17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:

2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,

3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

4 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.

5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.

8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.

9 And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.

All right, 17: “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica.” They’re heading south. On a map, this would be up in Macedonia and Philippi, coming straight south down through Greece, and heading for Athens.

And “...they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” This is a verse used by Seventh-day Adventists to prove that you ought to worship on the Sabbath, because they worshipped on the Sabbath.

QUESTION: Was he in Greece for three weeks or three months?

ANSWER: Three weeks, I believe. Three Sabbath days.

And, of course, the answer to that is real simple. He’s dealing with the Jews in their own grounds. It doesn’t mean he’s observing the Sabbath like a Jew.

And three Sabbaths “...reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening...” opened the Scriptures “...and alleging...” that’s proving a case in court “...and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted —” that’s to go along with “— with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” So they had good results. They had more results with the Gentile than they did with the Jews.

“But the Jews which believed not.” As soon as you start getting results, here comes the trouble.

“Moved with envy.” There’s that motive again, like he found it in Acts 13.

“Moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.” Those are two good old English adjectives: “base” and “lewd.” And good old four-letter words, and they indicate immoral, wicked people.

“Lewd fellows of the baser sort” — hippies, yippies.

“And gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.” Trying to bring out Paul; evidently he’s staying here with Jason.

All right, “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” Was that true? Look at the middle of verse 5; who turned it upside down? There’s the Jews, and the baser fellows; it wasn’t Paul or Silas.

“These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” Now, I want to as careful as I can, and don’t want to over-fire you up and get in all kinds of trouble — but — when you fellows go out and get in the ministry, whatever town you get in, if you’re doing what you ought to do for the Lord the way you ought to do it, that town should be torn up from morning to night. Now, if you want to why we haven’t had any real revival in America since the days of Billy Sunday, it’s because that, except for one or two works in one or two big places, nobody is stirring up the dust.

Now, I’ll grant you, around Lynchburg, Virginia, they know something’s going on. But it took eight million dollars to do it.

And I’ll grant you in Hammond, Indiana, they know something’s going on. But it took about fourteen million dollars to do it.

And I’ll grant you around Greenville, South Carolina, they know something’s going on, but it took seventy-five million dollars to do it.

And none of you fellows are going to make seventy-five million dollars overnight. And what this country does not need is one or two big works like that in one or two places. What this country needs is one church in every town with 3,000 people, just keeping it tore up from morning to night. What it needs.

And that’s determined at the families, and that’s determined at the election, that’ll determine the Senate and the Congress and the House of Representatives. And till that’s done you’ll have no revival of any kind in America.

And, you guys get out in the work, you may be small, you may stay small — I don’t know, I hope you get big — but your job is to keep the word going, the word going, the word going, the word going, till nobody in that town has any peace day or night. You ought to keep that thing going till folks cuss you and hate you and persecute you, and wish you were dead. You ought to keep that town so tore up that when ten Christians go to bed at night they pray and ask God to kill you before they get up the next morning.

Because the normal standards today are so low and down so far, that if you do what you want to do, you’ll keep the Christians so tore up they’ll hate your guts. The Christians! Not the unsaved people; the Christians.

QUESTION: How about a town of 15 or 20 thousand people? You can’t tear that up much, can you?

ANSWER: No, not much of a dent. That’s why I said 5,000. In a town of 20,000 there ought to be four churches. Four churches. You ought to be able to keep it pretty well tore up. Now, you stop to think about 5,000 people — do you have a town in mind that size? What is Bay Monette? It was 3,000 when I was there. What is it now? Anybody know? What? Oh, you say 5,000 now? Bigger than that. How big is Atmore? How big is Milton? Is Milton 5,000? What?

COMMENT: Yeah. Five thousand real easy.

Uh huh. All right, you get a town about the size of Milton; if you got one church in that town that has a radio program, every day, or once a week, and that pastor’s down there on the street corner on Saturday preaching, don’t you worry. In three months everybody in that town will know your first name. They’ll know you. You get a town of 5,000, every time you get a haircut, you give the barber a tract. Every time you eat in a restaurant, you leave a tract there on the table. And every time the repairman comes, you witness to him. Every time the newspaper boy comes by, you witness to him. I’ll guarantee you in less than six months, everybody in that town will know your first town, and every heretic in that town will know where you are. Every Campbellite in that town will be trying to buy radio time after you to mess up what you broadcast. I’ll guarantee you.

QUESTION: How many would you say in a city like New Orleans?

ANSWER: Aww, a mess of them. A mess of them. In the city of New Orleans, there ought to be thirty churches in New Orleans, just blasting it day and night. All thirty of them preaching on the street, all thirty of them on the radio, all thirty of them just attacking the charismatics and attacking the heretics and just raising Cain.

Now, that may not sound like very good New Testament doctrine, but this country is long past the New Testament. And this country now is getting in a place where nothing short of a revolution will wake anybody up.

All right, Acts chapter 17, verse 6: “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” I was just up in Canton. They had had a split there in the Canton Baptist Temple, and I was called to preach at the split. And so I went over there and preached there, you know. And all my friends at Canton Baptist Temple showed up, all over the place, five hundred people there one night, and a lot of talk about this and that, you know. Say, “What are you doin’ here,” “Awww gaww gawww gaww,” “What do you think about this and that?”

I told those Yankees, I said, “You people, you people, you get upset about the craziest things.” I said, “Don’t you know there’s room in this town for two churches? Good night, man! Canton has — well, it’s got over 80,000 people in it, doesn’t it? Who lives in Canton?”

COMMENT: Close to a million.

Close to a million. It can stand two independent Baptist churches; it ain’t going to kill anybody.

And getting in there, and I got to checking around what went wrong here, and what went wrong there, and the long and short of it was, twelve years ago I eat dinner out with brother Henniger and his song director, who was a Bob Jones graduate. And his song director brought along a copy of Nestle’s Greek New Testament, hoping to sink my ship. And he hauled it out there at the table — and I sank his ship! And, for the next eleven years, when I went back there, I had no fellowship or communication with that fellow at all. That fellow, from that point, began to work through there. So he got Brother Henniger to send his boy off to Bob Jones, then he got Bob Jones Jr. to come in, and Bob Jones III, talk around, and gradually began to weed out of the Sunday School everybody that stood for the King James Bible.

Sam Gipp — his number came up. And out he went. And Redman’s number came up, and out he went. And Mel Sibaca’s number came up, and out he went. And by manipulating that thing, and manipulating the preacher, they got rid of every teacher in the Sunday School department that was for, in favor of taking a stand for the King James Bible; now they’ve got a Sunday School where anybody can use any version they want to use.

QUESTION: How big is Pensacola? The population?

ANSWER: Well, it’s a joke. See, the city limits are about 35,000. And the city limits look like a drunken snake on stilts. Have you ever seen the city limits of Pensacola? Those things are drawn like this. My house is outside the city limits. On Rawson. Yeah, on Rawson Lane. Now, the residential district from here on down is within the city limits. But I’m out on Rawson Lane. And the city limits will go around — carefully around — the colored section, and then branch off and pick up Belvedere and Cordoba, see? And then come back through there that way.

Aww, yeah, boy. You know, the town fathers, I would say, I would guess — now, I’m just guessing, but if I want to guess on Endsley and Fairfax and Brownsville and Myrtle Grove and Cantonment, I think out where the city goes, and Gulf Breeze, over, I would say undoubtedly it would be 90,000 people. That would be a conservative estimate.

COMMENT: The metropolitan’s supposed to be around 150, I think.

Well, there you go. I say conservative — 90,000.

QUESTION: And how many Baptist churches are there?

ANSWER: Well, it’s a joke, see. There are 40 Southern Baptist churches, and 20 independent Baptist churches. In this town you’ve got one church for every thousand people. And you have one independent church for almost every two thousand people. If a guy wants to start a work, this isn’t the right place to start one.

COMMENT: Boy, you talk about tearing a place up. I mean, this place must have really formed up — you know, I haven’t been here a very many years, so I don’t know what’s happened before, but you go down the street, and you pass out a tract — you don’t say nothing about King James Bible, going to school, or anything. Just gave him a tract. I said, “Are you saved?” And gave him a tract. And the guy kind of shook his head, and I said, “Are you washed in the blood?” And he said, “You’re from that Pensacola Bible Institute, aren’t you?”

{Laughter.}

Good! Good! That’s what I want! I don’t care if they curse you! Just so they know we’re here.

QUESTION: How many members did you have over at Brent? What did you run?

ANSWER: Not very many. On a good Sunday we’d run about, oh, about 400 in Sunday school, about 500 in preaching. On a bad Sunday, about 250 in Sunday school, about 400 in preaching.

But, you see, here’s the thing. You don’t underestimate the street preachers. The street preaching is what keeps a place just in agony, you see. I mean, all the cultured Christians hate it. All the money-grabbers hate it. And all the Charismatics, it’s just as rebuked to them, they can’t stand it because it shows they’re yellow, see. And every now and then they try to imitate it. They’ll run down there and try to get you a corner for awhile, and put on a show, then they’ll quickly drop out, because they have nothing to say.

And all the heretics hate it, see, because you’re up there where their members are going by and hearing on the other side, whereas they couldn’t.

And the Catholics wish you were dead! Because the Catholic can hear the truth about the Catholic church off the street, where he can’t anyplace else. I mean, you come on the radio, turn the radio off. Get on television, turn the television off. He won’t come to your church. But, when you stand there on the corner and say, “NO HOPE IN THE POPE!” you know, “TURN YOUR BURN! ROMAN SLAVE!” oooohh, man. Those priests would like to have you tarred and feathered.

Now, what happens, when you keep that up and keep that up —now, we’ve been doing it in this town for seventeen years. Seventeen years, man! Plus the radio program. Plus all the little church splits every three years, see. We put out nine churches, you know! Doing a great missionary work!

And so you get that thing going like that, and that thing for seventeen years, you get to the place — now, I’m sure what I’m going to tell you is true — I never heard it, but I know people, I know people, at the country club and the yacht club in this town, on a drunken summer night, Saturday night, those fellows sitting around the table, you know, old drink, you know, swapping wine and everything. Some boy, sitting there, you know, looking around at that old candle burning on the table, and he sees the fire of hell coming up, and here one of you guys yell, “You’re going to hell! You’re going to hell! You’re going to hell!” This guy, you know, will turn around and say, “Hey, wha, what do you think about the bunch of dumb nuts down the street, you’re one of them, oh yeah!” — and then they talk about you for fifteen minutes! That’s what goes on.

Best thing to do, just go and repeat the fire, man, and just let ‘em burn.

COMMENT: The peculiarest thing that I’ve heard, I’ve heard it so many times, that people think that when we go down to the street and preach and everything, they think we’re from Liberty. One of the guys at work was talking to a Catholic, and the Catholic —

Tell him you’re from Pensacola Christian Schools!

{Laughter.}

COMMENT: That Catholic and the guy from Liberty were like this.

Yeah, well they borrow our reputation, you know. They’re Girl Scouts, they’re little ol’ bunnies that’s got their head stuck down the hole, they’re afraid to stick it out.

We need to redouble our efforts. You know what they tell you? They say it doesn’t do any good, see? But, you see, the whole approach of this age is, that if what you say and do doesn’t win the man to Christ, it’s no good. You can’t find anywhere. That’s a new approach. In Matthew 23, Christ didn’t say one thing to get anybody saved. And never even tried! He just skinned them alive.

COMMENT (from female student, about street preaching in Mobile, Alabama.)

Oh, yeah, I’m sure it’s getting in there. You know how the Lord works; the Lord is sly. He does all kinds of things undercover you just don’t know nothing about, you know. I mean, some ol’ G.I. will be walking down Navy, a guy walking down there, some ensign, you know, couple of them in uniform walking by there. You yell at ‘em, and they’ll turn to each other and talk real loud to drown out what you’re saying. Both of them are listening, you know. And, you know, they’ll forget the whole thing, you know, and drop it off, and about a year later over there at Thailand or Formosa or the Sixth Fleet out in the Mediterranean, that ensign will be lying on that bed at night, you know, that old hammock or whatever he sleeps in, lying there, boy, and that Holy Spirit will come down there and say, “You’re going to hell!”

Start the action, boy! The word doesn’t return void.

All right, let’s finish up here. Seventeen, verse 5: “But the Jews which believed not,...” Oh, we’re down in 7: “Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar,...” a lie “...saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” Which may or may not have been true.

Now, they did keep the decrees of Caesar. But they may have mentioned Christ coming back. They may have preached Second Coming. And if you preach Second Coming, verse 7, you see you’re in trouble with the powers that be. Because if you’re preaching the real King is Jesus and the earth belongs to Him, you’re going to be in trouble with the powers that be. And that’s how they got in trouble with the Roman Caesars.

And, if the Second Coming of Christ draws nigh, you’re going to get into more and more trouble preaching about it. The best thing to do is just go on and preach about it.

“And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.” All right, we’ll close there are the paragraph mark at the end of verse 9.

QUESTION: Is it safe to say, when you’re talking about priests like they did here, when you’re dealing with Catholic priests, it’s mostly good to go ahead and preach hard like that?

Right. Right. Yes, sir. That’s the idea. The thing about it, you want to get the difference here, is that in a public proclamation, a public proclamation is, all right, “Are you ready? Listen! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!” And when you get down and deal with a fellow face-to-face, and say, “Well, now, you haven’t tried this, and that doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, so why don’t you try this?” see. That’s right. And personal work and public preaching are two different things. Public preaching is an exhortation and a rebuke and a challenge. And personal work is an effort to win the person to do the right thing.

All right.

Seventeen:10. All right.

17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.

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.

12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

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.

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

15 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.

Oh, Mr. Huey, lead us in prayer. {Mr. Huey is praying.}

I appreciate your prayers in the meeting. We had some saved. We had another young man called to preach, and two more coming down the school. And, I don’t say anything about it, you know. I get up there, I tell them, “I’m not here to publicize the school. I’m here to give you a meeting. And we’re going to have us a meeting.” And I tell them, “I’ve got a school down there. If you want to come, come on. And if you don’t, stay where you are,” and go on and preach. But the Lord always puts His hand on somebody.

I appreciate your prayers. I know prayer got me in. That plane coming in circled the field one time and then came in to land, and he was the last plane in. And they shut down the air field after he landed. And the rest of them had to go on to Detroit and stay overnight, and then fly back. And when he came in, I got stretched out. I got me three seats I could stretch out and sleep awhile. And coming in to land, I heard people behind me talking, you know, and sweating things out, and, “Can he land? Well, he’s on instruments. Well, I don’t know where he’s at. Well you think we’ll get in?” and all this stuff, you know.

I don’t look out the window much any more. I used to. But after the first 500 flights, you go to sleep. And so I just kind of opened my eyes, and just looked at the window, and went back to sleep. Just a fog out there, you know, going through the clouds coming down.

About five minutes later, I felt the plane kind of go, “RRRRRRoooom,” like that, you know. And so I woke, and went and looked out the window.

And just as I looked out the window, he broke through that cloud bank, and he broke through the bank at fifty feet! I mean, that bird, that visibility was fifty feet when that bird landed. Just a little bit higher than a telephone pole when he came in. And, when you looked out there, you could see the snow on the landing strip. Up ahead of the plane, the visibility ahead was, I’d say, about seventy feet — something like that. And he got in.

And the next one didn’t land. And this morning he was an hour late getting home — an hour late taking off in the snow. And when he left, that thing was closing in again. And there was snow all over the place, man — dirty old cars, and grimy slush, you know. Cold, wet gloves. Guys out there shoveling snow, you know, in the driveway. Dying of heart attacks, you know, falling over in the snow. A guy out there by his house, his heating system doesn’t work, he’s out there cussing, you know.

All right, Acts 17:10: “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.” Jews first, Gentile next.

“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. Therefore many of them believed.” Now notice how they’re connected. When a man doesn’t believe, it’s because he’s not fooling with the Scripture. When a man begins to fool with the Scripture, he believes.

“They searched the scriptures daily ... therefore many of them believed.” Now, the next thing about it is they’re from Berea, so the hyper-dispensationalists like to refer to themselves as Bereans. And they call themselves Bereans because they like to think in their stupidity that they’re the only people who search the Scriptures. And they think they search the Scriptures daily whether those things where so, see? So when you tell them they ought to follow the Lord in baptism, they search the Scriptures daily to see if a baptism is so, and when they find it’s not, they’re Bereans, and you’re not — you know, that kind of thing.

And “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily.” Of course, they have a little hitch there you need to kind of tell them about once in a while. What Scriptures did the Bereans have? The Old Testament. They didn’t waste five minutes with the Pauline Epistles. They didn’t have any Pauline Epistles, you know. So it’s kind of stupid, you know, the whole thing’s kind of stupid.

Evidently the people who profess to be Bereans don’t search the Scriptures well enough to know what the Scriptures are a reference to. The Scriptures there are Genesis to Malachi. There’s no reference to Pauline — Romans and Colossians.

“And searched the scriptures ... whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.” Not a few? Then there’s many.

“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. 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.” Now Paul’s in the capital of Greece. That’s Athens. That’s where all the scholars are from. This is the Greek scholarship. So there’s one chapter in the Bible that is aimed at Greek scholars, and it’s Acts 17. Athens is the capital of Greece, and that’s where Demosthenes and Plato and Aristotle and Eurypides and Pythagoras and that whole bunch came from. And he’s there in the first century time, where the Greek scholars know Greek, read Greek, speak Greek and have the Greek manuscripts.

Now, what do you suppose the Lord’s going to say about this vast learning?

Let’s see what He says about it. Verse 21: “(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else,” either to hear or tell some New English Bible, new orthodoxy, New American Standard, New Revised Version — “new thing.”

So the characteristic about an Athenian Greek scholar is he’s fickle. And he’s unstable. And he’s always looking for something new. “To hear or tell some new thing.”

Now these people you read about, “This great discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls will revolutionize the Biblical” — see all that stuff? New — it’s new — it’s new! The Bible said there’s nothing new under the sun. And these fellows are always trying to get something new.

They’re what you call left-wing radicals in politics. Now, a reactionary, a right-wing extremist, is a man who resents change. He resists change. The characteristic of young people is, “Let’s go forward” — change, change, change, change, change. The characteristic of old people, generally, is, leave the thing alone, leave it alone, leave it alone.

And the argument always comes up, “Why, if the old people are right, why, then, we’d never have any progress.” See? Of course, that assumes we are progressing. Just be careful of that!

All right, the next thing from both standpoints about that thing is this: “If you’re younger than I am, a good bit younger, I’ve got one advantage over you. You may have some over me; I’ve got one over you. And that is, that I’ve been where you are. And you haven’t yet been where I am. Now, by the same token, a guy 75 could say the same to me. And he could say, “I’ve been where you are; you haven’t been where I am,” see?

And the advice in the Bible, in the Old Testament, that that Jew was to respect his elders and honor the hoary head and rise up before the white-haired man, is wise advice.

Now, old people are not always aged and do not always understand wisdom, Elihu says. And Elihu balls out three men older than himself and straightens them out on the dock when they get mad at Job. So the aged and wise aren’t always wise, see? Just because a fellow’s old, that doesn’t mean he always has wisdom, see.

But, generally speaking, the more a man lives, the more he’s tried, and the more he knows what’ll work and what don’t work.

Now, when you’re young, you experiment. And what you want is the freedom to experiment on your own. I understand that. I mean, my boys say, “Well, let me make my own mistakes, Dad!” You know. That’s a kid, he wants to be, you know, be himself — be your own.

Sometimes it’s not too wise to be your own.

When I was a young man, I was real dumb about a lot of things, but I had enough sense, when I wanted wisdom, to go to a man over 40 years old. I never asked advice from anybody under 40 when I was 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. I don’t know why that was so about me; just peculiar. But all my friends who gave me advice were over 40, and most of them were over 50, and some of them were over 60. And I talked to those old men. I probably picked up a lot of stuff I shouldn’t have known from those older fellows and got a lot of wisdom ahead of time that I couldn’t handle.

But I know if a guy was under 40, he didn’t know much. I just took that for granted, and asked those older fellows.

Now, the way that thing works is, the longer you live and the more try stuff out, the older you get, the more you’ll find out what’ll work and what won’t work.

Now, the progressive says, “Yeah, but that’s what’ll work and what won’t work for you!” See, that’s the thinking. “It’ll work for me!” you see.

That’s a half-truth. Sometimes what will work or won’t work for one fellow will not work or work for another fellow. But there are general things that are always true.

For example, whatever a man sows, that you’ll also reap. You know who that’ll work for? Anybody. It doesn’t make any difference.

So when these fellows say, “Well, the modern generation idea is, ‘Well, you couldn’t handle it, but we can! We got new ways, new methods, new approaches, new this, new that.’”

You may have about some things. But the basic things, they don’t ever change.

And I must confess, I sure wasted a lot of time learning that. I was real stupid along those lines there. I was always trying to figure out a new and better way.

Bob Jones Sr. said the American people are the craziest people in the world. He said they’ll find something that works, and they won’t let it work. They’re always trying to change it. If you find something that works, leave the thing the way it is!

Now, for a good example, this Bible — does it work? Sure it works! What in the world is the sense in messing with it, see? And they keep messing with it, and saying, “Well, you old-time fogey, you old reactionaries don’t want to change, don’t want anything new.” Yeah, but if a thing works, what is the point in getting something new?

Now, if you had a car fifteen years old, and that car was getting twenty miles to a gallon, and would start every time put down on the thing, you know, and the lights work, and the blinkers work and the horn works and the brakes work, and it was rain-proof and waterproof, and one set of tires would last you five thousand miles, what would you be doing buying a new car?

Down there in Panama City I saw a Cadillac go down the street with a whole bunch of lemons tied to it, and a big sign on top that said, “I bought this at Morey’s Used Car Lot.” And those lemons were going boink-boink-boink-boink!

They got him a new car; they couldn’t afford the advertising, you know. But, you bid on a new car, you might get a lemon, you see? Now, that thing there, if it’s working. Now, if it falls down and breaks down and goes all to pieces, that’s something else. But if a thing works, leave it alone.

Have you ever noticed how many — I’ll get back to this in a minute — but have you ever noticed how many good eatin’ places close up and change management and are no longer good eating places? Did you ever study that thing?

I lived in Pensacola now for eighteen years — at one stretch. And I can show you places in this town where you used to go for breakfast, all the coffee you want free, and all the hot biscuits you want free, with the bacon and eggs, hot and done right for a dollar and twenty-five cents.

And the next guy came in, put doughnuts in instead of biscuits and charged you for the coffee.

And the next guy that came in couldn’t cook the bacon right. And the next guy couldn’t cook the eggs right. And by then it was $1.85. And the place is gone.

Did you ever find a good seafood place? If it’s a good seafood place, I’ll bet you it won’t last more than five years. The thing will close down; it’ll be a bad seafood place.

Always somebody change it, change it, try to fix it up.

Now, I’m reactionary. I’m reactionary. I’m reactionary by brutal experience. I’m reactionary in that I’ve tried, I know what’ll work along a number of lines, and what won’t work along a number of lines, and I resist change. I resist change almost to the point of a sin. I mean, I’ve haven’t got any faith to take one step forward — ‘cause I’m afraid it might be a step backward.

And my idea of a “step” is to get a generator and disappear in North Carolina up in the hills someplace. That’s my idea of a step forward!

So, that kind of thing comes from experience and dealing with things. And I’m not trying to be a pessimist and discourage you from trial and experimentation and going ahead what ever “ahead” is for you, see. But don’t be one of these people who think because a thing is new, it’s good, see? Most of the new stuff is cruddy. It’s cruddy. It’s rotten.

These new houses — they’re not made to hold up. You buy a house fifteen years ago, and it’ll last longer than the one built last year.

The cars. They used to build cars that would last eight and ten years. You ever see a 1929 car drive around? 1928? They still got ‘em now for fifty years. And those cars made back in ‘30, ‘31, ‘32, ‘33, ‘34, ‘35, ‘36 would run seven or eight years before they gave you any trouble. I’d like you to find me a car right now you can buy under $3,000.00 that’ll run three years without giving you trouble. You may get a good one. That’s an accident.

Clipper sold me a used Pontiac station wagon for $200. But Clipper knows cars. I drove that car for two years and sold it for $400. And the guy who bought it drove it for two more years and sold it for $300. And the guy who bought it from him drove it two more years before it fell apart. But’s an accident — you don’t get cars like that.

And so this thing about “new,” the “New Duz,” and “the new toothpaste,” and “the new morality,” and “the new bibles,” and “the new versions,” and the “neo-orthodoxy” — when he says, “new,” you better look out for it — because it’s just the same ol’ stuff.

All right, number two. Verse 22. In this chapter we find that the outstanding thing about Greek scholars is they’re what? Twenty-two. “Superstitious.” So that word has been changed to “religious” in all the new bibles. Anybody got any kind of version with them tonight? Anybody got an ASV? Read us the “new” corruption. They’re superstitious.

COMMENT: Dr. Ruckman, you’re talking about new things, did you see that article in that book about the “New” ASV?

Yeah, pitiful. You see, in my books I wrote that as a joke. In my books I’ll say, “And get the brand new, spanking new, new, new, new ASV.” And they actually put it out seriously! That’s pitiful, man! That’s disgusting. I was joking, man! I wasn’t serious. Some folks don’t have any sense of humor.

COMMENT: And they say they are “very religious.”

Very religious, see? See how “nice” that makes them look? When these Greek scholars made their new translations, they were the bunch the verse was aimed at. Whenever a Greek scholar finds a verse aimed at him, he fixes it up so it doesn’t point at him any more. The average saved scholar today, when he’s preached at, acts just like an unsaved drunk.

I was up in Greg Dixon’s church, and I preached to three hundred high school students this morning in a Christian high school. And before they came in, the youth director said to me, he said, “Now,” he said, “These kids,” said, “they’re really backslidden.” And he said, “Most of them are here because they have to be here. Only a third of them are our church members. The rest of them are outsiders.” And he said, “You won’t find much spiritual going on here.” And he said, “Some of them are drinkin’, smokin’, dancin’ on the side, you know, this and that, just going here ‘cause they have to. They’ve learned to be pious, and talk, and, you know, keep the rules and regulation.” But he said, “Their heart isn’t in it.”

Those kids came in and sat down there. There wasn’t a Bible in the whole bunch. Not in the whole bunch. I got up and preached on “The Prodigal Son.” And I skinned and scalded and bruised and broke and stabbed and cut there when I got through. Those kids were sittin’ there just — like that, you know.

But the thing that happened was, when they came and sat in the auditorium and their principal got up and he said, “Now, boys, when we come to the seats, we should not step on the seats. We should walk around the seats. That’s how the seats are broken.” Then he turned over to somebody and he said, “Young ladies, we are to be quiet. We did not come here to talk but to listen.” Then he prayed and he bowed his head and said, “Now, Lord Jesus, we thank thee for the grace of God that hath made it possible to be here, once...” you know, that kind of business.

And I sat back there and got to watching that thing, I thought to myself, “Uh-huh. Pensacola Christian FM. Here we go!”

And that fellow went back and sat down. I got up to preach and started in, you know — and, no route as usual, I mean — I got in there, you know, and said, “You know, I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old Dad. And where would you go to find an old-fashioned girl like that? Average girl come out of high school these days, everybody slobbering all over her from the janitor to the principal.” I said, “A bunch of you kids going after the service tonight and mating around the back end of cars like a bunch of barnyard animals,” you know — a couple of things like that.

And the kids, the kids took it real good, you know. “That’s right, yeah, right,” you know! That principal back there — I saw him just sink lower and lower. And then he finally got up, and he went by the youth director, and he said, “Pardon me, sir, I’m very sick at my stomach...” Wow! Left the meeting, man!

You know what he acted like? He acted like an unsaved sinner going to hell. That’s just what he acted like. And after that thing was over, I said to the youth director, I said, “Where did that fellow come, where’d he graduate from?”

And he said, “Wheaton College.”

I thought to myself, “There it is. There’s that ol’ inter-denominational, InterVarsity, Christian campus, Richard DeHaan stuff, man.” I’ll tell you — you know what that acted like? Like an unsaved sinner under conviction — just the way he acted. Wasn’t worth a dime. Wasn’t worth a dime, man. Not a dime.

COMMENT: When I was thinking of going up to Wheaton College up in Illinois, and I went on campus there. And not one guy had a sword there.

Now, you know, Torrez came to school; he was a soft-spoken fellow, you know. He would stand up there and say, “Well, tonight, we want to play you a song about,” you know, like that. But he wasn’t like that in character! Man, you’d just skin the hide, he’d sit back there, and “Amen!” and take it, take it right on down. That guy there, he had a high tenor in tissue paper, man. That fellow, if they’re going to have any kind of a hot chapel platform there, they’d better get something going there, man.

You know how people act? Suppose you preach on the Second Coming of Christ. And you’re talking about the Second Coming of Christ, and all of a sudden, you’d say, “And He cut drunkards asunder.” Then you go on preaching.

Some guy will leave the building, you know, and go out the door, “Ahh, blankety-blank preacher, every time I come here, he’s always preaching about liquor. All he ever preaches about is liquor!” You know that?

You preach about the Crucifixion, and you say, “The Lord gave His life. We ought to give our all. And God help you if you can’t even give a tithe.” Then go on preaching a while. A guy go out the door, “That preacher every time is always talking about money. Money, money,” you know, “rrrraaawwww, rrrroooowwwwww.”

Now, you hear guys talk like that, they’re under conviction because they’re living like the devil. That’s the problem. And when you’re preaching about something like I preach some time, when I’m preaching down through there about the Second Coming or preach about prayer, or preach on hypocrites in the church, I make some remark about, “I wouldn’t trust one of those bibles no matter who recommended it,” then go right on preaching, go right on preaching. And one of these old Wheaton, Bob Jones opened up the door, “You hobby-horse! Ridin’ that King James Bible. Always talking about — “ they’re living like the devil, that’s the problem.

And I’ll tell you, good men are always reasonable. You can reason with a good man. And if you can’t reason with him, he’s not good.

All right, Acts chapter 17, verse 23. The next thing about Athenian scholarship — ignorance. Look in the middle of verse 23. The Lord sure has a high opinion of Athenian education, doesn’t He? “Ignorant.”

Look at verse 30: “The times of this ignorance.” See that business? Now, that’s the chapter in the Bible on Greek scholarship. Acts 17.

17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

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.

18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, 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.

19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?

20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.

21 (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.)

All right, Acts 17, 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.” The next thing we know a bnch of them, they’re a bunch of idolaters. The whole city given wholly to idolatry. What does the ASV tell us there? I wouldn’t appreciate that if I was an Athenian scholar. “Full of idols.” See how much better that is? It wasn’t that the people were “wholly given to idolatry,” see? It’s just that the town was “full of idols.” Ain’t that nice? Now see how it’s done?

Let me show you some places like that. Let me show you what happens when a fellow begins to mess with this Bible. This Bible is like 220 volts. And turn to Romans 1. And you don’t take ahold of this Book without getting hurt. Romans chapter 1. And when an old reprobate kind of alters the word of God, picks up the word of God, when he comes down through there, he instinctively recognizes every very that’s aimed at him. And when he comes upon a verse to translate it, the demon in him will rise up and, “Uggggghhhh! Change it! Change it! Change it! Change it! Arggghhhh!”, you know, when the verse hits him. Because the word of God is like a sword.

Now, for example, in Romans chapter 1, verse 18 — I’m going to read the King James, then give us the reading in the ASV: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Go ahead.

SOMEBODY IN CLASS READS: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth —”

Oh! Oh, I see! So he’s saying that God won’t be mad at you if you hold the truth in unrighteousness; He’ll just get mad at you if you suppress it. So we’re not trying to suppress it; we’re trying to get it out. So we’re all right. No, “they hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

So, when a guy found that verse, he knew the wrath of God was aimed at him. So he altered the verse.

Let’s try another one. Verse 21: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.” How ‘bout that?

SOMEBODY IN CLASS READS: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God.”

“Didn’t honor him as God”? That’s an RSV reading. What are you reading there? New ASV? Why, that’s the reading of the National Council of Churches modernistic Bible, RSV. And that’s saying, “Well, I see what the trouble is. It’s all right. The thing that God is mad at is folks not honoring Him. And we honor Him.”

That isn’t what your verse said. What did your verse say? It said glorify Him. You can honor the devil; give honor to whom honor is due. You can honor Caesar. That thing said, “Glorify.” And that bunch of dirty reprobates that translated that Bible knew they were not glorifying God, but what they did is, they changed that to save their own skin.

Now, try another one — 25. Isn’t it amazing how many of them showed up in Romans 1? I wonder why that is? Look at verse 22. All right, let’s try 25: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie.” Go ahead:

SOMEBODY IN CLASS READS: “Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”

“Exchanged it for a lie.” See that? You know what they did? That translating committee knew, when they sat down, they were changing the truth of God into a lie. So, to liberate themselves, they said, “Well, it wasn’t that He was mad at the people who changed it, He was mad at the folks who exchanged it.” See how beautiful that’s done?

Now, did you know you have to be satanically led by an unclean spirit to translate like that? You got to be led by the devil, brother. And those are all saved men, undoubtedly.

COMMENT: The Old Scofield note has “exchanged.”

The Old Scofield note. Right. Scofield had enough Christianity to print the right text, but not enough humility to prevent you from letting him know once in a while how smart he was.

COMMENT: This one has, “truth about God.”

That’s the RSV reading. What is that version? What version are you reading?

COMMENT: I have it down as a New Scofield.

Uh-huh. “Truth about God.” But you see how that’s done again? It’s saying, “God is just mad at folks that take the truth about God and change it.” That isn’t what the verse said. It says God is mad at the fellow who takes the truth of God — this is the truth of God — and changes it!

All right, back to Acts 17 verse 16. So, when a translator translates, he’s never objective. He’s never objective. When a translator translates, he’s on guard against any verse that might expose his sins. And he’ll change those verses.

You’ve heard me kid about them. I kid about them. You know, I don’t like that verse that says, “Be pitiful. Be courteous. Be tender-hearted with beloved brethren. Put away foolish talking and jesting — which are not convenient.” Now, if I were like these birds, you know what I’d do? I’d change those verses. That verse doesn’t mean “courteous.” It means, “be knowledgeable.” Or this verse doesn’t say “foolish talking and jesting.” What it means is, “pornographic jokes.” See, and then I’d save my neck.

You can’t do that. You can’t do that.

Now, you fellows who are going to preach the word of God, there isn’t a one of you who’s going to preach one time in your life more than a year before you’ll be preaching some verse that’s taking your hide off. When you get through preaching, you’ll be ready for a trip to the alter. That’s right! And the guys that don’t preach that way are skipping certain passages in the Bible. You can’t preach all the Bible without taking your own hide off. “All flesh is grass,” brother.

COMMENT: So what do you do when your own preaching gets you under conviction?

Ha ha! Well, some time, you’re real pious, you run down and kneel with them!

I usually make a habit in the meeting, after I give an invitation, to go back and kneel down and pray myself, on the platform. As an example to anyone else there, I’ll be the first one down.

All right, 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.” “Disputed” — that’s an argument. He’d argue with him.

“Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks.” Now those are the two main branches of philosophy. In advanced theology next year you’ll get all kinds of others. Some of you have had advanced theology, haven’t you? Some of you third-year students have had it. And in advanced theology, we’ll take you through all those branches of philosophy. There’s pragmatism and naturalism and realism and existentialism, and neo-Aristotelianism, and animism — and God knows what.

But there are basically two. There are two basic philosophies. The first basic philosophy is fatalism, “chin-up,” “tough apples,” “grin-and-bear-it.” That’s one.

And the other is, “Eat, drink, and be merry. Have a good time, because tomorrow you’re deader than a dog.”

Now, those are two — those are the basics. Now, from those you can get any number of ramifications. But stuff like existentialism — those things — and they’re fatalistic, they’re stoic. And hedonism and Hugh Hefner and situation ethics are Epicurean. And Epicurea is the teaching that you are the best thing in life, the highest good is have a good time.

And, he has some moral code. For example, he’ll say, “Well, if your good time is intemporate and cause you a bad time, you ought to watch that.” I mean, he tempers it, you know, with a little rules and regulations that nobody keeps.

And, it’s the kind of a thing like, “You know, we know when to quit” — but nobody ever quits there.

And, so Epicureanism is, “Eat, drink, and be merry, and have a good time” — and the real Epicurean would feast himself until he was glutted, and then he’d stick his finger down his throat and get rid of it — then go back and sit down and eat again. That’s the real Epicurean.

And our word for it in the modern vernacular is “gourmet.” The “Galloping Gourmet,” where you spend all your time, you know, roasting pheasants with caviar, stuffed in snail’s ears, or something, you know. I mean, some of those dishes, you know, try — it just shows you the depravity of human nature. Try to think of something wild.

I don’t like women’s magazines for more than one reason. But one reason I don’t like them is they always show these dishes the ladies are supposed to serve their husbands. And they always make these dishes so they’ll make a good color plate in the magazine. Boy, they must taste like something that fell off the back end of a garbage truck, man! I mean, did you ever see one of these big bowls of green, red and stuff that sticks here, and stuffed to here, you know? It doesn’t match. I mean, you look at the stuff on there. It’s like eating a mayonnaise sandwich or spinach ice cream, or something — or Vaseline on toast! You get this casserole, you know — this “casserole spaghetti,” with a little piece of mustard green and chipped-up eggs and pineapple in it? My land, man! What a thing to sink your teeth in!

I like baked potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper — you know, that kind of thing. And plain biscuits with plain butter, and that kind of thing — and vanilla ice cream. I mean, no “tutti-fruiti, chocolate, almond-toasted, roasted,” whatever it is!

And these Epicureans like wine tasters. Some of these guys sit around the table and taste thirty glasses of wine. Smack the lips, you know, show what they taste like. It’s all lying, man. It’s all to make you all drunk.

And Epicurean, his philosophy is, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you’re gonna die. Have a good time. You can’t be sure of nuthin’.” And if he has any moral code it’s, “Don’t hurt anybody while you’re doing it.” That is, that’s the philosophy of the modern educational system.

And the stoic — the stoic is a military philosophy. It’s the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. When they say a man’s stoic, that means he’s immoveable, he’s implacable, he doesn’t register any emotions. “Stoic” is “tough it out, tough it out, tough it out.” It’s the good soldier’s philsophy, because he has to tough it out.

Indians are stoic. The Shemitic people are stoic. The people from China and Japan go with those kind of flocks is. Nothing Epicurean about them. You won’t find one Japanese or Chinese out of a thousand that believes in eat, drink and be merry.

COMMENT: The people overseas have a saying, they call it, “Be true to living. One day you’re going to die.”

Yeah. Well, that’s — a lot of truth in that.

QUESTION: Is that stoic?

Yeah, that’s stoic, but again it’s Christian. It’s Christian. That much is Christian. I mean, Christ said if a man saved his life, he’ll lose it. If he lose it, he’ll save it. Christ said, “I protest by your rejoicing. I die daily.” But that much truth is found in what you’re talking about. And what you’re talking about wasn’t a Christian thing, was it?

ANSWER: No.

Yeah, see. But, you see, some of that Christian philosophy gets through. If you had a truth in Epicurean and Stoicism, which one was closest to Christianity, Stoicism would be. It’d be. It’d be, “If any man would follow me, let him deny himself.” That’s stoic. If there’s one thing the Christian philosophy doesn’t teach, it doesn’t teach, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die.”

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. And Paul said you can’t be an Epicurean unless Christ is still in the tomb. If Christ is still in the tomb, you can be an Epicurean. But look at 1 Corinthians 15:32: “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.” That’s Epicurean. But that’s only if Christ didn’t come up. Now, if Christ did come up, then something else.

All right, Acts 17, verse 18: “Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some,...” That is, “Others, some said this: “...other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods.” Why? “Because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.” No Greek philosopher believed in a literal, physical resurrection. Look at verse 32: “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.” The way that they were living, they couldn’t afford to. They didn’t believe the body was going to come up, they didn’t believe God judge them for what they’d been doing.

All right, verse 19: “And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus.” That’s been changed in the new bibles “the council of the Areopagus, or the council of the Areopagus,” but it’s a hill over there.

“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.” Footnote: “(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.)” They’re fickle! Like a bunch of gossipy women. All they live for was to hear something new or tell something new.

Did you know America’s getting that way? Boy, I’ll tell you, I’m so glad I don’t have a TV set sometimes I could shout, man! I get out in meetings, you know, and go across that monitor it. I’ve watched less TV this year in motel rooms than any time in my life, ‘cause they don’t show any more hockey games. I would go across there and try, and haven’t seen a hockey game in the whole year. I get in that motel and run across that dial trying to find a hockey game. I can’t find any hockey games! They’re playing them, aren’t they? I see reports in the sports pages, I never seen one of them. What’s going on? I watch that thing. That’d come on, and I’d watch that thing.

But you got on there, and 9:00: “Don’t forget FLASH will be at 11 o’clock.” 10:00: “Don’t forget it again at 11:00. FLASH! 11:00, local news, CBS news, ABC news, news, weather, sports, news, weather, sports, news, weather, sports. 12:00, sign-off, news, weather, sports, radio in the morning. 6:00, news, weather, sports. 7:00, news, weather, sports. 8:00, news, weather, sports.” You buy a newspaper.

Brethren, there isn’t that much news in this earth! You know what you could do? You could take a sheet of paper this big — see right there? And as far as news from overseas goes, foreign news, you could print all the news there is about foreign countries that ever took place in one week on that piece of paper, right there. That big. Condense the thing, put it right there in one week.

They’ll spend five times that much time in a day and then publish two editions of the newspaper to put that stuff out.

You know what I think? I think people read newspapers and magazines to prevent them from reading the Bible. That’s what I think. I think they are competition to get you off the word of God. I really think that.

That stuff — all the news stuff that happens in a year, if you took every major news event that happened this year, you could print it in one edition of a daily newspaper. One edition, man! One day! A Monday morning paper could contain every major thing that happened in the whole year in every country of the world. That was major.

Did you ever see what they fill it with? I mean, “Dear Ann Landers, My boy married his boyfriend last week, and they want to come and live with us. What do you think about this?” “Oh, help the kiddies out, don’t be a bigot,” you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, you know. You know. And here’s a crossword puzzle, and the Aries, you know, Scorpio, you know — today, thing for the day, all through there. You out of there, and then, “How to make pickled raspberry jam,” sitting there in a thing like this, you know. On down through there.

That stuff is just filled with junk. One of those things; what Mrs. Carter, you know, Mrs. Carter bought a fifteen-dollar hat, you know, at Murphy’s, or something like that. What a thing, man!

All right, “...either to tell, or to hear some new thing.”

I’ll tell you what’s new — the new birth! That’s new! I’ll tell you something else that’s new — the new heavens and the new earth! I’ll tell you something else that’s new — if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature; old things are passed away; all things are become new. That’s the new stuff!

17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

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 worship, him declare I unto you.

24 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;

25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

27 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:

28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

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.

30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

31 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.

“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill,...” which is the Areopagus; that’s another word for it. “Areopagus” is called “Mars’ Hill,” just outside of Athens.

“And said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” What a way to start a sermon! The guy gets before the Greek faculty of every major Greek university in Athens, and says, “I perceive in all things you’re too superstitious.”

“For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,...” Quote: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” And that’s the idea, they had so many idols and so many gods down there, they put up one just in case they didn’t know him. They put one up down there just in case there was one they missed.

“TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship —” rubbing it in “— him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Where’d he get that from? That’s Paul speaking. Why would he say that? Huh? Stephen! That’s what Stephen said! Boy, when they talk about a message lasting awhile, what’s the date in Acts 7? That last message he preached in that revival meeting? 33? What’s date in Acts 17? Twenty years! Twenty years. He never forgot ol’ Stephen.

“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 now the fur hits the fan! Now, verse 26 and verse 27 are verses on segregation. And the “Town Hall of Tonight,” about twenty years ago, when Duke McCall and Billy Graham got on there with Ockenga and about ten other guys, they discussed that verse — 26 — for an hour. Every man at the table stopped the verse at the comma. No man dared to continue beyond the comma. Those fellows sat there; they were evangelicals, fundamentals, neo-orthodox, conservatives, modernists, liberals, discussing the Bible. And there wasn’t one man at the table who dared quote any version of the Bible in Acts 17 verse 26 beyond the comma.

That goes to show you the political pressure was so great on Christians by 1957 that there wasn’t one major Christian leader in America who could any more even quote the word of God, let alone preach it. That’s who great the political pressure was.

And those fellows were on three networks with that program. And they came across there, and every man that quoted the verse said, “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” And stopped right there at the comma.

And the ones that had ASVs and RSVs said, “And hath made of one all nations of men” — left out the word “blood.” What does the New ASV do with that? “He made from one every nation” — left out the word “blood.”

All right, now, first of all, the word “blood” was taken out so you’d have a basis for integrating people. And then, secondly, the comma was stopped at, so you could see the results of integration.

Now, that’s profound, brethren! That’s profound! I mean, boy, when up there was Duke McCall of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Criswell from out in Dallas, First Baptist Church; Billy Graham, who at that time had a big revival in Los Angeles. And there was Pike or Sockman, one of those guys on there, and two or three others. And they had every outstanding major religious leader in America on that broadcast, and not one man there — regardless of what he professed — could quote any version of the Scripture. That was in ‘57. That’s twenty years back.

Aren’t you going to have you a time when you get out?

All right, verse 26: “And hath made of one blood.” Now if your Bible doesn’t have the word “blood” in it, you’re going to have a bible that misleads you. Because the only way that men are the same is blood. It isn’t God made of one all nations. It’s God made them of all the same blood. They don’t all have the same genes and chromosomes.

Now, you get your racial characteristics from your genes and chromosomes. You don’t get your racial characteristics from your blood.

For example, if I go down to the blood bank and donate a quart of blood down there, and some old colored boy has a wreck down here, and says, “Man, I’m going to go to the hospital,” and then get a quart of my blood and put it in him, it won’t turn his skin white.

And you needn’t worry going to the hospital and getting a pint of blood from a Hamite. It isn’t going to turn you black.

There were S.S. officers in World War II so rabid in that thing that when the Americans catch them wounded, and called for introvenous, they put the bottle up there, with the I.V., and tell them, “This is the blood of the Jew” — and there’s many in the S.S., man, that refused it and died. I mean, when I say “many,” I mean several hundred that were wounded there, and they said, “We’re going to give you some Jewish blood.”

“Nein! No deal!”

Well, now, you can take the blood from a Chinaman or a Japanese, and if the blood type matches your blood, and put it in your bloodstream, and it will not slant your eyes! So just don’t worry about it!

You get your racial characteristics from your genes and chromosomes — not from your blood.

So, there’s one way that colored people and Oriental people and white people are all exactly the same — their blood. Their blood.

QUESTION: What about sickle-cell anemia? Is that from the blood or is that —?

I don’t know much about medicine to know that, but I think that’s found in any race, isn’t it? Isn’t that found in any race?

WOMEN STUDENT TALKING — microphone can’t pick it up.

Seven percent of the black population. Does it ever occur in the white race? It never occurs in the white race? How about the Oriental race?

MALE STUDENT: So, does it come from the blood, or from the person who carries it?

FEMALE STUDENT: The red blood cells are formed wrong.

MALE STUDENT: So it’s got to do with the red blood cells.

Well they take, when they take a blood donor down there at the blood bank, do they examine those colored people to see if they have that trouble, before they take the blood? They do. They don’t take it if they’ve got it?

I said if the type matches. Well, the thing is, if you have eight colored men here and eight Orientals and eight Europeans, they’d all have the variety of blood types within their own race.

COMMENT: When I got blood, they didn’t check on blacks. They just asked me if I ever had any.

Ever had what?

COMMENT: Have you ever had sickle-cell anemia?

Well, some of you white folks may be showing up with that after awhile!

Well, I’ll tell you, in all other ways they’re different. They’re different. The races — they’ve got characteristics. I’d bet you — and I’m just bettin’, I’m just guessin’ — but I’ll bet you about next spring, I’ll bet you’re going to see hundreds of thousands of colored folk coming down back to Southland, out of Detroit, and Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Because, you know, a colored man’s skin is not set up to take that cold. And I don’t know enough about physiology to know what that is, but their physiological makeup cannot take that like a white man. And that’s why colored people always gravitate to the Equator. If, in the South hemisphere, they graduate north; if in the North hemisphere, they graduate south. They go south.

And if I were some of those colored folks up there, I’d have enough of that weather by now. Because, if I was one of them old boys up there in an apartment house, burning my soap to stay warm, before my gas was cut off, I’d say, “Man, I know what, I’s goin’ back down where I’s appreciated!” — get on back home.

And their skull size is different. I mean, man for man, and all things, the skull size is different. They’re going to wind up taking over most sports — at least contact sports. Well, they’re not going to take over hockey, can’t think quick enough!

Stuff like football, where you say, “You go there and turn right and cut left,” and those heads bang, they got a better banger, you know, to bat with, a battering ram.

All right — how’d I get off on that? Twenty-six: “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” — now here’s what they didn’t dare quote.

I’ll tell you, man, I’ll tell you the honest truth. If I was called to preach and got where those guys were, and was discussing this thing, and in my own heart I knew I was such a moral coward that I didn’t dare finish a verse that I started, honest to God, brethren, I’d turn in my ordination papers tomorrow night! I’d go join the Navy and you’d never hear from me again. I’d ship out to China. I can’t imagine a man even in a situation like that. I mean, how can a man profess to be called to preach and get on there and start a verse, and not have enough guts to finish it?

“And hath determined the times before appointed,...” and here’s what they didn’t want “...and the bounds of their habitation.” That’s what they didn’t want! They didn’t want any one of all those listeners on three networks to know that, although all men were the same as far as the blood goes, that they had bounds and they were to stay within bounds. And that would have defeated the whole purpose of the program politically. So none of them quoted it.

Now, why did God appoint the bounds? Verse 27: “That they should seek the Lord.” Then a man who believes and promotes integration is preventing people from finding Christ. You got that?

QUESTION: When you say bounds, are you talking about blacks, Spanish, Italian, French?

No. Turn to Deuteronomy 32. I’m evidently talking about geographical boundaries. I’m evidently talking about land. Turn to Deuteronomy 32, verse 7. “The bounds of their habitation.” That reference there goes much further even than interracial things. It has to do with the breaking down of boundary lines on geography. Deuteronomy 32:7: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.” Now watch it carefully. Deuteronomy 32:8. This is before the law and before Abraham. So this is universal — still in application: “When the Most High divided —” there’s no integration to it “— divided to the nations.” Nationalism is God-given. Nationalism is; United Nations is not. Nationalism is a God-given thing. “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance —” underline it; when He did what? “Separated the sons of Adam.” He did not get them together.

That attempt to remove the word “blood” from Acts 17:26 is an attempt to make you think because they’re all from Adam, they should be one body. But Deuteronomy 32:8 said He separated the sons of Adam. Now here we go: “He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”

Now, there are twelve children of Israel. So there must be twelve boundaries. And I read in Revelation 21 and 22 that the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of the city, and the city has twelve gates and twelve manner of fruit each month for the healing of the nations. So somewhere there must be twelve.

Now, I don’t profess to know for sure what these are. But I can be sure of a few of them. That’s one. Now, it’s boundaries on north, west, and south are absolutely fixed. There’s no doubt about where Europe ends in the north, the west, or the south. There is some doubt about where it ends in the east — whether it’s the Vistula, or the Older, or the Elbe or the Volga. But, coming over on the other side of Asia. There is no doubt about Asia’s boundary on the north, or the east, or to the south. There isn’t any doubt about it at all. You couldn’t possibly miss it. It’s ocean, all the way around there. There’s some doubt on the western boundary.

Here’s one about which there can be absolutely no doubt about the boundary at all, because it’s bounded east, west, north, and south by water, and the only place it crosses is the Suez Canal into the Sinaitic Peninsula, which is for Jacob — Israel. So the bounds of that one are set.

And he said over there in Hosea, “They break out of the bounds.”

Now here’s another one that you can be absolutely sure of. That’s one land unit; it’s a continent. And it’s separated by itself.

Here’s another one that’s almost certain. It’s absolutely certain on the north and the west and the east. And the south, there may be some dispute about it. But the Rio Grande is a pretty good boundary.

And then you have Central America. And there’s not much doubt, there’s no doubt in the east and the west, and there’s very little doubt in the south — because it’s South America on the bottom.

That’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven — now, I’m not too sure about the rest of them.

There’s one group of islands called West Indies, and they come in one unit. And there’s one group of islands called East Indies, and they come in another unit. So, I’ve got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine. Now, I need three more.

Now, I’m not sure about those three. I don’t know if England is separate from Europe. I’m not sure about that. Whether England counts as Europe, or whether it’s separate. If I was gonna guess, I’d have to guess something like — and I’m just guessing now — I’d have to guess something like England, Iceland and Greenland — as a group — or, Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland as a group — like that.

QUESTION: How about Japan, China, and those places?

Well, China is plainly Asia. There may be some question about Japan. This thing here might be England, Japan, Greenland — might be a thing like that. But I’m not sure of those. I’m not sure of those.

Now, those are natural boundaries. Those are natural boundaries. And those boundaries pretty well divide people off as far as their culture goes.

Now, where you get near the border — like, you get Mexico and Texas and New Mexico and Arizona, there’s an overlap. And, when you get down to, below Honduras and Guatemala, and get down near the Canal Zone, there’s an overlap into Colombia and Venezuela, see. But those are pretty general marks.

QUESTION: Those Russians — are they like Chinese and Japanese and that?

They’re generally — that’s the trouble — they’re white Russians and Caucasian Russians and Georgian Russians, and every Russian east of Moscow is considered Mongolian. They’re considered Mongolian. Everybody west of Moscow is considered European. That overlaps.

QUESTION: (Not audible.)

They’d be Shemitic, and they’d be kin to Japanese and Siberian and and north Chinese — it would be like American Indian — they’d be Shemitic. They’d be Eastern.

COMMENT: We cut our own throats when we brought the blacks over, and now we got a big mess, and the only thing to do is ship ‘em back!

That’s right! Spoken like a good Southerner.

COMMENT: They don’t want to go back to Africa.

Of course they don’t! They talk about the ghetto — man, the ghetto is OK compared with Africa! They don’t want to get back there and swing around them trees, a lion chasing them. I mean, why run from a lion trying to eat you when you can run down a football field and make fifty thousand dollars a year! Ha ha!

Ahh, we better close here tonight. We’ll take a break. What? Oh yeah, oh yeah, we need to have a test. We’ll make this over 15 and 16 and 17 as far as you’ve gone in 17.

Verse 27. Now Paul is talking to the Athenian philosophers and scholars, and he’s mentioned the fact that everybody’s made from the same blood, and that’s the only way they’re the same. Verse 26: “Made of one blood.”

And the reason why the people who believe in integration don’t dare quote the verse in its entirety because the rest of 26 and 27 not only states that God has put boundaries for men to live in, but in verse 27, it says that the purpose of putting the boundaries is so they can seek the Lord and find Him. Now, that’s the purpose of putting up the boundaries.

So, if a man is busting down boundaries, then he’s in a way responsible for preventing people from finding Christ.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with somebody going to all the world to preach the gospel. There’s nothing wrong with a man going to another boundary and telling the folks how to get saved. But taking people out of bounds and moving from their boundary and putting them in another boundary, that’s busting the thing up. And they had enough of that in “Roots,” I guess, to last a lifetime. Of course, they didn’t show the good that was done from it.

Some guy wrote an editorial today in the paper on “Roots,” and really gave them Hail Columbia! thank God — a plain talker — and told them where to head in and where to park.

QUESTION: How would that keep people from finding the Lord?

Well, the way it works, when you break down boundaries between groups and put them together, the bigger group you’ve got, the less truth is available. Now, let me explain what I mean. If this was Tennessee Temple — and it’s not — but if this was, I couldn’t say a lot of things I say about the King James Bible in a classroom. You’d lose students. And the reason why you’d lose students is because there’d be kids in there from homes where the families used eight to nine versions. Even if the kid believed the King James Bible, he’d come to a home where they didn’t. You’d start that stuff, and somebody would get their feelings upset.

All right, the next thing about it is, I’d be talking, when I got up there in chapel, I’d be talking to eight or nine faculty members — or twenty faculty members.

Now, when I get up here, there are only three other people teaching here — Mrs. Jones and Miss Meacham and Brother McGaughey. Now, if I was out here and had eight or nine professors here who graduated from Bob Jones, they’d all been raised on the ASV and the New ASV. So I couldn’t open my mouth, or I’d lose some professors — and bust up my curriculum.

Now, for example, if I got up before the United Nations, I wouldn’t dare say hardly anything that I say in my normal preaching. Now, I’d do it, see. But that’s because I’m a little, you know — I mean, I don’t give a flip, see, one way or another.

But, ordinarily, if a guy got up before the United Nations, he couldn’t talk about the blood of Christ, the blood of God — Jehovah’s Witnesses there. Couldn’t talk about Christ being the only Way — Mohammedans and Buddhists there. And he couldn’t talk about Heaven or Hell — you’ve got liberals and atheists there, see.

The more people you get together, the less truth is available. That’s how it goes.

So, as transportation increases — getting together — and communication increases — as they increase, you have to have less and less truth. That’s how it goes.

Now, you know the reason why they’re not having real revivals? Because Billy Sunday, when he got up to preach, didn’t have to worry about the Civil Liberties Union when he got up to preach. And when Billy Graham gets on the air, he’s got the Civil Liberties Union after him, the NAACP after him, the Health, Education and Welfare Department after him, UNESCO after him — and there’s just an awful lot he doesn’t dare say. And got the Roman Catholic Church after him, see.

So that, when you break down bounds and bring people close together, you have more differences of opinion, more differences of groups, and you have to keep cutting and cutting and cutting to keep them together.

Now, once you lay it down hard and fast, you’ll split it up. You’ll break ‘em up. You’ll split your church, see. Nothing in the world will split a church like the truth. Nothing in the world would tear it up like that.

So the closer they get — Isaiah chapter 5 says, “Woe be to them that lay field to field, and lay house to house, until there be no place where they be placed alone amidst the earth.” So, these condominiums, see? And you get that condominium in there, and the first thing you find is a sign out there saying, “No solicitors allowed.” What have they done? They’ve prevented tract distribution.

See that thing?

As soon as you get them all together like that, in the proportion you get them together, is the proportion you’ll have to sacrifice the truth — unless you just don’t give a flip and stick your neck out, and then get your head blown off.

Which is all right with me! I mean, as far as I’m concerned, God hasn’t changed any, and the word of God hasn’t changed any, and the truth hasn’t changed any, and if they hated Him, they’re going to hate us. So, the thing to do is go ahead — take your chances.

But, you see, the more you get those people together like that, in a thing like that, the more you got to compromise. That Bible, they said, “Go to, let us make us a city, and build us a tower whose top may reach to heaven.” What did the Lord do to them? He scattered them! He segregated them.

All right, verse 27: “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.”

QUESTION: What does that mean, “feel”?

That’s “feel” like feeling around in the dark, trying to find something. It isn’t like having a good feeling; it’s like this, you know.

“Though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” Now, that’s geographically. That’s not spiritually.

Don’t you know Paul wouldn’t tell a bunch of unsaved Athenians, “In him we live,” and include himself with the “we”? Paul was in Christ. But every person is in God in a sense that God encompasses the universe, and you’re in the universe. It’s in that sense.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” The spirit of man is from the Lord. And the Lord can give a man his spirit, and take it from him. “Who knoweth the spirit of beast that goeth downward into the earth, and the spirit of man that goeth upward?” The writer of Ecclesiastes said, “Then shall the spirit return to God who gave it.” So it’s in that sense.

“In him we live, and move, and have our being.” In the sense of you’re inside God because God’s everywhere.

Then he says, “As certain also of your own poets have said.” I mean, the Greek philosophers are pantheists, most of them. They believe God’s everywhere, and everything’s in God.

“As one of your own poets have said.” And then he quotes an unsaved Greek poet. This fellow’s name is A-R-A-T-U-S. A-R-A-T-U-S. Aratus. And he’s a native of Cilicia. A-R-A-T-U-S. And the same words are also found in a Roman poem called “The Hymn of Cleanthus.” “The Hymn of Cleanthus.” So Paul could be quoting either one of them. Either this production here, if it’s a Roman production, or Aratus, who’s a native of Cilicia — this area in here. That’s a Greek poem, and there is a Roman poem. And that quotation is found in both of them.

And you know why that’s so significant? You never read anywhere in the New Testament about Paul quoting the Apocrypha. Paul would quote from an unsaved heathen poet before he’d quote the Apocrypha! That shows you what God thinks of the Apocrypha.

“For we are ... his offspring.” Now notice again how the word is used. Not in the sense of a born-again child of God, but something that God made. “Offspring” — sprung out from God. Well, God made rattlesnakes. God made dogs and cats. So it’s talking about a physical creation.

All right, then verse 29, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God,...” well, you’re made in God’s image “...we ought not to think that the Godhead —” a reference to the Trinity “— is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance —” Greek scholars are ignorant.

Look at verse 16. That Greek and silver and stone, graven image is all over that town, man! There’s probably only one town that has more graven images in it than Athens — and that’s Washington, D.C. That’s probably the only one that ever beat ‘em.

All right, 30: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at.” It’s an expression meaning He overlooked it. Just looked back. It’s an Old English expression, and the idea is He just kind of failed to stare at it — just kind of batted His eyes at it going by.

And this means that, up until the resurrection of Christ, God allowed idolatry among the Gentiles. Now, He never allowed it among the Jews. When He gave the Ten Commandments back in Exodus 20, He said, “You’re not making yourself any graven image,” see. No idol for that Jew. That was a sin punishable by death for a Jew.

But the Lord let the Gentiles do it. He didn’t approve of it; He just overlooked it.

QUESTION: Does that mean that He didn’t exercise judgment on them, or that let them as individuals not be held accountable for it?

He let ‘em practice it, and overlooked it through the centuries.

QUESTION: So they won’t have to be held accountable for it through the judgment then?

Nope. That is, He let them get away with it.

QUESTION: Is that what it’s saying over in Romans 5?

What’s that?

QUESTION: Something about before the law, sin was not imputed?

Right. Since is not imputed where there’s no law. That’s right.

Now, the American Indian had his totem poles. But, you know, he kept talking about the “Great Spirit,” you know, and the “Great White Father,” you know, that kind of business. It’s amazing how much light those people have. That old Indian would get out there on a buffalo hunt or a deer hunt and fire that arrow. And when he hit that deer and that deer dropped, he’d bow down and put his bow and arrows on the ground and bow down and say, “Oh, Great Spirit, thou hast laid him low!” Well, now, you don’t find many American hunters doing that!

Now, here’s a college-educated guy, supposed to have more sense than an American Indian, goes out there and kills him a 16-point buck — do you see him getting on his knees and saying, “Thank you Father, you laid him low?”

He’s out there saying, “Well, hot dog, I got the blankety-blank so-and-so! Boy, wait till Blankety-Blank So-and-So here’s about that!”

American Indian had more religion than the modern white man’s got.

QUESTION: What’s going on here? It’s a little over my head. I ain’t catchin’ it.

Well, the idea is that up until the time of Christ, the Lord would allow the Gentiles to use statues and idols as an aid to worship. But, after the time of Christ, no.

QUESTION: Well, I ain’t followin’ it.

Well, that’s what it is.

QUESTION: Well, over here in the Book of Romans, it says the law was wrote in the heart.

Uh-huh.

QUESTION: And, excusing and being excused...

Yep. “Which show the works of the law written in their heart, their conscience the meantime bearing witness, excusing or accusing one another, in the day that God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

QUESTION: Right.

That’s true. But the Lord made an exception on idolatry, in that He allowed it.

QUESTION: What do you mean, “idolatry”?

The use of idols. Let me show you one. Turn to Acts 14, and tell me what verse 16 means. Fourteen:16. Same context, same problem. Images. Fourteen:16. The same kind of thing. And it’s the same problem — verse 13, 14, and 15 — is images.

QUESTION: How come He wouldn’t let Israel do it?

He wouldn’t let him do it. No, he wouldn’t.

QUESTION: So what was the reason?

They were chosen people, a peculiar people with a special revelation, and that was their mission, to witness to the world there was one true God, and He would not tolerate idolatry for an Israelite.

QUESTION: What about when men have a religion, or more than one?

Well, it has to do that if a Gentile follows his conscience, it would lead him to God.

QUESTION: I mean, they worshipped the creature more than the Creator. See, to me that’s works then.

He just allowed them to get away with it without killing them.

QUESTION: They were going to be judged — just not be killed at the time?

Well, at the time the Lord allowed it and permitted it until they had more light.

Now, brethren, if that isn’t interpretation, somebody tell me.

COMMENT: Well, you know, I mean, it’s like a glutton. The only thing that’s going to take it away, and cast it in the sea — that’s God winking at it.

Yeah, but, when you read He allowed them to walk in their own ways, and the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commands all men everywhere to repent, what are you going to do with that thing:

COMMENT: I don’t know.

All right, but I advise you to do with it what I do with it, and say that that one sin — which is a sin — idolatry — the Lord put up with with the Gentiles until the time of Christ, and after the time of Christ He’ll not put up with it with anybody. How else are you going to interpret it?

COMMENT: In 14 and 15 it looks like it’s more than idolatry that he’s talking about.

Yeah, but in 14 and 16, look at the context. Verse 11: “The gods are come down in the likeness.” See that image? Thirteen: “the priest of Jupiter.” They’d been worshipping an image. Verse 15: “Were men like you.” We’re not images of gods. So forth and so on.

COMMENT: The thing is, when Christ came, He was the image.

That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. The idea is, when Christ comes down, that is the image. So from now on, no more images. The image has showed up.

All right, Acts chapter 17, verse 30. Now we’ll finish it at this time: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Repent of what? Verse 29 — idols.

“Now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Why? Thirty-one: “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” So now the Gentiles can’t get away with it. All those folks down in South America and Spain and Italy and Mexico fooling around with idols, they’re not going to get away with it. They’re going to pay for it, and their children are going to pay for it to the third and fourth generation, just a like a Jew who fools with it.

“Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Now verse 31 is a great verse, and a great verse for preaching. God is going to judge the world in righteousness — not relative standards. In righteousness — “by that man.” There’s the absolute standard.

Now, see, people keep thinking, “Well, what’s good for you isn’t good for me,” and, “The way I look at it,” and, “How do you look at it?” Yeah, but you haven’t got that thing! What’s going to happen is God is giving you an absolute standard, and He’ll judge you by the standard. That’s how the thing is going to work.

What God’s going to do is put Jesus Christ here and put you alongside Him — and then you argue with Him! You tell the Lord, “Well, it just depends how you look at it, you know.” That’s how it’s going to go! That’s how it’s gonna go.

Now, if God hadn’t done that, you’d have a chance. I mean, I wouldn’t mind getting up there and arguing it out with the Lord if the standard was relative, you know. I can see where Buddha did it, Mohammed did it. What about So-and-So? “In the day where their thoughts accuse or excuse one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” — see that thing? And a guy get up there and say, “Well, what about that preacher? He messed up. You saw what he did, didn’t you?”

And the Lord will put up Jesus Christ and say, “And what about this Preacher?”

“Oh, let’s talk about So-and-So!”

“Well, let’s talk about this One!”

Now, what God has done, He’s put a plumb line down, see how he’s hung out a plumb-bob, and it’s straight. It’s straight, see. Don’t swing this way. Don’t swing that way. And He’s going to lay you up alongside it, and as you get up alongside it, you move off here, and you go back over here, then you drop off over here, and you slip off over here. And the whole thing, if you don’t have Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you’re just as good as in Hell with the door shut. And your opinion about it is not even worth considering. I wouldn’t even ask you for your opinion, because God has set down a plumb line of perfect righteousness, and it’s perfectly apparent that none of us have got it. Now, if you don’t believe it, look in a mirror.

QUESTION: When a guy says this, “I believe in Christ,” like any person from any religion believes in Christ, you know, for Christ to be a Saviour is pretty standard. How do you check a guy out, you know? How do you check him out to see if he believes in Christ?

You have to ask him, “If you didn’t have Christ when you died, where would you go?” See if he believes in Hell. A lot of them don’t.

COMMENT: A lot of them say, “I believe in Christ,” like, historically, there was a Christ.

Yeah, but that isn’t saving belief. That’s intellectual assent.

COMMENT: I tried this before. I say, “Well just do the best you can...and that will get you saved — right?”

Well, do the best you can to what? Is it clear to him that when you say, “Do the best you can,” you’re not saying, “Do the best you can to trust Christ”?

COMMENT: No — works.

Works. Well, OK, if he bites at that, he’s lost. If he bites at that, he’s lost.

QUESTION: It’s OK to do that?

Yeah. Paul says, “Being crafty, I caught you with guile.”

All right, 31: “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” Then God has chosen a Man. And that’s why everybody hates Him, because they don’t want that Man to judge. The Buddhist — they want somebody else. The Mohammedans want somebody else. The Catholics want Mary or somebody.

But, the trouble is, God has set down a Man, and the Man He has set down, there is no way around Him.

The colored folk used to sing, “So high, you can’t go over it, so wide you can’t go around it, so low, you can’t go under it. You must come in at the door.” And the Door is Jesus.

“By that man whom he hath ordained.” Now, how do we know that? I mean said, “Well, that’s just your opinion.” OK, here’s how you know it:

“Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men.” Here’s how you can know it: “In that he hath raised him from the dead.” Then the whole thing hinges on the resurrection. If Christ came up and is alive, He’s a special man. If He’s a special man, He’s the Man God chose as the standard for judgment. If He didn’t come up from the dead, then everybody’s safe, and it’s relative, and everybody’s way is as good as anybody else’s — so the trick is to deny that Jesus Christ came literally up from the dead. That’s the trick. And they’ve been working at it years.

COMMENT: Downtown now, you can argue and argue, the one sticking point is that thing right there — Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

It all hinges on the Resurrection. If Christ didn’t come up, you’re safe no matter what you’re doing. That’s right. If Christ didn’t come up, His body rotted in the tomb, right? If His body rotted in the tomb, then His father was Joseph. And if His father was Joseph — Joseph came from Adam, right? — then He was a sinner, right? Well, one sinner is just as good as another.

Amen, brother!

I mean, you stand up there and say, “Well, he did this, and he did that, and he did this.” Well, the proof is the fact that He didn’t come up. If He’s still dead, He must have been a sinner! But, boy, if He came up, you’ve got problems. You’ve got problems.

Because none of us are going to go out there and lie down in the grave and come out in three days — none of us.

Unless you have a Rapture, you know, three days after they bury you — something like that. But, you’re not coming to come up by virtue of your intrinsic righteousness. You’re gonna come up because God gave you His righteousness, see. You’re not gonna come up for your own.

Boy, if you lie down in the grave trusting your own righteousness to get you out with the bugle blowers, you’re going to have a long wait down — downstairs!

All right, 31: “Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” So the standard is Jesus Christ, and we’ll be judged by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Now, that ought to make a man tremble. That ought to make a man fear God.

Of course, it doesn’t. Folks are stupid. They get dumber every year.

But, you take this business — did you ever read Christ’s life, and imagine what it would be like to measure alongside Him? You stop to think about this. You read the Bible, I suppose, once in awhile. And have you ever noticed in there, how it never glosses its heroes? I mean, David’s a great man, you know — adultery, murder, slobber at the gate, “blublubblubblubblubblub,” act like he’s made because he’s scared — remember that thing? Never gloss it.

You remember Abraham? Great man of God. Turned around: “She’s my sister.” He’s lying; it’s his wife.

The Bible never glosses its heroes, see. Now, if it doesn’t gloss its heroes, what is that thing in Jesus Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If it never over-paints a man, what is this Man that never has to apologize?

Did you ever meet a man that never had to apologize about something? Did you ever meet a man that never had to say, “I’m sorry”? Did you ever meet a man that never had to say, “What I meant to say was this”?

You read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you don’t find Jesus Christ one time ever making a mistake even in His speech. Didn’t have to correct Himself. Didn’t have to say, “Well, I meant to say this.” “I’m sorry I said that.”

Did you ever stop to think about this? Not once you ever find Him ever confessing His sin. Never mentioned it. Can you think of that? Never confessing any sin. If He was just a human man — boy, you talk about an egotist! My goodness, man! Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — never gets down on his knees one time and says, “Father, please forgive me.”

Boy, you ought to read David in the Psalms. Boy, “Oh, cleanse me, wash me thoroughly, forgive me, hold not against me, I’m sorry for my sins, I’m chastened and plagued, O God forgive me, O hear me speedily, O get me out of here!” Not Christ. Not Christ. He just sailed right through.

Tells a guy, He said, “You didn’t wash your heart before you sat down at the table.” Never apologized to him.

“The blind lead the blind and go fall in a ditch.” “Go tell that old fox to get me on the third day.”

Go right on down the road. Somebody says, “Hey, don’t you know that offended the Pharisees?” Did he go back and say, “I’m so sorry I offended you?” He said, “The blind lead the blind, and both fall in the ditch. Now, let’s go over here.”

Now, that Man in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is a sinless Man, He’s God manifest in the flesh — or He’s a fake. Now, you and I know better. If you’ve met Him, you know better. He’s sinless. And if He’s sinless, you’d be crazy to match your righteousness alongside His.

How far would God have to go back in your life today to find a sin? I mean, let’s just take today? I’ve lived 55 years — that’s roughtly 300 days in a year, what does that come to? Can’t even add it up. Five, one, over 160,000 days — what is that? What is it — 16,500 days? That’s what it is? 165,000, isn’t it? 165,000 days? Now, if the Lord could only find one sin in my life in the daytime, do you realize what I have to give account for? 165,000 sins, man! If guy ever had to read that stuff out in court, it would take all day and all night to read the list — indictments, man!

So, the Lord has given assurance and put up an absolute standard, and that’s why this whole generation wants to have you think that right and wrong is relative. They don’t want an absolute standard.

17:32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.

33 So Paul departed from among them.

34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

All right, verse 32: “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.” There it is.

“And others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.” Put it off.

“So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit —” the sermon wasn’t barren, got some results.

“Howbeit —” there’s always a few “— Howbeit certain men clave unto him.” Some wanted to cleave him, but some clave unto him.

“Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed.” So he had some mockery, and had some postponement, and he had some conversions.

“Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” So there were more than two converts. “Others” are plural — two or three. At a minimum, he had five or six people saved at that thing. But that’s quite something, considering that was an address to the scholars in Athens on Mars’ Hill. The audience was probably two thousand at a minimum — maybe ten thousand people. And the results look like it’s somewhere between six and twenty — something like that out of a tribe like that. So, you don’t get very good fruit at Athens at the university.

Now, he’s about to go down in Corinth in chapter 18. That is the most godless hellhole in the ancient world — Corinth. Remember that Corinthian church, all the trouble it had? And he has more results there than he has anywhere. “Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.”

All right, we’ll close there at the end of chapter 17.