 Hey man, so we're finishing up Acts chapter 17 tonight. We've gone through two weeks of Acts chapter 17, obviously a lot going on in this chapter. We're looking at Paul's second missionary journey here. If you remember, if you have your maps with you, by the way, if you need a map as we continue this series, just they're usually in the front four year, you can get a map. But basically Paul on his second missionary journey has crossed over into Greece for the first time for Macedonia, as it's called in the Bible. It's modern day Greece. He's been, he got over into Greece and he went into Apollonia and another town over there and he's being chased south. He got chased to Thessalonica. He went to Berea and then he took a ship and sailed to get away from the Jews that were just chasing him south in Macedonia. Then he took a ship and he ended up in Athens. So we talked last week about Paul debating or discussing things and preaching Jesus to the Athenians and he's talking to them about philosophy. The philosophers came to him and then of course, we talked about how philosophy is a replacement for the word of God. Paul's trying to set them straight on that and then of course we looked at superstition. They're just these philosophers that are superstitious. We talked about that last week and then also we talked about how, you know, they're just kind of looking for any new thing which worked to Paul's advantage here because, you know, Jesus, they'd never heard of that. So he got a chance to preach to them there. So let's pick things up in verse number 24. I wanna focus on Paul's kind of description of God. So in verse number 23, you know, there's this temple of this unknown God that Paul comes across. And so Paul, what does he do? He uses as an example or an opportunity, I should say, to preach who God is to these people who apparently don't know who God is. Imagine, you know, if you come across somebody and they're literally worshiping a statue of an unknown God, he's like, hey, why don't I just tell you who God is and then you don't have to worship what you don't know. All right, so in verse number 24, he starts explaining God to the Athenians. Look at verse number 24 in Acts chapter 17 where the Bible says, God that had 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 worship with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things. So these people as the Acts chapter 17 previously said a few verses earlier, they were totally given to idolatry, right? So they're given to idolatry and they're giving all these sacrifices and I'm sure fruits and all these different things to these idols. And Paul is saying, you know, you act like, you know, God, you know, these statues or whatever he's like, the real God doesn't need anything from you. He doesn't need anything you to give him anything as far as material things. Look at verse number 26. And he hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and it determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. So there's a lot there and we're really gonna dig into that one tonight. But basically the thing I wanna point out right now is that the Bible here is saying Paul is saying that God created all men and he created them in this fashion. And the fashion that I wanna point out is that he said that all men are one blood, many nations, one blood of all nations. So there's many nations, one blood. All right, turn to Genesis chapter 11. So Paul is explaining that, you know, this God that I'm explaining to you is the God that has created all men and all men are in these categories of their one blood but they are many different nations. Turn to Genesis chapter 11 and let's get the origin of nations because then Paul says he hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation meaning where these nations will be, where these people that are part of these nations will be residing. You're like, how did that happen? Well, the Bible explains to us how that happened. Turn to Genesis chapter 11 and let's look at the origin of nations. So we have one blood but many nations. Was it always that way? Look at Genesis chapter 11 and verse number one. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 11 and verse number one it says the whole earth was of one language and one speech. So we're talking about, you know, after the flood here. Okay, so we're after the flood and the whole earth was one language and one speech. Let me just translate that for you. Basically one nation is what we had here. One language, one speech, one culture basically is what we're looking at here in verse number one. It says it came to pass as they journeyed from the east they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven and let us make a name lest we be scattered about abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said behold the people is what? The people is one. And they have all one language and this they began to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. So God sees these people they're all together they're all you know collaborating together and they're trying to build a tower and be these great people. And God is saying that you know this isn't good. Look at verse number seven. Go to let us, there's the trinity right there by the way, let us go down and therefore confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So God just destroyed the whole world and he's like now these men are getting lifted up to the point where they're thinking that you know they can come up with technology and they can build thing, they can build to heaven and they can be like gods and all this thing. God sees men's hearts being lifted up again and he's like what should I do to stop this, slow it down, whatever. And this is what God does. In verse number eight it says so the Lord he confounds their speech in verse number seven. The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did their confound the language of all the earth and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. There's the bounds of their inhabitation that we're talking about in Acts chapter 17. So in Genesis chapter 11 we see the story of where many nations that we see today came from. It's right there in the Bible. Look at verse number 27 back in Acts chapter 17. So we have now after Genesis chapter 11 of course the history to the point of Acts Jesus has come and gone to heaven and we have all these nations all over the earth and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark and all the apostles are going out to preach to the Gentiles meaning all these other nations other than the Jews. Look at verse number 27. So that's where the origin of nations comes from. Let's put a bookmark there. We're gonna come back to that idea of nations in just a few minutes. Let's continue with Paul and what he says to the Greeks here. He says in verse 27 that they should now we're talking about one blood many nations. So Paul is saying one blood many nations verse 27 that they should seek the Lord. So even though keep in mind here keep in mind even though there was many nations and they were scattered amongst the earth they could still seek the Lord. They were still expected to seek the Lord. This is Matthew chapter seven and verse number seven where the Bible says ask and it should be given unto you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you. This was true since the beginning of time. So every man in Romans 2 15 every man has the law written in his heart. This is why the Gentiles even before they had the oracles of God they would do what was written in the law is what Paul talks about in Romans 2 15. God he wrote the law in every man's heart so no man has excuse. So Paul is saying they should have been seeking the Lord even all these nations that were scattered all over the earth. Look at verse 27 again that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us. So he's saying you didn't have to be a Jew to find the Lord. So all you have to do is follow your conscience and seek God and you will find him. All right that promise has always been in the Bible. Verse 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 of his offspring. Boy that's another interesting verse right there. That basically proves even their own poets were where did they get this idea that we were children of? They didn't even believe in the right God but they had this idea that they were writing into their poems that were children of God that were God's offspring all this type of stuff. And if you've ever read Greek mythology and all this kind of stuff it's worked in there. But the point is yes it's pagan but it's also coming from this idea that God wrote in our hearts that God wants to adopt us. You know the Bible says very clearly that when you get saved when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you become a child of God you become adopted into God's family. So they were even writing those things even though they didn't even know what it meant they were still writing those things even in their pagan poems. Look at verse 29 for as much then as we are the offspring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, silver or stone graven by art or man's device. Now he's again preaching against their idolatry. So he's saying God made all nations. He's like but the Godhead is not a statue. The Godhead is not stone it's not an idol it's not something that man can make. It's not something that you can grave and call God as this statue of the unknown God was. Look at verse 30. In the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. So basically he's saying look you know God's overlooked this to this point but now Jesus is here and he wants you to repent of these things. Meaning not repent of your sins he wants you to repent meaning change what you believe change your mind. The person that repented in the Bible the most is God it simply means to change your mind. Okay repent of your sins is just a false doctrine that's out there it's not even listed in the Bible. All right so look he's saying you need to repent. What does he mean by that? He means you need to stop worshiping these false gods and you need to turn to the that I'm talking about and guess what his name is Jesus is what he's preaching here. All right that's what he means by repent. So he's saying Jesus is another chance for you to see the truth. He's making another appeal in verse number 30. Look he was saying that you could have found God any time but now I'm making another appeal to you to tell you about Jesus. This is basically what Paul is saying to them. Turn to now look at Acts chapter 17 verse number 31. So you say why do they need the truth? Now he goes into why they should repent why they have to it's so important for them to give up you know these idols and this culture that they are in right now. He says because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. By that a man whom he hath ordained wherefore he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. There's a lot there too. So he's basically saying you know I'll go out soul winning sometimes and sometimes I'll use the paraphrase and I'll say you know God, God is love. Everybody believes that because every church out there is just God is love, God is love, God is love which is true God does love you but God is also the perfect judge and this is what he's saying. He says he will judge the world in righteousness. That means he will judge the world perfectly. He will judge the world perfectly by that the man with whom he ordained which is Jesus wherefore he hath given assurance unto all men. What's the assurance? What's the assurance? The assurance is he that believeth on he that trusts on the sun hath everlasting life. That's assurance. That's the assurance. Once you've trusted, once you've repented of what you believe before whether you think you have to be a good person think you have to be baptized think you have to do X, Y or Z which is all the same it's some form of workspace salvation whatever you think you have to do even if you think you have to do something plus Jesus you have to repent from that trust only on Jesus and you hath everlasting life. It's that that's the assurance right there and everlasting well it's everlasting it's eternal the Bible says that is the assurance that Jesus provides right there in that he had raised him from the dead. So look he's just saying God you are going to be judged by God is what he's saying this is why you must repent of these idols you're going to be judged by God everyone turn to Revelation chapter 20 everyone on planet earth will experience this judgment turn to Revelation chapter 20 the irony the irony of people that believe in workspace salvation is that they are going to get exactly what they want if they believe that they have to be a good person they have to do whatever you know live a good life do not sin more than seven times a day or I mean I can't even tell you the thousands of different versions of workspace salvation that I've heard personally myself but they're gonna get what they want they're going to be judged by their works look at Revelation chapter 20 in verse number 11 after the millennial reign this judgment will happen look at Revelation chapter 20 in verse number 11 after the millennial reign where Jesus Christ rules and reigns for a thousand years on earth he will judge the unsaved look at verse number 11 he says and I saw a great white throne Revelation chapter 20 and him that sat on it this is Jesus from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life so what are the books here we've got several books but he's talking about really there's there's two main sections of books one is the book of life and one is the books the other books which is the law okay so he's opening up the law and he's opening up the book of life two things that the perfect judge will need in this situation and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in what in the books they were judged out those the dead meaning the people that are not in the book of life the people that are not in the book of life meaning the people that are not saved are going to be judged by the books which is the law according to what according to what they wanted according to their works let me tell you something roman's four four and roman's four five says that those people I don't care how good they were they're gonna have nothing but debt when that day comes because those good works that you did can't cover up the sins that you've committed it's really that simple and you know what a twelve-year-old child understands that verse thirteen and the sea gave up the dead which were in it when death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them they were judged every man according to their works this is the unsaved folks this is the people that are not in the book of life now turn to second Corinthians chapter five you say what about us do our works matter do our works matter I'm saved and there's nothing that I could ever do in my life as I stand here to become unsaved the bible promises me that jesus christ himself promises me that God cannot lie but in second Corinthians chapter five verse number ten look what the bible says the bible says for we now Paul's talking to save people here he's talking to the church at Corinth he says for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done whether it be good or bad now turn to first Corinthians chapter three so we're still going to stand in front of jesus we're still going to stand in front of jesus turn to first Corinthians chapter three and look at verse number twelve you say whoa what does that mean well you're gonna stand in front of jesus and you're gonna be you know he's gonna look at the works that you did you know you're gonna have a review session with jesus and you're gonna go over all the works that you did in your life whether it be good or bad look at verse number twelve first Corinthians chapter three the bible says this it says now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every man's work shall be made manifest that means it'll be made known what kind of work it is alright because i mean isn't it possible for a person to be saved to be a believer to trust on jesus and then just do nothing but just try to get as rich as possible in their life possible i mean i know people like that they're saved and as as they can be they're saved they've trusted in jesus they're just as saved as as anybody in this room that is saved but they just they're just gonna like see you know they're just gonna live their life for themselves i mean isn't that possible but this is what they're gonna suffer right here it says if any man's work abide which he had built i'm sorry verse thirteen every man's work shall be made manifest to be made known what kind for the day shall declare it because it should be revealed by fire the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is so this is how god is gonna gonna do things at the judgment seat of christ is gonna put all your works in a pile and he's gonna try it by fire and then verse fourteen it says if any man's work abide which he had built there upon he shall receive a reward so all the souls that you got saved all the things that you did for the lord in your life are gonna remain but all the wood the hay the stubble the gold the silver the present all gonna burn up it's all gonna burn up and then it says if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer a loss but he then he goes then jesus throws them in hell because he didn't do anything in his life that says he'll suffer a loss he'll suffer a loss but what he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire look this was the same there's gonna be some people in heaven walking around with the baggie full of ashes that's what that's saying they're gonna be like yeah i was really rich down there though in eternity they're gonna be walking around with a with a zip lock bag of of of burnt up works that's what the bible saying here and they're gonna look the bible is saying that they're gonna suffer loss meaning they're gonna know they're gonna know that they that those works were worthless is what the bible is saying alright so back to paul's statement he's just saying every man every man is gonna be judged and you're gonna be led to heaven through christ righteousness not your own okay we put that on we put on christ the bible says we're not getting in by our own righteousness i don't care how nice you are how good you are alright look at verse number thirty two of acts chapter seventeen so paul is just saying you better get this right you better get this right because he's really referred to the great white throne judgment of revelation chapter twenty when he talks to the to the greeks and athens here he's saying look you better get this right because you're gonna be judged by this you're gonna be judged by your works look at verse number thirty two verse number thirty two and it says when they heard the resurrection of the dead some mocked others said we will hear the again of this matter so paul departed from among them so some people made fun of them laughed at them you know i've talked about this many times before this is like the oldest trick in the book it's a it's a tactic used by people against christians to just mock the word christians is a mock is is is a mock the word christians means little christ they were called christians first at aniot they're calling them little jesus's basically they're trying to make fun of them and a baptist and a baptist was to make fun of the baptists you know that as soon as the catholic church was formed in three ten a d the baptist didn't show up we're not protestants we are not protestants we never went to the first party we're not protesting the catholic church we were never part of it and a baptist was what the catholic church called the people that were out there saying no no baptism doesn't have to do with salvation something to do with it they died for there's a book this thick talking about how many of them were killed because they would not change salvation and add even one work to it they died horrible deaths just to preserve the gospel they never showed up so they call it an abaptist re-baptizers because you'd have somebody that was baptized in the catholic church as a baby not even you know it's it's not baptism we know that they would grow up they would meet one of these christians they believed the actual gospel they would get saved and they would baptize them after salvation so what do they call them? re-baptizers re-baptizers, anabaptists all right so mockery is nothing new so you know people you feel like people are looking down on you because you're living a separated christian life join the party it's always been this way albeit certain men clave unto him and believe see this is the key you endure the tests you endure the mockery and some people's hearts will be right and they will get saved among the witch was Dionossus the Ericcabite I'm sure I pronounced that wrong and a woman named Demarius and others with him so some people believed and it's always this way it's always this way you go out soul winning and you just knock a bunch of doors and you know people aren't interested some people are upset whatever that you're even there with the bible not many people like that in Fresno but you'll run into that but guess what some people will believe some people have the heart that is just right towards their father and they will believe all right every single time it works that way go back to verse number twenty six so paul is just explaining he's preaching jesus he's explaining who the real god is and he's explaining what's really at stake what's at stake he's saying look you are going to be judge but I really want to point out in verse number twenty six and really dig into and I kind of take taking up some time here but I want to dig into this idea of verse number twenty six where the bible says he hath made and he hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth I want to address this idea of racism today that's what I want to talk about tonight I want to address that modern-day concept of racism and how that flies in the face of what the bible teaches meaning just like like this this idea of judging somebody by the color of their skin by the color of their skin yeah or by the attributes of people you know the color of somebody's skin the attributes of a person from different parts of the world whatever it is these are just traits as anybody who's you know they're just traits I mean different types of any kind of animal have different traits different colors different genetic traits but the bible says a very different concept than what people have accepted today as racism that's really what I want to get clear tonight because the bible really explains how we should take how we should take you know this idea and what people are thinking about when they think oh that guy's racist or he's racist or whatever alright so look the definition of racism this is the closest that there's a lot of definitions out there I didn't realize how many definitions this is the closest general definition of racism that I could come up with that that sounded correct okay racism the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics abilities or qualities especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another that's pretty close okay but the problem is is the bible says that there are no races the problem is the bible says there's one race the human race all manner of what one blood okay the bible does say so the bible doesn't teach so right away racism the definition of it and what it is today is just completely unbiblical in general completely the bible doesn't teach this the bible teaches one race many what many nations and we looked at where the origin of those nations came from you say okay uh... now let's pray you say no pastor jared there's really some stuff going on out there what about this modern-day racism where is it coming from because it isn't true certain people don't like certain groups of people because of the color of their skin is not true every single cult person with a different skin tone is guilty of this in one way or another being racist against or what people call racist today against another group of people that have different traits than that alright look i agree with you this is true alright this is true there's some blacks that don't like whites there's some whites that don't like blacks there's you know hispanics that don't like either there's you know there's all kinds of just it goes in every sink the arrows go in every direction alright i was in armenia twenty years ago and the armenians i was with were racist against certain armenians because they had darker skin color i mean it's just a real thing that exists the bible says there's only one race there's one blood so where does this come from where does this come from what you're seeing the bible is true we know this there's only one race is only one blood so why all of this people are are construing as racism today what you are seeing today and what you've always seen that's you know kind of diagnosed as racism we're seeing is stereotyping that's what you're seeing you're seeing people stereotype you say what is stereotyping here's the definition of stereotyping alright and then i'm gonna do some stereotyping tonight alright so hopefully you don't get offended i'm gonna give you some examples of stereotyping alright stereotyping in social psychology a stereotype is any thought that is widely adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of behaving intended to represent the entire group of those individuals or behaviors as a whole you say i don't know the stereotyping doesn't sound very good let me just everyone stereotypes everyone you stereotype even if you think you don't stereotype everyone stereotypes look it's mostly stereotyping is mostly done on a local level meaning what i see and this is where stereotyping goes wrong because stereotyping can be accurate on a local level to a degree but as soon as you get away from the locality of where you're at stereotyping kind of falls apart because what are you doing you're painting with a broad brush right you're saying oh those certain type of people do this right well maybe in your neighborhood or in your you know city or whatever but as you get further and further out that brush misses more and more alright the reason that people do it is because it can be accurate it can be accurate now look i like trends you know this i like noticing things and noticing trends i love it it's been a you know it's been part of my career for over 20 years and you know trending things look it's just it's a it's a it's kind of like a stereotyping alright it's basically pattern recognition is what it is let me give you some examples let me stereotype let me stereotype some things that i've noticed uh... in fresno all the stereotypes some some different ethnic groups because i don't believe in races hispanics in fresno if you're a hispanic man and you are working age and you have a pickup it's a i don't know why but the odds are now someone could say well there's a guy in fresno that has afford it's not sure it's true but the point is like just the type of cars people drive there's definite patterns to this you know this if you are in if you are under the age of thirty and you're an indian male in west fresno you're driving mopar for sure i get to you ninety plus percent of the hellcats in fresno are owned by indian young men i don't know why i don't know why that is but you're laughing because it's true it's true these are the you say oh you're you're you're you're stereotyping all these minority groups and you're so mean how about this one if you're an old like i'm talking about older like older than seventy five years old white person in north dakota that's a retired farmer you're driving a buick that's just the way it is around the way that's the way it was in the nineties anyway when i was there maybe that's changed but the point is that stereotype of buick's was so powerful that i had a friend in high school that actually his parents bottom and old use buick as his first car and we just made fun of him incessantly we're like nice grandma car because it's a grandma car it's a grandma and grandpa car a buick i don't know my grandpa was like that just like i think that whenever you retire you just think that you know success is i finally got the buick you know but it's a it's a it's an accurate stereotype at least in my area of the world of north dakota alright so what you're seeing is stereotyping saying how does this become racist how does this become racist how does this get pinned on like somebody with the same skin color or you know how does this become a racist thing people that would do that and just stereotype that they would be considered racist today but many people stereotype behaviors that they don't like they you know but what they do is then they blame it on the color somebody's skin that's the problem it's simply stereotyping you know can be can be relatively accurate to a degree at a local level to blame it on someone skin color is simply a wrong conclusion it's like having a car that needs the air filter changed and you replace the serpentine belt is that you have a car that there's an issue there but you you come to the wrong conclusion on you know what it is alright so what does the bible say let's get back to the bible hopefully i didn't confuse you too much but what we're looking at is stereotypes and everybody stereotypes today you know you do it look at this understand let's look at what the bible says about nations to understand how we should look at this biblically look at genesis chapter fifteen people that don't understand the bible actually called god-racist have you ever heard that one that god is a he's misogynistic misogynistic which means he hates women he's genocidal and he's racist because of what he did in the old testament let me just explain that to you that god could care less about what the ethnicity of somebody is or the color of their skin he could care less that's not important at all look at genesis chapter fifteen let's look at this let's look at gods now we know where nations came from let's look at god's attitude towards nations does god just think all nations are equal because look that's another wicked thing so where you know there's all this racism coming up you know all the time but then the conclusion of that is everyone needs to be equal and looked at the same not in the bible either look at what the bible says about how god his attitude towards nations in genesis chapter twelve you're going to get chapter fifteen but in genesis chapter twelve is where god first told abraham get to another country and abraham went to the promise land he went to the promise land that generations and generations and generations and generations later would become you know the nation of israel's land look at genesis chapter fifteen in verse number sixteen though looking at god's attitude towards nations we have these many nations verse thirteen i'm sorry verse thirteen and he said to abraham no other shirtee that die seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them they shall afflict them four hundred years talking about the egyptian captivity how you know pharaoh is going to take the israelites uh... as slaves look at verse fourteen and also that nation whom they shall serve will i judge and afterwards shall they come out with great substance so he's talking about the exodus when moses goes in and the flags are brought upon pharaoh and god destroys pharaoh and his whole army and he nearly destroys the entire nation look at verse fifteen and thou shall go to thy fathers in peace and shall be buried in a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again saying that it's not until the fourth generation those people are going to come hither meaning where you are right now abraham meaning to the promised land so he's basically telling abraham how you know his nation that comes from him is going to get the promised he's saying they're going to go through this captivity for four hundred years and then i'm gonna judge that nation and then they will be hither they will be in the promised land at that point and then look what he says at the end he says for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet full where were the amorites the amorites were one of the seven tribes in the promised land that the israelites were to wipe out so god is telling abraham hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before the nation of israel is going to go and take possession of the promised land he's saying look this is going to happen way in the future the iniquity of these people is not full yet they're not wicked enough for me to come and judge them because what did god do to those nations he used the nation of israel to judge those wicked nations yes he used that those that land to give to he had given it to abraham generations before but god judged the amorites in the canaanites and the parasites in the hittites he judged all those nations why turn to deuteronomy chapter seven there's a reason in deuteronomy chapter seven in deuteronomy chapter twenty that god said you're going to go in there and you're going to utterly destroy them they were to go in there and they were to wipe out every living thing in those nations you say why is god is god racist is god racist is it because they were black or brown or white or what is the deal look at deuteronomy chapter seven god tells you exactly what the deal is look at deuteronomy chapter seven in verse number four deuteronomy chapter seven in verse number four this is right after he told him you go in there and you utterly destroy them you leave nothing alive you don't make deals with them you don't marry them you go in there and you look that's harsh for people people like what but why did god do that look at verse four look everything that god does is right i don't care what you think look at verse number four for they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods so will the anger of the lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly but thus shall you deal with them you shall destroy their altars break down their images cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire you say you go in there and you destroy them or you will become them isn't that the truth look around at what's happening today i mean it's the same thing in roman chapter nine verse thirteen where he says jacob have i loved but esau have i hated he's talking about you know the nation of israel verses the nation that came from esau which was the edomites they were these pagans they were worshiping false gods so look god destroyed these nations not because of some fake word race but because of what they were doing because of their culture that's why he destroyed them because of who they were worshiping genesis fifteen says because of the iniquity that they were committing they were sacrificing their children they're committing all kinds of sick perverted murderous violent things this is why god took the eight look it had nothing to do with their heritage it had nothing to do with this fake word race explain rooth to me then rooth was from moab rooth was a mobitus it says it like right in the first chapter of rooth and again in the fourth chapter she was from moab but just as exodus chapter twelve says the nation of israel was never about your skin color or who your parents were if a stranger in exodus chapter twelve comes into the land and does what accepts the lord it says they start exercising the Passover meaning they repent as paul is is begging the Athenians to do they repent from their paganism and turn to the lord they're to be the same laws for them as for one born in the land that's what it exists it's always been this way it's not like something has changed in the new testament racism today is a misdiagnosed problem rooth was a mobitus she came and she believed on the lord she was saved just like somebody that saved today and she's david's great great grandmother in Matthew chapter one and joseph's lineage and in Luke chapter three she's in both of them she is an heir of the messiah and she is from moab god could care less that's why he's telling the Athenians hey you should have been seeking the lord oh we're not jews who cares you should have been seeking the lord you got a conscience god wrote his law on your heart it's a misdiagnosed problem the problem that god had the whole time with the many nations was a bad culture it had nothing to do with the color of their skin and just because you can successfully stereotype some people you know on the skin color just because you could successfully do that it's like correlation does not equal causation just like ice cream sales and shark attacks you know go up at the same time every year if you graph them together but selling ice cream doesn't make the sharks go crazy or anything it's just that they both happened in the summertime so correlation does not equal causation culture has always been the problem with god it doesn't matter who your parents are it doesn't matter and look here's the thing here's i mean i hate to break it to you not all cultures are equal not all some cultures have more iniquity than others you say what do you mean by culture i mean it could be anything it could be anything basically you think about the canaanites and the amorites i mean their iniquity was full they got to that point where god said you're done i'm stepping in it was full you think about you know cannibalism and voodoo and all these different you know just obviously wicked things really wicked stuff that you know has a lot of iniquity in it just like outright satan worship you know basically it's not even just religions either i mean it's just like lifestyles and you know perversion and unnaturalness and all this stuff look it's a it's a culture and not every culture is equal according to god god literally hates some cultures he's just like destroy the entire nation at that point when god looks at your nation and says yeah kill everybody get rid of everybody every living breathing person on the risk that some of that iniquity might spill over to this nation that's iniquity is not full at that point i mean it i mean god you know extremely dislikes that nation at that point but here's that here's that here's the methodology folks according to the bible basically the further a culture i don't care what culture you come up with or talk about or list the further a culture is away from the bible the more violent and wicked it will be the more and that's what the more innocent people that will suffer from it this is the problem with culture that will eventually god will get fed up and this will happen here too eventually god will get fed up and he will step in that's the trend of the bible folks if you've read the bible and you don't pick up that trend you need to read it again because that is the trend god will step in skin color means nothing stereotypes are sometimes accurate and misdiagnosed as racism all right what about christians what should we be like turn to roman's chapter turn to roman's chapter twelve turn to roman's chapter twelve well how about us how should we look at these things look you know we're being told today that everything is everything is equal everything should be accepted there's nothing that is shameful that every culture every lifestyle every single that is not what the bible teaches not even close it's the opposite of what the bible teaches how about us how should we be as christians because look i guarantee you if we all sit here and i already know we already know this about uh... most of ourselves but we all came from different backgrounds in this church some of us were born in different countries we all came from different backgrounds look at roman's chapter twelve verse number two the bible says and be not conformed to this world you know what that means that could be anything that could be anything and anywhere that you came from but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god so the bible here saying be not conformed to this world doesn't matter what part of the world or what culture you came from saying when you're saved after you're saved god wants you not conformed to that but transformed by the renewing of your mind how many times of you thought in your christian walk as you just keep learning more and more and more about the bible you keep reading the bible and you keep studying the bible like the barians how many times of you thought my goodness every single thing i've been taught is wrong you know what you're doing you're renewing your mind you're doing what roman's chapter twelve says that you should do turn to roman's chapter seven turn to roman's chapter seven this is why paul says in roman's again and again and again and again and again you hear this word should should should over and over and over look at roman's chapter seven in verse number four he says wherefore my brethren he's talking about saved people here our brothers and sisters in christ you're also become dead to the law by the body of christ he's like look you are not under the law you are saved you are you are covered by christ's righteousness he says what that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead and that we should bring forth fruit unto god he's saying look i don't care where you came from you should be doing the things of the bible you should be bringing fruit forth in your christian life i drew you a diagram i drew you a diagram here's how it works alright here's how it should work in the christian's life right here hopefully you can see this this is the direction that the bible wants you to go here's what here's what happens with people here we are you have the world and you have all these different cultures maybe you got the buddhist you got the hindu you got the muslim you got the german lutheran from north dakota that you know grew up with russian parents or whatever i mean it doesn't matter there's these cultures i mean they branch off they go in different directions there's all kinds of different you know directions but here's what should happen what paul is saying in roman's chapter twelve in roman's chapter seven and basically everywhere in the new testament what paul is saying is that when you get saved what happens and this is why you'll see this in a biblical church like ours and churches that are friends of ours just a bible preaching church here's what you will see you will see people that come from all different cultures like this and guess what if they're reading the bible and they're listening to the bible and they're doing what the bible says and they have ears to hear what god wants for them in their life and they're doing the things that they should they conform and this is how we all get along so well you're like how in the world could somebody from north dakota and somebody from the inner city of wherever get along so well how in the world could pastor mahiya who grew up probably just is completely different as i grew up you know how could we be such good friends how is that possible how could i be friends with people from all the way across the world that grew up in literally a different world that i grew up in how is that possible here's why it's possible because we all have the same culture because we're all following the culture of the bible that's why and then you know what we're in a church we're in assembly we're not forsaking the assembly so well you know we're in a good culture all this guy starts trailing off well let's get him we bring him back up and that's the whole point of a assembly of believers that's the admonishment of the believers right there but this is how this is why you go to verity baptist church you look at our church you got all kinds of different colors of people because it it it means nothing because there's one race the problem has always been cultures the problem has always been the cultures of the nations so this idea that our diversity is our strength is a bunch of garbage i hate to pop your public school bubble but this is not diversity this is conforming to the bible is what this is and the further a nation gets away from this direction the more violent things are gonna get the more innocent people are gonna suffer i mean it's it's like a broken record it's the same thing over and over in the bible you wonder how why god repeats it so much because we're we're a bunch of bone heads we don't get it alright but look this is why racism is just i reject the term because it makes no sense according to the bible it's all about culture and that's what paul was saying to the Athenians he's like look we're all one blood he's like you think that i'm a you know i'm some Pharisee and i'm some ex-jew or i'm a Jew or whatever he's like no we're all the same and we're all under the same umbrella of the same god it's the same message i'm preaching tonight it's like it's the same it's the same it's the same thing you don't have to think that it's the same god it's it's this one imagine paul he walks up to that statue and they're worshiping this unknown god and paul's like i know who he is and he goes and he tells them and he's like look we all have that law that god gave us in our hearts we all have it you can have it too he's like repent from all this and that's all anybody in those other cultures needs to do they need to repent from all that come to come to the lord jesus christ let's bow our heads and have a word of it