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Amen. 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, they're usually in the front foyer, you can get a map. But basically, Paul on his second missionary journey has crossed over into Greece for the first time, or Macedonia as it's called in the Bible. It's modern day Greece. 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, you know, debating or, you know, discussing things and preaching Jesus to the Athenians. And he's talking to them about philosophy that, you know, the philosophers came to him. And then of course, we talked about, you know, 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. But let's pick things up in verse number 24. I want to 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 that 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. Now there's a lot there and really going to dig into that one tonight. But basically the thing I want to 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 want to 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 had 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, and 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 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 things 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 there 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 this this 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 we have now after Genesis chapter 11, of course, you know, 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. All right, look at verse number 27. So that's where the origin of nations comes from. Let's put a, you know, bookmark there. We're going to 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 so Paul is saying, one blood many nations, verse 27, that they should seek the Lord. So even though keep 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, you know, ask and it should be given unto you seek and you shall find, knock and it should be opened unto you. This was true since the beginning of time. So every man in Romans 215, every man has, you know, 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 215. 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. He said, 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 they were, you know, 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, you know, were children of God, that were God's offspring, all this type of stuff. And if you've ever read, you know, 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, you know, 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 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, you know, 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 God 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 Acts, 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 in 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, I'll 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 who 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 son hath everlasting life. That's assurance. That's the assurance. Once you've trusted, once you've repented of what you believed 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. 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 hath raised him from the dead. So look, he's just saying, 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 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, live a good life, not sin more than seven times a day, I can't even tell you the thousands of different versions of workspace salvation that I've heard personally myself, but they're going to get what they want. They're going to be judged by their works. Look at Revelation chapter 20 and verse number 11. After the millennial reign, this judgment will happen. Look at Revelation chapter 20 and 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 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, 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, Romans 4 and Romans 4 says that those people, I don't care how good they were, they're going to 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 12-year-old child understands that. Verse 13, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And 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 2 Corinthians 5. 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 2 Corinthians 5, verse number 10, look at 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 1 Corinthians chapter 3. So we're still going to stand in front of Jesus. We're still going to stand in front of Jesus. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and look at verse number 12. You say, whoa, what does that mean? Well, you're going to stand in front of Jesus. And you're going to be, you know, he's going to look at the works that you did. You know, you're going to have a review session with Jesus, and you're going to go over all the works that you did in your life, whether it be good or bad. Look at verse number 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 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. 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? Isn't that possible? I mean, I know people like that. They're saved as they can be. They're saved, they've trusted in Jesus. They're just as saved as anybody in this room that is saved. But they're just going to like see, you know, they're just going to live their life for themselves. I mean, isn't that possible? But this is what they're going to suffer right here. It says, if any man's work abide, which he hath built, oh, I'm sorry, verse 13, every man's work shall be made manifest. It'll be made known what kind. For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. So this is how God is going to do things that the judgment seat of Christ is going to put all your works in a pile. And he's going to try it by fire. And then verse 14, it says, if any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, 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 going to remain. But all the wood, the hay, the stubble, the gold, the silver, the precious, all going to burn up. It's all going to burn up. And then it says, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But then he goes, then Jesus throws him in hell because he didn't do anything in his life. He'll suffer loss. He'll suffer loss. But what? He himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. Look, this is what it's saying. There's going to be some people in heaven walking around with a baggie full of ashes. That's what that's saying. They're going to be like, yeah, I was really rich down there, though. In eternity, they're going to be walking around with a Ziploc bag of burnt-up works. That's what the Bible's saying here. And look, the Bible is saying that they're going to suffer loss, meaning they're going to know that those works were worthless is what the Bible is saying. So back to Paul's statement. He's just saying every man is going to be judged, and you're going to be led to heaven through Christ's 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. All right, look at verse number 32 of Acts chapter 17. So Paul is just saying you better get this right. You better get this right, because he's really referring to the great white throne judgment of Revelation chapter 20 when he talks to the Greeks and Athens here. He's saying, look, you better get this right, because you're going to be judged by this. You're going to be judged by your works. Look at verse number 32. Verse number 32, and it says, when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. So some people made fun of them, laughed at them. You know, I talked about this many times before. This is like the oldest trick in the book. It's a tactic used by people against Christians to just mock. The word Christians is a mock. The word Christians means little Christs. They were called Christians first at Antioch. They're calling them little Jesuses, basically. They're trying to make fun of them. Anabaptists. Anabaptists was to make fun of the Baptists. You know that as soon as the Catholic Church was formed in 310 AD, the Baptists 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. Anabaptists was what the Catholic Church called the people that were out there saying, no, baptism doesn't have to do with salvation. It's nothing to do with it. They died for it. 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 called them Anabaptists, rebaptizers, because you'd have somebody that was baptized in the Catholic Church as a baby. It's not baptism. We know that. And then they would grow up. They would meet one of these Christians that believed the actual gospel. They would get saved, and then 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 if 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. All right? Howbeit 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 Dionysus the Erechabite, I'm sure I pronounced that wrong, and a woman named Damarius and others with him. So some people believed, and it's always this way. It's always this way. You go out sowing, and you just knock a bunch of doors, and 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. All right? Go back to verse number 26. 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 judged, but I really want to point out in verse number 26 and really dig into, and I'm kind of taking up some time here, but I want to dig into this idea of verse number 26 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 the modern day concept of racism and how that flies in the face of what the Bible teaches, meaning just like this idea of judging somebody by the color of their skin, by the color of their skin, or by the attributes of people. Look, 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. All right? 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. All right? So, look, the definition of racism, this is the closest, 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 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 men are 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, 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 isn't it true that certain people don't like certain groups of people because of the color of their skin? Isn't that true? And look, every single person with a different skin tone is guilty of this in one way or another. Being racist against, or what people would call racist today, against another group of people that have different traits than them. All right? Look, I agree with you. This is true. All right? 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 single, the arrows go in every direction. All right? I was in Armenia 20 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. All right? But 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's true. We know this. There's only one race. There's only one blood. So why all of this, people are construing as racism today. What you are seeing today and what you have always seen that's, you know, kind of diagnosed as racism, what you're seeing is stereotyping. That's what you're seeing. You're seeing people stereotype people. You say, what is stereotyping? Here's the definition of stereotyping. All right? And then I'm going to do some stereotyping tonight. All right? So hopefully you don't get offended. I'm going to give you some examples of stereotyping. All right? 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. All right? But the reason that people do it is because it can be accurate. Okay? 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. All right? 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 in Fresno. I'll stereotype 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 a Ford. It's, I'm 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 30 and you're an Indian male in West Fresno, you're driving Mopar, for sure. I guarantee you 90 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 75 years old, white person in North Dakota, that's a retired farmer, you're driving a Buick. That's just the way it is. Or I don't know, that's the way it was in the 90s anyway when I was there. Maybe that's changed. But the point is, that stereotype of Buicks was so powerful that I had a friend in high school that actually his parents bought him an old used 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. All right. 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 of somebody's skin. That's the problem. It's simply, stereotyping, you know, can be relatively accurate to a degree at a local level. But to blame it on someone's 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. It's like, yeah, you have a car that there's an issue there, but you, you come to the wrong conclusion on, you know, what it is. All right. So what does the Bible say? Let's get back to the Bible. Hopefully, it 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 15. People, look, people that don't understand the Bible actually call God racist. Have you ever heard that one? That God is a, he is misogynistic, which means he hates women, he's genocidal, and he's racist because of what he did in the Old Testament. But 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 15. Let's look at this. Let's look at God's, now we know where nations came from. Let's look at God's attitude towards nations. Okay. Because does God just think, oh, all nations are equal because look, that's another wicked thing. So we're, 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 12, you're going to Genesis chapter 15, but in Genesis chapter 12 is where God first told Abraham, get to another country. And Abraham went to the promised land. He went to the promised land that generations and generations and generations and generations later would become, you know, the nation of Israel's land. Look at Genesis chapter 15 in verse number 16 though. Looking at God's attitude towards nations. We have these many nations. Verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 13. And he said to Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years. Looking about the Egyptian captivity, how, you know, Pharaoh is going to take the Israelites as slaves. Look at verse 14. 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 plagues are brought upon Pharaoh and God destroys Pharaoh and his whole army and he nearly destroys the entire nation. Look at verse 15. 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 that 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 to the promised land. He's saying they're going to go through this captivity for 400 years and then I'm going to 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, he's like, this is going to happen way in the future. He's like, 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 land to give to, he had given it to Abraham generations before but God judged the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hittites. He judged all those nations. Why? Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7. There's a reason in Deuteronomy chapter 7 and Deuteronomy chapter 20 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 racist? Is God racist? Is it because they were black or brown or white? What is the deal? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7. God tells you exactly what the deal is. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 in verse number 4. Deuteronomy chapter 7 in verse number 4. This is right after he told them 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, look, that's harsh for people. People are like, what? But why did God do that? Look at verse 4. Look, everything that God does is right. I don't care what you think. Look at verse number 4. 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. It's the same thing in Romans chapter 9 verse 13 where he says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. He's talking about the nation of Israel versus 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 15 says because of the iniquity that they were committing. They were sacrificing their children. They were committing all kinds of sick, perverted, murderous, violent things. This is why God took, look, it had nothing to do with their heritage. It had nothing to do with this fake word race. Explain Ruth to me then. Ruth was from Moab. Ruth was from Moabitess. It says it like right in the first chapter of Ruth and again in the fourth chapter. She was from Moab. But just as Exodus chapter 12 says, the nation of Israel was never about your skin color or who your parents were. If a stranger in Exodus chapter 12 comes into the land and does what? Accepts the Lord. It says they start exercising the Passover, meaning they repent as Paul is begging the Athenians to do. They repent from their paganism and turn to the Lord. They are to be the same laws for them as for one born in the land. That's what exists. It's always been this way. It's not like something has changed in the New Testament. Racism today is a misdiagnosed problem. Ruth was a Moabitess. She came and she believed on the Lord. She was saved just like somebody that's saved today. And she's David's great-great-grandmother. In Matthew chapter 1 in Joseph's lineage and in Luke chapter 3, she's in both of them. She is an heir of the Messiah. And she is from Moab. God could care less. 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've got a conscience. God wrote his law in 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. Nothing. And just because you can successfully stereotype some people, you know, on 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 happen 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. 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, look, 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, 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 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, God, you know, extremely dislikes that nation at that point. But 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 guess what, the more innocent people that will suffer from it. This is the problem with culture. 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, but what about Christians? What should we be like? Turn to Romans chapter 12. Turn to Romans chapter 12. Turn to Romans chapter 12. How about us? How should we look at these things? Look, you know, we're being told today that 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 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 Romans chapter 12 and verse number 2. 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 is saying, be not conformed to this world. Doesn't matter what part of the world or what culture you came from. It's 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 have you thought, in your Christian walk, as you just keep learning more and more and more about the Bible, and you keep reading the Bible, and you keep studying the Bible like the Bereans? How many times have you thought, my goodness, every single thing I've been taught is wrong? You know what you're doing? You are renewing your mind. You're doing what Romans chapter 12 says that you should do. Turn to Romans chapter 7. Turn to Romans chapter 7. This is why Paul says in Romans again and again and again and again and again, you hear this word, should, should, should, over and over and over. Look at Romans chapter 7 in verse number 4. He says, wherefore, my brethren, he's talking about saved people here, our brothers and sisters in Christ, ye are 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 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 Romans chapter 12 and Romans chapter 7 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 Mejia who grew up probably just as completely different as I grew up, you know, how could we be such good friends? How is that possible? How can 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, oh, you know, we're in a good culture and all this stuff starts trailing off. Oh, well, let's get them. We bring them back up and that's the whole point of an 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 and you've got all kinds of different colors of people. Because 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 you're going to get, the more innocent people are going to suffer. It, I mean, 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 a bunch of boneheads. We don't get it. All right. 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, ah, 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 and come to, come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads and have a word.