This afternoon comes from Acts, Acts chapter 17. And we're going to break into the chapter at verse 10, Acts 17. reading from verse 10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night into Bury, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word, which with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore, many of them believed, also of honorable women, which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonia had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. But Silas and Themis abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens and received a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for them to come with all speed. They departed. While Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore, disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons in the market daily with them that met with him. And certain philosophers of the opinions of the stockists encountered him, and some said, what will this babbler say? Others some, he seemeth to be settled forth as strange gods, because he preaches unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him unto Orypagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine therefore thou speakest is? And thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these strange things mean. For all of the Athenians and the strangers that were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear new things. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription to the unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is the Lord of heaven and the earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth all life and breath and all things. and has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the time before appointed and the bounds of their inhabitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far off from every one of us. For in him we live and move, and have our being as certain also of our own poets, heaven said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are his offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. At a time of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained. Therefore he has given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead. We leave our reading there. and we know that the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of God's word in the presence of his congregation. We can start over again. If you've got your Bibles with you, would you open them again at Acts 17, Acts chapter 17. Just let us bow for a moment in prayer. O gracious God, our Heavenly Father, again, as we gather around thy precious word, We give thanks, Lord, for it. We give thanks for the freedom that we have to open it and learn from it. We ask, Lord, that your blessing would accompany it today as we proclaim the word of God here in this congregation in Lough. We ask, Lord, that you will hide the preacher and that we may see only God and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name we ask. Amen. There's three things I'd like to share with you this day from the text that we will consider for our meditation from the Word of God, found there in Acts 17, and especially verse 16 and 17, where we read, And while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met him. We'll look at this in three points, if you like, or three things to look at. The first, we will look at what Paul saw. The second, what Paul felt. And the third, what Paul did. the great apostle of the Gentiles, was the most successful minister and missionary the world has ever known. By his letters and by the things he said, indeed, he has left a mark on all of mankind, more than anyone ever born, except for the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The great ancient city in Greece, Athens, It was a great stronghold of the heathen world. And this mighty servant of the Lord Jesus Christ were brought together face to face. And our text tells us Paul saw a city wholly given to idolatry. There would be idols, of course, in every corner. The temple of Idol gods and goddesses would be all through the city in very prominent places. As the ancient writer said that the Athenians surpassed all other places in their attention they paid to the worship of idols. This great city with all its famous philosophers with all his famous historians, poets, painters, architects, and yet we read in our Bible that the true God was unknown. The students of Greek philosophy were highly educated. They were taught things like logic, ethics, history, poet, and so forth. But with all their great knowledge, it did not stop them from being a city wholly given over to idolatry. Are we not also in the present time told that reading, writing, mathematics, history, language, science, taught without the knowledge of scripture, are sufficient enough to constitute education? That is all well and good to talk on many subjects, but tell me, how would they answer the jailer's question in Acts 16.30, what must I do to be saved? Those that conceived and built this splendid city of Athens were completely ignorant of the one true God. Is today's world, we would have to ask, any different from the people that are puffed up in pride about their progress and all the factualism? They talk as if nothing were impossible for man to achieve. Excuse me. We live, I'm afraid, in an unbelieving age, where all around us there are doubts and questions about the truth and divine revelation. They asked, really, is the Bible needed to make men wise unto salvation? Hasn't that man got enough light within him and knowledge to guide himself? Those remains which are still found in places like Egypt and Greece and Rome speak clearly to us. They are preserved by God's providence as monuments that what intellect, reason can do without the revelation of the Lord God himself. Athens, I'm afraid, with all its splendor, was a city in great darkness. When it came to religion, that is what the site which Paul saw in Athens. And it was unanswerable proof that man without God those nothing which can do good to a soul. As we move on to our second point, what Paul felt. We saw that Paul had seen a city wholly given to idolatry. How would this site affect him or how would it make him feel? Now, if you were to put two people together and you let them look at the very same subject, with their different emotions, you could say that they were most likely seeing things from a very different angle from each other. If you were to take an artist, say to Athens, he would most likely have been wholly observed in the city and the buildings and the great architects. But Paul, the Apostle of Christ, had another thought, and that was the spiritual condition of the people in the city of Athens and the state of their lives. Why was that? Well, Paul, like the Lord Jesus Christ himself, was always about his father's business. Like Moses and Elijah before him, it tells him, His spirit was stirred up when he saw the city wholly given over to idolatry. I'm sure there's nothing more impressive to a man or a woman as the sight of some great cities that are around the world. When you live in them, you seem to have to do things a lot quicker. You seem to have to think faster, and you must have to act quicker in those type of surroundings. Everything seems to be at a faster pace, if you like. But in Revelations 2, 13, it tells us it is the city where Satan's seat is. It is in the city where evil of every kind is conceived and brought to maturity. It is in the city where young people soon come into contact with sin. and their conscience become so familiar with the daily exposure of all kinds of evil. Banks, law courts, stock exchanges, parliaments, newspapers, when you put all these things together, these are the things that usually influence and control the destiny of a nation. Then is it any wonder then that Paul was stirred up in the spirit He was moved with so many that were perishing because of a lack of knowledge of Almighty God Himself. They were without God. They were without Christ. They were without hope. They were traveling the broad road which leads as we are told in scripture, to destruction. He would have been moved by holy indignation against sin and against all the evil that he found there. He saw that the God of this world was blinding the eyes of many of his fellow men. He would have been moved with the holy zeal for his majesty's glory. He saw that his savior was unknown and the idols were receiving the homage and even the worship that was due and due only to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The feelings that stirred up Paul. These are the feelings which should characterize everyone who is claiming to be born of the Spirit. where true grace is found, there's always a great concern for the soul of others, and there's a zeal for the glory of Almighty God. The Bible says of the unholy in Romans 1, verse 32, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, and only do the same, but they have pleasure in them that do them. But it could also be said of the godly, that they not only should mourn over their own sins and their own heart, but they should mourn over the sins of the others. It was said of Lot and Sodom, he vexed his soul from day to day with their lawful deeds, their unlawful deeds. Second Peter 2.8, David wrote in Sam 119 and 136, rivers of water run down my eyes because they keep not the law. Our Savior in Luke 14 and 41, it tells us he beheld the city and he wept over it. Can anyone who can claim to be a Christian, see sin and not feel sorrow over them. This is one of the great distinguishing marks of the child of God from all others. As we look at this great land and we look at the cities, we see many that live and die without even knowing God, without knowing there's a saviour. Even in sickness and in sorrow, they have no comfort. Even in old age and death, they have no life beyond the grave. We see all around us the breaking of God's, the Lord's day and temperance on godliness abounds everywhere and it seems to be the rule and it seems to go unchecked. Then remember that these things go on in what we might call a Christian country. They have no idea of the way of peace which is had through our gracious Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. They have no idea of the love of God found in Christ. They have no idea of the free grace of the resurrection to eternal life. And all this exists in a land where there is plenty Plenty, I'd have to say, of Christian churches. Sadly, it would seem that most of them have been asleep. They're too busy wasting time on controversies. Have you got this doctrine right? Have you got that doctrine right? While others sink further and further into sin. It's a sad fact that in the present day, there's a generation of men and women growing up in unbelief. and they care nothing for Christians or Christian belief. They would be opposed to all that Paul stood for. Let this mighty, mighty Christian missionary walking around there in the streets of Athens and stirred in the spirit at the sight of God, the sight of a city wholly given to idolatry, be our motivation for Christians and Christian churches wherever they are. to feel as Paul felt at the sight of the ungodly and the rampant unbelief around him. Well, nothing has changed in over 2,000 years. God has not changed, nor has the need of men's heart changed, the sinfulness of worshipping in idols, Neither have I to tell you is the duty and the responsibility of every Christian who claims to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour. The eternal principle of the New Testament are written plainly and unmistakably. One of the first Christian graces is the duty to feel for the souls of unbelievers. Do you know something of these feelings and longings within you? If you do not, you're not, I'd have to tell you, you're not in Paul's camp. Instead, you are found with Cain, who said, am I my brother's keeper? So we see something of what Paul felt when his spirit was stirred up. The third thing I'd like to share with you is what Paul did In other words, what action did Paul take? When you read through the letters which Paul wrote, you can see clearly that he is a man of action. He saw that souls were in great danger and something had to be done. He had complete confidence in the power and the message which the Lord had given him to preach for men's salvation. He himself had received mercy and since that time he had been on fire for the service of the Lord. We see also that he did not waste time. He may well have stood alone in the midst of a hostile environment, but he did not deter him. The need of the soul was urgent and he got right to it. We are told he disputed in the synagogues with the Jews and the devout persons and daily he was found in the market meeting with any that would meet with him. What a great example then is held up before us. You can really feel the zeal and the boldness as he pushes ahead without prejudice, without inhibitions, to spread the good news of the gospel in a city wholly given over to idolatry. What was it that he argued, reasoned out and discussed? with the Jews and the Greeks on the streets and in the synagogue. We read in verse 18 of the chapter that he preached unto them Jesus, the resurrection and the resurrection. But I dare, I dare say that he preached the whole glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, who were told shortly went to Corinth. After that went to Corinth. tells us that he was determined to know nothing but Christ crucified. He would have not held back the cross from those that were in Athens. He would have not held back and shared with them the person of Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus' divinity, his birth, his mission to save sinners, his life, his death, his ascension up to heaven. Paul would have preached about the work of Christ, his sacrifice, his substitution, the just for the unjust, and the full redemption for all that put their faith in him. Paul would have told them about the office of Christ, one as mediator between God and all mankind, the great peacemaker, the high priest, the advocate of all who would commit their precious souls. into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. His readiness to receive even the chief of sinners, to be able to save to the uttermost all that would come to God by him. Paul would have preached the full forgiveness of sins to all believers, cleansed by his precious blood, and also the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached this as fact and because of a certainty of his own resurrection in the flesh. All these things, I believe, was what Paul preached to them in Athens. How can I say that? Well, that's what he preached in all the other places he went to. I don't think it'll be any different there in Athens. Today, there are some great lessons for all Christians to learn. from what Paul did and what Paul taught. They are written down in the inspired word of God for that very purpose. Like Paul, the subject of our teaching must always be the Lord Jesus Christ in all his fullness. There's no other teaching than that of the gospel, which will do the best for all of mankind. We must take the gospel. We must sow the seed. And if we are to reap as Paul reaped, we are not to worry if we stand alone and be the solitude witness for Christ. We need not worry about proclaiming the good news of Christ to others. If God is on our side, we have no need to wait around and count the heads to see where help might come from. One man who trusts in the Saviour and the Word of God in his heart is stronger than any worshipper of any idol, no matter where they're found. Also, if we preach the Gospel, we can preach with confidence that it will do good. Paul, who stood alone there on Mars Hill, he would appear at that time that he did little or no good at all. We read in chapter 18 that he left and went to Corinth. But let me tell you that Paul had lit a light and it never has been put out. That little leaven in the end leavened all of Greece itself. The gospel that Paul preached triumphed over idolatry. The ancient monuments still stand to this day as proof to the Athenian theology is dead and gone. Yes, we may sow the good seed, and we may have to sow it even in tears, but we shall yet come again with joy, bringing our sheaves with us. Psalm 126 and verse 6. Oh, the world, it seems, is caught up in travel. Thousands and thousands are rushing round the world from place to place, thinking to increase their knowledge, And they're gazing at the works which men have made, whether it is an art, whether it's a great building, whether it's great palaces, or whatever. And we seem to live in what we call an age of sightseeing. Well, Ecclesiastics 1.18 says, the eye is not satisfied with seeing. The eye is not satisfied with seeing. How then should the Christian Look at the world, instead of looking around the world at what man made, should he not instead look at what man needs? When we see the great many parts of the world still lie in complete darkness and in complete ignorance of God and in complete ignorance of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is still in sin and idolatry, and what about the vast country and all the cities that are full of sin and unbelief because Christians do so little and so many dying souls of men and women are around them. Well, the eyes of God look down and they see all these things and we should see them as well also. Our God indeed has done great things for us. He has preserved us through many trials. He has so enriched us with so many blessings. In return, we have to ask ourselves, how little has the Christian done? How little some congregations show real zeal for the salvation of the unbelieving soul? This ought not to be. When you think of the state of the unconverted soul, the misery of men and women who live and die without any knowledge of Christ. Dear friends, I have to tell you, there's no poverty like this poverty. There's no disease like this disease. There's no death like this death of those who die in their sins and transgressions. We may well ask ourselves, Where is the mind of Christ in us? If we do not have compassion for the lost, I have to say that the Christian which does not make people feel for the unconverted, it is not the same Christianity which came down to heaven over 2,000 years ago. In the knowledge of this, what should we do then? Well, we should do much more than we have done up to this time. We must ask ourselves, is the gospel which Paul preached, is it of no use in the present time? I tell you boldly that the gospel has lost none of its power. We do not need anything added and we don't need anything taken away from it. We only have to preach it. Fully that same gospel which Paul preached there in Athens and it still has the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth. Romans 1 16. We in our day have no need to be ashamed of preaching our gospel. There is no religion here on Earth which has done so much good for all of mankind than that which we have put our trust in and is found in the Word of God, the inspired Word of God. Let us, from this day onward, endeavor, by the help of fervent prayer, to do more for the worthy cause. That cause for which Jesus himself left his heavenly home and came down to earth deserves our all, all of our effort. I started off speaking about the city of Athens and cities in general, and that they are places which Christians can be in spiritual danger because that is where sin abounds. It's nothing new, it has been that way since the day of Babel, right down through the ages. Wherever the children of Adam gather in large numbers, there's always been extremities of sin and wickedness. As we have seen already, in the cities and towns is where Satan has his seat. It is there we find casinos. It is there we find all sorts of clubs. It is there we find a drinking bar. There we find the love of amusements, sensual indulgence, which may lead so many to become the slaves to sin. Young people will find a hundred ways to be encouraged in breaking God's day and to turn from the means of grace. The Christian must be aware of these dangers which are constantly present before him and stand strong in the Lord. Think of all those saints who have gone before us as they carried the cross and were found faithful unto death when even surrounded with temptation. What about Daniel and the three children in Babylon? What about the saints in Rome? in the time of Nero when they were thrown to the lions, or all the believers in Corinth and Antioch in the day of the Apostle. The point here that I'm trying to make is none of these Christians hid themselves away. They were not living in a wilderness. They were found in towns. They were found in cities, even in places like Athens, wholly given to idolatry. Wherever you may live, City, town, surrounded by sin and evil. Remember that you never stand alone if you've put your trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. It tells us, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Be a Paul where you see people lost and in danger of losing their soul. Proclaim the gospel in all its fullness. and all of its glory, and then leave the rest to Almighty God Himself. May God bless His word to us this afternoon.