AD Norris - The Apostles, Their Acts and Their Words - Class 5

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1. 0:00

   This is the 1981 Texas Scripted Elk in Bible School. This is the 5th class on Apostle Their Acts and Their Words by Brother Alfred North. So far, very little has been said about Paul’s letters, or any other letters except for the occasional quotation here and there, and perhaps the odd hint as to when the letter might have been written.

2. 0:25

   You might like to have, though, just for reference, some indication of where the various epistles of Paul do fit in to the various phases of his life. This, with one slight uncertainty, which I’ll mention in a moment, is what I take to be that list First, somewhere about the close of the first missionary journey, or perhaps the beginning of the second, the letter to the Galatians. Second during the second missionary journey itself, the 1st and 2nd letters to the Thessalonians. Third during the third missionary journey, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians and Romans. 4th. During the imprisonments of Paul, possibly all of them in Rome, but just possibly one of them a little earlier, say in Caesarea.

3. 1:28

   Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. And 5th those letters written after the Roman imprisonment, and up to and including the second imprisonment, at the end of which Paul would seem to have been executed first, Timothy. Titus and Second Timothy. I haven’t tried to get Hebrews into the list, not to give any discussion as to the circumstances in which Hebrews originated.

4. 2:01

   It is my own view, for what it is worth, that Paul must have been intimately associated with that letter. Also, whether the actual writer is possibly another matter. And that that would be. Quite. Late sometime, perhaps during the period of liberty between the 1st and 2nd Roman imprisonments.

5. 2:21

   The reason why one thinks that Galatians may well have been the first of the letters to be written is that it touches so intimately on the problems that we met at the end of Acts Chapter 14 and the beginning of Chapter 15, and with which the Council at Jerusalem was concerned. The question as to whether Gentile converts needed to become Jews before they could become Christians, as to whether they did or did not need to be circumcised and to keep the law.

6. 2:48

   Since that matter was definitively decided at the Council of Jerusalem, to which Paul in Galatians makes no reference, then I think the probability is that Galatians would have been written a little before that council made its decision. Sometime, perhaps while. Paul was still in Antioch, having come back from his first missionary journey, and before he and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to thrash the matter out Galatians was.

7. 3:13

   Deeply concerned with that primary problem. Or the Gentile converts to be Judaized. Must they accept the blandishments, the reasonings, which led them to think that they ought to become Jews? Otherwise Christ was of no avail, and Paul’s answer to that was decisive. It was rather like the answer the Lord Jesus Christ had given himself anticipating this problem when he said you don’t put a piece of new cloth into an old garment. You don’t put new, still bubbling wine into old, brittle wineskins.

8. 3:50

   This is a new start, and though it owes much to the preparation which the Old Testament gave, it does not simply build upon the almost complete foundation of Old Testament teaching and practice and put, as it were, a Christian. Crown on top. Of it. It starts a new way of life with a saviour granting a new liberty. And so far is it?

9. 4:14

   From being possible to accept a willing circumcision and Christ at the same time that Paul says, I tell you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You have to choose between the two. You have to decide whether you want the old, in which case you will not get Christ, or whether you want Jesus Christ, in which case the old can be seen as profitable shadows leading up to the coming of the Christ. But you must no longer regarded as being of the essence of the matter.

10. 4:44

    It’s one of the many issues between faith and works. If you try to save yourself by what you do, then you’ll never get there because you’ll always do too little. If you ask God to save you because you trust, then you may get there because of the trust itself. The Lord Jesus once put it in the very important way when he said. Ye then, when ye have done all these things, say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that it was our duty to do, and I take the Lord to mean something like this. Imagine a king having an absolutely meticulous steward, who never did anything wrong, who never wasted his master’s goods, nor his.

11. 5:32

    Master’s time. Nor lost anything that belonged to his master, nor put it to bad uses, intentionally or unintentionally. But did every single task he did with the utmost perfection. So at the end of the day, you’ve taken account of all that had been done and you’ll find out it balance exactly. Well then, says the Lord.

12. 5:53

    What has that servant done? He’s just not made a loss. He’s not made a profit. Even when you have done all these things, say we are unprofitable servants, we have just done our duty and only just. God is no better off as the result of our service, even if we were as good as that exceptionally perfect steward.

13. 6:17

    And we’re not, not any of us. Only the Lord Jesus Christ has ever discharged with the utmost perfection, without any flaw or fault, all that was laid at his door to do. And even the Lord Jesus Christ, though he could say I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do, did not claim perfection on that score. He said, I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

14. 6:44

    And he was talking about his death. And when that word perfect is used about the Lord Jesus Christ in the letters to the Hebrews as three times it is, it tells us that God made the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings. The Lord Jesus Christ is made by the promise of God. A priest perfected, made perfect for evermore. Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation. So the Lord Jesus Christ, now consummate righteousness arises. Not only because he did no wrong, though that was essential to it, as because he put away that which might do wrong by causing it to be killed upon the cross. So he had not only refrained from evil, he had now abolished it for himself, and by dying in full trust in God became our perfected priest.

15. 7:36

    And that’s only the Lord Jesus Christ. For the rest of us we have to say not. We are unprofitable servants. We have done it was our duty to do, but we have not done all that it was our duty to do. We are servants showing a loss, and that loss could be through carelessness or misappropriation.

16. 7:54

    Or through positive criminal tendencies, as we take the things of God and make them our own, so we can never be profitable servants. If salvation is to be reckoned by works, we should never think of standing in God’s temple and saying God, I thank you, though I’m not as the rest of men, unjust, extortionate adulterers, or even as this publican.

17. 8:17

    I passed twice in the week. I give 10% of all my income. That’s no way to talk to God. For it only needs God to strip away the cloak of hypocrisy and say that’s what you do as well, and those are the things you don’t do. And the publican comes off better, especially when he says, Lord, be merciful to me. The.

18. 8:40

    Sinner it’s. Interesting the difference between the Pharisee and the Publican in that parable. The. Pharisee starts off by detailing before God his works he’s. Talked off, moreover, in the near blasphemous situation of going into God’s temple and praying thus with himself. And saying to the God inside God, I thank you, that I’ve made a very good job of myself.

19. 9:10

    And. Asking the God above to appreciate it. The Pharisee in that picture is. The. Kind of man, whom I’m sure all Texans and New Zealanders and other Outlanders here will appreciate. Like the Englishman who is a self-made man who worships his creator. That’s. What the Pharisee is like? He’s proud of what he does and he thinks God should be proud of him. He knows there’s a publican present. He is probably rather pleased as a publican present. Not.

20. 9:40

    For any good, he can do the publican, but for the good the publican can do to him. God. Is only to see the two of them side by side to say. How? Very good that Pharisee is. Just look how bad the publican is. He stands on the. Publicans shoulders and looks taller than he was. This.

21. 9:57

    Pharisee in the temple. The. Publican is quite different. He’s no claims to make me more God, no works to parade. No comparisons to make either. Whereas. The Pharisee says I am not even as this publican and I am not as other men.

22. 10:16

    The. Publican might, for all we can tell, be unaware there are any other men. He doesn’t. Take any notice of the Pharisee. He. Doesn’t compare himself with other publicans. He doesn’t say God. You shouldn’t think too hardly of me, because there are others who are worse. He just says, Lord be merciful to or Lord be propitiated to me the Sinner.

23. 10:38

    Not. Just a Sinner, but the one, the only one he’s considering, like Paul saying later who I’m the chief of sinners. He can’t make any excuses for himself. He doesn’t want to make any comparisons. Humble. Though he is, he is perhaps wise enough to see that he doesn’t want to be like that Pharisee, so he doesn’t say make me like him, Lord. He just says Lord be merciful.

24. 11:04

    And. That’s the kind of plea which every would be faithful disciple of the Lord must in effect make. Lord. I can’t do it by myself. Well, I’ve not been doing very well at all. Please forgive me if my wrongs and strengthen me to do right and receive me by the rebirth of baptism as it proves.

25. 11:20

    Into. The company of your disciples looking for your Kingdom. And. Galatians in its own way, is concerned with dealing with that kind of problem, with dismissing the demand for circumcision, and with criticizing those who do demand it as being self-righteous persons who are only to be compared with the son of Hagar, the Bondwoman, and not with the son of Sarah the free Woman. Whose desire is, moreover, punctuated by pride. And they are led on by the desire to gain their own glory by winning other people, as the Lord said about the Pharisees who compass heaven and earth to make one proselyte. And when?

26. 11:58

    They have found him making twofold, more a child of getting them themselves. For. Those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a sharp contrast between what Galatians calls the works of the flesh, which. Are manifested. He gives an incomplete list because everybody can add to the list of works of the flesh. We all have our specialities and then an example of what we rather inaccurately, sometimes caught as being the fruits of the spirit and the.

27. 12:28

    Apostle Ball doesn’t say fruits. He says fruit. The. Fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, gentleness, goodness, hope, against which there is no law. And. Whereas if it were the flesh that which trusts in works or delights in them can specialize in sinning. And. Do this particular bad thing worse, or is it better than he does the others?

28. 12:48

    You. Can’t specialize in righteousness. You can’t say I’ll have love, You have hope. He’ll have joy. No, all those things are to belong to the fruit. Of the Spirit with. Its many blended flavours. There’s. One fruit of the Spirit, and moreover, it’s. Not the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit. It’s the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Works are the things you do.

29. 13:14

    Spirit. Is that which makes it possible for you to bear so. You bear the fruit of the Spirit by being on the Spirit’s tree. I am the true vine, and ye are the branches. If any man bear fruit, then he is proved that he may bear more fruit, but. Except ye abide in me. You cannot bear fruit.

30. 13:36

    Says the Lord. So the Lord’s teaching, and the Lord’s Baptism, and the Lord’s discipleship, and the Lord’s mediation are absolute and indispensable and complete when we get them, that is, at least in part. The message of the letter to the Galatians. And because it’s the 1st place where it’s done, it might be right to point out that that letter to.

31. 14:00

    He. Describes the manner of the conversion from a work bound person to a spirit LED person when he says. They. That our Christs have crucified the flesh. With the affections and lusts. The word crucify is used. Very. Obviously about the crucifixion of the Lord, that was when it happened physically. When he was nailed so terribly to the cross.

32. 14:30

    The. Word crucify is used of the disciples of the Lord who are, it seems, almost deliberately compared with the two malefactors hanging at the Lord’s right hand and his left when Paul says I have been Co crucified with Christ. SUS Taro crucified together with and when the Lord says we have been Co crucified with him in Romans chapter 6. We joined the company of the Lord upon Gallows Hill when. We seek to become his disciples.

33. 15:03

    As the Lord asked, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross. And follow me. And. Despite all our modern weakenings of expressions like deny oneself. And bearing one’s cross. In. Roman times. There was only one reason for bearing your cross, and that was because you had been condemned to death by execution.

34. 15:28

    And that. Is what the Lord says to his disciples. If any man will come after me, then do as I am doing, deny himself as it were, try himself and decide that He’s not fit to live any longer and get himself crucified. He that loseth his life for my sake shall save it. And so Paul in the lessons of the Galatians itself can say, I have been Co crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live.

35. 15:53

    And. Yet no longer I but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith, the faith which is of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

36. 16:05

    So that to the Apostle Paul that description he later gives, which we know so well of. The impulse of baptism in the Christian experience is that of starting again by crucifying the flesh first. We often, unaccountably, miss out that bit. And. Then burying it in the waters of baptism. And. Then start again a new resurrection life with our risen Lord.

37. 16:30

    We that are baptized into deaths into the Lord Jesus Christ says Paul, are baptized into his death our old. Man. Hath been Co crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, and the true Christian baptism is not. The. Burial of a living creature. It’s. The burying of a dead one. We count ourselves dead upon the cross of Christ, and we say I want that buried.

38. 16:58

    And. That’s when you go into the waters of baptism, then to start life again as a new creature. That was in the letters of the Galatians, the message Paul preached, and then the letter to the Romans, that which he elaborated. And it. Was that message which he and the others carried throughout their preaching lives as they went throughout the Roman world?

39. 17:22

    When? We return now to Paul’s preaching. We find him about to set out with Silas. Having. Left Barnabas and Mark to go to Cyprus upon what we call the 2nd Missionary Journey, He. Takes a not unfamiliar course, goes. Northwards through Syria, around the corner into Silesia, his own home province, confirming the Ecclesias, and then goes on to that central part of Asia Minor focused upon the. The.

40. 17:50

    Capital and important cities of Antioch in Pisidia, Derby Iconium. And. Lystra. That’s. A confirmatory piece of work going to Ecclesias already in existence. Now as ACTS Chapter 16 brings out, there is new work to be done, the new field to be opened up. And. For the purpose Paul has added to his company, One Timothy

41. 18:16

    Timothy. Who? Was taken and circumcised by Paul because they all knew that though his mother was a Jewess, his father was a Gentile Greek.

42. 18:28

    And. That creates a problem perhaps. For. Paul, who would give way to nothing in the Jewish claim that believers needed to be circumcised, is now found taking someone becoming a believer and circumcising him. One has the impression that he was baptized 1st and circumcised subsequently. But. At least it happened, in which case the claim of Paul’s of the Galatians, Neither Titus who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, might seem a little inconsistent, a little compromised.

43. 18:59

    Why Titus not? And Timothy? So it must rest. One feels sure in the fact that Timothy, who would have been an object of. Suspicion to Jews, had he not undergone circumcision as an adult, for they would have suspected that rightly, perhaps. In the fact that his father was a Greek, this had been ignored was. To go with Paul on all his troubles, we’ll enter with him into synagogues.

44. 19:28

    Would. Be found in the company of Jews seeking to win them first to the Kingdom of God. And it would have been a quite unforgivable travesty of Jewish expectations that a synagogue which is close to Gentiles and is not open to those who are not circumcised should have been invaded against their law by a man who was not circumcised.

45. 19:46

    So. Becoming all things to all men, to the Jews as a Jew, Paul, himself a circumcised Jew, made his companion the same so that they might have free access to the place where they could then preach the meaning of the gospel of Christ. Well, as they went their way through Asia Minor, Paul and Silas and Timotheus, they tried to go to two places where they weren’t allowed to go or.

46. 20:10

    At. Least they weren’t allowed to work. They. Were since Acts, chapter 16 forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia, and then they essayed to go into Bethania, but the Spirit suffered them not? Live. At your leisure, you look at the maps of Asia Minor which your Bibles will contain.

47. 20:27

    You will notice that to have preached in Asia would. Have led them to take a long time before they got to the coast. And. Deprecia and Bethania would involve the northeast diversion from the route to the coast, which might have meant that they wouldn’t have got there at all, but would have finished up in the Black Sea area. And.

48. 20:44

    Clearly God had something else for them to do so. Beside you they mustn’t visit, and in Asia they must not delay. They must keep on going till they came to the coast. And when they got to Troyers on the coast, it was then that they had the vision of the man of Macedonia.

49. 20:58

    Paul did, who appeared to him by night and said come over us in Macedonia and help us. And. We set the record, rightly dividing that God had called them to cross that area and go into Europe went we did, but we’ve not been talking about we up to that point. We’ve. Been talking about Paul and Silas taking with them Timothy and they went on doing this and they weren’t allowed to do that. And they were instructed to do the other, and suddenly the writer says we.

50. 21:34

    But it is no doubt correctly believed that there are we at this point because Luke has joined them. That. The author of the acts can put these things in the first person because he is there and experiences them in the first person and joins in the company of those who do what they do. Luke is in the company.

51. 21:51

    He. Doesn’t seem at this stage to have travelled very far with Paul. He went with him across into Europe, and certainly to Philippi, but not much beyond that it seems, for later The narrative goes back into the days, and the Pauls and the Pauls and Timothy’s and so forth. Paul is back without Luke’s company, though he joins me again later, and this as we know his beloved attendant very close to the time of his death. So they crossover from.

52. 22:14

    Asia Minor and they go into Europe and the Gospel reaches our continent, well, mine for the first time. There. They are in Europe and they’re preaching in Philippi, the place where there wasn’t a synagogue, the place where they had to go to the Riverside, where the women, the Jewish women, were accustomed to resort in prayer and talk with them and convert them, and where they gained the welcome edition of Lydia, the seller of purple from thyatira.

53. 22:41

    And it was in Philippi that they roused the anger of the populace and were caused to be put into prison. And that splendid story of the Philippian jailer comes to our notice. It. Would sometimes be worthwhile to look at the stories of conversion that Acts give to us in detail, for they all have their splendid story to tell Acts Chapter 2 that we’ve talked about already. Where?

54. 23:04

    Peter’s pointed preaching causes them to be pricked in their hearts, and then in their object repentance they turn to back to them. And then we learn the disciples were filled with joy with the Holy Spirit.

55. 23:16

    Or the occasion in Acts Chapter 8 where Philip is sent after his work in Samaria to join himself to the company of the chariot in which the Ethiopian Chamberlain was being taken back to Ethiopia. There. They found him in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet.

56. 23:32

    That in itself is an object lesson that man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. While he was there, he had doubtless seen and participated in the observation of various peasts, including the sacrifices of slain beasts, and perhaps he had heard rumours of other things that have been happening in that place of late. For.

57. 23:54

    Certainly, as he goes home, he’s reading his Bible. How? Many people in our company, when they had to go to an experience for which they have diligent, prepared, prepared, do their homework again on the way home. Not. Many, but this man did. He. Was reading his Bible when the peak had been reached, he was going back to humdrum life.

58. 24:12

    Perhaps Bible reading was his habit. Certainly he had some good reason for wanting to read it then. And he read that place of the scripture where it is written. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is done. So he opened not his mouth.

59. 24:26

    And when Philip was called by God to join himself to that man’s charity, he said a home speaketh the prophet this of. Himself or of some other man? And Philip, beginning at that scripture, preached to him Jesus. What better scripture could there have been? The 53rd chapter of Isaiah, where just before Philip joined him, the man would have been reading.

60. 24:49

    He was wounded for our transgressions. The chassis with of our peace was upon him. He was bruised. For our iniquities. All we, like sheep have gone astray. Lord the Lord hath laid upon him the. Iniquity of us all I want to know about that man who bears our transgressions, dies for our sins, upon whom my iniquities are laid, that is my saviour. Where can I found him of whom speaketh the prophet this of? Himself or of some other man.

61. 25:26

    And we have passed from the guilty, sin ridden, murderous Jews of Pentecost to the highly respectable, rich and pious. Jew of Ethiopia going to Jerusalem to worship and the remedy is the same for both repentant be baptized to the Jews of Pentecost. And. See here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized to the Ethiopian Chamberlain going back to his country? And he is baptized when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart.

62. 26:02

    And like those full of joy in the Church of Jerusalem that day of Pentecost, this man goes on his way rejoicing and. Although the context of it acts is that the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and he was founded Ashdod, and he went on his way rejoicing. We know very well he didn’t rejoice because Philip had left him.

63. 26:21

    He rejoiced because of what he left him with. And. That was the salvation he had received. So that’s another. And then, of course, we’ve. Moved on, as we have already moved on, with some attention being paid to it to the maximum of the gentile Cornelius, and the manner in which that household was made happy and rejoicing when Peter left them with the gospel in their hearts. And now?

64. 26:45

    We come to Philippi. And. Paul and Silas are cast undeserving of any punishment into jail and placed in the inmost prisoner there. Peter made fast in the stocks and they. Sing hymns while they’re there their. Own joy undisturbed by the tribulations to which they are going, and the smarts and aches in their open wounds, And the other prisoners hear them. And.

65. 27:12

    Suddenly the doors are open and the shackles are loosed and everybody is free and the jailer comes in and sees what has happened and is about to drop his sword and commit suicide, knowing that his life will be worth nothing if these people escape and it comes to higher authorities ears.

66. 27:26

    And then? There is Paul’s do thyself no harm. We are all here and the. Man trembling and afraid, coming and saying, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Perhaps not a conscious lawbreaker like the Jews of Pentecost, but certainly a brutalized man doing brutal things in the jail at Philippi. And now, but not only safe from taking his own life, by the timely intervention of the ambassadors of the Lord it.

67. 27:52

    Says What must I do to be saved the night long, preaching to him and his family, the washing of their stripes and their baptism, his baptism and his household’s baptism, too. And. Again, the rejoicing in that household as well when Paul and Silas leave.

68. 28:11

    Things. Do not go well in Philippi. There’s that being taken by the Romans and submitted to indignities, but on that occasion. At least there is some little redress, because when the magistrates send us, they let those men go. Paul, with a surprising show of vigour, says no. They have beaten us openly, being Romans and uncondemned.

69. 28:29

    Let them come themselves and take it out. It. Almost looks a little vindictive, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t that they were Romans and they did have their rights. But. It is certainly the right of every believer in all ages to take advantage of any law passed in his favour which does not injure anybody else.

70. 28:55

    As. When your country exempts Christadelphians from the draft and they are as conscientious, objectors are allowed to have their liberty or worry in the past and, we hope, maybe in the future. Or. When those making contributions to Christadelphian causes can make them tax deductible and so. Could make some funding of their contributions at the cost of what the state would otherwise have taken only a variety of other ways We are entitled to use the laws of our country.

71. 29:21

    When the law says yes, you are welcome to this, we acknowledge your right to it. And so it was with Paul and his Roman citizenship. If that could be used in the Lord’s service, it was right and permissible to use it if. He. Could be spared some of the indignities that would have been inflicted upon you had he not been a Roman. And it was right they should be spared them. He said that plenty as it was.

72. 29:42

    And. In ours, conscientious objectors are allowed to have their liberty or worry in the past and, we hope, maybe in the future. Or. When those making contributions to Christadelphian causes can make them tax deductible and so make some funding of their contributions at the cost of what the state would otherwise have taken only a variety of other ways we are entitled to use the laws of our country.

73. 30:04

    When the law says yes, you are welcome to this. We acknowledge your right to it. And so it was with Paul and his Roman citizenship. If. That could be used in the Lord’s service. It was right and permissible to use it. He. Could be spared some of the indignities that would have been inflicted upon him had he not been a Roman, and it was right that he should be spared them.

74. 30:23

    He suffered plenty as it was, until the need to make a public demonstration to those magistrates, that there were rights that must not be contravened. Belonging to Roman citizens was there and was justified. And needed to be declared to the people at large. It was right to say let them come themselves and fetch us out, but they. Left the city for all that.

75. 30:43

    It was not really very safe for them to stay there now and. The. Next port of call was Thessalonica. And. There they preached the Lord’s words earnestly, and quite evidently A considerable number accepted the faith, because it must have been quite quickly afterwards, during the same journey, that the Thessalonians received 2 letters from him.

76. 30:59

    And. Almost surprising thing, in a way. The. Two such letters should have gone so soon when the church had been founded so recently. There were obviously problems there. Problems that Paul learned only too well when he only narrowly escaped by with his life and was sent away from there because the Jews were after him and found a temporary hiding place in Berea. No it.

77. 31:19

    Was not a comfortable life for the apostle. Wherever he went, the Jews were there looking for him, and if they weren’t there, they came from the last he left behind and came and sought his life and sought to do him harm. And. For Berea, too, though they were some of them more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the God Word with gladness, and examined it daily.

78. 31:39

    Whether these things were so, and therefore many of them believed. Berea. Has not left its mark among the history of the Community and the way that Thessalonica did and. From there, he goes to Athens. In. Athens having gone alone because there was work for Timothy and Silas to do in the area of Thessalonica and Philippi which they had not finished, and he preferred to be left alone rather than bring them away prematurely. He.

79. 32:06

    Found time on his hands. He. Preached in the synagogue of the Jews. And. Waiting for his friends came across the area of Pagos. And. There he saw or there he had seen an altar to an unknown God.

80. 32:24

    And. This pride, his enthusiasm, and his zeal to such an extent that he wasn’t content to wait till his friends arrived ordinary. The Lord, who had wisely provided that by two and two his first disciples should go out, no doubt expected that that custom will continue to be followed, at least not less than two and two.

81. 32:42

    That disciples would not be left to stand alone, but would be given the brotherly support and love of a companion. But. This time it was too much that to an unknown God, and Paul proceeded to reason. Against it, and was taken by those who questioned with him to the Arial Pagas to the Mars Hill, as we call it.

82. 33:01

    Heavily. Overshadowed by the Parthenon, where the great things of Greek idolatry looked down upon him, and Paul seemed in a very puny position as he stood there. Mind you, the Parthenon is in ruins. And. At the foot of the Areopagus there is a plate bearing the whole of Paul’s speech to the men of Athens in Greek letters. Until this day.

83. 33:21

    It’s nice to see it there. His method has his His message has lived he. Stood there he. Didn’t mince his words, but said ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are, or that can be watered down to somewhat religious, but I think the authorized versions 2 superstitious conveys the idea better.

84. 33:42

    You. Seem to think that if you worship all the gods there are and make provision for the ones there might be, but you haven’t met them yet, everything will go well. You. Seem to think that when there is pestilence in the land, you let forth a flock of goats, and everywhere they come to rest you build an altar and make that out to a God.

85. 33:56

    We offer a sacrifice there. Things will go well with you, but it’s not right. There aren’t so many gods. There’s only one and he’s not like goats or any other living creature. He can’t be likened to any living thing, and images of him should not be made the God who made the earth. Of whom certain of your own prophets, poets, have said, we are also his offspring.

86. 34:14

    God who made the world ought not to be worshipped with men’s hands by artifacts of human making. It’s an interesting thing that, rather surprisingly, Paul’s message to the Gentiles of Athens. The sophisticated philosopher Gentiles of Athens at one point makes contact with Stephen’s message to the Jews in Acts Chapter 7. For Stephen had said to them, having gone through their various places of worship and Solomon’s final erection of the temple, how be it the most?

87. 34:44

    I dwelleth not in temples made with hands. I set the prophet, Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest and? So Paul in Athens says How be it? God dwelleth not in temples made with hands, but. In every place he that worshiped him is acceptable to him. Now.

88. 35:08

    There’s a very important thing I think arises out of the speeches which the various apostles and preachers of the gospel are known to have made in the Acts of the Apostles, and some of the ways in which their letters are known to have been written. Paul. Was all things, as we said, to all men and so. No doubt were the other preachers is that as they had the same versatility of preaching as Paul did. So when Peter preached at Pentecost, it was Jewish history.

89. 35:38

    And. These writings of David that led him up to Jesus Christ. And when Paul preached in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, it was Jewish history, and again the lightings of David that led him up to Jesus Christ. When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, it was messages from the law that provided his principal objective in arriving at the conclusion to which he wished to lead them.

90. 36:02

    But when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he concentrated upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Made. Minimal references to the prophets that went before took them at their own standards and tried to preach Jesus on Jesus own merits as he were with that as the starting point. And when he went to Athens, he started off with their idolatry and their vain philosophy and. LED them through to the one true living God, who made heaven and earth, and the final assurance given unto all men that God raised Jesus from the dead.

91. 36:34

    I think there’s some occasion to search our own hearts and our own practices in connection with this I. Would not for a moment say that a lecture with Daniel too, as its foundation is a wrong lecture to give. I have. Done it, and will doubtless, God willing, do it again. I would not say that.

92. 36:56

    The. Adducing of fulfilled prophecy as witness to the truth of God’s word is the wrong thing to do insofar as it lies within my power. I’ve done that too, and again, God willing, will doubtless do it again. I would say though that reference to prophetic matters, especially predictive ones that haven’t happened yet, and a concentration upon the purpose of God in. How we know that by a certain route God will achieve the fulfillment of His Kingdom in the future needs to be very carefully watched and kept within bounds if we are not to overbalance.

93. 37:35

    The. Preaching of the gospel. You. Don’t find anything like that anywhere in the public speeches of the New Testament, and not much of it anywhere in the Epistles either.

94. 37:51

    You’ll. Find appeals to the Old Testament leading you to Christ in Acts. When addressed to Jews, Paul, Stephen, Peter. You’ll find appeals to their own starting points in idolatry leading to Jesus Christ addressed to Gentiles. In. Acts chapter 17 You find Paul addressing King Agrippa and while telling him that he knows that Agrippa believes in the prophets going as soon as he can, from what the prophets have said to whom they were talking about. And getting there to Jesus Christ in his works. And you find, without exception, that all these methods of preaching are intended to lead people to showing faith in Jesus, repenting and being baptized, believing the gospel, and living the life that leads them to the Kingdom. A case may legitimately be made out for avenues of approach which give particular ways of interesting people in the first place in the gospel which we have to preach, but if it don’t get to the gospel pretty quick, we’re not getting a very balanced message from the Lord we. Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I determined to know nothing among you, said Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

95. 39:04

    They preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Go through Judea and Samaria into the uttermost parts of the earth, and in all those places you shall be witnesses with me of my resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ commissions them and. I think our preaching of the gospel could well at an earlier stage and more thoroughly be more Christ centred than it is. The message is to bring people to repentance and acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul does in Athens.

96. 39:39

    In. That very well known phrase which we read. Or can easily read again the times of this ignorance God overlooked but. Now commanded the all men everywhere to repent. Because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man who he has ordained. Where? All he has given assurance unto all men in. That he hath raised him from the dead so God didn’t think so hardly of those who were in their ignorance, and therefore we’re not accountable.

97. 40:20

    He will think very hardly if those who were given the opportunity of light prefer to remain in ignorance, or in ignoration, or in disobedience. I. Am now telling you about the new light, which has dawned, says Paul. The message of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He commands all men everywhere hearing that message to follow its consequences through and repent.

98. 40:42

    It’s. Repentance and remission of sins being preached in his name, beginning at Jerusalem, and now having stretched as far West as Athens, which the apostle is talking about. That is a cardinal thing in his message. That is the burden of his preaching, and one of the reasons he gives for repenting is that he has appointed a day in.

99. 41:04

    The which he will judge the world in righteousness. Now the word judge can mean more than one thing. It can mean passing an opinion about somebody else that we’re told not to do judge not that he be not judged. It can mean sit upon the throne of Judgement on the Day of Judgement, judging the quick and the dead, which the Lord Jesus Christ will do when he returns. It can mean judging over the nations in the same way that the judges of the Old Testament were rulers over Israel rule over the world in righteousness.

100. 41:37

     He will do that too, Lord Jesus Christ when he comes. But it’s an interesting question. Does that dress in this passage mean he will rule the world in righteousness, which he will? Or does it mean he will judge in the sense of passing judgement upon deciding who is right and who is wrong, who is worthy and who is unworthy and I?

101. 41:59

     Don’t think in its context there can be much doubt that that is what it means. For the. Apostle says the times of this ignorance got overlooked, but he now commands all men everywhere who hear the message. It would mean wouldn’t it all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day of judgement.

102. 42:18

     Now it wouldn’t be much useful it telling the Athenians that they ought to repent of their sins and be baptized, because one day Christ is going to rule over the earth. That wouldn’t quite affect them. But it. Would be very important to tell them that they ought to repent and be baptized because one day Jesus Christ is coming back in judgement and. They may have to answer for it so that the message must have been relevant to that generation and every intermediate generation before the Lord Jesus Christ returned to the earth. This message of judgement, though it will involve the Lord ruling over the nations, was for those who heard, then for those who heard sins, and for those who now hear the gospel. The message not only that Christ is coming to reign, but that if you are deemed by him.

103. 43:00

     To have known the gospel adequately to be responsible to his call, then that day will be a day of judgement for you. Also he has appointed a day in which he will do that. In fact, it finds its place together with a later message of Paul in the 24th chapter, when he speaks to Felix in Caesarea about his faith. He.

104. 43:22

     Begins by talking about himself, and he says, I have hoped toward God, which they, the Jews themselves, also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust, and says. Therefore I exert myself to have a conscience void of offence. In. Other words, there will be a day when dead are raised, those dead will include just and unjust. And I particularly want to be amongst the just. And so I exert myself to have a clear conscience now in my service to God.

105. 43:48

     And then when he comes back for a second interview with Felix, he tries to talk to him of righteousness and temperance and judgement to come. And that judgement to come, undoubtedly there means the judgement which will sit to determine whether certain persons and Felix was invited to think that he might be one of them will.

106. 44:07

     Be able to be. Admitted into God’s Kingdom or denied admission and. Felix plainly saw that when when he heard poor reasoning of righteousness. And. Temperance and judgement to come, Felix trembled. Or. As the Revised Nation puts it, Felix was terrified.

107. 44:30

     It’s an interesting thing in the technique of preaching the gospel. That too isn’t it there. Are those around us who tell us that the gospel is, and it certainly is, the gospel of love, in which God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

108. 44:47

     So love should be the keynote of the preaching of the gospel, we are told. And so it should, as far as it can. But. Just as the love to a child may sometimes involve, its justice meant so. May the love which seeks to win people for Christ sometimes involve a pitiless. Revealing of the consequences that might follow if the love is not accepted. And.

109. 45:09

     As the Lord Jesus Christ reported by John in John chapter 3 tells us that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life, and adds For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but.

110. 45:26

     That the world through him might be saved, so does he find it needful also to add, But this is the condemnation. The. Light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. And so for all the love that is shown in the Lord Jesus Christ, there are some for whom it is needful to warn them. If anyone hear my word and believe not, I judge him, not the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day, And so to Felix.

111. 46:00

     Reasoned with about righteousness and temperance, there must be added, for the sake of the possibility of conversion of that wicked man something that might make him afraid, and then make him think. Apparently it didn’t, but it might have done and. So for a reason with him of righteousness and temperance and judgement to come, and succeeded, at least to the extent of making him fear and tremble and if. That had led to that man being introduced into the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and joining the company of the elect then.

112. 46:28

     Felix might, in a future day, as some other people similarly warned, might do, Welcome. The opportunity of going to the one who gave that message to them and saying. Thank you for saying that. That pulled me up in my tracks. I. Went back and I learned and I obeyed. And I wouldn’t have been here but for your word so. A word of warning is right in its place. And.

113. 46:52

     To those supercilious philosophical Athenians, Paul. Gave that same message. Don’t. Suppose that, having heard this word, it’s a matter of indifference whether you do anything about it. There’s. A command from God. You’re His creatures. You’re his workmanship. Now become his servants and his sons God. Hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. So.

114. 47:15

     Now he commandeth every man to repent, and the assurance he has given that he will do so by the man whom he has ordained is that he hath raised him from the dead.

115. 47:29

     And. So Paul joins again the company of those who focus their teaching on the cardinal point of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that having been crucified for our sins, he was raised up for our justification. And. Takes us back to the empty grave. And the. Risen Lord as the route to his return.