Take your seats. We are right smack in the middle of Acts chapter 17. And in the narrative here, as Paul is making his way to the Areopagus, There's a little bit of tension in the story, and Luke has given us an editorial remark kind of right in the middle of this, and that's where we're going to pick up today. Last week, we looked at these charges that come to Paul, and I argued that this meeting with the Areopagus is not really a friendly exchange. Paul's not under arrest. He's not been taken by violence, I don't believe. I think the Athenians are much too sophisticated for that. He is compelled to come, and they want to find out, what are these strange things that you're teaching? And Luke tells us by way of editorial comment, and we'll look at this in some detail this morning, that the Athenians and foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. And it's in this very place that we come and before we look at Paul's speech, and we're going to look at that in detail next week, but I want to look at another aspect of this because when Luke wrote this, he wrote it originally, remember, to Theophilus, a man who was well-versed in Athenian culture and thought and philosophy that permeated not only Greece but even the Roman world. And we're not as immediately close to that, or are we? I want to look in some detail this morning. The sermon is entitled, The Futility of the Pagan Mind. The Futility of the Pagan Mind. Because before we actually look at what Paul says, we need to understand he's responding to something specific. Not only these general charges against him, but as we've seen Paul, even in Philippi, he wasn't about self-preservation. He was about the advancement of the gospel and speaking the truth of who God is and what He has done through His Son. So what is it exactly to which Paul responds to this austere body, this academic body? They were, by this time in history, probably no longer meeting on Mars Hill, just a prominent hill in Athens, but Areopagus had come to mean the council itself. So they were going to this group of men. The futility of the pagan mind, and the more I studied over the last several weeks the culture of Athens, the more I saw the similarities to our present culture. Which really shouldn't be a surprise to us, because after all, Athens is known as the birthplace of Western culture. Did you know that Athens is actually the birthplace of democracy? Our philosophic underpinnings, many of those things that established our United States were based on the philosophies that came out of this time period. Guys like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and on and on the list would grow from Athens. Their ideas and their thought forms have had a tremendous impact up until the present day. So it really shouldn't surprise us that we see similarities. And we are the political and philosophical and intellectual and cultural descendants of Athens. We can trace a direct lineage to Athens in many of these respects. And not only that, we are experiencing in our day a resurgence of what we might call neo-paganism. of a spirituality. In fact, there's a new acronym that pollsters and demographers use. It's the SBNR. I don't know if you've seen this. It's the category of spiritual but not religious. SBNR. In fact, the New York Times just three weeks ago had an article on this entitled, Examining the Growth of the Spiritual but Not Religious. Listen to this. The spiritual but not religious category. So many Americans describe their belief system in this way that pollsters now give the phrase its own category on questionnaires. In 2012, the Pew Religion and Public Life Project did a survey. New York Times reports that nearly a fifth of those polled said that they were not religiously affiliated. Now think about that, a fifth, 20% of this Christian nation. so-called, not any religious affiliation at all. And of that fifth, nearly 37% of that group said they were spiritual but not religious. It was 7% of all Americans, a bigger group than atheists and way bigger than Jews, Muslims, or Episcopalians. S-B-N-R. You'll hear that term, no doubt, if you look at things going on in our culture and look inside of the religious categorization that's taking place. S-B-N-R has become one of the fastest and most influential religious categories in America. and the similarities to the worldview in Athens really are striking when we begin to dig in and look at some of the data. But something else happened. As I studied through this cultural melu that is Athens and looked at the text in greater detail, not only did I see that we're more and more similar to Athens, but it's not just the SBNR crowd. It's not just the pagans. that think this way. It's not just a particular thought form that's related to this ancient group of people or even this 7% of our population. The same Paul who spoke to us, who spoke here at Mars Hill is the same one who spoke to the Roman church just a few years later and throughout history has spoken to his people in this way, God's people in this way. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, do not think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. And this is in the kind of the closing chapters, the last section of Romans. Paul has just laid out the glory of the gospel, pointed to the risen Christ and our complete justification and pardon in him and in him alone, by faith alone. And then he comes to chapter 12 and he says, therefore, your lives ought to be living worship, symbols of religion, living worship, acts of obedience to Christ as a result of what he has done. And then he says, don't be conformed to the world. but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Now, Paul is not saying, and I've said this before, Paul's not saying this is a hypothetical potential for Christians, that we can somehow drift away into conformity with the world. What Paul is arguing is that's where we begin. That's our default position. That is the spirit of our age. We're born into a conformity with the world, and bit by bit as we are sanctified, as we are conformed to the image of Christ, we're pulled further and further out of the world's view. So even Christians, even conservative reformed Baptists, sometimes think like pagans, don't we? We're the fish that Aristotle talked about back here in ancient Greece. Does the fish know he's wet? Was the question Aristotle posed. We are often that fish who doesn't know he's wet. And that's why our minds must be conformed to the Word of God, because we don't see ourselves clearly. Mark Jones, who is an ordained Presbyterian minister, he taught abroad in England for a number of years. And as he came back to the United States, he was overwhelmed with what he saw in terms of spiritual paganism. thought forms in the U.S., this pagan spirituality. And he's begun to study that really over the last decade or so. And Mark Jones in a book called On Global Wizardry says this. He says, a heightened search for human fulfillment beyond the purely material is a hallmark of our culture. People seek non-material powers by which they hope to gain salvation, which now often means psychological therapy and holistic healing rather than a place in heaven. The ideal spirituality is integral, comprehensive, and inclusive, insisting on unity and balance, which provides calm in the midst of challenging circumstances, as well as meaning, value, spiritual insight, wise discernment, and compassion. Alas, he says, naivete about spirituality is found in much of evangelicalism. Well-intentioned Christians are slowly drawn into spiritual techniques that are rooted in paganism. The invasion will, like unseen termites, eat the heart out of the structural beams of biblical orthodoxy, leaving churches and denominations looking good on the surface, but ready to crumble under the least pressure. So two observations as we approach Paul's speech. One is that the pagan mind is so full of this quest for just general spirituality. They're not seeing things clearly. That's exactly what Paul's going to address for them. But also, Christians are not immune to this. It's not as if we're in a different category. And let me be honest with you, as I approach this text, and as I've heard this text before, I think about this text in a different category, this speech that Paul gives. And I've studied it, I've taught it in this way. This is the template for how we, we look at this, we study this for a template for how we approach those people out there. This is for how we approach lost people. And it is that, no doubt. But this passage is for us too. This is for us. We are more influenced by this vague spiritual thinking than we are fully aware of. And we must hear Paul's sermon on Mars Hill as directed to us as well, not just as...not just to pagans. Now, this doesn't mean...I'm not saying that if you have...as we walk through today and you say, wait a minute, I have pagan thoughts, I must be lost. That's not what I'm saying. It's not what Paul teaches. It's not what the Scriptures teach. But there are...every believer, it's a product of the world we're in as well. And we need to have our minds conformed more and more. Paul's speech to the Areopagus is for us. It's for us, dear brothers, sisters. And it has universal appeal. It's to non-believers, it's to those with questions, those who are, we might say, seeking, those who are atheists and have no desire for God, and for us. those who are cleansed in Christ and who are resting in His work alone. So as we read this this morning, I'm going to back up to verse 16, but our focus this morning will be on verses 20 to 23. Listen to what Luke tells us here about Paul's visit in Athens. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and they brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears, we wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, This I proclaim to you." Now last week, the third point in my outline, I didn't finish. Started it, introduced it, didn't finish it. We actually won't get to it until next week. Looking at Paul's actual response. But I wanted to, this is sort of a footnote maybe. an aside, but it helps us to understand the context of what Paul's saying. What's the audience that he's speaking to? What's going on in their minds? And as we think about this futility of the pagan mind, think about what's happened. They've accused Paul of babbling, of seed picking, of gathering random philosophical soundbites and jumbling them together and then presenting them. That's what they've accused Paul of doing. They've also said a more serious charge is you are preaching foreign divinities. Luke tells us that Athens is known for its being enamored with philosophy and reason. By the way, Luke's not the only historian to tell us that. Other historians have noted that about Athens at this time. They were known for their obsession with philosophy and reason. And Paul confronts that worldview directly. What we see in his speech to the Areopagus is a direct confrontation. It's a direct rebuke. It's a repudiation and a tearing down of their whole worldview. Everything that they believe, Paul's about to tear apart. We need to kind of understand what they believe. God is not new. but instead is the creator, the ancient of days. Worship is not about man. Worship's not about the creature, but instead the creator, the God who made man and sustains all of creation. So we'll look at this text this morning, again, particularly verses 20 through 23, under three headings. The false hope of the new. This is the futility of the pagan mind. We see the false hope of the new. We see the poverty of the self. and we see the figment of security. This is what Luke tells us, kind of as Paul, as the scene changes. We were looking at this last night and I was telling my kids, this is kind of like if this were a play. There would be a scene change. The curtain would close. There'd be a lot of the sets kind of scrambling around because Paul's out in the marketplace. He's been in the synagogue. Now he's at the marketplace. He's conversed with people who were there, the Epicureans, the Stoics, other philosophers. Then they summon him to the Areopagus. So there's kind of a scene change. And during that scene change, Luke, the narrator, comes in and says, all Athenians and all foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. They're obsessed with it. The superlative language tells us this is the occupation of their mind and their affections. Luke describes the worldview of the Athenians as those who are telling and hearing something new. They were seeking meaning from a new religious experience. What does that imply for us? The one they have, they're not satisfied with. You don't seek for something new if you're satisfied with what you have, do you? And we need to note the contrast in this worldview, the clear contrast between what Luke tells us about Athens, they're always looking to see and hear and learn about something new, and contrast that worldview to the worldview of God's people. Now, Paul, as soon as he leaves Athens, he goes to Corinth, another ancient Greece, Grecian city. It's now the larger and more prominent city economically. That's where Paul goes next, and he spends quite some time there, some 18 months. And following up with them, he writes them a letter, and he says several things about this worldview, because they're still swimming in it. They're the next town over from Athens. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, he says, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but as it is written, would no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us, Through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Do you see the contrast? Athens, the obsession with the new, always searching for something new. Paul tells the Corinthian church, the nearest neighbor to the Athenians, that God has decreed before the ages, for His glory, all things that will come to pass. God has prepared for those who love Him. When did He prepare those things? From before the ages. God has revealed to us through His Spirit, by means of revelation, God has told us who He is. He would go on in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians, in verse 1, He says, Be imitators of Me as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember Me in everything, and listen to this, and maintain the traditions even as I deliver them to you. Paul says our religion, our Christianity, our faith in Christ is about passing on traditions that we have received from God and passing those on to the next generation. It's not about finding something new. Then he closes 1 Corinthians in chapter 15, one of the most glorious chapters in all of the Bible. about the resurrection of Christ. And he says this in verse one, now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Do you see Paul, he says, I'm rooted in what is ancient, what is true. And that's been, I've received that from the Lord and I've delivered it to you and I commend you for holding fast to that. You see the contrast between Athens and the biblical worldview, it's stark. And we need to understand that the scriptures clearly warn us about this quest for the new. The broken promises, the disappointment of the new, the disillusionment, the false allurement of the new. When you study the history of Israel, and you read through 1 and 2 Samuel, and you read through the Kings, and you read through the Chronicles, what's the prevailing theme? They're always looking for the next best thing. They're always looking for something more than what God has given to them. They're not satisfied. We worship a God who does not change, and the only worthwhile change is for man to be conformed to the image of God through the eternal and unchangeable Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly what the psalmist tells us in Psalm 90. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you were God. You return man to dust and say, return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past or as a watch in the night. It's a stark contrast. Paul's about to speak in ways that the Areopagus, it is completely foreign to them. Their whole worldview is focused on new, new, new, new, new. And Paul said, no, we worship the ancient of days, the timeless one. And yet, This temptation hits us, as I said in the introduction. It's not just the pagans, is it? Let's face it, we live in a world that we're saturated through commercials and it doesn't matter whether it's TV or internet or billboards or wherever you go, the quest for new, new and improved. It's a better model. It's always next year's model that's better than the one you've got. Now you're not satisfied with that one. Right? There's always a new bell, there's a new whistle, does something different. We're tempted by the proverbial greener grass, aren't we? It's a universal reality. And it's not something that just, I mean, it comes from within us, but we also have to recognize we fight against not only our flesh, but also against the world and the devil. And all three of those have a bearing on how we view the world. Some of you are familiar with the screw tape letters from C.S. Lewis. This is hypothetical, it's satire, but it's Screwtape, Uncle Screwtape, is the demon. And he's teaching his nephew, his protege, how it is that you harass these humans. And he's got one particular patient, he calls him. It's a Christian. Listen to what Screwtape says here. This is the older demon writing to his nephew. And he says, what we want, we demons, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call Christianity and. You know, Christianity and the crisis, Christianity and the new psychology, Christianity and the new order, Christianity and faith healing, Christianity and psychical research, Christianity and vegetarianism, Christianity and spelling reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some fashion with the Christian coloring. Work on their horror of the same old thing. The horror of the same old thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart. An endless source of heresies in religion, folly in counsel, infidelity in marriage, and inconstancy in friendship. The humans live in time and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things. In other words, they must experience change. Now, just as we pick out and exaggerate the pleasure of eating to produce gluttony, so we pick out this natural pleasantness of change and twist it into a demand for absolute novelty. This demand is entirely our workmanship. Once, they knew that some changes were for the better and others for the worse and others again indifferent. We have largely removed this knowledge. For the descriptive adjective unchanged, we have substituted the emotional adjective stagnant. We have trained them to think of the future as a promised land which favored heroes attain, not as something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does or whoever he is. the appeal of the new. As C.S. Lewis calls it, the horror of the same old thing. In what ways are you dissatisfied with the horror of the same old thing? It's a universal temptation, isn't it? To become dissatisfied right where we are. The New York Times article I cited earlier about this SV&R, the spiritual but not religious category. One of the authors that they quote says, in other words, their self-image, these SV&R folks, their self-image makes them think, I don't need history, I don't need the past. Dr. Bender said, adding that they think, I am not religious, which is about the past, I'm spiritual about the present. See, Paul's not speaking only to ancient pagans. This confronts us right where we sit this morning, doesn't it? Do you recognize pagan thought forms in your mind? I mean, are you like the pagans of Athens or the pagans of Conroe or the pagans of Texas or the pagans of the United States? Are you thinking in these ways? Are you constantly seeking some new thing? Are you seeking new stuff because the older stuff no longer satisfies you, no longer gets that kind of joyful feeling? Are you seeking new friendships because the old ones are stagnant? Are you seeking to add new children because the current ones are just no longer tiny little bundles of joyful cuddles? Are you seeking new church members because the old ones get on your nerves? Are you seeking new ideas about God and His church because you feel the old ones have let you down? What are you seeking? A quest for the new is not the only hallmark of pagan spirituality, though. As we look here, Luke tells us explicitly that Athenians and foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So we see this futility of searching for the new, this false hope of the new, but we also see what I'm gonna call the poverty of self. The poverty of self, look here in Verse 22, I'm sorry. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, "'Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, "'To the unknown God.'" The pagan religion against which Paul speaks is inherently self-focused. The Athenian religion is inherently, completely self-focused. It's self-determined. Pagan spirituality in Athens, and really in every age, both before and since, pagan spirituality is intensely and completely self-focused. It's marked by the sovereignty of the individual and the exaltation of the self. Where does that come from in the text? Because it doesn't say anything about selfishness here. How do we get that interpretation? That's a fair question. Let me propose several things here, four actually. One, from the very nature of the religion and the philosophy that Luke has described. He has, and I mentioned last week, why does Luke tell us what he tells us here? Why is the Spirit of God, as he moves through Luke, inspires this writing? Why are we told specifically about the Epicureans and the Stoics and other philosophers? It's because the Epicureans and the Stoics were self-focused and self-determined. That's a historical fact. So we can look at the highlight that Luke gives us here about this philosophical thought form and say, aha, there's something that Luke wants us to know about this. The Epicureans would actually deny that God or the gods created the universe. So they denied any kind of supernatural. It was just random chance. It was mean commingling of atoms that caused the universe. The Stoics, on the other hand, would believe in a creator, but not a transcendent one. Things were still kind of random. There was some sort of force that made the universe, but he doesn't actually sustain it or intervene in it. The Epicureans and the Stoics, as a result of this, they focused on individual happiness. Any community that existed still existed for the purpose of the individual. You joined a community so that you could be built up, so that your philosophies could be enhanced, so that you could learn more. And they were all formed, these communities were all formed for the betterment of the individual. But we also see, when Paul talks about these objects of worship, What did Paul say about these objects of worship? Paul would say in his speech later on that these objects of worship were all made with human hands. They're not actually divine. They're made by human hands. For what purpose? For human consumption. They were made to make me feel closer to this ethereal God for my own improvement. So we see from the very nature of the religion and the philosophy described that this is selfish religion. But secondly, from the response of the pagans to their idols being threatened. Remember what happened in Philippi? Remember Paul exercised a demon spirit out of a servant girl who was fortune-telling for her masters. What was the response for that? Luke tells us they were motivated by their prophet. When their hope of gain was gone, they grabbed hold. They seized Paul and Barnabas. It was their hope of gain. Now here in a couple of chapters, in chapter 19, we're going to see a riot take place at Ephesus. Why? In verse 23 of chapter 20, Paul is there in a man named, verse 24, for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsman. These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours, our livelihood, may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing. and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship." The very response of the pagans demonstrates to us that they were tied up personally in these idols. Their livelihoods depended on it. The fabric of their culture depended upon this idol worship. So an attack on that was a personal attack on anyone who practiced the idolatrous arts. But thirdly, we see from the answer that Paul gives to the Areopagus, Paul's sermon itself is focused on what? Or should I say whom? Paul's...the focus of his sermon is God, the person and work of God, not the men. His focus is on the creator, not the creature. This was the opposite of the pagan thought which had its focus on mankind. But then also, fourthly, from the witness of Scripture about the nature of idolatry. We draw this from the very nature of idolatry itself. To the church in Colossae, Paul would write in chapter 3, verse 5, "'Put to death, therefore, what is earthly.'" Now, he's writing to redeem believers. And he says, put to death, therefore, because of what Christ has done in you, because you are now a new man, put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked. when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all." What's Paul saying? Because Christ has died and you now belong to Christ, you put off the old man who was marked by what? Selfishness, self-focus, a self-determination, a self-imagined religion. But now, contrast to that, you've put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. It's no longer about you. That's the message Paul gives to the Colossian church. Because you're in Christ, it's not about you. It's about Christ. Peter would echo the same thing. In 1 Peter 4, verse 2, he says, live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Again, the contrast, biblical worldview. We live for the will of God. We live for the glory of our creator. The pagan worldview, we live for ourselves. We live to meet our needs. Peter says, live no longer for human passions before the will of God. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. The very nature of idolatry is self-focused. It is self-centered. It just is. And that's the consistent witness of Scripture from Genesis all the way through the end. So what we find here in Paul's speech is very much a confrontation of a worldview that not only is obsessed with the new, but is obsessed with the self. And what the futility of the pagan mind points to us, tells us is that that's a poverty situation. There are no riches in the self. Scripture associates idolatry and covetous and self-focused lifestyle in direct contradistinction to the other focused and God focused scriptures. Scriptures again and again point us to what I'm calling this morning the poverty of self. And it's interesting, I found this week a directory of pagans, priests and priestesses and witches. that lists these spiritual practitioners. You'd be amazed at how many are in our area. And they offer their services and they have a bio and a description of what they do and what kind of services they offer and what kinds of, you know, ceremonies that they'll do, public or private. And I was struck as I read through, I spent about 30 minutes of my life, I'll never get back, reading through these profiles. And what struck me is they describe who they are. Many will say things like, well, I've subscribed to the terminology I wasn't familiar with, but this type of Wiccanism and this type of Druidism and a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and I have my, this is my path. And many will describe it that way. This is my path. Some will describe it, this is my path for now. Or this was my path, but now I'm a little bit more of this. I'm now 30% that and 70% this instead of 40 and 60. And consistently, that's the description as you read through them. Which, I'm reading that, I'm going, that's exactly what I would expect to find, based on the authority of God's Word. It is a self-focused religion. But are we not all prone to this? Again, the speech is not just to pagans in an ancient land. Are we not all prone to this kind of thinking? We want things shaped to our preferences. We want to be pleased. We want to be satisfied. That's part of the original appeal that the serpent made in the garden, is it not? God is withholding something from you. If you will take of this fruit, God will make you wise. God will give you a knowledge of good and evil so that you, on your own, can determine what is right. So that you, on your own, can determine how it is you will worship. Isn't that what the serpent did? Satan invited Adam and Eve to worship themselves instead of the Creator. precisely what he did. And his imitation to us still stands. I mean, our enemy is a deceiver. He's been a liar from the beginning. He's a father of lies. He's crafty, but he also sticks with what works, doesn't he? He sticks with what works. And he knows for most, we won't fall for a direct appeal to worship ourselves. I mean, he's not going to say, well, why don't you set up an altar to you and light some candles and bow down to that. We're too sophisticated for that tactic. but we still seek our own way. We will seek our own comfort. We will seek our own happiness. We can be tempted to piece together the elements of a Christian life and worship that seem to suit our preferences the best. And we'll just kind of cobble things together. If you look at the landscape of evangelicalism, that's what you see. And you can even go to church websites and look at the statement of faith, and you'll see that's just kind of cobbled together. We want a little bit of that, want a little bit of that, not consistent. And it just reminded me as I was studying through this, this will date me and probably convict me. Johnny Cash had a song called One Piece at a Time. He's an automobile worker at a Cadillac plant and he believes, I'll never own one of these things myself. So what does he plot to do? I'm going to smuggle parts out one at a time. smuggled out my lunchbox, my buddy's mobile home, I'm gonna bring the parts together. Part of the song says, now up to now my plan went all right till we tried to put it all together one night and that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong. The transmission was a 53, the motor turned out to be a 73 and when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone. So we drilled it out so that it would fit and with a little bit of a help of an adapter kit we had that engine running just like a song. Now the headlight was another site. We had two on the left and one on the right, and we pulled out the switch, all three of them, come on. And the refrain says, I got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime. You'll know it's me when I come through your town, I'm gonna ride around in style, I'm gonna drive everybody wild, because I'll have the only one there is around. That's a silly illustration, but I think you see the point, don't you? That's our heart. We want to cobble it together. We want to put things together on our own. And sometimes we'll drive through life with two headlights on this side and one on this side, and it's just the way it is. We're okay with that. That's not the biblical worldview that Paul's going to teach here at Areopagus. Paul's teaching, again, a comprehensive, cohesive whole. And he was accused of being a babbler. You see, this attitude is precisely what Paul would write to Timothy in his second letter. His dying remarks, Paul says this. He begins chapter three and he says, this attitude, or he says, but understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self. Then he goes on with a whole list. There'll be deceivers, haters of parents, ungodly. Then in chapter four, The remedy to this, because that's what Paul said, that's coming. Here's the remedy. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing and His kingdom. See, comprehensive worldview right there. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itch in ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. It's exactly what the witness of scripture would have us to expect, isn't it? The poverty of the self. They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. So paganism here, as we look at the approach to Mars Hill, paganism is defined by a quest for the new and an exaltation of self. It's clear from Acts 17. It's clear really from all the scriptures that that's what we would expect. And this is precisely what we see Paul refute when he stands up before this great body of intellectuals and philosophers. But in the speech introduction, Paul lets us know that his worldview, the scriptural worldview, is superior to what he finds among the pagans, that their focus on new and self is a bankrupt, empty, unsatisfying system. How do we know that? Well, verse 23 tells us. Paul said, I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, And I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. They're trying to cover their bases. They've got this whole pantheon of gods, innumerable gods, some great, some small, household idols, all kinds of gods. Now, just to make sure that we got everybody covered, we don't have something out there that's offended, let's set up this altar to an unknown God. Our third section here in the message is what I'm going to call the figment of security. See here, Paul, you're a babbler. You don't know what you're talking about, Paul. You're an amateur. You're a hack. Meanwhile, we have an unknown God over here that we worship out of fear that we're missing something. Do you see the insecurity that's inherent in pagan thought? And think about this. This makes sense. If everything is focused on the new and everything is focused on the self, where is your security? Every one of us, every one of us knows that we are in ourselves insufficient to explain the world to ourselves. We know that. Even your pagan co-workers, your pagan family members, your young children, we know that. It's exactly what Paul tells us in Romans 1. What's true about God is plain, because he has revealed himself. The heavens declare the majesty of God. And yet, pagans are insecure. Paul says it's an illusion. The presence of an unknown God monument demonstrates that they're trying to cover their bases because they know their system is incomplete. And the focus on new and the focus on self will always result in insecurity. Worship based on novelty, worship based on customization will always lead to uncertainty. Are we doing it right? Are we doing enough? Are we doing it for the right person, for the right purposes? Young people, you live in an age that is in some ways unique because these philosophies are not new, but you're being bombarded. Your minds are being bombarded at a rate that's faster than any time in history. The messages are more, you know, all-encompassing. They're coming from every direction in a quest for new and begging you to exalt yourselves. begging you to rely on your own wisdom. And you need to understand that that is 180 degrees opposed to the worldview posited by the scriptures. It's 180 degrees opposed. And if we stop here, though, this is kind of bad news because we're swimming in it, right? If we stop here, we feel a heaviness of, what do I do? I mean, because I recognize in my own mind, my own heart, my own affections, I do see that desire for something new, that desire to exalt myself. And frankly, the message would be easier for us to hear if we could say, well, this is just a message to the pagans. It makes it harder when it's also to us. It would be easier to hear Paul's words if they were directed only to this group of ancient philosophers. But again, in 2 Timothy, Paul says, all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The speech that we'll look at in more detail next week, when Paul actually confronts them, a message is for us. as much as it is for our pagans, our pagan neighbors. Our only hope of security comes from clinging to the ancient of days through the eternal sun by means of the power of the ever-present Holy Spirit. Our security comes not from the new of the self, but from dying to self. Our security comes by confessing that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That's where security comes from. It's a false security that the pagans were grasping. Turn over with me to Romans 6. Romans 6, verse 5. The Word of the Lord tells us if we have been united with Him in a death like His, Christ, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace." What the Scriptures teach us, if you're a believer in Christ, you have been set free. It doesn't mean sin just disappears. I wish it were that easy. But we're set free. We are set free from the tyranny of the new. We are set free from the tyranny of self. And we are free now in Christ to worship the living God, to turn our affections upon our creator, to worship him as Lord and King. And our only hope is in this ancient of days. We know that Christ's atoning death secures us for eternity. When we think about something new, focus on the new world that is to come, on the new creation, on our new bodies that will be glorified and not hindered by the stain of sin, not hindered by the desire to turn again and again to the same old things that ensnare us. Perhaps, I mean, you've never tasted the goodness and mercy of God. If that's true, as you read through the pages of the scriptures and you find yourself here, this is exactly me. I'm not satisfied where I am. I'm always looking for something else. I'm always interested only in me, ultimately. Turn to Christ. Allow the old self to be buried in Him. to be crucified with Him. But brothers and sisters, those who are trusting in Christ, who know that you know, what idolatry remains? As we search our own hearts, as we consider where is our a restless heart leading us. And we can turn to the mercy of God again and again, to a fountain that does not run dry. Praise the Lord for that. We can go again and again and again and repent of that sin and turn to the comfort and the security and the satisfaction of the living God. When we think about that, that's freedom. That's security that the pagan mind will never know. The pagan mind who still has to have this, I gotta have an unknown God here to worship because I might not have it all. Believer, do you know that you have it all in Christ? He has revealed everything that you need to know for life and godliness in his word. Praise him for that. The light in him. Let's pray.