would be glorious if that day were tonight. In a 2016 publication titled, Hating Jesus, The American Left's War on Christianity, Matt Barber, a professor of law at Liberty University, wrote analyzing the current culture's indoctrination against Christianity. The introduction to the book contains these words. Just a few short decades ago, a church-going man who publicly supported the right to life, backed laws protecting marriage, and spoke freely of Christ's love for fallen man, such a man would be universally recognized as a fine, upstanding citizen. He would be welcomed anywhere, including at the highest levels of power. But things have changed. In today's America, the progressive left actively endeavors to destroy such a man. Modern American leftists start by vilifying Christians. They then began scheming, quite often with success, to get Christians terminated from employment and forever marked with a scarlet C to inhibit any future prospects for employment. Next, they simultaneously attack their family and work to tear it apart, at once sending a warning shot over the bow of other Christians and pushing them to the fringes of society. The ultimate goal? conform to their pagan demands, or face incarceration. American progressives have co-opted every elite institution, schools, government, the media, Hollywood, and the arts, even at an increasing rate, many conservative organizations. What's worse is that progressivism has, like a deadly cancer, fully metastasized into what passes for the church in America. There is a great falling away afoot. An apostasy reigns supreme. The secular left doesn't merely have a disagreement with Christianity. These are not people with whom one may reason, compromise, or even disagree. They are dedicated to evil. They demand nothing less than the abolition of the biblical worldview and the destruction of Christ's followers along with it. End quote. Happy prospect. Now apparently this book is written from a peculiarly strident conservative point of view. But even if you don't share that extreme, these opening words are in the main self-evident. There has been and there continues to be a peculiarly viral propaganda against biblical Christianity. And if it continues unabated by some divine intervention, you will soon find that you are public enemy number one. if you believe the Bible. Now my concern tonight is not how we might use political means to stem the tide and at least guarantee a hearing for the gospel. I think that is a valid discussion, but that's not my discussion. My concern this evening is how do we preach the gospel to people who have been poisoned by this kind of propaganda? Propaganda which is designed to turn them against the Bible and to deny us any opportunity to reach them with the gospel. Do you know anyone like this? Do you know anyone who is fundamentally ignorant of the Bible, ignorant of biblical Christianity, and yet they are hostile? They don't know what biblical Christianity is, but they do know they hate it, whatever it is, they're against it. Do you know anyone like that? If you do, do you want to reach them? Are you content to see them drift further and further into skepticism? Or do you want to reach them for Christ? Increasingly, what I've just described will be your neighbor and your workmate and the friends that your kid brings home from college. How do we reach them? Where do we begin? Well, please open your Bibles once more to Acts chapter 17. That's our text. This, I believe, to be a prototype of where we start to reach them. Just a word about the context. The Apostle Paul, having been smuggled out of Berea and taken to Athens, was passing time waiting for his companions, Timothy and Titus, or Timothy and Silas, to arrive in Athens. You will remember, as we heard this morning, that Paul had been chased out of Thessalonica by jealous and angry Jews. He had gone to Berea. The Jews in Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They were willing to search the scriptures to see if what Paul preached about the Messiah was indeed true. Having gained such a hearing in Berea, Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul was granted that hearing and they came to stir up hostility against Paul and he was forced to leave, again smuggled out of Berea and taken to Athens. Now while he was in Athens, we might think that perhaps he would enjoy some leisure time. He had been very much engrossed in labor. Perhaps he would just walk around the city. Apparently he had never been there before and enjoy the sights. And maybe he began doing that, but in short order, his spirit was stirred by the rampant idolatry and the apparent ignorance of the true God that existed in that sophisticated city. Athens was a sophisticated city. As Paul walked about, it became evident that their sophistication did not extend into a knowledge of the true God, and his soul was stirred. And so he did what he ordinarily did. He went to the Jewish synagogue, where he found Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and he preached Christ to them. But it was Athens. and the number of people gathered in the synagogue would have been relatively small, and Paul knew he had to do more. So he went to the marketplace, and he said, where greater numbers of people would gather. And he engaged whoever would listen to him in conversations about the true God. And in the course of those marketplace conversations, Paul encountered Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Now these were two rival schools of philosophy. The Epicureans being roughly equivalent to modern hedonists who emphasized passivism and quiet. They were non-confrontational people who just wanted to live and let live and enjoy their drink and their sex and their fun. The Stoics, were rationalists who stressed being one with nature and being self-sufficient and independent. Now, neither of these two philosophies were campaigners against the gods. Neither of them took a strong stance against theology. but the Stoics were essentially pantheist. Whatever God there is, he is one with nature. The Epicureans were essentially deist. If there is a God or gods, he's out there somewhere, we can't know him, and he's not involved in our lives on Earth. Well, these were the people that Paul now engaged in. He gained their attention as he talked to them about Jesus Christ and about the resurrection. They were fascinated by this idea of resurrection. Now, it wasn't probable, it was far-fetched, but they had never heard anything quite like this. And Paul insisted that this resurrection had happened just a few years before and that he had seen the resurrected Jesus. And he could name people. He could take them to people who saw him more than he. Well, that piqued their interest. And it resulted, unpredictably, in Paul being brought before the court of Areopagus. on Mars Hill. Areopagus had been the place where legal matters and crimes were disputed and issues of guilt and innocence decided. But by this point in time, legal matters were not debated there, but philosophical, religious, and moral matters were. And these were This was a place where the thinking people gathered. Itching ears, wanting to hear some new thing. So Paul is brought, after being at the synagogue, being in the marketplace, he's now brought to the place where all the thinkers gather. I don't think he expected that. It was a marvelous opportunity. Beloved God opens wonderful doors for those who were bold with the gospel. Paul spoke the gospel where he could. Providence took him where he never expected to go, the Areopagus. Our text is Luke's inspired record of what Paul preached to these pagan philosophers in Athens. And I submit to you that this sermon is highly instructive to us concerning where we begin to talk to the Jesus haters, the Bible haters of our own day and culture. Well, what was the subject of Paul's sermon? What did he preach on this occasion? Look at verses 22 and 23. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you. Now, what do you think? Was Paul commending or criticizing when he said, I perceive that in all things you were very religious? Greek word could be rendered superstitious. What do you think? Was he commending them or was he criticizing them? Well, I don't think it's very likely that Paul would commence with a criticism, do you? It's not a good way to gain a hearing for your message. No, it's more probable that he was simply stating a fact. In moving about the city, he observed many monuments to the gods. many altars, many temples. And he concluded that they were not just philosophically inclined, they were religiously inclined. In fact, ancient Athens was noted for being a highly religious place. We would do well when we are trying to engage perishing souls, to find something that we can say that is true and somewhat commendable. I'm not talking about flattery. Flattery is a lie. Something that's true and somewhat complimentary. Well, Paul had observed a monument or an altar, perhaps more than one, dedicated to the unknown God. That was quite an admission for these sophisticated people that there may have been a God they actually didn't know. And I think it was an admission that all of their idols did not satisfy this sense, this intuitive sense of a bigger and greater God. Somehow they knew in their heart of hearts that there was a God greater than all of their idols. And he didn't know who he was, but they made an altar to him. Sin has so obscured and contorted the witness of conscience. That people know there is a God, but they don't know what he's like. And they're quite sure they wouldn't like him if they knew him, but they can't escape the knowledge that he is. The apostle boldly announces that this is the subject of his sermon. He's gonna talk to them about God. He's gonna teach them about the God they do not know, the God they acknowledge without understanding. This God to whom you build altars, but you admit you don't know him, I'm gonna talk to you about him. Now note, please the evident confidence and boldness with which Paul speaks. We can't hear the tone of his voice. We can't see the expression of his face. I'm sure he did not speak brashly, haughtily in your face. I know him. You don't. But I do. It wasn't like that. But there was a confidence statement. There is a God you don't know, and I do. And I'm going to preach to you about this God. Beloved, are you embarrassed to talk to your atheistic neighbors about God? Do you speak with some hesitancy? Do you apologize almost for knowing who God is? I'll pray for the grace to get over that. We shouldn't be haughty. We shouldn't be in your face, but neither should we be apologetic. Neither should we be weak. We ought to speak with a humble confidence. I know who God is. I know him. and I want to talk to you about him. So the theme of Paul's address, well, it's God. It's God. And I submit to you, this is where we need to begin in our predominantly pagan society that doesn't know God, doesn't know the Bible, and doesn't want to know God. We are eager to get to Christ, right? That's what we wanna get to. We wanna get to Christ. We wanna get to the cross. We wanna get to the empty tomb, and we must. If we're gonna do souls any good, we have to get to Christ and the cross and the empty tomb, but there's some things that have to be understood first. The cross of Christ is meaningless if you don't know God. If you don't know who God is. The idea that God would kill his own son makes no sense if you don't know who God is, if you don't know God's complaint with us. It makes no sense. So Paul begins with God. And I submit, that's where you need to begin. Talk to your neighbors, talk to your friends about God, who God is. Now this, this is not an absolute. I'm not saying don't ever talk about Jesus until you've taught them who God is. Verse 18 testifies that the apostle had been prior to this preaching Christ and the cross and the resurrection. So I'm not giving you an absolute, but I'm seeking to make a reasonable application of the text and of what we know theologically. When you say God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, That assumes that people know who this God is, and that they are staggered by the fact that he would love them, and by the fact he would send his son for them. But if they don't know him, then John 3.16 really makes no sense. Well, now we move into the body of Paul's sermon. His subject, God. But what does he say about God? Remember, he's talking to these sophisticated philosophers. What does he say to them about God? What should we say about God to our skeptical and hostile generation? Well, You'll appreciate I can't expound each point any more than Luke expounded each point. It may have been that Paul actually said more than what's recorded. But what's recorded is what's recorded. And that's the most I can say. Well, where did Paul begin? First, he declared that God, the God they didn't know, the God he did know, the God he was introducing to them, God created and owns the universe. Verse 24, God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth. Two points are established. First, God is the creator. God made the world, everything in it. Have you ever considered how often in the Bible God is said to have created the heavens and the earth? Take note of it. If you use a computer Bible program, type in God, heaven, earth, and see how often this very simple truth is repeated again and again and again. God created the heavens and the earth. Beloved, this is essential truth. God created. No one knows God apart from knowing that God is a creator. To deny that God is a creator is to deny God. You say, but if I say that to my well-educated, sophisticated thinking neighbor or workmate, he'll laugh at me. I don't wanna be cheeky. but there have been better people than you that have been laughed at. Don't draw back because the fact of divine creation has been so loudly disputed that many have come to view naturalistic evolution as a fact. You say, how can I get over that? Declare that God is a creator. Declare it. You don't have to prove it. Declare it. Don't you think the Athenians had their theories of origins? They had some concept of how the world had come into existence. They had some theories. That didn't matter to Paul. What they thought about the origin of the universe didn't matter to him. He knew God had created, and that's what he says. The God that I've come to declare to you, he is the creator of heaven and earth. And he said that expecting that something would click in their consciences, and he was right. One of my profs used to say, man, you have a friend in the castle, so act and speak boldly. What did he mean? The conscience. The conscience. The first two chapters of Romans are invaluable to us in giving us the courage and confidence to declare that God made, that God created, Romans 1, 18 and 19, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all and godliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. There is a wrath continually being zeroed in from heaven to earth. It's a wrath of God toward men who suppress the truth. Not people who don't know the truth. People who suppress the truth. But God knows they know the truth because he has revealed it. They suppress it. And that's what you've got to know. Men know. The creation bears unmistakable witness to the existence of God as the creator. The order of the universe testifies. Men in their conscience know. They suppress. Declare that God is a creator. But Paul not only affirms that God is a creator, origin of all things, he is also the Lord of all things. He's a master over all. Verse 24, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord, he's Lord of heaven and earth. He created it all, he owns it all, he rules it all. God is Lord. People do not rightly know God who do not understand that he rules. And yet, as offensive as the idea of creation may be, this is more offensive. Perhaps nothing is so offensive in our egalitarian culture. than the idea that God rules in complete sovereignty without asking our permission. God creates you male and female, and he didn't ask you. God puts you in a certain place in a certain time. He didn't ask your permission. He appoints your parents. He appoints your nationality. He appoints your race, and he doesn't ask you. because he's the Lord. This is who God is. And this is what men must come to terms with about God. You don't debate with God, you don't argue with God, you don't fight with God, because he is Lord. Now we who know him, we have the burden of telling that to people. You say, but they won't like that. No, they won't. They may call you names, they may spit in your face, but if they're ever going to come to Christ humbly with a felt need of Him, they're going to have to confront this reality. And who's going to tell them if you don't? Beloved, listen. Nobody wants to be hated, right? How many of you would like to be hated? You don't want to be hated. I don't want to be hated. We want everybody to think that we're the greatest people on the face of the earth. But our Savior was crucified. He was despised. He was lied about. He was nailed to a cross. They spit in His face. They plucked out His beard. They mocked Him. Are we better than He? Do we think that we will be loved and applauded while our Savior, our Redeemer, was mocked, ridiculed, beaten, and crucified? We talk about wanting to be like Jesus. Is that just talk? Or do we want to be like Jesus? And are we willing for people who hate Jesus to hate us if necessary? In the second part of Paul's sermon, he emphasized that the living God cannot be reduced to an idol. worshiped by images contained in temples. Verse 24 again. God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth. does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. Verse 29, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, We ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and men's devising. The altar dedicated to the unknown God. Why was that? They didn't know him, so why do you make an altar to a God you don't know? Well, just in case. They were trying to placate any possible deity that they had not identified. They were trying to placate him and they were trying to control him. Do you understand that that is the objective of non-Christian religion? It's to placate deity and control him. People want to control God. And sometimes we are those people. Sometimes we think that our theological categories, our theological categories put God in a certain kind of box that he can't get out of. We create these categories and we say God can't, God won't. He won't get out of this category. He won't violate this idea. And if you're listening, you're probably saying, what in the world are you talking about? How many are cessationist here? You say, what? Are you a cessationist? This morning we heard about Benny Hinn. He's a non-cessationist. He believes that preachers like him can still control miracles. Remember this morning we, We heard about Paul being pursued by a servant woman who was getting on his nerves, and he had enough, and he stopped, turned around, and cast the demon out. That got him in big trouble. But he had the power to do that. And Paul didn't turn around and say, you know, I hope this works, because if this doesn't work, I'm going to look like an idiot. commanding this demon to get out. He had no question. When he commanded the demon, the demon was going to come out. Why? Because the apostles had the power in Jesus' name to perform miracles. As a cessationist, I don't believe that that power has continued, that God continues to give that power to his servants, okay? But beloved, does that mean that God no longer performs miracles? Do I believe that if I hear about a miracle, somebody talks to me about a miracle, well, they have to be mistaken because God won't get out of my cessationist box. I've got him in this box. He can't do that anymore. I've read numerous accounts of God converting people in the Islamic world and using visions to do it. And of course, when I read that, I know it can't be true because my cessationist box doesn't allow that. Really? Listen, beloved, anything that God has ever done, he can still do if he chooses. He's God. Now, what do you make of these? I don't know. I don't know what to make of them, but you know what? I don't have to. I don't have to. What these Athenians were trying to do is cover their bases If there is a God they don't know, they don't want him angry, so they'll make an altar to him. They'll offer sacrifices to him. In this part of the text, The Apostle Paul is asserting that the true God is unlike anything they have ever imagined in their man-made gods. He created the universe so thinking that he can be contained in a building is utterly preposterous. bringing sacrifices to him with the thought of satisfying some need he has, is also ludicrous, for he himself is a giver of every good and perfect gift. Specifically, he gets life, breath, and all things. He needs nothing. So whatever our worship is, whatever our sacrifices are about, they're not about meeting some need that God has. And it's really important when we talk to people about God, that we crush this intuitive idea that men have something God needs, men have something God wants. And if we give him money, or we give him time, or we give him good works, we can put God in our debt. There's nothing we can do to put God in our debt. We have an enormous unpayable debt to God. Thirdly, Paul asserts that God holds all mankind accountable for knowing him, for thanking him. Verse 26, and he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth. and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him. Though he's not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our beingness. Also, some of your own poets have said, we are also his offspring. God is not inactive as the deists suppose. God's very active. He's continually creating people, putting them on the earth, setting the boundaries for nations, setting the boundaries for individuals. He determines every nation's time. the time it's allowed to exist, the time it's allowed to have power. He determines every individual's time. He determined when I would be born. He has determined when I will die. He has determined where I will live, how strong I will be, how weak I will be, how healthy I will be, how sick I will be. God has determined all of that. He's God, and I need to know that so I will feel my indebtedness to Him. So I will seek Him with a felt need for His mercy and grace. So I will seek Him with a deep burden to thank Him. I hope you want to thank Him. for the bounds of your habitation. I'm not, I have no problem that God chose to put me in the world in the 40s and that I lived through the 50s and the 60s and the 70s. And I'm fascinated, I'm fascinated by all that was happening in those decades while I was alive. What God was doing. I don't understand it all, but there was some remarkable stuff going on. And I'm glad I was alive. But you know what, I had nothing to do with that. I had nothing to do with that. God didn't come to me in some secret way and say, Gary, would you like to be born in the 40s? Would you like to die in the? God, beloved, and a true and right knowledge of God shuts us up to God. There's no alternative to God. You don't like the way God does things, you're going to find somebody stronger and wiser, somebody that can undo what God has decreed. We're shut up to God. Every man is shut up to God. And we've got to tell them that. They can kick and scream and say, I don't like this, I refuse to believe it. Changes nothing. The expectation is that people will humble themselves and they will seek God. They'll seek to know him and worship him, thank him, serve him. And that really shouldn't be so difficult since he is spirit and he's everywhere present and in his presence we live and move and have our being. Paul's final point concerns the end of it all, the day of judgment. And the proof that judgment is not simply a weird idea. Verse 30. Truly these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him. from the dead. What do you think Paul meant when he said, truly these times of ignorance God overlooked? What do you think that means? Well, let me tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that God ever, ever, ever, gave people permission to worship idols and not to worship him. Doesn't mean that. It does mean that God, particularly in the old covenant, chose not to bring men into accountability immediately for their idolatry. They lived and died in idolatry, and then they stood before God to give an account. Paul doesn't mean it was once okay to worship idols. It's not okay anymore. That's not what he's saying. But what he is saying is that God did not previously call the whole world to give an account for their idolatry, but he is doing that now. There's been a change in God's dealing with the human race, with the coming of Christ, with the sending of the Holy Spirit. with the completion of the canon of scripture. God has given the world a complete and vivid display of his glory. And now he demands that all idolatry cease. All idols be put away. He demands universal worship. and universal submission to himself. And he purposes an inescapable judgment for the world of all history, but a peculiar judgment for that part of history on this side of the cross. After the Word has become flesh, after the Word has sent the Holy Spirit And after the Holy Spirit has brought about the completion of biblical revelation, God has finished speaking. Revelation is ended. Now God says, no more idols. You say, but pastor, there are people that don't have Bibles. There are people that don't know who Jesus is. There are people who don't know who God is. And my response to that, beloved, that's why we're here. That's why the church is here. Christ has given us the responsibility to go into all the world and to take the knowledge of himself to all the world. You see, it is not permissible that you know people who don't know God. That's why you're in their life, to show them who God is. Do you have kids at school, friends, who don't know who God is? You have the responsibility to share the knowledge you have. God is gonna bring all the world into judgment for not knowing him, not worshiping him, not treating him as God. And the proof of that coming judgment is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We think of the resurrection of Christ, we think of our justification. He was raised again for our justification. Those of us who believe in him, the resurrected Christ is a proof that his death paid it all. that the whole debt we owed to justice that was laid on Jesus, the father has accepted the payment that his son made on the cross. There's no debt remaining for those who believe in Jesus. He was raised on account of our justification. But that's not the only thing proven by the resurrection. He was raised again as evidence and proof of a coming day of judgment when the one who came to bring life was killed and the one who showed the glory of God was covered in his own blood and the spittle of men. There's coming a day when that one who died on that cross is gonna come in all of his glory and he's gonna take vengeance on those who know not God and believe not the gospel. That's gonna be a terrible day. Are we saying glorious day? It'll be glorious if you know Christ. If you don't know Christ, it will be It will be worse than you can possibly imagine. And we who know Him, we have the privilege and the responsibility to warn those who don't know Him. You'll notice in this sermon, There is no mention of the cross, no mention of personal salvation. It may have been because they interrupted him when he mentioned the resurrection, or maybe he preached those things and Luke didn't record them. But could it be, beloved, could it be? that in our legitimate, legitimate rush to get to the good news, we have actually weakened the message of the good news by failing to acquaint people with their desperate hopelessness. Offering hope to people who don't know that they are hopeless. We need to take time to preach God to our God-hating neighbors and friends. May God give us the courage. May God give us the love, the compassion to put up with hatred and scorn in order to tell people what they have to know so they can hear the message of the cross and say, hallelujah, I'm not without hope. Let's pray. Father, we so much thank you for the record that you have given of yourself and of your son. But we also thank you for the record you've given of the apostle Paul and of the way that Paul understood his time and place and knew what most needed to be said in any given context. Father, we are living in a day of spreading darkness. Common grace is evaporating. Right knowledge of yourself is all but gone. May we be those who are courageous enough to tell people the truth about you. and the truth about themselves in light of who you are, and then the truth about Jesus, who is the only mediator between them and you. Give us grace. We're cowards. We're weak. We're so in love with our own ease. Give us the grace to be willing to suffer and even to die. to try to win men to Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.