Melted Wax, Hardened Clay

When the Gospel is truly preached, everyone hears the same message, everyone hears about the same Jesus, about the same Father, everyone is interacting with the same Holy Spirit. And yet, the reaction and response from the people couldn't be more different.  Join us as we look at this through Acts 17.

Chapters

• 0:02 Different Reactions to the Gospel Message
• 14:12 The Impact of Belief and Faith
• 20:29 Believing in Jesus

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Redeeming Love Bible broadcast. My name is Phil Duddy, evangelist with Grace Baptist Tabernacle of King, north Carolina, and I'm really glad to have you with me on the program today. As always, reach out to us at redeemingthelostsedicloudcom. We are going to be in the Book of Acts today and we're going to be looking at a situation that's very, very common. If you look at the Book of Acts, if you read through it, you will see this situation happening again and again and again you will see someone preaching, whether it's Paul or whether it's Peter, but somebody is preaching and the group in front of them. Everybody's hearing the same message and everybody's hearing about the same Jesus, everyone's hearing about the same Father, everyone is interacting with the same Holy Spirit and yet the reactions and responses from the people could not be more different. That happened back then, that still happens today and we are going to be looking at what the Scripture has to say about that back then. And sort of what that means for us today is we're ministering to folks and as we encounter that in our lives and as we encounter that in our neighborhoods, as we encounter that in our churches. So Acts, chapter 17, paul is addressing a group of men in the city of Athens, and we're going to come in at the end of that message, acts 17, starting in 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 or silver or stone graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. How be it? Certain men clave unto him and believed, among the which was Dionysia, see a rapagate and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. So, looking at this interaction, we're coming in at the end of the message.

Speaker 1: 2:33

What did Paul say in verse 29, 30 and 31? He gave a message that God is alive. He gave a message that God has created. He gave a message that God is no idol. God has shown mercy and God has shown longsuffering. God commands all men everywhere to repent. There is a coming day of judgment and Jesus is alive and he is risen from the dead.

Speaker 1: 3:03

While Paul put a lot into two or three verses and so this message has gone forward, these people who have been sort of crowded around him have heard this message. They've heard that God is alive. They heard that God is no idol. They heard that God raised Jesus up from the dead. Especially, they heard that message of judgment and what really sort of pricked them is the resurrection of the dead.

Speaker 1: 3:34

And we know, going back in Scripture, that Jesus bore the entire sin, the entire weight of sin of every man, woman and child. Jesus became that sin, jesus became that curse. Jesus hung on the tree, he hung on a cross, he died, he shed his blood, he bore the wrath of God. That death was an atoning death and God raised him up from the dead. This is why Paul would say in Acts 1731, he has given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead. Everything that Jesus said about the Father, everything that Jesus said about the Holy Ghost, everything that Jesus said about himself, god gave us an assurance that that is true, because Jesus rose up from the dead and Jesus is alive today. He died once he shed his blood, once he became sin, once he bore the wrath of God, once he died. And he is risen from the dead never to die again. Hallelujah and amen. He is not just any man. He died in atoning death. He is the Son of God, he is fully God, he is fully man and he accomplished the will of the Lord in that he died and that he rose again.

Speaker 1: 5:06

And so, for whatever reason, in this crowd, in this group of people, that's sort of what people seized on. Now, a lot of times you'll be preaching, you'll be witnessing, you'll be ministering to somebody who sees on just like one thing, and that'll get a big, big response. They heard the resurrection of the dead. Now we have the different responses of the people. Some people marked, some people made fun of it, some people made fun of Paul, some people made fun of Jesus himself. They attempted to lower, they attempted to disparage the reality of the situation, that Jesus had died and that he had risen up from the dead. They tried to kind of put themselves above it and they tried to make fun of it and they tried to mock it and they tried to put it beneath them. Others said we will hear thee again of this matter and there's kind of like okay, this is interesting, this is fascinating, this might be some good teaching, there might be some good principles here. This is a good idea.

Speaker 1: 6:12

If you go all the way back up in the book of Acts to this section, verse 21, I've got it in front of me. Actually, it says all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear of some new thing. And so this is kind of like the new philosophy on the block. They may have heard that it was being taught and it was being spread and it was having an effect in other places of the world. And okay, now we've got somebody in Athens standing in front of us and he's talking about Jesus. He's talking about how he died, he's talking about how he rose again. But it's an interesting philosophy. We would sort of like to hear a little bit more about it. We're not gonna believe on Jesus, but we'd just sort of like to discuss the matter a little bit further.

Speaker 1: 7:01

It's dismissed as a new philosophy. It's dismissed as one philosophy among many, and that happens today as well. You'll have people mocking, you'll have people scorning. As a matter of fact, that's a major hallmark, that's a major indicator, if you will, that we are in the last days, the mass proliferation of people mocking and scorning and not only the church, not only Christians, but also Jesus and the Father and the Holy Ghost. They're mocking them and they're making fun of them and they're trying to put them kind of beneath and lower them. Major, major hallmarks that were in the last days. And others hear some sort of new or some sort of ancient or some sort of philosophical discussion being put forth, and so it's kind of dismissed as a philosophy, it's kind of dismissed as a worldview.

Speaker 1: 8:02

But as we know from scripture, jesus is not just simply a philosophy or worldview. He's not a history lesson, he's not a system of morality, he's not a system of principles, he's not an idea, he's not an invention, he's not a story, he's not a unifying myth, he's not anything like that. But he is alive today. He is the Lord of Lords today. He is the King of Kings today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And he is coming again and he is returning and, as a matter of fact, the world is going to be judged and as the book of Acts tells us let's go back here he's appointed a day. Hallelujah in the name of the Lord, the Father. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the fullness of God, there is appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, that man being Jesus Christ. Of course we know he's more than a man. He's the Son of God as, hallelujah, fully God and fully man and all that. That's also wrapped up here in Paul's message. But Jesus is going to be the standard, if you will, by which the world is judged.

Speaker 1: 9:27

Jesus bore witness to the truth. Jesus did everything. He received everything from the Father. Everything came from the Father. Jesus would say such things like if you've seen me, you have seen the Father. He would say I and my Father are one. You would get different instances throughout the Gospels where people would hear a voice that this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved Son. You need to hear what he's having to say. The Father would bear witness to him. He would bear witness to the Father.

Speaker 1: 10:09

There's sort of a oneness there and in holiday and amen, jesus said. He goes to the Father and he sends the Holy Ghost, he sends the Comforter. And so God has appointed this day by which there's going to be a judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness by that man who he hath ordained, and that is Jesus, whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And some people mark this and some people scorn this and some people kind of try to philosophize about this, trying to make it into a worldview or twisted or perverted somehow. And so we've got those two reactions going on in this crowd, and so Paul departs from among the crowd. How be it? Certain men from this crowd clave unto him and believed.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Here we've got our third response. There are people who believe. There were people back then who believed in this sort of day when Paul was ministering. There were people who believed. There are people today who hear the Holy Ghost, they hear Jesus, they hear the Father, they hear preaching and people, and God moves through that preaching and God reaches them and they believe. And certain men clave unto him. And that word clave is a very interesting word.

Speaker 1: 11:44

The word clave was it was commonly used about to describe glue or cement and here it's being used figuratively to say that these men fastened themselves to Paul. These men joined themselves to Paul. These men clave to him, they fastened themselves to him and they believed. They believed, you know, hallelujah, in the man. They believed Jesus, they believe the Father, they believe the Holy Ghost, they believe the Lord.

Speaker 1: 12:20

And again people heard this same message and the responses varied. We had the markers, we had the people who said we're going to hear you again on this matter and you've got these other people, certain people, and they claved to Paul and they believed him and they joined themselves and they fastened themselves and I love that description that the word was commonly used. They stuck to him like glue, they stuck to him like cement, but they believed Jesus and so amen and glory and hallelujah. They were added to the church. They followed the apostle. Paul would say follow me as I follow the Lord. You might say some discipleship started here and you might say that they were born again and they began to grow in the Lord. They began at discipleship.

Speaker 1: 13:25

But interesting, interesting picture that we have today of a reality that goes on in churches all the time People will be hearing the same message, people will be in the same worship service, people will be in the same prayer meeting, people will be in the same testimony service, People will be hearing the same, the same thing preached, and you'll have all of these different responses. And it happens commonly. It happens today. Now, matter of fact, I'm looking at this and I was reminded of this old saying, and I read this in one of those study Bibles one time. I'm not sure where exactly it came from, but it's true. It said the same heat that melts wax will harden clay.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Now my wife is a potter and there comes a point where all the time you've got to put that work into the kiln, and it's got to get hot, and it's got to get warm and it's got to, the heat has got to be as intense as it needs to be, depending on the type of pottery that you're going for, depending on the type of glaze that you're going for. It needs to be a certain amount of heat and that heat has an effect on that clay. No matter what kind of clay it is, it's going to harden that clay. And now, if you put a big lump of wax in that same heat, sit it right next to the clay. The wax will melt, but the clay will get hotter, will get harder, but it's the same type of heat.

Speaker 1: 15:06

It's the same Holy Ghost interacting with different people. It's the same Holy Ghost, it's the same Jesus, it's the same Father, it's the same gospel, it's the same cross, it's the same blood, it's the same church. It's the same word of God being preached. And you have all these different responses. And why is that? Because we all have every single human being, every single male, woman and child walking around. Everybody's got a capacity to believe, everybody has the ability to believe and everybody does believe.

Speaker 1: 15:48

And what matters is the direction of that belief. What matters, if you will, is the direction of the faith. Is the faith going to be as the Holy Ghost is preached, as the blood is preached, as Jesus is preached, as the Lord is interacting with people just as he says he does? There's something about the foolishness of preaching. And then you can go up to the book of Romans and find that God moves through this thing called the foolishness of preaching.

Speaker 1: 16:22

And as that is going on, even before you know, because, excuse me, even before, if you're the type of preacher, you give an invitation at the end. If you're like me you give 10 or 12 invitations in the same message. But even before you give an invitation, even before you finish a sentence, belief is being exercised. The belief is either toward Jesus or the belief is away from Jesus, in something else and someone else, in you know whatever. So people are either believing in Jesus, believing on Jesus, believing upon Jesus, believing unto Jesus, or they're believing to themselves, or they're believing to some philosophy, or they're believing to some worldview, or they're believing to you know, just something else. And there's a lot of something else out there, but there's only one Jesus, amen. But at any point, at any given point, whether you're preaching for 10 minutes, whether you're preaching for 20 minutes, whether you're preaching for 45 minutes, whether you're preaching for 50 minutes, whether you're going for an hour and a half, two hours, three hours at any given point in that message, people are either believing Jesus or people are believing something else.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Now we know that the only way to be saved, the only way to be born again, the only way to the Father, the only way to be forgiven, the only way to receive the Holy Ghost, the only way to receive Holy, eternal life is to believe on Jesus. And you're going to have people who do and glory hallelujah. Heaven rejoices with you, every angel in glory rejoices with you. The Father dances with you. The Father kind of gets down off his throne. The Father dances and there is a rejoicing and there is a singing and there is a celebration in glory when one sinner repents and believes the gospel only one. And you're going to have that happen. You're also going to have people mock and people scorn and people dismiss. You're going to have people lie. You're going to have people manipulate. You're going to have people, you know, you know, come against. But amen, in hallelujah, you're in good company. You want you to be encouraged today. You know they treated Jesus one way. You know how do you think they're going to treat his disciples? How do you think they're going to treat the church? They treated Paul, they treated Peter.

Speaker 1: 19:19

You go down through the line in the New Testament and you see this same phenomenon happening. You see some people believing and you see some people attacking. You see some people believing and you see some people mocking. You see some people believing and you see some people dismissing. But you see this going on all the time and so people are going and it's the direction of the faith, it's the direction of the belief, it's the condition of that individual heart. Is that heart soft? Is that heart a heart that is under conviction? Is that heart a heart that is penitent? Is that heart sin-weary? Is that heart a heart of belief in Jesus? Is that a heart of belief toward Jesus, or is that heart going to go towards something else or somebody else? But the point is, you know, it's the same message, it's the same blood, it's the same father, it's the same son, it's the same Holy Ghost. But my, my, my, there are a lot of different responses out there. And so be encouraged today.

Speaker 1: 20:29

You know, and you know if you're listening to this, and you know hallelujah, you know you've heard the gospel, you know in this, and God is using this to show you that, hey, you're lost, hey, you're dying, you're hellbound, you're a sinner, and that his wrath is hanging up over your head.

Speaker 1: 20:50

And you believe him, not anybody else, not belief in yourself, not belief in some philosophy, not belief in some morality, not belief in whatever the case may be, but you believe Jesus. And my friend, I've got to tell you the good news he died for your sin, he became your sin, he took all of the wrath of God in your place and he has risen again and that eternal life is held up to you today. And are you going to believe him? And if you believe him, well, hallelujah and glory and amen. Let that belief come up out of your mouth and call upon the name of the Lord and ask him to come in and be your savior. Ask him to come in and forgive you, ask him to be born again, ask him to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen and hallelujah, but blessed be the name of the Lord.

Speaker 1: 21:51

We want to hear from you whether you're a Christian listening to this, you're a pastor, you're a missionary, you're another evangelist, you're listening to this. No matter what the case may be, we want to hear from you, let us know how we can be praying, let us know how we can be a ministry to you and reach out to us at redeemingthelostaticloudcom, and please do thank you for sharing these, thank you for helping to send these around the world. It's a huge blessing just to see y'all listening out there, and a huge blessing to hear from you as well, and so may the Lord continue to richly, richly bless you, and I thank you again for being a part of the program amen.

Speaker 2: 22:43

But now there's no more blood to be shed just to sacrifice the praise, lift it to the ones who gave his life for my dead to be paid. No more beast to slay. The Lamb of God died once for all, and to sacrifice will forever be enough.