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Summary

In this conversation, Jimmy Clark discusses the nuances of evangelism, particularly focusing on reaching the unchurched, skeptics, and atheists through the lens of Paul’s sermon in Acts 17. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the unique perspectives of different audiences and the necessity of presenting factual information to persuade them. Clark outlines the structure of Paul’s sermon, highlighting the cosmological, teleological, and moral arguments for God’s existence, and concludes with the significance of allowing the Word of God to work in the hearts of listeners.

Chapters

00:00 Opening and Introduction
00:05 Understanding Evangelism and Its Challenges
07:20 Paul’s Approach to the Unchurched
14:31 The Proclamation of Facts
33:59 Persuasion and the Response to the Gospel

Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.*

Jimmy Clark (00:05)
Well good morning to each one of you and take your Bible and turn to Acts chapter 17 as the topic that has been assigned me.

is reaching through evangelism the unchurched, skeptic, and the atheist type according to Paul’s sermon here in Acts 17. Now let me preface this lesson by making this observation. If you came here to this lecture this morning expecting me to give you strategies and methodologies on how to do this, you are going to be disappointed.

What I have learned by my experience, and it’s just my experience, is that every person is unique in the way you approach a study of the Bible with them, because you have to know where they are. Not all the unchurched are the same. Not all skeptics are the same. Not all atheists are the same. Now there are certain concepts that they hold.

as we would say cookie cutter, sort of the model of what they believe or don’t believe. But the fact of the matter is the Bible is so unique in that it approaches every person where they are at the level where they are in their spirituality or lack thereof. Okay, the unchurched would basically be summarized with those that would might say this expression as has been said this week already.

I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious. And what they mean that I don’t follow organized religion, but I have somewhat of a spiritual mindset. By the way, however you define that is how they would define it in their own mind. I wouldn’t define it the way they define it, but it’s the way that they look at it. Skeptic basically is a person who is suspicious of anything you give is factual.

because they wanna do what they wanna do and they wanna believe what they wanna believe. And so I’m skeptical about everything that you say or do, okay? Because it’s me and I wanna do what I wanna do. The atheist, in my estimation, is the bold fella who basically says, I don’t just think there might not be a God. He says, there is no God. Now an agnostic is different from an atheist. An agnostic says, I don’t know.

if there is a God. An atheist point blank tells you, I don’t believe there’s a God, period.

In 1981, my wife and I and sister and several members of the church from the El Paso, Texas area were in a campaign in Cambridge, England. We were going door to door setting up Bible studies for two weeks. First door I knocked on in a neighborhood, knocked on the door and I told them who we were and what we were there for. And the first words out of his mouth is, I am an atheist.

That’s the first words I heard out of anybody’s mouth in the entire neighborhood all week, all two weeks in Cambridge, England. Which means, since he’s affirming to me that he doesn’t believe in any God, the existence of any God, therefore he didn’t believe in the word of God, because that’s the necessary implication, and I got it. I understood his concept of what he was trying to say.

The Book of Acts is such a unique book. I’m greatly impressed as I restudy it and preach it on Sunday nights back home. And I haven’t gotten to chapter 17 in the paragraph sections. I’m in chapter 16 up to this point. But in prep for this particular lecture, and I’m studying in depth this sermon that Paul preached, by the way, Paul didn’t get the sermon outline up. Paul never got a sermon outline up.

Okay, matter of fact, Paul lived in the days of the miraculous and the Holy Spirit literally gave him every word that came out of his mouth and every word that he wrote was superintended by the Holy Spirit. That’s verbal plenary inspiration, by the way, not thought inspiration. It’s the very words that are inspired. And so I sometimes think about being envious of that because preachers try to come up with, as we say, catchy phrases or whatever the case might be that you can go back in your pulpit and use that phrase.

over and over and over, but Paul never had to premeditate anything. Neither did Peter, neither did any of apostles. So these words in this sermon are not Paul’s ideas. They are God’s words to these people that they needed to hear. Now, do I believe this will help a person who is a skeptic?

No doubt, he particularly is talking to the Epicureans and the Stoic philosophers. So you’re looking at the Greek background, not Jewish background. There was a synagogue in Athens.

Okay, there was a synagogue there and Paul had been talking with the Jews in the synagogue, disputing with them about the scripture and Christ and so forth. He’s also been talking in the marketplace according to verse 17 of chapter 17. So he’s already been having discussions in the city of Athens and evidently some of these people are very curious about this idea of him preaching a Jesus and the resurrection. It’s the resurrection topic that they’re curious about because they want to hear more about that.

Okay, so in looking at this particular lesson, I would ask you, I’m not gonna do it this morning, but I would ask you to go look at Acts 14, beginning in about verse 13, 15 down to 17. Paul in the Galatian region is preaching to Gentiles. As a matter of fact, he’s healed a lame man, Barnabas is with him, and they think the gods have come down from heaven in the form of men.

And the priest of Jupiter has come out in Acts 14 from Lystra basically to offer animal sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas. By the way, they call Barnabas Jupiter, they call Paul Mercury because he’s the chief spokesperson, okay, because Mercury is the messenger of the gods, okay? So what do Paul and Barnabas do? They rend their garments and they basically say, how many of ever read a debate where it says affirmative and negative?

Okay, here’s a person’s gonna take the affirmative of the proposition, here’s a person going to take the negative or deny the proposition. Well, Acts 14 is the negative. Okay, because in their mind, and obviously the priest of Jupiter, in his mind, the gods are gods. Notice I said plural because they believed in multiple gods. Okay, now what Paul and Barnabas are doing is they’re taking the negative of that debate argument.

Okay, and basically saying, we have taught you to turn from these vanities. So that’s the negative, unto the living God. By the way, if you take the negative in a debate, you’ve obviously got to show the alternative. Well if it’s not this, not this, not this, not this, not this, well the question is, well what is it? Right, because you have to have faith in, not just a faith, but faith in, an object of faith. Okay, now act 17 is not the negative.

Acts 17 is the affirmative side of a debate argument. So you take Acts 14 first to show that Paul and Barnabas had already gone down this road, and Paul now is going down that road again. But he uses a different approach in Acts 17 than he does in Acts 14, though he’s talking about the same subject matter. They be no gods made with hands. Over here.

and you wanna know about the unknown God that you claim there is, but you don’t know who that is, I am here to reveal to you the God you don’t know. Okay, so this is the positive case for God. The positive case for God. Does a skeptic need that? No question.

Does an atheist need that? No question. Does an agnostic need that? No question, as a matter of fact. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship. The word ignorant there is the word that we get the word agnostic from. Literally the Greek word agnose. So you get the word agnostic. So Paul’s talking to agnostics. Literally in Acts 17. Okay? So.

And by the way, the Unchurch cares with the idea, well, they’ve got some kind of spirituality or they claim to have some spirituality. They just don’t want to have anything with organized religion. Well, guess what? By the time you get to the end of act 17, there is a congregation in Athens. There is one.

And we’re thankful for that. But the fact of the matter is, not everybody accepted what Paul had to say. So there’s three things this morning, very quickly, because I know I can’t preach like I did last night, where there wasn’t a clock on the wall, I gotta get it in the hour. Three things we wanna do this morning. Number one, we wanna talk about the fact that Paul proclaimed the facts. That if you’re going to give the case for God, you’ve got to have the facts.

Okay, and don’t pretend that you know what you’re talking about if you don’t have the facts. Because he’s got the facts. If you’re gonna talk with someone who’s an agnostic or a skeptic or an atheist or anyone who just denies the existence of God or doesn’t know about the existence of God or is fuzzy on all of that stuff, you gotta have the facts.

And that’s what he does. Number two, so in the proclamation of the facts, number two, you persuade them to act upon the facts that you gave them. It’s not like doing a Google search, okay, I’ve got all the information, and then you say, well, now I’m smarter than I was before I looked at it. Well, what does that apply to life? Because by the way, we’re all headed to a judgment day.

and what you know better matter when you’re headed to the judgment day because the last statement Paul makes in this sermon is he’s gonna judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained where it’s given assurance and he’s raised Jesus from the dead. So he’s talking to the judgment day. Starts with God, God that made the world and all things therein and he ends with he’s gonna judge the world in righteousness. By the way, do you see how this sermon flows?

See how this sermon flows. We’re gonna start with the existence of God and we’re gonna bring you down to the judgment day. Which by the way hasn’t happened yet. But is it important when you’re talking with someone who’s an agnostic, an atheist, a skeptic, or a person that needs to learn about the church and the importance of being, is it important for you to start with God? Oh, it’s all about God, right? But this God is the one you’re gonna meet in the judgment day.

Okay, so Paul didn’t just give them facts like a Google search. He gave them the facts to persuade them to understand this is where you’re headed. This is where we’re all headed. Okay, now, the last part of this lesson will be verses 32 to 34 outside this sermon because this is the product of Paul’s presentation.

By the way, it wasn’t always positive. It didn’t always produce converts. But it did what it was designed to do. And that’s the point that Rick Kenyon gave just a few minutes ago, that when he said that, I thought, bingo. How many of us as older preachers who were younger used to think if I didn’t convert anybody in the preaching that I preached on something, something’s wrong with me?

How many of know what Monday morning preaching quarterback is? Okay, we’ve all been there. Matter of fact, some of us still are there. I can remember doing exactly what I thought I needed to do, Sunday morning Bible class, Sunday morning sermon, Sunday evening sermon, and so forth, and didn’t look like anything happened, anything changed, and you get up Monday morning and say, what do need to do differently?

What do I need to be reading differently? By the way, I’m still preaching the Bible, same Bible. By the way, same translation. But the concept is the power’s not in me. The power of conversion was not in Paul, it was in the words Paul preached. When Rick mentioned about the Ninevites and then Jonah the preacher, the Ninevites weren’t converted because Jonah was a great preacher.

It says they repented at the preaching of Jonah. Jonah had bad attitude. I mean, that man was a sorry evangelist as a man, but his preaching was the message Nineveh needed to hear. wait, even after he converted the whole town, he’s outside the hill hoping God changes his mind. What kind of evangelist is that?

You converted the whole town and now you want them all burn up in 40 days. Okay? So, can you have a bad evangelist and have success? Can you have a good evangelist and not have any results? So the whole point’s what? Sow the seed. That’s it. That’s it. And that’s what Paul does. Okay? So proclaim the facts.

By the way, know the facts, have the facts, and give the facts out, and let the chips fall where they may. Okay? Take the facts, number two, and use the means of persuasion. By the way, that’s what the Holy Spirit’s doing, is persuading them to act on the facts, not just see the facts, but act on the facts, as we’ll see in a minute. And then out of that, here’s the product. Okay? So point number one, let’s look at the message.

starting verse 22 of Acts 17. Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive in all things your two superstitious. I pass by them to heal your devotions. Came across an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing he’s Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples

made with hands. Neither is worshiped or served by men’s hands, though he has any need of anything. For he gives to all life, breath, and all things, and made of one blood, every nation of men, and the whole face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed and the boundary of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord.

if they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our very being. Even a certain of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we’re the offspring of God, we ought not to think that God is likened to gold, silver, stone, graven by art and man’s device.

In the time of this ignorance, God winked at, now commands all men everywhere to repent because he’s appointed a day which you judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, where if he is given assurance unto all men, he raised him from the dead into sermon.

Let’s go to lunch. Because my lecture’s over. I, in my comments, will never improve on that sermon.

Let the Bible be the Bible and sit down. Be quiet. But I still got time, so I guess I’ll talk. Right? How many of have ever heard of the cosmological, the teleological, and the moral argument? We just made that up in philosophy, particularly among us of Apologetics Press or the Warren Center. We just made all that up.

All three of those arguments are in this sermon. All three of them.

God that made the world and all things therein. The Bible does not say that the world made itself. God made the world. You go to Genesis 1 verse 1, that’s exactly what Paul’s preaching. In the beginning, God, bara, created the heavens and the earth. Now, outside your knowledge of special revelation,

You know there’s got to be some power out here because it’s greater than you are. Let me tell you something, a thunderstorm is greater than you are. A tornado, an F5 tornado is greater than you are. A hurricane is greater than you are and now you’ve got to try to figure out what is the cause behind this effect. Okay? Here’s the world and all things therein. Here’s the heavens and the earth. Here’s the effect. What’s the cause?

behind it. Science says in the first law of thermodynamics, which by the way, which is not science or the Bible, it’s science in the Bible says you cannot get something from nothing by a natural process. First law of thermodynamics, you cannot get something from nothing

by natural process. You can get it by supernatural process, but not by natural process. Know the facts. Understand, know the facts. Science argues for God, folks. It doesn’t deny God. Science is on the Bible side, not outside. By the way, the laws of physics means the laws of the physical laws that operate in the world. Well, who made the world?

who made the laws of physics by which they are reliable.

Paul is arguing, or would say the Holy Spirit through Paul is arguing this fact, the fact that God made the world and all things therein. Now, Jupiter did not make all things. The one thing that you’re going to find as you start Sir Paul’s sermon is he is definitive and distinctive in what he’s talking about. For example.

I don’t have any confidence in a person who claims to be religious and claims to be a theistic evolutionist. I have no confidence in them. A buddy of mine basically says an agnostic is an atheist hedging his bet.

Think of that a minute. An agnostic is really an atheist hedging his bet. A theistic evolutionist is an evolutionist who’s trying to hedge his bet. If I were a theistic evolutionist, I would take Genesis 1 completely out of the Bible.

Completely out. I’m either gonna believe Genesis 1 or I’m gonna shut this book and never believe a word in there because my Bible starts in Genesis 1. Does yours start in Genesis 1? And that’s where Paul started this sermon. God made the world and all things therein. Not only did he make it, he is Lord of the heaven and the earth. Definitive statement, clear statement. Genesis 1.

Elohim, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim. Genesis 2, the Lord God.

Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh Elohim. By the way, that’s not two gods, that’s same God, same God. The God that made the world and all things therein, he is Lord of what he made. He’s the one that controls that.

Now, the cosmological argument, the supernatural created the natural. Here is the effect, the result of what I see and live in. Where did all of that come from? It’s called first cause, cosmological argument. Let’s go back to Genesis 1,1. That’s literally what the Holy Spirit gave Moses.

literally means only what God can do. Ladies, you may create a dish and call it your own. You didn’t create anything, you made it. If you wanted to create it, you then created the ingredients out of nothing. The word bara literally in Hebrew means that which did not exist came into being. That’s the first law of thermodynamics.

You can’t get something from nothing by natural process, but you can get it from a supernatural process, and that’s Genesis 1.1. Know the facts. Know the facts. Scientific facts. And not only did God, whose first cause produced what you see, he is the controller of it. He gives to all. What? Life, breath.

all things. In Him we live and move and have our very existence. Okay? Well, by the way, are you intelligent?

then where did you get your intelligence? So now you come to the teleological argument, right? The concept of, didn’t just bring matter into existence and organize it into a cosmos, because that’s what cosmos is, world, okay? An arrangement of the world, Genesis 1. He also made of one all nations of men that dwell upon all the face of the earth.

In other words, ⁓ King James says of one blood. The word blood’s not in the original text, but I like that translation because it carries with the idea, now you’re looking at the law of biogenesis.

What is the law of biogenesis? well, genesis means beginning and bio means life. Where did life come from? How does life continue on? Well, it’s called reproduction. And out of one blood came all nations.

By the is that intelligence? So now you are arguing the teleological argument that if there is intelligence here, where did you get intelligence? Well, it was created by this God. By the way, the interesting thing in the Greek New Testament, in that statement in verse 24, is the definite article is first before you get to the word God. It is Hothaios.

The God made the world in all things therein. The God, not a God.

THE God.

Interesting little point there. Because what Paul is saying is, I’m not talking about Jupiter or Zeus or Juno or Hera or Mercury or Apollo. I’m not talking about all of who you worship here. I’m talking about one God.

It says of Enoch that Enoch walked with God. Hebrews 11, 5. You go back to Genesis 5, it literally means Enoch walked with the God. That is literally in the Hebrew text. Enoch did not walk with a God. Enoch walked with the God. When Peter confessed in Matthew 16.

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The thee in there, the three thees, they’re not just thrown in there. They are put in there for design to argue the fact you are not just a son of God, you are not just a Christ, you are not just the son of a God, you are the definitive one.

⁓ I don’t believe in many gods. I only believe in one God and one Godhead. By the way, he talks about we ought not think the Godhead is like a gold, silver, or stone. This is not the Godhead. God is not material. He’s not of that nature. He is supernatural. By the way, Paul is speaking about supernatural revelation and inspiration.

By the way, and he could confirm every word he said with any miracles you needed to have to perform it. I’m not sure he hadn’t already performed miracles at Athens before he ever got to this sermon. But the fact of the matter is, he is distinctive in the way he’s arguing these facts here. This is the positive case for God. Number two, in this discussion, he is showing that God can be known, that God can be discovered.

if you seek for him. He argues the fact that they might seek the Lord, that they might feel after him and find him. You mean if you seek, you can find? It’s interesting the phrase here, feel after him. That doesn’t mean I’ve got to reach out here, okay, I’m feeling, okay, I’m finally gonna touch you. No, God is spirit. John 4.24.

A spirit has not flesh and blood as you see me have, Jesus said to the apostles. So I can’t physically feel God with my physical senses. Then why use the word feel? Well, the same way you take 1 Peter 2, 2 and 3. As newborn babes desire the sin-sealed milk of the word, you may grow thereby, if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Well, what does the word taste mean?

Well, I gotta pick this up, I’ll lick it. No, has nothing to do with that. Taste means to apply, to internalize this into your life. Okay, so I’m gonna take the facts and I’m gonna use reason and I’m gonna put two and two together and as I search the facts and put two and two together, I’m going to use my rational mind and say, does this make sense?

How many of have ever read something and all of a sudden you say, you know, that makes sense.

That’s not irrational to believe that. That makes sense. First law of thermodynamics, the second law of thermodynamics, by the way, denies evolution. Look, science is on our side, folks. Teach these kids that are being bombarded with all of this information out here. Science is on your side. Paul is arguing the cosmological argument. He is arguing the teleological argument. You don’t find it in Acts 17, but it’s there.

He is using intelligent design in this sermon. He’s using the moral argument. When you get to verse 31, is he not using the moral argument? He’s appointed a day in which you shall judge the world in what? Righteousness. Well, how do you know what’s right? What makes right, right? Well, it has to be some absolute standard by which to judge what’s right. If you’re gonna judge the whole world, you better be right. And they better know what right is, because they’re gonna be judged by it.

then what do you call an absolute moral standard? You call that God. That’s what you call it. You don’t call it a figment of human imagination or whatever culture says is right or wrong. No, in the day of judgment, everybody’s judged by the same standard of righteousness. Who established that? A moral God. Y’all get it, right? Cosmological argument, teleological argument, moral argument is in this sermon. In this sermon.

So here’s the facts, it’s distinctive. By the way, God is dynamic, he’s active, he gives, he determines their boundaries. Look, an infinite God defines finite man. Would you agree with that? Do you believe you’re finite? He has set the times, he has set the boundaries, and yet what about God? You cannot put God in a temple.

You can’t even serve God with your hands. He don’t need anything you do for Him. He gives to you.

He gives you life, breath, and all things. This is the God you need to know. Stop manufacturing your imaginary God because your imagination’s not God at all. But there is a God whom I declare unto you. Let me stop right here at this point and make this observation from Romans 1.

I don’t know how many times I’ve quoted Romans 1.21, 20 and 21, but until I was doing this lesson right here, this is the phrase that jumped out to me, is that statement in Romans 1.21. Let’s start in verse 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, that they are without excuse. Who’s they? Well, it’s all humanity. But the they there is the Gentile world. Context is the Gentile world.

What’s the next phrase? Romans 1.21.

for after when they knew God. Stop. Stop right there. After that when they knew God, is God capable of being known in that passage? You are without excuse, verse 20. You knew God. Question, how in the world did the Gentile world know God?

How did the Jewish world know God? Well, God gave them divine revelation, confirmed it by miracles. Gentile world, what are they? Well, they could have learned about God through the Israelite Jewish nation, but pretty much God winked at that until now Paul’s sermon, the Gospel Age. So the picture is what? Romans 1, 21 says the Gentile world had access to information to where they’re without excuse about knowing God. They knew God.

They chose not to believe in God. They became vain in their imagination, their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise and became fool and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God made into corruptible things. They chose their gods. They had all the information in the world to believe in God, to know God, but when they knew the facts, they did not want it.

is that 21st century world we’re living in right now. The facts are here. The evidence is overwhelming and you choose to deny it. There’s nothing I can do for you. I’ll pray for you, okay? That’s one thing I can do for you.

Okay, point number two, persuade that they should seek the Lord. We ought not to think.

Is Paul telling them to think? We ought not to think. That’s rational. He’s literally telling them to use their rational mind to look at his sermon and the facts and draw a conclusion. So number one, it’s rational. Number two, it has to do with righteousness because in the last section of that sermon, he says he’ll judge the world in righteousness and he has given assurance unto all men he’s gonna do that because he raised Christ from the dead.

and that’s the man he appointed by which to judge the world. And therefore, since you have a rational mind and here are the facts, and one day you’re going to have a righteous standard by which you’re going to be judged, repent! God commands all men now everywhere to repent. You didn’t have all the information at one time. You had enough to where you could probably see that there is a God.

but you didn’t choose that God, you choose your own God. But let me tell you something, in the day of judgment, everybody’s gonna know who God is. There ain’t not gonna be any atheists or agnostics or skeptics standing there in the day of judgment. Everybody’s gonna know God exists.

So what’s the product? Wow, it’s the most powerful sermon Paul’s ever preached. Look at these folks, they’re all gonna be converted. I look at verse 32, when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.

So now you got folks scoffing and scornin’. Are there people out here, the unchurched, the skeptic, the agnostic, the atheist, et cetera, are they still gonna mock at everything you give? Was Paul an abject failure because he didn’t convert these folks? No. Next, others said, we will hear the again of this matter, which means some were still seeking. By the way, how many of y’all ever got it the first time?

How many of y’all ever got it the first time? How about the second? The third? The fourth? The fifth? The sixth? And all of sudden, ⁓ Let me tell you something about preaching, guys. I’ve been preaching at my local congregation now for 41 years plus. We can have a gospel meeting preacher come in, preach the exact same sermon that I’ve preached for 40-something years. And all of a sudden, the person in the pew gets it.

And I’m like, what took you so long? Well, you’ve been saying that and then he said it in a different way. It was the same message. And when he said it, it clicked with me. And I said, well, I wanted to convert you. By the way, that’s a preacher pride problem right there.

And the more you are exposed to preachers in our brotherhood who all preaching from the same book and use different personality approaches, hopefully somewhere down the road it’s gonna click after the thousandth time you’ve heard a sermon on what must I do to be saved.

Some of them didn’t see it yet. Some of them weren’t going to see it. Because they’re going to make fun of anything that challenges them to change their lifestyle.

But verse 34 says, how be it?

Certain men clave unto him and believed. By the way, is that faith? Is that Bible faith right there? And faith comes by? hearing by? Did they have the word of God? So listen, you have reasoning, right? We ought not to think. There’s reasoning, there’s revelation, there’s divine message from the word of God.

And there’s faith. It’s not faith or reason.

Understand, it’s reason and revelation and faith. But faith is a choice you make with the information you’ve been given.

And then it says, and Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Demaris and others with them. All these people came believers. So you’ve got the scorners, the scoffers. You’ve got some that need more information and you’ve got some that submitted and believed. And old Brian’s here. Let me read one text of scripture with you and I want you to see.

if this is not Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 in Isaiah 55. Okay, we’ll start in verse six. Seek you the Lord while he may be found. Call you upon him while he is near. Is that Paul’s sermon in Acts 17? That you might seek the Lord, right? Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts

and let him return unto the Lord. Is that repentance? Is that not preaching repentance? Is that not what Paul preached in Acts 17? All men everywhere do what? Repent. So seek the Lord and repent. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord. The heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, the snow from heaven,

returns not thither and waters the earth and makes it bring forth in blood that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eaters. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it will prosper in the thing whereunto I send it.” What the word does, preached the facts with a strong presentation.

It will produce the fruit in a good and honest heart.

I’m not here to judge your heart. I’m here to test your heart to see what kind of heart you got. Because the same sermon, they’ll be cut to the teeth and say, men and brethren, what shall we do? And a preacher like that can do the same thing and they’ll be cut to the teeth and they’ll kill him. What did the word of God do in both sermons? It revealed the hearts of men.

So in evangelizing people, stop worrying about the results.

Just give the facts and let God’s Word do what it’s designed to do. Thank you for your attention.