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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
May 29
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Today's Pathway:
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We finished yesterday with the first half of verse 21. The world thinks that it is wise, but it has completely missed the very obvious reality of Who God is. They view the Bible believer as being foolish. They think that going to church and listening to the preaching of the Gospel is a waste of time. An older gentleman in our church who has led a difficult life which included several stints in the state penitentiaries talked to me about this. When he was younger he hung around with the wrong crowd and got involved in alcohol, drugs, and crime. He got saved, and decided that it was time to "get off the street corner" and get into church and start living for the Lord. Then he told me this:
"Those other guys are still on the corner. They're still drinking and getting high and making a mess out of their lives. But if I went to them and invited them to the church, do you think they would come? They won't come, because they think church is a waste of time."
So, the "wise" people that Paul is speaking of are not necessarily people of prominence. They're just people who think that they can handle things themselves and thus they don't need God.
However, if someone is willing to listen to the "foolishness of preaching", and then believe it and receive it, it will save his soul. It is not through philosophy or human wisdom that redemption comes, but simply through faith. God saves only those who believe. Men cannot “figure out” salvation; they can only accept it in faith. It is truly amazing what some people will believe, but then they won't believe the Scriptures. They will believe what the news media tells them, or what some professor tells them, or what a doctor tells them, or, in some instances, what the kid down the street tells them, but they won't believe God. This is true foolishness indeed. In verse 22 Paul mentions two things that the unsaved world trusts in. The Jews required a sign. The idea was something like this, "If you want me to believe something supernatural, then you have to show me something supernatural." Of course, Jesus did hundreds of miraculous things during his three year ministry, and they still didn't want to believe. Christ dealt with this in Matthew 16. The religious leaders asked him for a "sign from Heaven". His response was,
"A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." (Matthew 16:4).
The "sign of Jonas" was the resurrection of Christ on the third day, but they rejected that sign as well (Matthew 28:11-15). The Gentiles, according to verse 22, "seek after wisdom". Paul encountered this on Mars Hill in Athens. Acts 17:18-21 states,
"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)"
It is interesting to note that Paul preached to them, but as soon as he mentioned the resurrection, "some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.", and the meeting was over (Acts 17:32-33).
The bottom line is this: people are either going to choose to believe God or choose to reject Him. It doesn't matter what evidence is presented to them, nor how persuasive the argument may be. All the Christian can do is tell them what the Bible says, and they will have to decide whether they will believe it or not.
Have you believed?
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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