.  What you see is what you get. That was his philosophy. And that’s not much different than what it is today, is it? What you see is what you get. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die. You know that’s the attitude.

“And of the Stoicks,” That was another philosophy that was floating around at that time. The Stoicks believed that the universe was God. Does that remind you of anything that’s going on today? If the universe is God, and within all nature there is a spark of diety. Central to their teaching was the idea that humanity should live in conformity to nature. Have you heard anything about the spotted owl and the chinook salmon, and, the old growth, and all these different things? That humanity should live in conformity to nature and nature becoming God and more important than human beings.

And so, the Stoicks, what we have here is pantheism, new age, and environmentalism all rolled into one. And really, it’s nothing more than ancient Baal worship of the Old Testament that has been carried down all through these years. And these people who are into new age and environmentalism and all these different things; if they only knew that they could trace their beliefs right back into the Old Testament and ultimately to Satan, they would be real surprised, wouldn’t they? But it’s true.

“Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say?”

You see, they thought that they were pretty smart. The Athenians were intelligent people. I understand that the average IQ in Athens was about 130. That’s pretty high. Which just goes to show you that intelligence alone is not going to save you. God does not depend upon your education or your intelligence to get you to heaven. Although, He expects us to be educated and intelligent. But that’s not going to get you there. It’s Jesus and Him alone.

“What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.  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 know therefore 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.)”

Sounds to me like they had a lot of time on their hands. They were there to hear and to speak of some new thing. Their whole life was involved with this. And you know, there are many today who are Athenians at heart bouncing around here and there searching for some new thing or being able to speak some new thing that they think is new light. And usually all it turns out to be is an old heresy or some kind of fanaticism. God would have us to settle down with a body of believers somewhere, because we can do more together than we can do by ourselves. We’re not to be independent atoms, bouncing around just hoping to hear some new truth, or get an opportunity to tell somebody your peculiar ideas. God wants us to settle down and get with a body of believers who are proclaiming the truth for this time. And it’s very easy to get caught up in this, and there are a lot of people who have.

Verse 22: Paul begins his speech now. “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said,”

Now, back in verse 19 it talked about they wanted him to come “unto Areopagus” and here it says Mars’ hill—same place. Areopagus is Greek for that place, and Mar’s hill was the Latin of the same place.

So, he’s there at Mar’s hill and said, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.”

Now, you would think that that wouldn’t be a very good way to start out a speech if you wanted to impress somebody. But you know, these words do not mean what we think they mean today. Superstitious; you look it up in the concordance. It doesn’t mean that somebody has an irrational belief. If they don’t do something, something bad is going to happen. You know, if you break a mirror, you’re going to have seven years of bad luck. If you walk under a ladder, something bad is going to happen. Those are superstitions to us. But here, what Paul meant, and if you look the word up, you’ll find that it means “more religious than others.” You people of Athens, I perceive, as I have come into your city, and I’ve seen all these idols that you worship, I can see that you are more religious than others. That wouldn’t be offensive. Paul was not offensive. He wanted to win people to the truth. And so, the Athenians said, Yeah, you’re right. We are religious, we are more religious than everybody else. So, he complimented them, really, is what he was doing.

Verse 23: “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly (or unknowingly) worship, him declare I unto you.”

Now, this idea that came into Paul’s mind was a stroke of genius. You see, when he was waiting for Silas and Timothy to come and join him in Athens, he was touring Athens. And he was becoming familiar with their lifestyle. And those idols and those temples and those statues and all the things, so that he could speak intelligently to these people about Christ. And so, as he was waiting, he saw this one altar that said, “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” And the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul’s mind, and he said, That’s it! I want you to reach these people through this inscription. I want you to preach unto them Me, the unknown God, because the true God was unknown to the Athenians. And so that is the avenue that God wanted Paul to work through.

Verse 24 as he continues, “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 any thing, seeing he giveth 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 so here, he was pointing back to the Garden of Eden, wasn’t he? One blood, that’s talking about Adam and Eve. In other words, we have all come from the same parents, the same line. He didn’t explain it in detail, and I’m sure he said more to them than is recorded here. But here he is bringing them right back to the truth as it was right in the beginning.

“And hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:” And isn’t that true? God is not far from any one of us. You know, as I look back on my past life, I’ve been a Christian a little more than half my life. And every person that is born into this world is searching for something better, aren’t they? They don’t know what it is. God is what they’re searching for, and they don’t even know it. All through my life God was very near to me and I didn’t know it. He was only a prayer away. Just confession and repentance and accepting the sacrifice of on my behalf, that’s how close He was. And yet I didn’t know it. He be not far from any 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.” And so, here he’s complimenting them again. He went around as he got acquainted. He saw what the poets had written, and he used this to compliment the Athenians again. Even your own poets have said what I’m telling you right now.

Verse 29: “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” You see, as Paul was on Mars’ hill he was in a position where he could see everything in Athens. He could see the temples that were dedicated to the goddess and gods. He saw all the statues and all these idols and everything. And as he’s talking to these people, he’s saying the God that created you is not these things. You are, in every respect, better than they are because you made them with your own hands. So, he’s trying to get them to see that these things that they were worshipping were useless. And really, getting back to what I said a while ago, you get into the big city, and you see all these people involved, really, in worshipping idols, is what they’re doing. How can we reach these people and get them to see that what they’re devoting themselves to is going to end up in ruin and they are totally wasting what opportunity they have in this life to get their character right and to become one with Christ so they can go to heaven and be ready when He comes?

Verse 30, 31: God requires everywhere that men repent “because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Now when you think of this speech that the apostle Paul gave on Mars’ hill it was really a pretty simple speech. Nothing complicated about it. He’s just simply telling them who the true God was and that all these other gods that you’re worshipping are not the true God. And they’re not going to get you anywhere—not in this life nor in the life to come. Pretty simple message. But these people were too intelligent in the ways of the world to accept it. They were educated beyond their intelligence and that’s the way a lot of people are today. If they’re up here in education, you can’t talk to them because they already know everything that is worthwhile knowing. And so, you’re much better talking to people down here on the common level because they’re going to accept long before those who are educated will accept it. Usually, it takes an educated person to witness to another educated person, many times. And Paul was that way. Paul could speak to the common person and yet he could speak to the great philosophers of Athens and put them to shame with his intelligence. And he was able to do that. He could go down as far as he needed to, and he could go up. And that’s why he was so successful in his witnessing efforts. God wants us to be the same way. If we have education and intelligence, it’s to be used for Him. At the same time realizing that we are nothing. We owe everything to God. Everything we have, everything we are we owe to God.

Verse 32: “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked (Uh-oh, the speech was over. That was it.): and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him (see here again a few people clave unto him and the present truth he had to give), and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”

Now, when we were reading verse 19, where they wanted to bring Paul to the Areopagus so he could explain to them what this new strange idea was; it says here Dionysius the Areopagite. The Areopagus was a place where all the city fathers met to determine important new teachings, or even serious court cases. They were settled right there at this place. It was a very important and very reverential place in Athens.

And so, as the apostle Paul is there, this Dionysius is also there. He is an Areopagite. That means he was one of the city fathers that believed, along with this woman and a few others. And so, Dionysius was a very influential man at that time. He probably had a little coin to help support the infant church that was raised up at that time through the apostle Paul.

When you think about this thing, isn’t God wonderful the way He works? He knew just what the Thessalonians needed. He knew just what the Bereans needed. He knew just what those on Athens needed. And He knows just what you as a person need in your life. That’s the kind of God we serve. He knows what you need.

And so, we need to be about our Father’s business because, just like the Athenians, there are many today who do not know God, worshipping the unknown God. The world is full of Epicureans and Stoicks today, just like they were back then.

And whether they realize it or not, they are looking for someone to be able to explain to them who the unknown God is. And those of us who know Him must make Him known. That’s our job. And so, if we’re not out there sharing our faith with other people; if we are not making ourselves known as Christians, we’re failing, we’re failing in our job God has given us to do.

And you know, there are people in this world who will never come to a knowledge of the truth unless you tell them. Unless you personally tell them, because there is somebody in this world who will accept Christ through your witness; not through mine, but through yours. Everybody is in that same situation here. When you think about it, that’s an awesome responsibility. There may be some that are not going to be in heaven because we failed.  That is a real serious thing to think about. God has raised us up as a people. He has raised you up as an individual to proclaim the truth for this time. He has told us very plainly that He’s not going to come back until this gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And so, if we’re not out there doing the work that we need to do, what are we doing? We are delaying His coming. The Bible says we can hasten the day of His return. And if we can hasten it, we can also slow it down. We don’t want to be found slowing it down, do we? I don’t want to be. I heard somebody say one time that if everything that I could do in this life would bring Jesus back to this earth just one hour sooner, it would be worth it. And all of us have that opportunity. And may we be faithful to do what the Lord has raised us up to do and reach those people that only we can reach.

And so, when we go out of here this afternoon and we’re thinking about this through the week, I know that we all have acquaintances where we go during the week, whether it’s work, whether it’s going to the post office, whether it’s going to Safeway. We see people all the time, the same people over and over. Do they know that you’re a Christian? Do they know who you are? Or are you just another face? Do we want to be just another face? We have to be witnesses for Christ. We have to be. And if we really have Jesus living in our heart somehow or other it’s going to shine out our countenance and they’re going to know there’s something different about us than the rest of the world out there. And they’re going to see the fruit of the Spirit in our life. We’re going to have love, joy, peace, patience and all the rest of it. And that’s different than the rest of the world. The world doesn’t have those things. And if there’s no difference between you and the world, then you don’t have those things. And if you don’t have those things, you don’t have Christ. That’s the bottom line. Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” By their fruits, the fruit of the Spirit. We’ve got to have them in our life. So may God bless us and help us in the coming days to reflect His character fully so that silver refined, when He can see His image perfectly in that mirror of that molten metal. When He has a people like that, He’s coming back and we’ll be out of this old wicked world. Isn’t that what you want?

Sermon notes in pdf To The Unknown God