MAKING THE LORD KNOWN (PART 6)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“In the past God, overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

Acts 17:30-31

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I hope you have enjoyed this six series devotion as much as I have as we have followed Paul making God known to a people, the Athenians, who had not been taught of Him. In fact, they seemed to have an idol erected in the city for every non-existent, man-manufactured god one could think of.

To recap, here were the points Paul used and we have the privilege of using them as well today for there is still a multitude of people who do not know the one God of all. Those points included:

1. We serve an almighty God, the only true God who created and then rules over all things in heaven and on earth.

2. This Lord sits in ultimate authority over everything but He is not a God who lacks compassion or caring. Rather, He is a God who loves and forgives perfectly, providing for all He has made because all created things are totally dependent upon Him as they live to serve others in obedience to His calling.

3. Since God is Lord over all, possessing infinite power to make the impossible possible, He holds history in His hands, ordering events across time while placing His people within the borders He draws up. He and He alone ordains the rise and fall of nations.

4. God is always near His people. He created all human beings and so He is the Father of everyone. All living people are His offspring and they have their very being because of Him.

5. God is alive. He has to be because every person is an offspring of His and nothing in animate made of gold or silver or stone can reproduce anything in its likeness. Only God can do that.

And so Paul made the only true Lord known through these points and as we conclude this series today, we find him closing his speech with an exclamation mark, letting the Athenians know that the all powerful God of all creation, the God in authority over everything was by merit the Judge of all mankind, hating sin and expecting every person to repent. This same God, the Lord of judgment, was also a God of perfect justice and would exact it through His Son Jesus who had been raised from the dead.

We know through Paul’s letter to the Romans that he taught this truth: All had sinned and thus fallen short of the glory of God. All meant all and the Athenians, not knowing God and His stance toward transgressions would not be aware of what the God required. They were ignorant to God and His ways but Paul had just corrected that by making the Lord known to them. The people of Athens couldn’t claim ignorance any longer as if they were unaware of God. Now, they had to get right with Him after worshiping false gods and idols, a practice He had forbidden.

Indeed, God would no longer overlook the iniquities of the Athenians just like He won’t overlook the sins of anyone who didn’t know of Him in the past but then were made fully aware of Him. He expects the sinner to repent, to confess their wrongs and then commit to changing behavior, to move from what God views as wickedness toward the righteousness that He expects and favors.

And just in case a person might not take this requirement seriously, Paul added a sense of urgency. For the one true God, Master and Ruler over all creation, had set a day of absolute judgment, a judgment that would be executed with perfect justice. Nobody will be exempt from this judging which will be executed by Jesus, the Man God appointed and then validated by “raising Him from the dead.”

Every person has a choice. They can repent of their sins and believe in the Man coming to exact judgment, finding their way to sin absolution and eternal life or they can ignore God, continue transgressing, and receive eternal damnation and torment for all time.

This was where Paul was going with the people of Athens but it’s really the place God brings all people through His Son, to a crossroads with only two ways to travel. Jesus referred to them as the narrow and wide paths, one leading to salvation and the other to hell. A person can only be on one of the two paths when Jesus returns.

So, what path are you standing on today?

If the Lord has been made known to you, I pray that you’re standing with me and other Christian believers on the narrow path. If you’re not, today is the day to change that and seal your eternal future through your Savior Jesus.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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