 Beginning at verse one in chapter 14 of the book of Acts, reading to verse seven, Luke writes it happened at, rather it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. Therefore they stayed there a long time speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided, part sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derby, cities of Lycaonia and to the surrounding region and they were preaching the gospel there. So let me give you again a reminder, a little bit of a context and then we'll move into our verses before us today as we look at chapter 14. When we looked at chapter 13, Paul had preached the gospel in an area called Pasidian Antioch. And as we've already seen, the result was that many Gentiles came to faith in Christ as Messiah. But at the same time, many Jews began to reject, to blaspheme and to argue against, to contradict. And in chapter 13 verse 45, it tells us why they did that. It says, when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul. So they were doing this out of envy. The word envy is a word that we use often in something that we all know. It speaks of malice. It speaks of a jealousy. It's such an intense jealousy with a wicked intent behind it. And that's what was going on. They had envy. That's a serious, serious sin because it was the sin of envy that was provoking the Jewish people to reject Christ in. And it was that which provoked them to demand the death of Jesus. It's a very serious sin. And they did so out of envy. Well, Paul's response was to speak to them and he told them this. He said, you are responsible for your own judgment. He said they were rejecting the gospel. And he said, you consider yourself unworthy of salvation. And the way they were revealing that they considered themselves unworthy of salvation is their obstinate rejection of the gospel. I mentioned to you in John 1 verse 11 in the gospel of John, Howard says that Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him. His own people, his own country did not welcome him. And so that's what's taking place still. And so Paul recognized that he should minister to the Gentiles. Why? Because the Gentiles were open. It helped him to realize his ministry was effective amongst these people. Now remember Jesus had said, don't waste your time speaking to those who refuse to listen. He said in Matthew 10, 14, if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town. Shake the dust off of your feet. These are the kinds of things that help us to see what our ministry field is. We know that not all people are open to or desiring to hear the love of Jesus Christ that's revealed to us in the gospel message. And sometimes we'll share with them, but they reject, they even get obstinate, they can get angry, so we just leave them alone. You see the rejection by the Jews helped Paul to come to realize his ministry focus. Later he would write to the Galatians in chapter two verse seven and he would say, the gospel for the uncircumcised has been committed to me. The uncircumcised speaks of the Gentiles. When he was writing to Timothy in second Timothy one verse 11, he said, I was appointed a preacher and apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. So Paul knows the Gentiles are open so Paul speaks to them. He begins to minister to them. The Gentiles as new believers began sharing the gospel with everyone who would hear and I've discovered that to be kind of typical of people who have come to a knowledge of the grace of God. What you do is you got saved, you can be so excited about that when you really are saved that you begin to tell people about it. That's the heart of evangelism, you're just giving what has been given to you. And I've seen that, I've seen that many times it was true in my own life, but you see it in scripture. You see Jesus ministering to a woman in Samaria at a well and he shares with her about who he is and what he's come to do. And she gets so excited about it. John 429 says that she goes out and speaks to the men and she says, come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be a Messiah? She got so excited that the Lord was not only aware of who she was and what she's done, but he still loved her and cared for her anyway. And so she went out and invited the men to come and hear him. Can this be the Messiah? Remember the story of the man at the Gadarenes? How that he'd been delivered and that he shared about Jesus Christ with others? And in Mark 15, 18 through 20, as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by the demons begged to go with him, but Jesus would not allow him. Go home to your own people, he said, tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has shown you. So the man went away and began to proclaim throughout the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. Everyone was amazed. And so when the Lord delivers you, when the Lord saves you, what do you do while you tell other people? And that's what's happening. And the message of the gospel is now spreading through the entire region. Well, as it's spreading, it's making people angrier and they begin to persecute Paul and his companion Barnabas. And so they went to this place in verse one here in chapter 14. It's called Iconium. And they went there, it was about 80 miles southeast of where they were at that time. Now, instead of getting angry, then the result was a new ministry in this place called Iconium. So instead of getting upset because you've been not allowed to do something, you seek opportunity wherever the Lord would have you. When we were a new church quite a while ago now, when our fellowship was new and it was beginning to grow and all, we began looking for property. Where can we purchase a piece of property and develop it? And we found one. It was in Ontario, it was by mountain, right off a street called Magnolia. On mountain, those of you who are familiar with the area when you take Philadelphia, go to mountain, you get to the corner there. Right in that area there's a retirement kind of home. Some of you may be aware of it. I've been trying to get Marie into it and they won't let her go, but for some reason she doesn't want to go. But it's in that area. I'm getting in trouble. I'm in trouble. Well, right by it, just behind it, there used to be, I don't know if it's still there or not, but there was a parcel of property there. And it was zoned for a church. We could purchase the property, we could build a church and that's what we were considering doing. It wasn't a very large piece of property and our fellowship at that time wasn't really very large either, so it would have worked for us, at least we thought at that time. So we made application, I hired a broker who was also a lawyer and we began to make an overture to purchase the property and at that time the city planner met with us and said, you're not going to be able to use that property to build out a church and so my representative said, I was in the meeting there with her, my representative said, well, you know, we have the legal right to do that. It is zoned for a church and we're making an overture to purchase it. We have a legal right to do that. She said, you may have a legal right to do that, but I'm going to oppose you every step of the way. She said, because the mayor likes to ride the horse behind on that property and so if you build a church there, they won't be able to ride the horse. So I went and shot the horse. No, they, where there's a will, there's a way. We, but we knew we weren't supposed to do that. We knew the door was closed. So my lawyer says, you know, we have a legal right. In other words, we could have filed suit, we could have fought the city, we could have gone in that direction and we would have won because we had the right to do that. So my lawyer says, what do you want to do? Do you want to file a suit? I said, no, of course not. Why would I want to raise the stink with the city, the city that we want to reach for Christ? Why would I want a reputation like that? No, this is a door that's closed because the Lord's going to open another door, which he did. We ended up buying a parcel of property with the building already built on at 10,000 square feet. We were able to build it out on Maple Street in Ontario and we used that for a few years. So when one door closes, another one is opening and that's how it works in the kingdom of God. We ended up buying the property on Francis and Maple because God had other plans and so when there's an opposition here, what did they do? Did they stay? Did they fight? No, they move on. And so it says in verse when it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed one door was closed, another was open. But verse two, the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. The word poisoned speaks of embittering. The unbelieving Jews, the word unbelieving speaks of refusing or withholding belief and obedience. They heard it, but they withheld their faith. They intentionally were rejecting it is what it's saying. They were angered and they were provoked at the growing success of the gospel. And that again continues to this day. There are people who stand in staunch opposition to the gospel and are willing to do almost anything to poison your mind or to encourage you to reject what the word of God has to say, Marie and I were in Israel and a fellow walks up to me and hands to me a track. I could tell it was a biblical track though it was written in Hebrew and I'm looking at it but you can tell a Bible track when you see it. And as he handed it to me, I took it and here comes this Jewish fellow off to the side and he walks up to me and he grabs it out of my hand. He took it out of my hand and he says, he says, don't read this, this is not good. And so we've had that encounter where people are so embittered against and so rejecting of that they don't want other people to hear the gospel message either. And we've seen that and this anger is continuing at that time to this day. They were stirring up Gentiles, they were urging them and persuading them to reject the gospel. What they were doing is they were arguing against it. They were saying things about the people who are presenting the word as well as the message encouraging their rejection. The enemy was planting seeds of rejection and unbelief in the people. Now when it says here, the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, he says, and poisoned their minds. Poisoning their minds is an interesting phrase. It's a strong way of saying that they caused injury to their mind. Now that's interesting. They were causing injury to their mind as a literal Greek. They were irritated at believers, they were angrily rejecting them as well as their message. They would not listen to reason and they were being brainwashed against the gospel. Poisoning of the mind occurs in our day. I won't go into a long thing about it right now. It begins, one, with our human nature, which by human nature, Scripture says that we are by nature children of wrath. No child is born a good child. Every mom and dad know that. If you think babies are born and they're good, you don't have children because those little monsters would kill you if they were strong enough to sometimes, and you know that. They have a sin nature. Now nobody ever really has a good explanation for the question, if we're born good, then why do we do evil? If we're born good, then why does evil exist? The Bible answers that and it's because we're not born good. The Bible says we're born with a sinful nature and the sinful nature doesn't go away until it dies and the way it dies is through what is called regeneration. It's through when you receive Christ, the old man is killed. You actually have a death and you're born into a new life. It's basic Christianity. So your mind before you're saved is a receptacle for every evil thing. Why, because one, by nature, we already generate evil from within and two, because evil is being generated and our society has evil. It becomes our culture and so that culture is given to us through our language and the things that we read, the educational system that we go through. As we grow older, it's revealed in the music that we listen to and the books that we read and the schooling that we attain in every variety of way, our music, entertainment, and it's the culture that the scripture calls a death system. It's a system of death because there's no life in it because the only thing it can generate is further death. And that's, again, why we need the gospel that enlightens our minds, opens our eyes and our heart is transformed and changed because we've renewed our minds through the gospel. That's why the scripture tells us that we're to be washed with the water of the word so that our thinking process will change. And when your thinking process begins to change, you begin to glorify God. So you begin to seek those things which are above and not those things which are beneath. You begin to pursue the Lord and the things that make for the things that he wants us to do and bless our lives, that's how it works. But what we have is we have a generation even today and again, I won't go into this too deeply, I'll just say it like this. We have a generation where people are so confused. Part of the reason is because the enemy has worked so hard here in the United States against marriage so that we have an epidemic of fatherless children. And when a mama got blessed or she tries to raise the child, she can't do both jobs. So the child grows without a parent that could be of help. Even under the best of circumstances, it's still a very difficult thing, we know that. And because of that, there are a lot of children who are fatherless now. And in the fatherlessness, where the father isn't there involved in helping and disciplining at all, the children will go their own way. Child left to himself, it's gonna bring shame to his mother, the proverbs is in this truth. And that's what's happening. And so they go to an educational system that tells them, no, there's not a male and female, there's multiple, multiple genders. And for you know what, they start believing that you can be anything you choose to be. And so that's what we're seeing today. And the answer to that is to understand that the gospel and the word of God teaches us very clearly who we are and why we've been created. And that's when I think about Ecclesiastes, we wanna look at that because we have a purpose. But the confusion is incredible. And what is that called? It's called poisoning the mind. It's turning you away from the gospel. It's creating analysis, this angry rejection. We already are prone to it. And we don't realize that what the Lord wants to do is he wants to renew our minds. He wants to give us a way of thinking that is pleasing to him and as a blessing to us. And we're in a spiritual war. And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but our mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. And that comes through the spiritual weaponry that God gives us which is in the scripture. And what we're intended to do according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 10 is we're to bring every thought into subjection or into the captivity of Christ. And so we yield ourselves to the scripture and the scripture informs us this is what God has for us and transforms us as we begin to put those things in practice. And so what they're doing here is they're stirring up and they're poisoning their minds against the brethren. They're speaking about them and how crazy and weird and odd which we have by the way today. I should have brought the quote with me. An individual was writing a particular piece where he said that the Christian faith is the worst thing that America has to deal with today. That we Christians are really the enemy of Americans. Why? Because we're not going with the flow because we're not agreeing that Bobby's really Bonnie. And so because we're not and because we actually sat up and say that this is male and female, that's how God created them. And I don't care how you dress that man up, you know? He's still a man, even though he's wearing high heels. Now he may look cute in them, but he's still a man. And so that's kind of what we're dealing with right now. All of you know it. Why? Because of the word of God has taught you that. You can't be just because you think I'm gonna be this, you can't be that. You can tell yourself that and I'm not gonna hate you for it. I'm actually gonna have compassion and sympathy for you because you're confused. You need help. But I'm not gonna agree with you. And if you walk up to me and say my name is Shirley and I'm, you know, and you're Shirley, not a Shirley. I'm not gonna help you to remain confused. It's just a fact and I'll say it this way. I don't know a better way to say it. Freedom of speech gives me the ability to say what I really think. And somebody's not gonna force me to call somebody something they're not. I'm just not gonna do that. I don't have to do that. I won't do that. And it certainly doesn't help them if I did do that. If they're confused, I'm not gonna help them in the confusion. So anyway, speaking about poisoned minds, that's what's taking place today. There's being stirred up against the church and stirred up against the message. That's what they were doing. So it's very practical. So what is their response? Verse three, therefore they shut up. No, therefore they stayed there a long time speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. What did he do? He remained there for some time. Why to minister the gospel? Paul saw the opportunity, even in the face of opposition. And when he saw the opportunity, by the spirits leading, he remained. What did he do? Verse three, he spoke boldly, or they spoke boldly in the Lord. In face of opposition, the boldness increased to meet it directly. They were seeing God move and weren't about to quench his spirit. So the opposition increases their determination to oppose, but in their increasing their determination to oppose, it only increased the determination to preach the word of God of the gospel. They weren't intimidated into silence. They openly preached the Lord. Remember in Acts 420, how they had been commanded not to speak and the response was this, as for us, we cannot help speaking about what we've seen and heard. We're going to speak about it. We can't help but do that. Now, later, Paul would speak of how he had such boldness and openness. In Acts 20, verses 22 through 24, he said, see now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me, but none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy in the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. None of these things move me. I'm willing to go and to do what God has called me. So it says in verse three, as a minister, God is verifying the message through his works. He bore witness to the word, I like this phrase, to the word of his grace, which is speaking of the gospel. So in spite of the opposition, they're faithfully ministering. In spite of opposition, their faith and their boldness is increasing in order to meet it. And God gave them strength to continue preaching. Well, in verse four, it speaks about the multitude of the city and it was divided, part-sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. The city is in an uproar. The city is polarized. And here's something to remember. That's what happens very often when the gospel is proclaimed. There are Christians, even to this day who get surprised at the angry response that sometimes can be shown towards them sharing with them. One of the things that we as believers need to remember is that God's word, and believe it or not, some would say, no, I don't believe that. Well, no, God's word is actually divisive. It actually divides. Why? Because God's word is uncompromising. In Jeremiah 23, verse 29, is not my word like a fire declares the Lord and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. Matthew 10, 34, Jesus said, don't think that I came to bring peace on earth, but we're gonna sing that in December. No, don't think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. When you share the truth, even in churches like this, when you share the truth, when you divide it and present it, there's always a response, always. And even some who profess faith in Christ get upset when they hear something they don't agree with. And so we're not supposed to change the gospel so people agree with it. We're supposed to preach the gospel so that people understand it. And so that's what's happening. You see, some are listening to the Jewish opponents, but others are listening to the apostles and the division is angry. Verse five says that when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and they fled to Lister and Derby cities of Lyconia and to the surrounding region. So an angry mob is trying to rush and assault them. And just the idea that was very, very frightening, but they're bold. They're bold, but they're not dumb. So they leave. In Matthew 10, 23, it says when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. So verse six, they fled the Lister and Derby. Now Lister was 30 miles to the south of where they're at and Derby was 30 miles further south from Lister. And both were in ancient Turkey. So what happens? Well, verse seven says they were preaching the gospel there. So did they stop preaching? No, they kept preaching. They kept moving and they kept sharing. That's what they did. Now preaching the gospel, as we've already said, they began at Pentecost. It was the center of the church's entire existence. Preaching the gospel is what God called them to do. And they did it fearlessly without compromise. And they preached to the people, to the religious leaders as we've seen to Ethiopians as well as Gentiles. That's what they were called to do. Go into the world, he said, and preach the gospel to every living creature. They're to turn away from their sins. They're to repent. They're to receive Christ who will forgive them. But it also says that they were performing miracles and healings. And so, as this is taking place, verse eight, in Lister a certain man without strength in his feet, was sitting a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. And this man heard Paul speaking. Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said to, said with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet. And he leaped and he walked. Well, notice how it says this man had never walked. He was born crippled. Now we've seen this in Acts three. There was a crippled man who was at the gate called Beautiful who had been miraculously healed. There was a man in chapter nine named Ines who was a cripple and he was healed. So here we have a man in Lister, crippled in need of healing. I want you to see something. I'm gonna develop this for just a moment in verses nine and 10. Notice this. It says this man heard Paul speaking and Paul observing him intently and seen. So when it says this man heard, the word heard literally is saying that he had been listening to him, not just in that message, but it's a word in a certain Greek tense that gives you the understanding that he was repeatedly listening over time. So it wasn't like if you walked in a church service like this, you heard, no, this man was coming every day and he became obvious that Paul was now noticing him. So it says this man heard. He was listening to him for some days and then the word seen, seen speaks of perceiving, of discerning clearly. How could Paul have known that this man had faith to be healed? This is one of the examples you have of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and operation. If you're born again, every one of us in this room has at least one spiritual gift. I don't know if you know what your gift may be, but there are different portions of scripture that speak about the gifts of the Spirit. When you read 1 Corinthians 12 verses eight through 10, for example, you get a list of the gifts and it mentions various gifts, like the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, of faith and healings, of miracles, of prophecy, the discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. So you have gifts that are in operation. I was speaking to a young woman, I knew her well enough for Maria and me to invite her for dinner. This is many years ago probably, well over 42 years, this is before I was pastor in this church. And so we invited her to come to the house for dinner and at the dinner table, how awkward is this? At the dinner table, I had an impression. So when she left, I turned to Maria and I said, the Spirit of the Lord just gave me something. I said, she's dabbling in lesbianism. Maria says, are you sure? I said, the Spirit of the Lord put that in my heart. I'm gonna give her a call. So I called her later on and I said, I'd like to meet with you. Could you see me tomorrow in the office? She said, of course. So I'm in my office and here she comes and she sits before me. And I just openly said to her, listen, last night when you were over, the Spirit of God spoke to my heart. I wanna confirm this. But he impressed me with the idea that you're practicing lesbianism. Is that true? I'll never forget how she responded. She said to me, well, if he told you that, I guess it's true. I said, that's not the question. The question is, is that true? And she said, yes, it is. I wasn't looking for that. I wasn't sitting there at dinner thinking, I think she's gay. I just knew it. That's how the Spirit works very often. He'll give you knowledge, just a word of knowledge. He'll give you knowledge of something. And then he gives to you the word of wisdom and how to deal with it. And so when this man is perceived, seen, that was a gift. It wasn't just a hunch. It was a sense of the Spirit saying to Paul, this one can be healed. And that's how it worked. And so what you have here in this particular miracle are various gifts that are operating. There's a gift of knowledge. There's a gift of faith. There's miracles in healing. And one of the things we need to understand in the things of the Lord is we have a God who is able to do the impossible. And what we need is to just believe and expect that he will. I believe that God is still moving in this world. I believe his gifts are still in operation and that his power is manifested as we walk in and obey the Spirit. And many times we don't have because we don't ask. And that's why I asked the Lord, Lord, will you do a work? Lord, will you heal? Sometimes they're instantaneous and sometimes it's gradual. I've had shoulder problems now for years, Marie can tell you, I can't sleep. The pain is so great that I can't sleep. And I've been praying here in this church, I've been saying, if you need healing, raise your hand. And I'm gonna step out and say this openly. I usually keep things to myself. But my shoulders are being healed. I can sense it. I'm sleeping now. I'm not in pain. And I've been in pain for years. But I'm sensing it now. And I told my wife, I said, I'm able to sleep. I'm able to sleep. And to me, I believe in a God who heals. I believe in a God who's forgiven me the emotion. See, I didn't wanna share this because I get emotional. I do. I'm not trying to pump you up. I'm just extolling the Lord. He is good and he's doing a work in my life. And I do believe that God does heal. I do that. I do believe that God has the ability. Doesn't heal everybody. But I'm so blessed by his grace towards me even right now. So with that said, we need to know that. We need to understand that our God is able. You have not because you asked not. Call unto me and I'll answer thee. Show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33 says, and it's true. So what are they doing? Well, they're preaching the gospel. And there's a man who's there. Paul sees him. He's been there daily. He observes him intently. He sees he has faith. He healed, he healed. Stand up. He says, stand up straight on your feet. He leaps and he walks. Wow, verse 11. When the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices saying in, I wish the word was English. I could say that like Chaonian language. The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And the priests of Zeus whose temple was in front of their city brought oxen and garlands to the gates intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes, ran in among the multitude crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea and all things that are in them who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these saints they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. The local pagans are overwhelmed by this miracle and right away they wanna attribute it to their own gods. And what happens is it brings to their memory one of their myths and the myth was this, that Zeus and Hermes had come to earth in disguise and arriving at Lystra they had asked for food and lodging but the locals refused them. An old couple named Philemon and Bauses took them in in an act of vengeance. The gods sent a flood and drowned the inhospitable villagers and then transformed their cottage into a beautiful temple of which they became the priests and priestess. After their deaths they were turned into two beautiful trees and that's how the pagans responded. We're determined to be very hospitable to these and so what did they do? Verse 11, they cried that gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Now we should not assume that Paul and Barnabas understood their language as brilliant as Paul was. He wasn't familiar with every single language and so at first he doesn't realize what's happening but here comes this priest running with oxen and garlands ready to sacrifice and he sees what's happening and it moves him into action. Now I want to point something very quickly out to you in verse 14, it says when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul heard this, the word apostle is a word that speaks of a messenger who's been delegated with authority. It can be used in various contexts but it is not saying that Barnabas was an apostle. It's saying that he has been delegated with authority because when they went out on their ministry, on their mission trip in chapter 13, the church leadership had sent them out and so he's speaking of the authority that they have, Paul being the apostle, Barnabas also exercised in authority but what did they do? Verse 14, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude. They rejected this worship and they said, why are you doing this? We're men. Notice with me that he doesn't quote the Old Testament but he corrects them by appealing to nature and he makes it clear we are human beings, we're not gods. You see nature is one of the evidences of a creator so he points to creation. My granddaughter, Bella, has an assignment in, she goes to Christian homeschool and so she asked me because her father said, ask grandpa or papa because he'll give you the answer so I'm gonna cheat for her. But she was talking to, she says, I'm supposed to be writing something about like somebody has an atheist, when atheists say how do you know there's a God? And I said there are two basic things. I'll give you those two basic things right now. One, there's conscience. There's conscience. Even the most pagan of pagans have what is called a conscience. It's an awareness of what is right and what is wrong. So conscience is one of them. And second is creation. Hebrews three four says every house is built by some man and he who built all things is God. You can't walk into a house that hasn't been built by a man or a woman for that matter. It's been built. And so if I can walk into a house I have to know that that house didn't explode into existence. But somebody designed it and somebody built it. So I was saying to her this and this is basic answer. Even atheists have a conscience. And they may not see and understand what creation is but creation in South Christ out that there is a master architect. In Romans one 18 since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and God had so that they are without excuse. And so he appeals to nature and he says turn from these useless things to the living God who made all things. You see idolatry is powerless to help or to save. He speaks in verse 16 he says in bygone generations God allowed nations to walk in their own ways. God extended his grace in a common way even to unbelievers who were living in what would be called times of ignorance. He gave him general revelation. He gave him conscience. He gave him creations. Nevertheless in verse 17 he didn't leave himself without a witness. He did good. That's been called common grace. Jesus in Matthew 545 said it like this. He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. You're a Christian your neighbor's not. He doesn't just cause rain to fall on your land and then have an invisible barrier where it doesn't fall on the other persons. That's called common grace. And if you're aware of those things you know there's a creator and if you know there's a creator you can be aware of the fact that he's good and that he cares for us. Well these are called times of ignorance. Prior to Christ coming but when Jesus came the times of ignorance ended. And now he's saying God is called on all people everywhere to repent. In Acts 412 nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It isn't going to come through Zeus. It's not going to come through Hermes. It's not going to come through sacrificing to false gods. It comes through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and he preaches the gospel in a way that helps the pagan to understand by speaking of nature itself. Nature itself speaks to the reality of one who is greater than you. I have heard and some of you have too and I'll close with this. How people said I didn't really know that there was a God. I had never really thought about it until my child was born. And when I held that baby in my hand for the first time and I saw life and the miracle of life I came to realize there's something greater than me. There's something out there greater than me and God has allowed even the birth of a child to awaken pagans to an awareness that there is a God and this God is a God of love. And when they hear the gospel they can turn their hearts over to him and their lives can be forever changed because that's what the gospel does. It changes lives.