Please open your Bibles once again to Acts 17 verse 16. Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, and he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Let us pray. O glorious God, Lord, we thank you once again for this opportunity that we can hear your word. Lord, we ask that you would be with me as I proclaim your word, that you would accompany me with your spirit, and that Christ may be exalted in all that is said and done, that you would give us all ears to hear, to receive your word, O Lord. that your people would be built up, and that those who are outside of Christ would come unto you for salvation, that you may receive all of the glory, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In Christ's holy name, amen. As you all certainly know, today is regarded in our country and in the Western Church as Easter, marking the, traditionally, the day our Lord rose, and not to contend with That day, whether how accurate it is, regardless, many churches are often preaching on the doctrine of the resurrection, that Christ is risen from the dead. And many churches, as they teach on this, as they preach on this, they have various different interpretations of what this means. Some teach, especially of those who typically don't think the historicity of the resurrection, the fact that the resurrection actually happened in history, they don't think it's that important, so they say, it's about new beginnings. It's about putting your past in the grave and moving forward, and they will preach this moralistic message of saying that that's what the resurrection's about. It's about you can put your life behind you and you can live a new life, and you can live a changed life, and you have the Christ spirit living in you. Others who find that the historicity, that the resurrection actually happened in history, very important. Indeed, we as a church find it very important, but to the point where it's simply proving the resurrection, because if you can prove the resurrection, you can prove that Christianity is true. And they focus on proving the historicity of the resurrection in order to prove that, hey, Christianity's true and not atheism. And there's a place for that, and I'm not denying that. However, the scriptures does not focus on trying to prove that the resurrection occurred or not. It rather assumes it. It assumes that the resurrection has occurred. And we may have historical arguments, but that's not where the scripture focuses on. scripture doesn't focus typically on one thing that the resurrection means of what happened at the resurrection Romans refers to Christ's risen from the dead one because he's shown to be the Son of God with power and that he's risen again for our justification that the resurrection shows that Our sins have been definitively dealt with. On the cross, Christ died, not because he was a sinner, but because he bore the sins of his people. And he rose again, showing that the payment was accepted, the payment was fulfilled, that God's people have no more sins that they must suffer for. They're not waiting to suffer in purgatory for their own sins. Christ has done it, and the resurrection is proof that God accepted his sacrifice. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul points to the resurrection as proof that believers will rise from the dead, despite what certain radio teachers teach today, that because Christ's resurrection was a physical resurrection, therefore, believers' resurrection is a physical resurrection, it's not merely a spiritual resurrection. And so those are just some of the examples that the scriptures touch on in this multifaceted doctrine of the resurrection of Christ, of all that it means. However, this morning I'm gonna focus on what Paul teaches in the book of Acts before the Athenians, before the city of Athens. Namely, that the resurrection shows that there is a judge and there is a judgment day, which all men must stand before. and the resurrection is proof and evidence that God will judge the living and the dead. So we begin on verse 16, it says, Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, and just to give you context, this is Paul's second missionary journey, and if we look back, In verse 14 it says, And then immediately the brethren sent Paul to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. Speaking of Berea. And so they sent Paul to Athens and Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. And they conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timothy, for to come to him with all speed, they departed. So they sent Paul to Athens, and Paul comes to Athens, and when he comes to verse 16, he's waiting for Timothy and Silas to meet him there. It doesn't tell us the duration, how long Paul was in Athens, but it does seem that it may have been a month or so. And Paul may have been, he was a tent maker by trade, and so perhaps he was making an income there, and he was, as his custom was, he was preaching the gospel, particularly in the synagogues. But it says, when he's walking through Athens, his spirit was stirred in him. When he saw that the city was wholly given to idolatry, It is said that Athens at that time had so many idols that if you were to spit, you were more likely to hit an idol than you were to hit a man. That it was so given over to this idolatry, and Paul, knowing that there's only one true and living God, he looks at the world around him, he looks at the city around him, and he doesn't say, eh, they got their religion, I got my religion. No, he was stirred by the wickedness of the idolatry. I mean, we look at our own country, we look at our own nation. It is no better than Athens. We may not have little statues, but we have our own idols. We have our own things that we give reverence to before we give reverence to God. So Paul, seeing that the nation, the city, was given over to idolatry, says first he disputed in the synagogues with the Jews and with the devout persons that was his custom to the Jews first and also the Greeks and so Paul being a Jew being welcomed into the synagogues at least at that time usually when he would come to the city he would be able to preach in the synagogues for a certain duration and then they get fed up with him and kick him out and so When he came to Athens, he was able to preach in the synagogues to those who were religious, those who believed the Old Testament, those who believed the scriptures. At least they claimed that they believed the 39 books of what we call the Hebrew canon. and also with the devout persons, and those would be most likely proselytes, those who were not Jew by ethnicity, but they adopted, they possibly were circumcised, whether or not they were God-fearers or not, whether they were circumcised or not, but the point is, they did see that the God of the Jews, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the one true and living God, and so they rejected the idolatry of this world, And so Paul would teach and preach in their synagogues that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, that Christ is that seed who will crush the head of the serpent. And in verse 17 it says, and in the marketplace with them that met with him. Him teaching in the marketplace It's not like we think of being a street preacher in a farmer's market or in the mall. I'm not saying that you can't do those things, but in Athens. It was a place that was accustomed to public speaking. It was accustomed to teachers of philosophy, or oratory, being out in the public, seeking to make disciples unto themselves, seeking to, as other people are trading their physical wares, you have what has been called the marketplace of ideas. You have, and it comes from the Greek word here would be agra, which we still transliterate into English, It was not only a place where you'd sell your metalwork, where you'd sell your fabrics, but you'd also seek to sell your ideas. And so it was not this odd thing for Paul to be teaching in the marketplace. This was part of the culture. I mean, that's how Aristotle, who I'll touch on real quickly going forward, but When he taught, he taught, he was called a peripatetic because he walked around. So he taught in the open air. He walked with his disciples. He didn't teach in a lecture room or a classroom or in a formal building. He walked around. And then he'll mention the Stoics. The Stoics, that's not a name. The name for Stoic is not a name of the founder. It's the name for a portico, the name for a balcony in which they were accustomed to teach under. And so, being an open air teacher in this culture was not out of place, and so Paul uses that opportunity to teach, not vain philosophy of man, but the message of Christ, that Christ has come, that the God of the Jews is the one true and loving God, that God the Father sent God the Son to take on our flesh and to pay for the sins sinful man and that he will judge the living and the dead verse 18 then certain philosophers just touch on philosophers Athens as we hear that name the very famous city it is the home of Socrates Plato and Aristotle And when we read in the Bible, we can have this, when we think of the past, we think, okay, Julius Caesar, Moses, Plato, they're all kind of in the same era because they're way back there. We can't have a frame of reference. When Paul is teaching in Athens, Aristotle has been dead for over 300 years. And so, I mean, it's like talking about Jonathan Edwards in our own day. It was this great thinker. And then Aristotle, before Aristotle, Plato has been, or Socrates has been dead for over 400 years. And so it'd be like talking about John Cotton, the original inhabitants of America, the early Puritans that came to America. And so it's not as though they're contemporaries. It's a long history of Athens being a place and the Mecca, as it were, of philosophy, of thinking, of argumentation. Traditionally, it's understood that the Romans were good on politics and on war, but the Greeks were good on thought and on thinking. And so much of Roman philosophy is just taking Greek philosophy and helping themselves out with it. And so this is not like the Styx. This is like the city of academia. This is a place of thought. And they hear Paul's thoughts. And as we go through his description of action, I already touched on it, but I want to touch on it again as we discuss on the Epicureans and the Stoics. Our society, our culture that we live in is much more like Athens and it is like the synagogues of the Jews. I mean, the people we interact with, the people who even come on church on Easter, are much more of the thought patterns of Athens than they are the thought patterns of Jerusalem. And so as we read this, I mean, this is our mindset, and this is what we, when we go around in the world, this is the mindset of people. I mean, most people don't know the Bible anymore. Most people who even profess the name of Christ don't know the Bible anymore. And so, this is our society, very much so. He says, certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics, and listen to both of these philosophies and we'll see where they differ from the faith. the truth of God, and how they're very similar to much of our thoughts today. The Epicureans were strict materialists. They believed people don't, people think the atom was thought of in the 17th century, but no, the thought that everything is composed of atoms was something that went back to Greek philosophy. And Abakirians believed that, but to the point that they were strict materialists. They didn't necessarily believe in a spiritual world, it's all just material. And furthermore, they believed in God, they believed in gods, but they believed that God, the gods, are so beyond us, so transcendent, that they wouldn't even care how we lived. They're thinking about their own things. They're way beyond us. So we're not accountable to them. Not because they're not superior to us, but because we're so irrelevant. It's like we're, in their mindset, it's like we caring about how an aunt lives. We don't. We step on it and that's it. And so the Epicureans believe the gods, they're there, they exist, but they have no relevance to my life. Even to our day, people think that way. They won't go so far as to say I'm an atheist. Perhaps they'll say they're agnostic, or perhaps they'll say no, they believe in God, but it has no relevance to their life. God is far beyond them, they say, and so. He doesn't really care how I live. Maybe he just cares about the generality of how I live, not about the particulars of my life. As long as I have generally loved people, I'm good. And so the Epicurean's philosophy, though, because the gods are so beyond us and so transcendent, and this world is all that there is, it's just materialism, it's just atoms bouncing back and forth in a very random way, So how do you live? How do you live in that philosophy? It was eat, drink, and be merry. I mean, they believed in moderation, but moderation only in the sense of, you know, don't smoke a pack a day because you don't want to get lung cancer, but do whatever you can as long as you can stay healthy and live a long life because this is all there is. So live however you want. It's hedonism, but a more guarded hedonism than we think of today. And so, but it was, Pursue pleasure. Pursue the things of this world. The Stoics, on the other hand, which have a very different philosophy, but both of them are opposed to Christianity. The Stoics believe that the world is governed by an impersonal force. They would call it the logos, an order of reality. This isn't a force that you have to be accountable to. It's just, there is this order to the universe. God is in everything. God is this order. He's not someone, he's just the structure of how it all works. And so they were very much pantheists, believing that God is everything. God is this order and that it's almost as if God is the soul and the world is the body and he inhabits and he controls it but not in a personal way but in a very fatalistic mechanical way and so they wouldn't say eat, drink, and be merry, but they would say, submit to this order. Have apathy. Apatheia is the Greek for it. Have apathy. Don't put too much care into this world, because there's an order here. It's beyond you, and for you to stress about it is worthless and a waste of your time. So just Believe yourself and focus that there is an order. Things will work out in the end. Maybe not in your life, but in the end of the world. Things just kind of work out with them, and so don't stress about it. But that kind of mentality, that apatheia, is not because it's pleasing to God. It's just because it makes your life easier. Stress and frustration is pointless in that philosophy. And so both the Epicureans and the Stokes had that one thing in common. They had vastly different views of God. The Stokes believed God is everywhere. God is right here. God is in the order of society, in the order of the universe. Epicureans said, no, the gods are way out there. But both of them said, you're not accountable to God. The way you live doesn't matter. That's what they had in common. And so they hear of Paul preaching this God to whom all men are accountable to this God who created the heavens and the earth not that he needed it but no God created heaven and earth and a God to whom every man boy and girl is accountable and they encountered him what did they say again verse 18 and some said what is this babbler saying and that term babbler It's translated as like seed picker and it doesn't translate it here this way because you have to understand the context of it. But it's this idea of someone, we call them eclectic today in the sense that they just grab things from everything. We do that and many people do that in religion. Perhaps I grabbed, got this thing from Buddhism, I got this thing from Christianity, I got this thing from animism, and I just kind of grab everything and kind of create my own little thing where we do that in Christianity and we say, well, I want to be a Baptist, but let me grab this thing from Presbyterianism. Let me grab this thing from Methodism. Oh, I like the way Catholics worship. Let me grab that and just kind of form your own thing. Well, that's what they were accusing Paul of, some of them. They were saying, oh, maybe he's just like grabbing a bunch of philosophies. It sounds new, but it sounds, I hear certain themes that I've heard before. And so they think he's just grabbing things. And others, said, he seems to be a setter forth of strange gods. And they said, oh, he's teaching new divinities, new gods. Why? Because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. Most commentators believe that they had a grave misunderstanding of what Paul was teaching, and they thought Jesus was one god, and resurrection was another god, and that these are two new gods to add to their pantheon of gods. Jesus, which means salvation, and resurrection, which means resurrection, and say, okay, here's two new gods for us to add to all of the idolatry. But before we move on, notice that when Paul preached on them, he says he preached two things. He preached Jesus and the resurrection. I don't think that's all he said, obviously, but rather Jesus is to sum up the person of Christ, who he is, that he is the eternal son of God, that he is the eternal Logos, he's the one who has eternal communion with the Father. And he is man, he took on our flesh. And so, when he says he preached Jesus, he preached the person of our Lord Jesus. True God and true man. And then when he preached the resurrection, that's also shorthand for the work of Christ. That is the summation of, and the culmination as it were, of all that Christ has done for his people. And that was the summation of his message to them. who Christ is and what he has done. You move on to therefore how should you respond. Verse 19, and they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying may we know the what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is. And Areopagus is the same thing as Marcel. And so you'll see it transition in this text if you use an authorized version, but it's the same place. And it's basically a court in which they would try the individual, the new philosopher with his teaching and philosophy, and to judge him. And so Paul got enough attention to to be brought in this sphere where it's not just a few philosophers who are in the marketplace, but there's a plethora, a multitude of philosophers who are trying to hear him and judge him, and to see if this is a worthy philosophy, if this is a worthy new teaching, if this is a worthy new God to worship, to add to their pantheon. So they seek to judge him. They said, we may know what this new teaching, this new doctrine is, whereof thou speakest. for thou bringest strange things to our ears. It's interesting, he brings strange things to our ears. They saw certain things, because they thought he was grabbing from a different philosophy, and yet they did recognize there is something here that is different than all of our philosophies. There's something different. What Paul is teaching is not this, it's not Stoicism modified. It's not Epicureanism. It's not modified Platonism. It's not modified Aristotelianism. What he's bringing is something that the Athenians could not get by their own philosophy. The message that Paul brought cannot come from us musing about the world around us. Paul will point to things that we can understand about the creation, but the ultimate message of the gospel is not something that is formed in us privately sitting in our armchair, musing about creation. It's something that God has revealed and given. And for us, it's in this Holy Word. You can't just say, well, I can get the same thing out of philosophy. I can get the same thing out of Buddhism. The Athenians, the message they heard was something completely new. It was completely something other than what Plato and Aristotle taught. Seneca and all the other Greek philosophers. We would know whereof were these things mean, verse 21, for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell and to hear some new thing. And so they're putting him here and judging us, not because maybe this is true, but rather, oh, this is new, this is cool, this is a new idea, let us hear this. That's our own day, right? I'm not saying we should change some of these ethics, but to get a doctorate, you have to write a thesis, and you can't just write, your thesis cannot be, let me show you why John Calvin's doctrine was biblical. It has to be a new idea. It has to be, you have to, to get a doctorate, you have to write something, you have to write something novel. That's not just in academia that we are seeking something new, seeking something profound, seeking something that no one has ever heard. That's in religions. People are always looking for a new religion. despite what people think, Wiccan, the religion of Wiccan is not this revived old paganism, it's something that's completely made up, that no pagan would have recognized. And so people come up with these new religions, they come up with this spiritism, and it's just, let me do something new. In Christianity, we pursue the novelty as well, we say, what new way can we worship God with? What can we add to worship to increase my experience? How can I add something new to What God didn't know of, but this is, I like the novelty. I like the newness. Got new beliefs. I mean, again, look at Christianity. We don't have to go to the broader society. We can just look at Christianity. 27 years ago, we have the new perspective of Paul. Wow, here's a way no one has ever understood Paul before. Let's give that an interest. We have all these new ideas, denying the resurrection, denying all these other things. And we think, oh, this is cool, this is new. No one has ever said this before. And we just latch onto these teachers who teach something new. That's what the Athenians are like. The Athenians just wanted something new. They didn't care about truth. They didn't care whether or not this teaching will save their soul. They didn't care whether or not Jesus Christ would save their soul. They just said, hey, this is new. I'll try this out for a little bit. And if something new comes along, I'll try that out for a little bit. But I just want something new. I just want something fresh, something to liven up my life. And then, verse 22. We have Paul's message to the Athenians. We see if this comports with their teaching or is rather quite contrary to it. Paul stood before them in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Some translations will translate this as religious. And they say, because the word can mean either one. It can be a derogatory or it can be complimentary. And so their argument, the reason why some translate it as religious is they say, well, Paul's not trying to come off poorly to begin his speech. He's trying to butter them up. That's possible, but throughout his speech, he's not praising the religion of the Athenians. He's not praising the religion of Athens. He's not praising the Greek religion. Rather, he's saying how foolish it is. I mean, he will say things that are true, that they said, that taken out of their context are true, but by and large, he's saying, no, this is, This is false worship, and you should worship God, and you should know better. That's really what it says. So all that said, I do think superstitions, but regardless, it doesn't change the teaching. But he sees that they're very religious people. I mean, maybe we can't say that about America, but maybe we could. Notice, it's like, they do a lot of things about their worship. They attend pagan church, as it were. They do all these things. They're very religious. Verse 23, for as I pass by, I beheld your devotions. All your devotions is your items, your objects of devotion, those which you give adherence to. It's like, oh, you're religious, because there's countless of these. there's countless objects of your worship. But he found one altar that is going to be his starting point in speaking with the inscription to the unknown God. So in pagan religion, in the religion of Rome and Greece, And in polytheism as a whole, it was not like, okay, there are this many gods, and that's all there is. There's a certain set number. No, rather, in polytheism, in the religion of Greece, there are countless. In the religion of Rome, when Rome would conquer a nation, They wouldn't say, believe our gods, forget your gods. No, they say, okay, your gods are true, add your gods to our gods, and we just have a bunch of gods together. We just add on and add on and add on. The Romans believed all the stars above us are all the gods there are, you know, countless, countless. They think the stars were gods, which is why we call planets Jupiter and Mars. They come from the idea that those were the pagan gods. And so there are countless number of deities in that religion. But if there's countless numbers of gods, then surely you forgot one. Surely you gotta compensate, because what if there is a really powerful god that you forgot about? A god that can trump all the other gods, and you're not giving him reverence, and he comes and beats all your gods. And so they make an altar to the unknown god. just in case they missed one, just in case there is a God that is really powerful and that we want a reverence, but we don't know who he is. We haven't met that people who are worshiping this God, so we just add him onto our pantheon and worship him. And so, make sure he's not angry with us. And so if he comes to us and says, we didn't know who you are, but we did give you reverence. But Paul points to this, not as a, sign of piety, but as something that's written in the heart of man. He says that their worship of the unknown God is actually a sign that they know that all their little gods that they've come to are not the one true and living God. That there is a God that is beyond them. There is a God to whom they must point to and account. But it's a God they do not know. They do not know. They have changed the glory of the one true and living God for the worship of idols. And so, though they know him in the sense that they have the sense of divinity as John Calvin spoke of, but they do not know him. A man may know a certain individual. Someone knows Stephanie. They don't know her like I know her. And so they know of, that there is a God. They know of this ungodly God, but they don't know Him. They don't intimately know Him. They don't know Him in a saving way. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. He's saying, you worship, you pay reverence to this God, but you don't know who He is. You have no idea who He is, and so you don't know if you're pleasing Him or not. you ignorantly worship it. And just to touch on our own day, I think that's how many people are today, with Christianity and whatnot, is they don't know God, but they do these little things, they go to church occasionally, they do these little things, because just the chance that he might really exist, and I'm held accountable I did my thing. I did worship you. I did go to church. I did pray. I did read my Bible. I'm good, but they don't know Him. That's many, many today and many that come to church on Easter or Christmas or just a few occasions, but they don't know the one true and loving God, and so it's not that they go because they want to worship God. It's they want to clear their conscience. They don't want to They don't want to be held accountable in the end, so they can just point to whatever they did, even though they don't know who he is. And so perhaps they remain part of the Catholic Church, even though practically they're an atheist, but they do, they take Mass, they go to confessional every once in a while, and they do their religious thing, but they have no idea, and it's just fire insurance, just in case something happens, just in case there is really the God of Israel, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that's very much what the Athenians did. They just did their thing, appeased that area, and they lived however they want. But Paul says that that God that you do not know, that's the one I'm telling you about. And just to reflect on how they began, they said, he's teaching a new, an unknown doctrine. And Paul, when he says, this unknown God, this isn't just a new divinity. This is the one who created heaven and earth. Your gods have a time in which they did not exist, as it were, in the minds of men. You had to make a little idol, you had to come up with your god, and they had to worship, and there's a start date, whenever that was, even if it was a long time ago, there was a start date in which that god came into being. The god that Paul declared, the god that is of the scriptures, has no beginning, no end. He is the eternal god. Paul is not bringing a new doctor. He's bringing the God whose law is written on all the hearts of men. And so he begins after claiming that this is a God that I'm declaring, the one you do not know of. It's not Zeus, it's not any of these others. The one you do not know, he's the one I'm bringing to you. The God that made heaven The God who made the world and all things therein. He's bringing a crash course in theology proper, or the doctrine of God. Because they've clearly demonstrated they have no idea what God is like. And they have no idea who God is, so he's like, let me start from the beginning. This is the God I'm bringing before you. He is the God who made heaven and earth. He starts with Genesis 1-1. He's the one who's created all things. not through some random bounce of the molecules as the Epicureans would almost believe, not through this natural, necessary order that everything came into being as such as the Stoics would believe, but no, this is a God who is beyond creation, who is eternal, and by his own volition created heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. This is a personal God who makes, not something that simply proceeds out of him as the philosophers often thought about. He's a creator of all things, saying that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth in temples, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. So this is an immediate rebuke, because they have this little shrine to him. They have their little temples. They have the great temples of Athena and the temples devoted to Zeus, these massive temples. And Paul is saying, the God of maker of heaven and earth, he doesn't dwell in temples. He couldn't make a temple big enough for him. He's immense, he's beyond. The earth cannot contain him. The heavens cannot contain him. How much does your puny little pillars and massive statues, how do you think that will contain him? Sometimes people have this skewed idea of what it is a church building is and they think this is where God is because this is a holy temple, a holy building. Now God has promised to meet his people where they gather, but it's not in the sense that God is contained in a building. Not in the sense that God is confined to certain locations and then you can hide from God wherever that is. He has made all things and it cannot be contained. So not only has he rebuked the fact that they're making temples and thinking that they can contain their gods, but he also says, neither is worship with men's hands. He's not saying that, you know, our worship, there's physical aspects to it, right? The baptism of the Lord and so forth. He's not saying that, he's saying the idea of worshiping or serving as your, how paganism believed, is you're giving food to actually feed the gods, as if they need food. And so you're making this offering not as a sin atonement, but as a meal to appease them and to pay reverence to them. And so when he says he's not served with men's hands, and he clarifies as though he needed anything. And so that is telling of us, we may not make offerings, but we do certain things and treat God as a mercenary. If I give so much, God is indebted to do something for me, because I helped him out. If I pay for this, give to this charity, God is indebted to help me out, as if we can somehow earn God's favor, earn our acceptance. And as we saw on Sunday school this morning, Nothing, only the work of Christ can make us acceptable before God, and so that conception of trying to pay God, earn God's favor, is just foolish. God doesn't need money. He doesn't need your relationship. He doesn't need anything in creation. He doesn't need you, and that is so contrary to what we hear today. God made you because he was lonely. The scriptures say no. He doesn't need you. God isn't happier with you if you existed or not, in the sense that you somehow fill this void in His heart. We need Him, as Paul will say. He says, seeing that He gives life and breath and all things. And so it's not that God created us because He needed us, but we need God. We're dependent upon God. God saving us is not us being delivered from our sins and brought into fellowship with God is of no benefit to God as if he'd just be you know, 10% less happy if we did not save. No, but it is of great benefit to us that God, out of his abundant love and goodness, has delivered sinners, not because he needed us, but because we needed him. He's the one who gives all life. That's not how the Athenians thought. That's not how many Americans think. They think, God needs me, and so either I pay my reverence, or God is sad because, you know, you're not a Christian. He's up in heaven crying. No, he's a judge and you need him. Whoever you are, you need him. He doesn't need you. And Paul will point that out. Seeing he giveth all life to all things and hath made one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. And so God, not only made all of creation, but he's made man. He's made all races. There's not a multitude of races, and I know what we mean by that, but no, there's one race, there's human race, there's humankind, there's one man, and from them proceed all the various different races, and God is one who made them. God made all the various different nations. And not only did he make all the nations, but he has determined the times before appointed. So God not only made the nations, but he also determined Babylon is going to exist from this date down to the very minute, and it will cease to exist down to the very minute. He's created the United States to exist a particular minute, a particular second, and he's determined when it shall end in a particular second. God has determined even Rome and Athens. the duration in which it will exist he's also determined our times when we were people when we would die when Paul would be born Paul would die he has determined all these things he has it's not that's a random set of occasions now he's appointed this is important because this is a new doctrine this is a new teaching that the Athenians have never heard And that means he appointed that Plato be born in Athens and die in Athens without hearing the gospel. That means, as you say, he's also bound their habitations. that he has pointed some people, and just hear this, he's determined that some people would be born and die in an era in the land where they will never hear the message of Christ. That should have humbled us. That should have humbled us, because we're not in that era. We've all been born in an era, as we hear it today, this morning. We've all been born in an era and been put in a place where we hear the gospel. Not that we've earned it, not that we're more acceptable to other people. The Native Americans of America before the Pilgrims came and before that the Spaniards came, they've never heard the message of Christ. And before that, the Isle of Britain, the British Isle, which is where we come from, there were many years in which they were Druids, they were worshiping trees, and they'd never heard the gospel. All the same, that's not just some random chance of events. God has determined that. He has determined the bounds and the times in which people are born and to die. that they should seek the Lord, if happily they may feel after him and find him, though he be not far off." And so he's saying, and I want to clarify this as we move on, it's not that he's created them, he's created them without the gospel, but it's not that he hasn't revealed himself. He's revealed himself where? As Paul is pointing out, in creation. We know that there is a God and that we are accountable to this God. And Paul will elaborate in other portions, but we are sinners. We are not right with God. The only way to be made right with God is through the gospel. It's through Christ. But he says, that though they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from everyone. So he has revealed himself. He's not far from people. He has revealed himself in creation as a creator, not as a redeemer, but as a creator. And then he quotes a Greek poet, for in him we live and move and have our being. This is a demonstration that God has made himself evident unto mankind. Paul's quoting this and he's affirming this. that even the Greek poets know that we have our existence from him, that we have our origin from him, that in him we move, and not just he's the creator, not that he's just the clockmaker, but know that he also sustains us, he's both the creator and the sustainer. And Paul points to the Greek poets. This particular poet is Aretas, who is after Aristotle and there's about 250 years before Paul. And then he quotes him again. And he says, for we also are his offspring. And so in that passage, he's saying God has made himself known and here's you an example, for in him we live and move and have our being and we are his offsprings as your poets have said. So he's saying even your poets recognize that there is a creator God who sustains us and that we are his offspring in the sense that we reflect his image. So if they know this, does that mean that they can just work with the light that they have? People who perhaps Plato was saved, maybe he just worked with the light he had, and I was gonna say no. No surprises, no. Why? Because in the original context of these quotes, Eratos, the Greek poet, is not referring to the one true God of Israel. He's referring to Zeus. He's referring to this humanoid pagan deity who was a sexual deviant, who had a plethora of children that were not from his wife. That is who this Greek poet is saying, in him we live and move and have our being. And so Paul uses this one to say, there is this knowledge of God that man has, but then He distorts it. He corrupts it. Why? Because he hates one true and living God. I'll read Romans 1, verses 18 through 25. It's a lengthy quote, but it tells us what is going on. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest unto them. And so God has made it manifest. He has declared it. He has proclaimed it. For God hath shown it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead. And so Godhead could be translated divinity. And so Paul in Romans is saying, God has revealed that he is powerful and that he is God in creation. Again, he's not saying redemption is revealed, but that God is creator. for that they are without excuse and so that's that's the result of this revelation is not that it saves them but that they're without excuse as Paul is pointing out in Acts 17 because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise." That sounds like Greece. Sounds like Athens. They became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image made like unto corruptible man, to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. And so, God has revealed himself, his power and divinity in all of creation, and then takes that revelation and says, I don't like the God that that reveals, let me worship my own thing. And let me attribute all of these things that I see to this, to Zeus, to animals, to the creature, to man, to science. And so that this creation, It shows that they know God, but they do not know him. They don't know him in a real way, they hate him. And so they would rather give honor to such gods as Zeus, the sexual deviant, than the one true and living God. And so this creation that Paul is pointing to, this evidence that God has made himself known, serves to condemn them, not to redeem them. not to save them, but it shows they have no excuse. For as much then as we are the offsprings of God, so he's touching back on verse 29, he's touching back on that quote that he gave of the poet who said that we were the offsprings, though he meant it of Zeus, Paul saying, but we are the offsprings or the image of the one true God. We ought not to think that the Godhead or the divinity is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's devices. And so, because we do know God, it's showing this, the folly of their religion. They should know better than to worship God in the way they're worshiping. They should know better than to attribute these things to Zeus. The man is in sin, would much rather worship Zeus than to worship a God who is perfect, who is holy. They much rather worship an adulterer, such as Zeus, than to worship one who is perfect, pure, good, righteous. Verse 30. By the times of this ignorance, God went down. And this ignorance that he's referring to is this time in where God is revealed, worship is corrupted, but there's no message of a Redeemer. And so, again, this should be humbling when we think about it. He's not saying that they got a free pass, that people born before proclamation, people who were born and died before they heard the news of Christ are saved. He's not teaching that. But he's saying that God left the nations. to themselves. He didn't bring the message of salvation. He just left them to themselves. He left, as I said, Plato to himself. He left many of the Native Americans before the coming of the colonies. He left Rome to itself for many years. And he didn't send a preacher. Christopher Hitchens, I'm not quoting perfectly, but he said, you know, he's a famous atheist who died of cancer a few years back. But he said, if Christianity is true, why did God do so much in basically the armpit of society? But God did that. He refrained his revelation primarily to the little land in Palestine. He left many nations, a majority of the world, to their own sins and simply worked for the little nation of Palestine, apart from a few examples you see. He left much of South Africa, much of Europe, much of Asia, the Americas, just to do their own thing. That's not a good thing, that's a bad thing, because they never heard the message. You know, bad thing for them. But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Since the resurrection of the Lord, since the coming of the Messiah, God has now sent the message of the gospel, sent his apostles to preach the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation. So, he did leave the Athenians to themselves. to wander in their darkness, but now in his goodness and the richness of his love, he sent his Messiah to die, not just for Jews, but also for Greeks, and Romans, and Native Americans, out of his mercy. But notice, just the, again, how this should humble us, because we are not born in a time of ignorance. We are not born in a time where we do not hear the gospel. the Athenians, by God's mercy. Their fathers, their grandfathers, died in a time when they never heard the truth of Christ. But now, Paul is here preaching at Mars Hill, proclaiming the Messiah. Verse 31, because he has appointed a day. Here is the heart of his message. He was pointing to the folly of their ways, the folly of their worship, and now he says that God has now commanded every man to repent once, because he is given a day. He's appointed a day. There's a day on God's calendar, as it were. There is a day, there's an appointment that all men must come to. There's an appointment where no one will be absent, no one will miss it, no one will be late. God has a day on his calendar. And what will he do on that day? He says he'll judge the world in righteousness. A judgment of the world in righteousness is by the standard of God's righteousness, by the standard of God's law. And anyone who does not have a perfect obedience to that law will stand to condemn Anyone who is not either, they have to stand in their own sinful works, they must stand in Christ's works. The point is, there's a day when everyone, we see it in the book of Revelation, we saw it a few weeks ago, that there is a judgment in which those who are not written in the book of life shall be cast into eternal darkness, because they'll be judged by their own works, not because God is unjust. There will be a judgment. And who will be the judge? The one by that man whom he has ordained. He has appointed a judge, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, a certainty. A certainty that there will be a judgment day. We don't have to doubt that there's gonna be a judgment day. We don't have to doubt whether or not God is going to call us into account. Why? Because Christ is risen. Christ is judge. He's appointed him as a judge. He's appointed Christ as a judge. He's not going to say, I know your perfect work, you've accomplished salvation, but I've decided not to judge the world. No, the judge is risen. The judge has accomplished his work. The certainty is in there, in that he raised him from the dead. The resurrection leads to the ascension of the son of David. So after Christ rose on the third day, 40 days later, he ascended into heaven. That ascension is not simply a waiting period, that's him assuming the throne as king and judge and priest. In an exalted sense, this is exaltation. And so his resurrection gives proof that the judge is awaiting the judgment. The judge is sitting. at his, with the gavel in his hand, he's sitting on his throne, ready to judge all the nations. And so what was the response? So Paul said, at one time, God left you to your paganism. He left you to this folly, this foolishness, but now today, he has sent his son to die for the sins of his people. He has rose him, he has resurrected him from the grave, and he has seated him. He's seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and then from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. And so he's looking at the Athenians. How contrary is this to the philosophy of the Athenians, where it's It's just an abstract philosophy. Paul was looking at them and saying, no, you're gonna have to stay in your account. You're gonna have to stand before that judge. You're gonna have to give an account for your life, wherever you are. And the message is here today in your hearing. And when they heard the resurrection of the dead, and they heard that, just wait a second, The God of heaven and earth sent his son, true God and true man, took on our flesh, died for the sins of his people, rose again, and in their mind, it stopped them. That was too much. Okay, yeah, you can speak that there is this God that we don't know of who's created all things, but now you're speaking of this God that whom we are accountable to, this God who cares for how the way we worship him. This God who cares for the way we live. That's too much. I like to keep God at a distance. I like to keep God at an abstract philosophy and let me just do my little religious thing and let me not think too much about it. As long as I do my little things, I may not think too much about it. So they stop at that resurrection, that great offense of the cross. And it gives us several responses. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, we have three responses. Remember in Mark 4, when it speaks of the various different heroes of the gospel, that some fall on the roadside and that Satan, which is a sparrow, comes and picks up the seeds. Some fall upon the thorny ground and they grow up, but the cares of this world choke them. Some fall on the rocky ground, they spring up, really quickly and then diminish and some fall on fruitful ground. We see such things here. When the gospel is proclaimed, when the truth is expounded, not everybody receives it the same way. Not everybody receives the truth the same way. And so you have some who mocked. And others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. how be it certain men clave unto him and believed among them which was Dionysus the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. So you have three different heroes, the ones who mocked, the ones who said, I'll hear this again, and then those who clave unto the apostles. And so that's how I'll close this morning with closing application is on these heroes because most likely there's some of these heroes here today. Perhaps you're one of those heroes. We're all one of those heroes, but which one are you? So some here are like those who mock. They mock today because they say, well, since the scientific revolution, we can no longer believe the claims of the gospel. We can't believe that there is a God who raised Jesus from the dead because of science, because science has disproven that. Science could disprove a miracle. But here's the thing that we see there, and for you, if this is just mockery, is that that's not new. People have always hated the gospel. It's not a new thing. The Athenians hated the gospel. The unbelieving Jews hated the truth of the gospel. Men have always mocked that there is a God whom they're accountable to. So don't think that this is a novel idea that we as mankind since the enlightenment have matured past beyond the belief of God, matured past that we no longer can believe the Bible because we're too grown up and mature for that. It's not a new teaching. It's not a new belief. But notice too that that's not a new belief. So too, what Paul teaches here is that even though that they mobbed, it does speak that there is this witness that God has left in creation. And you know in your conscience that you're accountable to God. You know that you have to stand on account of the way you live before God. You know that you have not lived the life that God requires. This tinged conscience, this pricked conscience is not something that is because you were raised in a Christian home or anything like that. It's not because God has written the work of the law in the hearts of men. And he is telling you that you will have to stand in account. You will have to give an account for your life. Man, woman, boy, or girl, you have sinned against the most holy God. But as God would have it, this morning you're under the gospel. You've just, the Athenians, as we pointed out, God's sovereignty. God could have made you born in a year 700 years ago in the same land. You would have heard nothing. But as it would have, God has decided and God is determined by his most wise counsel to have you born, to live, and to come here today. You have heard the gospel. When the gospel is proclaimed, God offers peace. God says, here is the message of salvation. Here, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, it is as if God's speaking through the minister of his word, be reconciled unto God. that God has offered you priests, that you cannot stand on that judgment day clothed in your own righteousness. You cannot stand on that day clothed in your own religiosity of what you've done, of how many church services you have performed, whether or not you've been baptized. You can't stand on that. You must stand alone on the righteousness of Christ. You must turn to the judge, the one who will judge you. And he says, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, he will give you peace. Come to Him for the pardon of your sins, trusting only that He can cleanse you, not your own performance, not your own religiosity, not the way you raise your children. That can't make you right before God. Psalm 2 says, kiss the Son, pay reverence to the Son, seek the Son. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way. When His wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are they that put their trust in Him. And he says, Turn unto Him or be judged by Him. He offers you life. The other set of hearers, there's some that would say, who would like to hear this matter again? They don't necessarily, oh, there's nothing in that, that's all false, that's just old lifestyle, that's just that old religion or whatever they say. No, they say, no, there may be truth to that. I see the folly of this world. I see that in a way, whether it's the political left or what's coming out of colleges, you see, man, that's messed up. Christianity makes a lot more sense. Or you see that the ethic of Christianity, I can admire that ethic. I can admire that Judeo-Christian ethic. I'm not ready to turn to Christ, but I'll give a year to Him. Paul, the scriptures remind us that God has appointed a day in which we will stand before the judgment day, whether He takes our life or that our Lord returns in glory. The point is, you don't know that day. And so, constantly saying, well, there may be something into it, but I don't know if I really want to trust Christ today. I don't really know if I want to follow Christ. I just want to keep it an arm's distance, keep this, you know, whether it's right-wing Christianity or conservativism, but I don't want to be a follower of Christ. You don't know when your life will end. You don't know if you will die today. You don't know when our Lord will return. And so it's folly to just postpone it. God knows today, but we cannot. And so today, while you can hear his voice, heart and after heart, as the Israelites did in the wilderness, I turn unto him for life. And lastly, I'll touch on those who've heard and claimed. They clave unto Him and believed, and those would be true believers. Those who hear the message of a judge and says, I need that righteousness. I need that Savior. I cannot stand on that judgment day on my own. I need Christ. And they cleave to Christ. They cleave to the teaching of the apostles. They cleave to the teaching of scripture because they know here are the words of life. So what can we learn from this? The main application I'd say is be comforted. As I touched on in the Bible study, that the one whom will judge us is also the one who redeemed us. The one who is risen from the dead and is appointed a judge of heaven and earth is also the one to whom all true believers are clothed in his righteousness. They're clothed in his perfect life and not our own. sinful life, the life that we lived before Christ and even the marked good works that we have today, that even the best of our works are marked with sin. To those who are in Christ, that judge is also our redeemer. and rejoice also that in his sovereignty, in his mercy, that we have been born in a country and born in a society where we did hear the gospel, whether we heard it when we were older or heard it when we were younger. It was out of his mercy. It was various providences that would lead to all the different nationalities here today. It is all on the sovereignty of God. And then the last application I'll point to for believers, is rejoice that when the gospel is preached, men and women are being converted. Dionysius the Areopagite, and Damaris, who is a woman, and others with her. That when the gospel is proclaimed, God is saving sinners. God is delivering those who are captivated in darkness and brought into his glorious light. And so we would rejoice. Rejoice in God's mercy towards us and rejoice that he is still having mercy on sinners. And he's still saving people from lands as Athens who have never heard this new doctrine. Who's never heard the message of Christ. God is saving sinners in those very areas. So he's saving people in our own nation today.