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Please turn with me in your Bibles 
to Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, we're continuing 
on the first missionary journey, which is recorded in Acts 13 
and 14 of the Apostle Paul in Barnabas. The date is about AD 
47 and 48. And we see from a survey of these 
particular places visited, they covered about 1400 miles. Cyprus, 
the churches in Southern Galatia, which included Pisidian Antioch, 
Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. And then they go back to Antioch 
in Syria, to report back to the church. So our focus this morning 
is verses 8 to 18, the ministry in Lystra, the ministry in Lystra. So I'll begin reading in Acts 
14 at verse 8. And in Lystra, a certain man 
without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his 
mother's womb who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. 
Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith 
to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand up straight on your 
feet. And he leaped and walked. Now, 
when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, 
saying in the Lycanian language, The gods have come down to us 
in the likeness of men. And Barnabas they called Zeus, 
and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest 
of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought 
oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the 
multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas 
and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among 
the multitude, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing 
these things? We are also men with the same 
nature as you. and preach to you that you should 
turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the 
heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, 
who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their 
own ways. Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without witness 
in that he did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful 
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these 
sayings, they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from 
sacrificing to them. Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium 
came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul 
and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, 
when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into 
the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. 
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made 
many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 
strengthening the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue 
in the faith and saying, we must, through many tribulations, enter 
the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders 
in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them 
to the Lord in whom they had believed. And after they had 
passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. Now, when 
they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Adelaide. 
From there, they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended 
to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now, 
when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported 
all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door 
of faith to the Gentiles. So they stayed there a long time 
with the disciples. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this book 
of Acts and the great things that it shows us concerning the 
church. We see disciples made. We see disciples come together 
in local churches. We see the preaching of the gospel 
as the means that you use. And God, this encourages and 
strengthens our heart, and we pray that we would see likewise 
in our own generation, that as Your Word goes forth, many, many 
people would come out of darkness into marvelous light, confessing 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that by Your grace and for 
Your glory. We know that You have purpose 
to save a great multitude that no man can number, from every 
tribe and tongue and people and nation, and we pray that as Your 
Word goes forth today, You would let the nations be glad. And 
in this place, Lord God, we pray that you would have dealings 
with those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. We pray, 
Father, that your Holy Spirit would make them alive and would 
show them the glory of Jesus Christ as the one in whom alone 
there is forgiveness and righteousness that avails with God Almighty. 
Forgive us all for our sins. We are called to let our conduct 
be worthy of the gospel And to our shame, we confess it's not 
always the case. We do thank you for justification 
by faith alone, but we as well, God, confess our sins and ask 
that you would forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
We thank you for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
We thank you for the grace that you have exhibited to us in that 
gospel and in the salvation of our souls. And Lord, encourage 
and strengthen us now, we pray, in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Well, as I said, we're working 
our way through this first missionary journey, and we are in Lystra. And it's a very instructive portion 
of Scripture, not only in terms of the preaching of the gospel, 
but as well there's some theology proper, or the doctrine of God, 
or something that we should understand concerning God specifically that 
we'll look at as we move in the exposition. But I want to look 
first at the miraculous healing of the lame man in verses 8 to 
10. Secondly, the attempted worship 
of the apostles in verses 11 to 13. And then finally, the 
glorious proclamation of the living God in verses 14 to 18, 
where Paul sets forth to these people who the true and living 
God is. But in the first place, let's 
look at this healing. We notice the description of 
the man in verse 8. He is, in fact, helpless. He's 
in an incurable position. He has a congenital disease. 
He has never walked. In fact, Luke is very conspicuous. And in Lystra, a certain man 
without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his 
mother's womb who had never walked. Alexander says, congenital infirmities 
of this kind being commonly regarded as incurable, the man's condition 
seemed to be a helpless one. It certainly is. He had never 
before walked, and here we see him hearing the Apostle Paul 
and his preaching. Now this is very similar to Acts 
chapter 3 verses 1 to 10, when Peter healed, or was the agency 
by which God healed a crippled man. Also in the life and ministry 
of our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 5. Christ has the power 
directly to heal these cripple or lame men. Here we see that 
Paul and Barnabas are the agents. It's God who saves, it's God 
who heals, and it's God who works in this particular lame man. 
And then as we move to the healing, notice that the man heard Paul. 
According to verse 7, they were preaching the gospel there. So 
this man heard Paul preach the truth as it is in Jesus. He heard 
Paul preach about the life of Jesus Christ and the obedience 
of Christ to his father. He heard Paul preach concerning 
the death of Jesus. Why did Jesus die? It wasn't 
because he was a criminal. It wasn't because he was a violator 
of the law, but rather he was our substitute. He was our representative. He went to the cross as the Lamb 
of God who takes away the sin of the world. So this lame man 
is hearing Paul preach these things, but not only life and 
death of Jesus, but the resurrection, the reality that God raised up 
his son on the third day, that no longer would he, or would 
he never undergo corruption, that he was exalted to the right 
hand of the Father, and he ever lives to make intercession for 
his people. So the man heard Paul speaking, 
and then Paul observed him. And notice what the text says 
in verse 9. It says, Paul observing him intently 
and seeing that he had faith to be healed. Now that's an interesting 
statement. I don't know that it said, you 
know, faith on the top of the man's forehead. Most likely this 
was prompting by the Spirit of God so that Paul would in fact 
know that this was a man that God was going to deal graciously 
with. But remember, it's the gospel, it's the word of salvation, 
it's the preaching of the cross that the man heard, and as a 
blessed byproduct or corollary, this man is receiving his health. He's receiving strength in his 
legs. that particular incident in the 
gospel records when those men sort of open up the roof and 
they lower that paralytic down where Jesus is preaching. And 
Jesus looks upon the man and he says, son, your sins are forgiven. Well, all the people there are 
curious and perplexed and puzzled by this. And they are thinking 
to themselves, who but God alone can forgive sin? Well, Jesus 
knows precisely what they're thinking. And so he asks them, 
Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, your sins are 
forgiven, or take up your mat and walk? Well, it's easier to 
say, your sins are forgiven, because we don't know if that's 
the case. Then Jesus goes on to tell the man to take up his 
mat and walk. That furnished the proof or evidence 
that the greater miracle actually occurred, that Christ forgave 
the man of his sins. The fact that he got up and walked 
was certainly evidence of that blessed reality that the Son 
of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin. We often look 
at the healing, the physical healing, as far outshining the 
spiritual healing. Brethren, it's better to go to 
heaven as a lame man than to go to hell as a whole man. It 
is better to enter into the kingdom of God hobbling and limping and 
crawling than running into the kingdom of Satan with everything 
intact. The greater miracle is not that 
this man walked, but that he ultimately walked into heaven's 
gate. That he was forgiven of sin based 
on the reality that Christ lived. Christ died. Christ was raised 
the third day. And that beautiful summary statement 
of Paul's in Romans 4. He was delivered up because of 
our offenses, and he was raised for our justification. That's 
what this man experienced on that day. The fact that he gets 
up, the fact that he walks is a blessed corollary, but the 
sum and substance of Paul's dealing with him is that he's forgiven 
of his sins. Paul saw him. He saw that he 
had faith to be healed. Paul then spoke to him. And then 
notice in verse 10, he said with a loud voice, stand up straight 
on your feet. And he leaped and walked. Now, 
I thought about this. This is an amazing thing for 
a whole host of reasons, not least of which when we start 
to learn how to walk, we don't immediately leap up and walk. 
He had been given this strength by God through the agency of 
the Apostle Paul, and now he is walking and leaping and praising 
God Almighty. Bruce says that this lame man 
had faith, was made plain by his ready obedience to Paul's 
command to stand up. He jumped to his feet, found 
that they supported his weight, and began to walk for the first 
time in his life. It's a beautiful description. 
It's a glorious thing. And we see the power of God. 
Not the power of Paul, but rather the power of God to heal people 
from their infirmities. And even more, spiritual infirmities 
that we are all sick with, we are all affected by. We may be 
healthy, we may be strong, we may be vital in our physicality, 
but spiritually, if we are not in Christ, we are dead in our 
trespasses and sins. And the only way we'll rise up, 
the only way we'll leap up, the only way we'll walk spiritually 
is if God the Lord pronounces that blessing upon us that we 
live by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice 
the response in Lystra to this miracle. We see the attempted 
worship of the apostles in verses 11 to 13. Notice they ascribe 
deity to Paul and Barnabas. As far as they're concerned, 
the gods have come down in human likeness. And this isn't the 
only place where this ever occurred in pagan history. The commentators 
speak concerning this particular incident that it's one among 
many. The pagan concept was that at times, gods would come down 
in human likeness, and as a result, these persons put their money 
where their mouths are. Notice their response. Verse 
11, now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their 
voices, saying in the Lycanian language, That's an important 
piece of information because it seems it took a moment or 
at least a bit of time for Paul and Barnabas to try and tell 
them not to worship. It's probably because they didn't 
understand the Lycanian language. They didn't understand what they 
were saying. They didn't realize that they were ascribing deity 
to them until the garlands and the oxen were brought out in 
order to worship and sacrifice. Then they're all too aware of 
it and they repudiate the very suggestion that they would be 
worshipped, worshipped that is for the true and living God alone. So in this instance, they inscribed 
deity to these particular men. And then notice the identification. 
Verse 12, Barnabas they called Zeus. That's the Greek version. 
The Roman version would be Jupiter. I think the old King James has 
the Roman version. And then Hermes would be Mercury. 
And as far as Zeus is concerned or Jupiter, he was the king of 
the great gods. And then Hermes or Mercury was 
the messenger of the gods. You could see why they would 
ascribe to Paul being Hermes or the messenger because he's 
the speaker. Now, we don't know why they would 
have addressed Barnabas as Jupiter or Zeus. Some suggest that it 
was because he was older or perhaps a bit more handsome. We don't 
know why the reason is, but with reference to Paul, we get it. 
They thought he was the messenger of the gods and they ascribe 
that deity to them. And then notice, and I think 
this is instructive. We can learn something this morning. 
from pagans. As I said, they put their money 
where their mouth is. They believed the gods had come 
down in human likeness, and as a result, they immediately mobilize 
in order to sacrifice. As a result, they immediately 
engage in adoration, and in praise, and in worship. We have the second 
person of the true and living God who has come down, not only 
in the likeness of man, but assuming our humanity with all the essential 
properties and the common infirmities thereof, and yet without sin. 
And yet sacrifice, worship, praise, adoration, are we as quick to 
engage in it as these pagans are when they think Jupiter and 
Mercury are upon them. We learn something here. There 
is a consistent conduct that goes with our profession of faith. 
If we profess faith in the true and living God, it ought to be 
reflected not only in our individual lives each and every day, vis-a-vis 
let our conduct be worthy of the gospel, but in our worship 
of the true and living God. When we sing, when we praise, 
when we adore, when we sacrifice. If we are misers, if we are cheapskates, 
if we are those that have no regard whatsoever for the grace 
and mercy of God, not that we're paying for it, not that we're 
trying to buy it, not that we're bartering for it, but as a response 
of gratitude for what God in Christ has done to us, we're 
no better than these, or actually we're a lot worse than these 
pagans. These pagans are operating consistently with their understanding 
that Zeus and Hermes had come down in the likeness of men, 
and they respond in kind by engaging in worship to them. And notice 
specifically what we see. Verse 13, then the priest of 
Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and 
garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. So we see the pagans in Lystra 
believe that Paul and Barnabas were divine, that they had deity, 
or they were deity, and as a result they engage in adoration, worship, 
and in sacrifice. And that brings us, thirdly, 
to the glorious proclamation of the living God. How does Paul 
and Barnabas respond? In the first place, they reject 
it. They reject this worship the way that Peter does. In fact, 
go back for just a moment to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10, whenever a creature 
tries to worship another creature, and that creature who is the 
target of the alleged worship is conscious of life and reality 
and who God is, they reject it. And if you notice specifically 
in Acts 10 at verses 25 and 26, as Peter was coming in, Cornelius 
met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter 
lifted him up saying, stand up, I myself am also a man. You see that in the book of Revelation. 
In chapter 19, John wants to bow to the angel. And the angel 
says, don't do that. I'm creature. I am not the object 
of worship. I am not the one that is worthy 
of worship. And we see that consistency in 
the New Testament passages. We see, however, in the gospel 
narratives, when persons come to worship Jesus, he doesn't 
rebuff them. He doesn't stop them. He doesn't 
reject them. When Thomas makes that lofty 
confession of faith in John 20, 28, my Lord and my God, Jesus 
doesn't say, oh no, you don't know what you're talking about. 
Don't say such things. No, he receives that. When persons 
bow down to Jesus, he receives that. It would be wrong for Jesus 
to reject it because he is a worthy object of adoration and praise 
and worship. And so we see the difference. 
The creature refuses, but rather God receives the worship that 
is due to His name. Now notice what the apostles 
do. They tear their clothes. They 
understand what's happening. This is repulsive to them, and 
this is a response consistent with persons who see something 
that they conclude is blasphemy. Remember, Jesus before the high 
priest. The high priest thought that 
Jesus was engaged in blasphemy, so he tears his garments. Well, 
Paul and Barnabas do the same thing. That's consistent. That 
is a repudiation of this act of worship on the part of these 
Lystrans. So when the apostles Barnabas 
and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among 
the multitude, crying out and saying, men, why are you doing 
these things? That's a good question. Why are 
you doing these things? I want us to understand something 
here, both in Acts 14 and then in Acts 17. If our brother Steve 
would have continued to read, God willing, we'll not all die 
in a horrible car crash this week, and we'll gather together 
to sing another day next Lord's Day and read another day. Well, 
we're gonna read Paul at Athens. Paul at Athens and Paul in Lystra 
is addressing pagans. He is addressing non-Jews, non-Gentile 
God-fearers. His preaching isn't different 
in the sense it's another genus, but his preaching is different 
in the sense that he informs these pagans concerning things 
true of the living God. where when he went to the synagogues 
and there were Jews, when he went to the synagogues and there 
were Gentile God-fearers in those synagogues, the persons in those 
synagogues knew that the God of Israel had created the heavens. 
He had created the earth. He had created the seas. He was 
the universal sovereign over all men. Well, in Lystra, they 
didn't understand this. They thought that Jupiter and 
Mercury had come down now in the likeness of men. Jupiter 
was the king of the great gods. There were a multiplicity of 
these gods. So Paul and Barnabas take pains 
to show these people not only that they're wrong, but to call 
them to repentance so that they may come to the true and living 
God and have everlasting life. I think F.F. Bruce summarizes 
it well. He says, the summary which Luke 
proceeds to give of their expostulation, big words, kids, for preaching. That's all he means. Expostulation 
means they're preaching. Provides us with one of the two 
examples and acts of the preaching of the gospel to purely pagan 
audiences. To people who, unlike the Gentiles 
who attended synagogue worship, had no acquaintance with the 
God of Israel or with the Hebrew prophets. The other and fuller 
example is the speech delivered by Paul to the Athenian court 
of the Areopagus. So Paul in Athens stands up before 
those Epicurean and Stoic philosophers and he preaches God to them. And so it's not out of the ordinary 
when he's dealing with these pagans to highlight and emphasize 
things that Jews and Gentile God-fearers would have already 
assumed, the reality that God created, the reality that God 
is sovereign in the government and affairs of men. And yet when 
we come to Lystra and we come to Athens, Paul makes those things 
clear so that pagans understand The gods that they subscribe 
to are bankrupt. The gods that they hold to are 
fake. The gods that they say they worship 
aren't real. There's one true and living God, 
and Paul is going to preach Him to these people. Now notice, 
in terms of the proclamation of the truth, I want to spend 
the rest of our time here. And I want to look at, first 
of all, the non-divinity of the apostles. the non-divinity of 
the apostles. Notice what he says to distinguish 
him, Paul, Barnabas, from God. He says, we also are men with 
the same nature as you. We also are men of the same nature 
as you. Now, this word in the famous 
dictionary concerning Greek language means pertaining to experiencing 
similarity in feelings or circumstances. That's a good definition. Others 
gloss it this way. Barrett says, same experiences 
and the same feelings. The best definition of the word 
that Paul uses is in the old King James Bible. We are men 
of like passions. We are the same as you. We are not deity, we are not 
divine, because if we were, that would just conflate and bring 
chaos. If deity looks like us, then 
that's a bad thing. So he is distinguishing the true 
and living God from the creature that God made. And the way that 
he does that is by highlighting that we, Paul Barnabas, you people 
of Lystra, we're men of like passions. We have the same nature. We're frail. We are sinful. We 
are prone to do those things which are vile and offensive. 
In fact, listen to John Gill. He says, men, not gods of the 
same human nature and that as created, alike sinful men and 
need a sacrifice better than those. Not only do we not want 
you to sacrifice that to us, but we all need a sacrifice far 
more excellent than oxen, and we have it in the Christian gospel. 
He goes on to say, frail mortal men, subject to frailty, imperfection, 
afflictions, troubles, diseases, and death itself, and so very 
improper objects of worship. In other words, what we worship 
must be worthy of worship. And their attempt to worship 
Paul and Barnabas was a betrayal of that fundamental point. This 
is the problem with all idolatry. When you worship sex, or when 
you worship drugs, or when you worship rock and roll, or when 
you worship job security, or when you worship educational 
sort of institutions, or when you worship political parties, 
you are corrupt in your thinking. They are not worthy of worship. 
They are not worthy of adoration, they are not worthy of praise, 
but God alone is. The only other place this particular 
word is used in the New Testament is at James 5, 17, to highlight 
that Elijah was a man of like passions. He was a man with a 
nature like ours. Now, as we move through this 
sermon, I want to spend a moment on this statement that we are 
men of like passions. If in the first place, it indicates 
that Paul and Barnabas are not God, it indicates secondly that 
God, now brace yourselves, is not like us. Okay? We need to develop that 
because it's too rampant where we see God as like us. We are created in the image of 
God, and ever since we have been trying to cast Him into our image. He is not of like passions. In the Westminster Confession 
of Faith, in Chapter 2, Paragraph 1, when it says that God is without 
passions, a proof text is found here in Acts 14-15. Our Second London Confession 
of 1677-1689 has the same phrase, without passions. Why it doesn't include Acts 14, 
15 is not at my pay grade. Historical theologians could 
get into that better than I can. But the doctrine of what we call 
divine impassibility is supported by this passage. Now I want to 
lead everybody slowly through this because I think it's very 
important. Because if we deny this about God, then we're trying 
to make God like us. And if we try to make God like 
us, we will always end in ruin. That is never a good procedure. So, that God is not like us is 
signified by this doctrine of impassibility. Now, before we 
actually define the word impassibility, what are passions? Go home today, 
actually don't do it today, do it tomorrow, take a hammer, put 
your thumb on the table and hit it. The result is a passion, 
okay? Or if you're me, drive home after 
service today and have somebody go 40 and a 50. What response 
comes from me is a passion, okay? Passion is any powerful or compelling 
emotion or feeling as love or hate. Another definition is the 
state of being acted upon or affected by something external, 
especially something alien to one's nature or one's customary 
behavior. So the argument is simply this. God is without passions because 
passions implies a movement. It implies a change. I go from 
the place of no pain, I hit my thumb with a hammer, I go to 
the place of pain, and the consistent response to that pain. The problem 
with saying God has passions or affections or emotions does 
disservice to what we call the unchangeableness of God. God 
doesn't change. The Scriptures are clear. We 
all affirm the doctrine of divine immutability. That means God 
doesn't change. We need to equally affirm the 
doctrine of divine impassibility. Because the reality is, is that 
if God doesn't or cannot change, He doesn't change. He doesn't 
move from one state to another. That is something consistent 
with creature, but not with creator. God is supreme. God is infinite, 
eternal. and unchangeable in his being, 
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. There is 
no variation. There is no shadow of turning. 
There is no movement from one state to another with reference 
to God. So in terms of divine impassibility, 
the word means, or impassibility means, God does not experience 
inner emotional changes, whether enacted freely from within or 
affected by His relationship to and interaction with human 
beings and the created order. In other words, he doesn't move 
from one state to another. I'm going to show how wonderfully 
practical and how gloriously encouraging this doctrine is. Some have understood it as to 
regard God as static, inert. Non-feeling, if I can use that 
language. Listen to our confession, again 
in chapter 2, paragraph 1. It says that God is most holy, 
most wise, most free, most absolute, most loving, gracious, merciful, 
long-suffering. The most is there because of 
the doctrine of divine impassibility. See, the Confession rightly interprets 
God from Scripture. He doesn't move from one state 
to another. Now you say, well, the Bible 
is filled with language of God repenting or God relenting. I 
know that language is in there, and it's an accommodation to 
us as creatures. The Bible tells us God is spirit, 
but the Bible says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout 
the earth. Well, we understand that to be 
an anthropomorphism. When we say there's something 
human about God, it's to help us to understand. The scripture 
talks about the mighty right arm of God. Well, does a spirit 
being have a mighty right arm? Well, no, but it tells us something 
concerning his power. When the Bible tells us that 
God repented or God relented, it's an anthropopathism. It's 
taking something true of humans and using the analogy and saying 
something of God. It's not that the analogy is 
false, but we need to understand that if we posit or we suggest 
there is actual change in God, then we're gonna have big problems 
with many other passages of scripture that tell us there is no change. 
So the doctrine of divine impassibility does not teach that God is static, 
inert, or unrelated to his creature. The doctrine of divine impassibility 
highlights the distinction between God as creator and man as creature. What's Paul and Barnabas saying? 
We're men of like passions. God isn't. There's a distinction 
between the creator and the creature. Paul will say as much in just 
a moment to these pagans to tell them that God is creator. But 
it's very common in Christianity, it's very common among us to 
think that God is just a better version of man. That we have 
worm, and then we have cat, and then we have dog, and then we 
have human, and then we have angel, and then we have God. 
It's to see God as man writ large. But that's not what Scripture 
says. God is in another category. God is in another genus. God 
is in another classification altogether. God's not like us. Yes, we've been made in his image, 
but that doesn't mean that everything true of us is true of God. And 
we need to understand that. Listen to Herman Boving. He says, 
God is the real, true being, the fullness of being, the sum 
total of all reality and perfection, the totality of being from which 
all other being owes its existence. He is an immeasurable and unbounded 
ocean of being, the absolute being who alone has being in 
himself. You can't say that about us. 
There is a grave distinction between creature, what everything 
not God is, and God. God is unique. And that's what 
Paul is telling these people in Lystra. We're men of like 
passions. The true and living God isn't 
a God of like passions. In fact, he is impassable. He 
is immutable. Not because he's static, not 
because he's inert, not because he's unrelated to his creature, 
but because he is as good as he can be. He's most loving. Christian, do you understand 
what that means? That means that when you sin 
against Him, He doesn't turn His back on you. It means that 
when you mess up, as you surely will this week, the doctrine 
of justification by faith alone doesn't change. God is just and 
the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. He can't 
grow in his love because that would indicate that he wasn't 
as loving as he could have been. He can't decrease in his love 
because if he is perfection, a decrease would take perfection 
away from him. In fact, listen to Stephen Charnock 
at this point. He says, if God does change, 
If he does, let's grant the supposition, if God does change, it must be 
either to a greater perfection than he had before or to a less. If he's a perfect being and he 
changes, he's either getting better at something or he's getting 
worse at something. I think this is easy to follow. 
If you give me a little nod, I'll know you're all with me. 
Because sometimes people say, well, you can't talk about divine 
impassibility in a sermon. I mean, those rubes won't understand. 
Brethren, the law of the Lord makes wise the simple. It's a 
beautiful thing. We ought not to be afraid of 
theology. We ought not to be afraid of 
theological words. We ought to do our best in the 
spirit of the psalmist who said, great are the works of Yahweh. 
They are studied by all who delight in them. What better object is 
there than God? Why wouldn't we take the moment 
to wrap our heads around a concept that distinguishes God from us 
and promotes in us humility, which we desperately need, and 
promotes in us an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness? I 
will to my dying day reject the idea that the people of God, 
they don't need those highfalutin concepts. Oh, yes, we do. If we do not understand God as 
the Bible sets him forth, tomorrow's going to be miserable for you. 
If God is filled with passions and God can change, how is that 
on Thursday when you've done something horrible and you need 
to go back to God and confess your sins? You want 1 John 1, 
9 to be true. If we confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness. Listen to John's language. He 
doesn't say he's loving, though he is, but he's faithful and 
just. He's faithful to his own self 
in terms of his promise of forgiveness to returning sinners, and he's 
also just. He is the justifier and the one 
the one who justifies, the justifier, I missed the language here, Romans 
chapter three, Cam shouted out, just and the justifier of the 
one who has faith in Jesus. If he's not feeling up to it 
on Thursday, if he's had a bad Wednesday, do you see what happens 
when we predicate? That means say something about 
God that's true of us. Do you want that God? Do you 
want the God who hits his thumb with a hammer and then flips 
out? Do you want the God who can't drive home without losing 
it to some small degree because people drive too slow? Do you 
want a God riddled with passions or do you want most loving? It's divine impassibility that 
secures for us the reality that he's most loving. Divine impassibility 
necessarily follows from divine immutability. We went through 
this debate in an association some years ago, and when the 
psalmist says, it makes wise the simple, I don't ever think, 
oh boy, David, you elitist pig. I think, praise God, because 
I'm simple, and I need the law of God to make me wise. It just 
seems to me that if we posit a God who can't change, then 
we must have a God who doesn't change. We have a God who says, 
I, the Lord, do not change, and yet we have a defective approach 
to impassibility where God moves from one state to another. God 
is like a child. God is like a creature. God is 
like us. No, he's not. And this is precisely 
Paul's point. We are men of like passions. 
The doctrine of divine impassibility necessarily follows from the 
doctrine of immutability. Consider Numbers 23.19. God is 
not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should 
repent. Consider 1 Samuel 15.29. And also, I love this description of God. 
The strength of Israel will not lie nor relent, for he is not 
a man that he should relent. Malachi 3.6, for I am the Lord, 
I do not change. Now notice the implication. Therefore 
you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. If I changed and you 
did what you did, you'd be done. It'd be over. We didn't validate 
this covenant completely. We would eradicate it wholly. 
But because God doesn't change, therefore the sons of Jacob are 
not consumed. See, that's a practical blessed 
implication of our doctrine of, or our knowledge of, who God 
is. Consider this statement in James 
1, 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and 
comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no 
variation or shadow of turning. Again, for those who would suggest, 
well, that means God's just a rock. No, God can't get better at being 
God. and God can't get worse at being 
God. Thank you, doctrine of divine 
impassibility. Listen to Thomas Manton on that 
statement in James 1.17. He says, God doth not change. There is no wrinkle upon the 
brow of eternity. The arm of mercy is not dried 
up, nor do his bowels of love waste and spend themselves. Let 
me read that again. But God doth not change. There 
is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. The arm of mercy is 
not dried up, nor do his bowels of love waste and spend themselves." 
He's not like us, and you can praise him because he's not like 
us. He's not creature, he is creator. Now notice what Paul goes on 
to say. Paul highlights the necessity 
of repentance at this point. Notice in verse 15, Notice how 
Paul treats Zeus and Hermes. Imagine attacking the idols of 
our day as useless things. Well, you can't say that. That 
means everything to that person. But it's a useless thing. It's 
a vain thing. It's an empty thing. The worship 
of Zeus and Hermes, call them Jupiter and Mercury, whatever 
it is, these are useless things. So understand, for the apostle 
Paul, he doesn't want to just inform them theologically and 
teach them the doctrine of impassibility, which he is doing. but he wants 
them to repent of their sin. He wants them to forsake their 
wickedness. He wants them to lay down the 
resistance and go to this God through the Lord Jesus Christ 
and find the mercy secured in the gospel. So the apostle says, 
turn from these useless things to the living God. And this description 
of living God comes often in the Old Testament, especially 
when contrasting God with dead idols. It's perfectly appropriate 
that the apostle, skilled in understanding of Old Testament 
language, would use that description of the living God in contrast 
to these worthless things. See, the things that are creature, 
the things that have like passions, are worthless things in the arena 
of worship. But the God who is living, the 
God who is impassable, the God who is creator, the God who is 
governor, the God who is revealer, that God is worthy to be worshipped 
and glorified. And that's precisely where Paul 
turns his attention to now. He deals with the works of God. 
Sometimes persons say, well, if God is impassable the way 
that you suggest, how does he relate to his creation? Just 
like it says here. It's not an obstacle, as when 
Andy says, to try and be overcome. The transcendent God is as well 
imminent. The transcendent God is as well 
omnipresent. The transcendent God does, in 
fact, interact with his creatures, such that when we pray, the Lord 
delights in the prayers of the upright. The effective, fervent 
prayer of a righteous man avails much. There's no obstacle in 
Scripture that has to be overcome if we consider the Godhood of 
God. God Almighty relates to His creatures the way that Paul 
specifies in the passage before us. Notice, one of the works 
of God, He is the Creator. Verse 15 again, "...who made 
the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them." 
Again, assumed in a Jewish synagogue because they had Genesis. But 
with reference to pagans, pagans typically have a multiplicity 
of gods for different situations. You have in the Old Testament, 
for instance, you had Baal. Baal was the storm god. which 
meant Baal brought rain, and he brought fertilization to the 
ground. You had Asherah, you had Moloch, you had Dagon, you 
had all these different gods. In fact, Israel bests the enemies 
of the Lord out in battle, and they say, well, their god, the 
enemy said, well, their god is the god of the hills. If we take them out to the valley, 
well then, of course, we'll best them. Guess what they learned? 
They learned that our God's not only the God of the hills, but 
they also learned that our God is the God of the valleys. See, 
pagan thought had a God for each area of life. Maybe not each 
area, but you get my point. These pagans needed to understand. 
The God who is not like us is the God who made the world. He 
is the God who created all things, seen and unseen. But he doesn't 
stop there. He talks about God being sovereign 
over the nations. Notice in verse 16, who in bygone 
generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Matthew 
Poole helpfully underscores that this counteracts the argument 
from antiquity and multiplicity. Let me just explain what I mean 
by that. If they would have said, but so many people in so many 
ages and so many walks of life never followed this true or living 
God. That was by God's design. God selected the family of Abraham. God selected Israel. That was 
his covenant people in the Old Testament. God preserved them. God kept them together because 
it was from them that Messiah would come. When Messiah comes, 
this gospel is preached to all the nations. This gospel goes 
out everywhere. In Acts 17, we refer to it, or 
God rather, Paul rather, refers to it as these times of ignorance. 
It's the same understanding here in verse 16, who in bygone generations 
allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. So if you see 
a large portion in the history of the world marching hellbound, 
Paul says it's because it was by design. But praise God in 
this new covenant setting, the gospel goes to Lystra, the gospel 
goes to Iconium, the gospel goes to Pisidian Antioch, the gospel 
goes to Cyprus, the gospel goes to Chilliwack, the gospel goes 
to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Again, it was always 
purposed to do that in the Old Testament, but in the Old Testament, 
God pretty much focused upon the people of Israel. So this 
was by design under God, and that indicates that He is sovereign. 
In his government of the nations, he is sovereign. He's over all. 
It's not like you people in Lystra, you're under Zeus and you're 
under Hermes. Or you people of Iconium, yeah, you have your 
own localized deities and that's okay. That's not what Paul's 
saying. Paul's saying this God made everything. This God governs 
everything. But he says as well, this God 
is not without witness. There is a place and a function 
of what we call natural theology or natural revelation. Sometimes 
we refer to it as general revelation, God revealing himself in the 
created order, and Paul points to that here. In other words, 
there is enough known about God through creation to leave all 
men without excuse on that day of judgment. which indicates 
that men may say there's no God, but according to the apostle 
Paul, especially in Romans 1, 19 and 20, which is very parallel 
to this particular section in Acts 14, man does know. Man knows 
God exists because God made man that way. He's hardwired. You know, when you go down to 
Best Buy or pretty much nowadays you order them online and you 
get a computer and you open it up, there's an operating system 
there. Right? It already has some stuff 
hardwired into it. Consider the creation of Adam 
and Eve. There wasn't a stage of grunting 
and knuckle-dragging and then standing upright. God made Adam 
with the ability to communicate, to hear commands, to hear prohibitions. He made Adam in his image, and 
that means that Adam was able to look around him and be led 
unto God. Now at the introduction of sin, 
when we have fallen in Adam, we look around and we don't always 
conclude God. But the problem isn't the revelation 
of God through the created order, the problem is the receptor. 
The problem is us, but that natural theology or natural revelation 
functions. In fact, the Belgic Confession 
tells us there's two ways that God reveals himself. We know 
God by two means. First, by creation, preservation, 
and government of the universe. Second, he makes himself known 
to us more openly by his holy and divine word. So, in the space 
of just a couple of verses, Paul is teaching more theology to 
the people in Lystra that sometimes today persons in the church haven't 
been exposed to. I'm not saying because we're 
great. I'm not saying that at all. I'm thankful we have a confession 
of faith that highlights God's without body, part, and passions. 
This is the fundamental grammar of theology proper that so many 
people have no clue whatsoever. We know the love of God, we know 
the mercy of God, we know the justice of God, and we should 
know that. But equally, we should know that He's without body, 
He's without parts, and He's without passions. That distinguishes 
God from us. If you want God to be like you, 
let me know, I'll pray for you, because you need to change. God 
is not like us. And that's what makes God glorious. That's what makes him worthy 
of worship and praise and adoration. We don't want a God who fluxes 
or who changes or who reacts or has a bad Wednesday so he's 
not there for our prayer. On Thursday, could you imagine 
being subject to a God like that? A God who's capricious, a God 
who's arbitrary, a God who's governed by his passions? Brethren, 
when you see your child governed by passions, you try, hopefully 
under God, to drive that out of them. You tell them things 
like, you're not supposed to flip out when you're disappointed. 
You're not supposed to lose your mind. You're supposed to discipline 
yourself and you're supposed to govern those passions so that 
you are even keel. Well, our God is supra-even-keeled, 
and that brings great encouragement to people like us. Now notice, 
finally, there was a bit of misunderstanding still. After saying, well, let's 
look at verse 17. Nevertheless, he did not leave 
himself without witness. That means he revealed himself. 
And how did he reveal himself? In that he did good. Gave us 
rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with 
food and gladness. Had there never been fall into 
sin, every bite we took, every drink we drank, every raindrop 
that fell on our head would lead us inevitably to a good God. 
This good God is giving us these good gifts. That's the way it 
should function. But again, the receptor's messed 
up. The heart and the mind are affected by sin. And we receive 
these things, and then we say, well, it just, you know, it's 
because I'm a great guy, or because of evolution, or... No! We need 
to understand that God does this as a means by which He reveals 
Himself to His creatures. So He calls on them to repent, 
but then notice what it says in verse 18. And with these sayings, 
they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing 
to them. Sad, isn't it? Even when presented 
correct theology, you must be born again. You must have the 
Spirit at work. These men of Lystra heard the 
apostle Paul. These men of Lystra had him shine 
the spotlight upon this good and gracious God, who's not like 
us. And then the men of Lystra could 
scarcely be restrained from continuing to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. You see, brethren, it underscores 
what we saw in our study in Acts 14.1. They so spoke that a great 
multitude believed. It's not just the way they spoke, 
but it was the attendant power of the Holy Spirit. These men 
of Lystra needed that. These men of Lystra had to have 
that, or else they would continue to contemplate or think that 
these men were the gods, Zeus and Hermes, and worship them. 
It's a terrible, terrible thing, but it unfortunately happens. 
And it's probably the case that the preaching was stopped because 
of verse 19. Jews from Antioch and Iconium 
came there and having persuaded the multitude. So it wasn't, 
you know, some say, well, he didn't even preach Jesus. Again, 
he's portraying or giving us the Christian worldview. To preach 
Jesus apart from the Old Testament is a very difficult proposition. 
For Paul to be able to assume the Old Testament when he goes 
into synagogues, where those categories are in place, and 
there's the promise of a Messiah, for him to say Jesus is the Messiah, 
when you're dealing with pagans, it's not the case. You have to 
tell them, God made, God governs, and God is the one who redeems 
his people out of this mess. Well, in conclusion, I wanna 
first of all say, we ought to appreciate the power of God. 
to heal. The power of God to heal. Paul 
didn't have this. Barnabas didn't have this. Peter 
didn't have this. They didn't have sovereignty 
and the prerogative to just go willy-nilly to people and lay 
their hands on them and heal them. There was a man by the 
name of Epaphroditus that was beloved by the Apostle Paul. 
He was a servant of the church in Philippi, and we read that 
he came nigh unto death. Why didn't Paul just pray for 
him or slap a whammy on him so that he wouldn't have died? Brethren, 
this is not man's prerogative. Healers and faith healers and 
men that propound to have the ability to lay their hands on 
others and heal them. That's not scriptural. And I 
think there's a lot of people operating under this false assumption. 
Now, when I say that, then people say, well, you don't think God 
can heal? Yeah, that's what I said. How do we get that? You know, 
it's like on the internet. If I said, I really like oranges, 
the response is, why do you hate apples? How have we missed logic 
in this generation? The point is that God heals, 
not Paul, not Barnabas, not Peter. It's God. And this crippled man, 
who had never walked, got up and walked. That's the power 
of our good God. Secondly, we ought to know something 
of the doctrine of man. When Paul says, we also are men 
with like passions as you, remember John Gill, sinful men, frail 
mortal men, subject to frailty, imperfection, afflictions, troubles, 
diseases, and death itself, and so very improper objects of worship. We need to understand what the 
Bible says about us, because knowledge is a beautiful thing, 
not only in terms of how do we relate to God, but how do we 
relate to others. If we think we ought to be worshipped, 
we're going to be terrible to be around. If we think everybody 
should adore us, then we're going to be terrible to be around. 
If we think that we are a cut above, or we're elites, or we're 
somehow better than all the fools that we traffic with? That is 
a terrible misunderstanding of what the Bible says concerning 
man. When you bring it all down to the sum and substance, we're 
all the same. We're transgressors against a 
holy God. We're in this mess together. 
Let's not be arrogant and foolish and judgmental and pharisaic 
to our fellows because we somehow think we're a cut above. No, 
we're frail, we're mortal, we are men of like passions, we 
all got our issues, we all got our challenges, we all got our 
struggles, and dare I say it, we all have our weaknesses. It's 
a good thing to know that and to wrap your minds around it 
and to embrace it because hopefully it will keep us in our place 
instead of causing us, or us ourselves, causing us to be exalted. And then thirdly, with reference 
to the doctrine of God, He is the living God. I don't know 
your hearts ultimately, I don't know where you're at, but I would 
ask you, who is it that you worship? Are you worshiping the idols? 
They may not be Zeus and it may not be Hermes, but there's a 
whole host of idols. I mean, there's... multitude. I don't mean, you know, corporate 
idols out there. I don't mean the Baals and the 
Asherahs and the Molochs. One of the biggest and most horrible 
idol is us. It really is. In fact, turn for 
just a moment to 1st Corinthians chapter 5. So whenever I say 
that, people go, I'm not an idol to myself. Oh, really? You're 
not? Interesting. I'm sorry, 2nd Corinthians 
5. Your idol may be corporate, may 
be a Baal, may be an Asherah, may be a false religion, may 
be mammon. Doesn't Jesus condemn that? Doesn't 
Paul say the love of money is the root of all evil? Again, 
a misunderstood passage. Not money. Money doesn't go out 
and rob banks. Money doesn't go out and rape 
people. Money doesn't cut people's heads off. It's the love of money 
is the root of all kinds of evil. It's just a reality. Jesus says 
you cannot serve God and mammon. That's somehow a respectable 
idol today. Well, I'm just a hard worker. 
I'm just trying to make my way in the world. Well, C.S. Lewis 
says sometimes it's rather the other way. It's the world is 
making its way in your own heart. We need to be on guard. But that 
idol of self is probably the last one to die. Notice in 2 
Corinthians 5.12, for we do not commend ourselves again to you. but give you opportunity to boast 
on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast 
in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, 
it is for God, or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For 
the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus, that if 
one died for all, then all die. And he died for all, now notice 
the purpose, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, 
but for him who died for them and rose again. It's hard for 
us to connect to that because even as God's people, we find 
that temptation, don't we? It wasn't just narcissists who 
looked in the reflection in the water and saw how beautiful and 
gorgeous he was. There's a little bit of narcissists 
in all of us. People often say that about pastors 
and policemen. Well, they have to be narcissists 
in order to pursue those particular professions. Hey, cut me some 
slack. I'll admit it. I got some remaining 
narcissism. But I think narcissists become 
construction workers. I certainly think they become 
politicians, lawyers. They become a whole host of things. 
Not that narcissism is located only in police and pastors. We 
all got a little bit in us. And yet, what is one of the designs 
of the gospel so that we'll stop living for ourselves? That's 
a problem, isn't it? It's a problem as an individual 
when I only live for myself. It's a problem when I'm in a 
family and I only live for myself. It's a problem when I'm in a 
community and I only live for myself. It's a problem when I'm 
in a church and I only live for myself. When the needs of others, 
the desires of others, the wants of others are all secondary or 
tertiary or way down the ladder in scale, we've got problems. One of the designs behind the 
cross is so that we who live for ourselves no longer do so. God, alone is worthy of worship. God alone is the living God. And if we have anything other 
that we are giving homage to, repent, forsake, and come to 
this living God. We learn in this passage that 
God is impassable. If not clearly articulated the 
way that other portions do, it is a good proof text to indicate 
that reality. We're men of like passions. The 
implication, obviously, God is not of like passions. As well, 
we learn that He is Creator, Sovereign Governor, the Revealer, 
both general and special revelation, and Savior. And I say all this 
to end on this. There is a persistence of pagan 
thought. What I have attempted to explain 
is what's called classical theology. It's what the church has always, 
always believed. From the apostolic era to the 
early church fathers, to the medieval period, to the Reformation, 
and post-Reformation. This without body, parts, and 
passions, as I said, has always been viewed as the fundamental 
grammar of the doctrine of God. And yet today, this doctrine 
especially, divine impassibility, has been obliterated. It has 
been redefined. It has been basically stripped 
from the church's consciousness with reference to who God is. And that has paved the way for 
an idolatry similar to what we see here in Lystra. If we are 
not worshiping the true and living God, if we have redefined Him, 
if we have recast Him, if we have reshaped Him to fit into 
our understanding, then we are guilty as these Lystrans for 
wanting to offer up oxen and garlands to a fake God. Brethren, we need to think properly 
concerning who God is. It's an amazing thing, isn't 
it? How much energy and time and effort Christians spend on 
a whole host of things, and yet they don't study God. They don't understand Trinity. They don't understand the doctrine 
of Jesus Christ. We have this supposition. I just 
want to be holy. I just want to get good practice. 
I just want to have my virtues down. I want to relate well to 
my people around me. That ain't coming unless you 
first know who God is. And when you know who God is, 
that facilitates the rest of the theological disciplines and 
prepares you for life before God in your relationships with 
others. And if you're not a believer 
here this morning, I realize Paul didn't say, believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7 tells us he was preaching 
the gospel there. Luke is most likely giving us 
a summary. He's giving us bits and pieces 
of sermons. He's not giving us the whole 
thing. So what is not here in Acts 14, I will supply. If you 
are not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you are not a servant of the 
true and living God, you are under His wrath. And the way 
of escape is through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, in Him 
alone, for He is the Savior for sinners. Well, let us pray. Father, 
thank you for your Word, and thank you for these passages 
of Scripture in the book of Acts, and for the way that the apostles 
met pagan cultures. They didn't compromise the doctrine 
of God, but they preached who you are according to the Scripture. 
And Lord, I pray in our own day and age, churches would do likewise. 
I feel like at so many points, we're trying to accommodate Jesus 
to this culture. to a God-hating and rebellious 
culture that we end up with no Jesus at all. Help us to preach 
the truth and to trust in your sovereign power to save sinners 
according to your purpose and according to your plan. We thank 
you for your graciousness and your mercy to us, and we pray 
that you would cause us to respond with great gratitude to such 
a wonderful God and with great humility before you and before 
our fellows. And we ask this in Jesus' name. 
Amen. We'll close our service by singing 
564.