The So. Saul of Tarsus was once a loyal Pharisee. He mercilessly persecuted and condemned Christians.

But after an encounter with Jesus, Saul became known as the

Apostle Paul and he boldly proclaimed the Gospel. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg takes a look at how this changed man responded in a radically different way to the idol worshiping Greeks. I invite you to turn to an Old Testament reading if you would to the prophecy of Isaiah and to Isaiah and chapter 44 and I'm going to break into the

reading God has said through his prophet in verse six I am the first and I am the last and apart from me

there is no God and then he challenges anyone to step forward that would seek to be his

rival and then he speaks to the issue of idolatry, its futility and he describes the

absolute nonsensical

the fashing of idols. And in verse 16 we'll pick it up. We won't read it all.

Half of the wood, that is the wood that he is cut down on the tree from the tree. Half of the wood he burns in the fire.

Over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says,

Ah, I'm warm, I see the fire.

From the rest he makes a God his idol.

He bows down to it and worships, he prays to it, and says,

Save me, you are my God. They know nothing they

understand nothing their eyes are plastered over so that they cannot see and

their minds closed so that they cannot understand. No one stops to think,

no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, half of it I use for fuel, I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.

Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?

Shall I bow down to a block of wood?

He feeds on ashes, a diluted heart misleads him. He cannot save himself or say,

is not this thing in my right hand a lie.

Now from there turn over to next chapter 17 and we follow Paul as he arrives in Athens following his time in Thessalenika and in Beria.

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