Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Acts chapter 17. Acts 17. Let's have a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank You this
evening that we can be here again. Lord, it's so refreshing to be
able to come and to have even the anticipation of what you
will, by your Spirit, say through your Scriptures. We ask your
blessing and help on the preaching and the hearing. We pray that
you teach us, by your Spirit, of the things concerning yourself. And these things we ask, For
Christ's sake, amen. The Apostle Paul, and I'll be
actually starting in verse 17, Acts 17, 17, but coming up to
that passage. The Apostle Paul in the 16th
verse had come from Berea. And he came ahead of Silas
and Timothy, escorted by a group of believers that were there
in Berea. And they dropped him off in Athens. And he sent for Silas and Timothy
to come be with him there. And while he was waiting on his
two friends, these preachers, he saw, the Scripture says, when
his spirit, in verse 16, was stirred in him. That is, when
the Spirit of God stirred his new spirit, man born of God. possesses a new spirit, a new
heart, that spirit wherein the Spirit of God dwells. And that
spirit, that new spirit, was stirred when he saw the city
holy, completely, totally given to idolatry. Now you know, I
began to think on that, that here was a city, Athens, and
we're going to see in a few minutes that it was a very affluent city. But here was the thing that was
obvious to Paul. And this is the state of every
city in this world where there is no witness of the gospel in
it. It's wholly given to idolatry.
Where Almighty God has raised up a church, a place where the
gospel of free grace is preached, there's a candlestick there.
But where there is no witness, that city is summed up just like
Athens was. It's wholly given to idolatry.
Very prosperous, very prominent, very affluent, whatever you want
to say. But where there is no gospel,
the only thing that's left is idolatry. You may hear religious
rhetoric in these places. I'm not saying there's no churches.
I'm not saying there's no preaching going on, but it's not the gospel
of free grace if the Lord hasn't raised it up. Now, I can start
just naming. I mean, I've not been in West
Virginia that long, and I can start naming places that I could
say, because there's no obvious that we know, that I know of,
witness of the gospel there, that it's given to idolatry.
That's what they're doing. They're worshipping an idol.
Well, Scott, what are they doing? They're worshipping a false god,
an idol of their mind. That's what they're doing. Holy
giving to idolatry. Well, knowing that the only help
that this place would ever have would be the proclamation of
the gospel. And here's the Apostle Paul. This man right here who is an
earthen vessel, and he holds a treasure in that earthen vessel,
the gospel within him. And here he is with the most
precious vessel that a man would ever hold, a treasure that he
held within himself, and he's in the midst of thieves and robbers,
those that would do nothing more than attempt to rob God of His
glory and honor. He's standing there, and the
Scripture says, being stirred within himself, therefore, because
of that, verse 17, Therefore disputed he in the synagogue
with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market daily
with them that met with him." He went to the place. There was obviously a synagogue
there, but there was no gospel there. He went to the place that
made claim to believe and trust in the God of the Scriptures.
There they were. They held to the law. And they
saw themselves. They had that attitude like the
Pharisee and the publican when the Pharisee said, I thank you
God that I'm not like that man. He saw himself as being somebody. Paul went where they said they
believed. And there he preached the Lord
Jesus Christ. and Him crucified. He went into
that synagogue and preached in the place that God providentially
opened for Him to preach. He went to there. Not only did
He preach in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons,
the probably affluent Gentiles, but also in the market daily
with them that met with Him. He preached where He could. Now, He had passed some cities
before we looked at where the Spirit of God would not even
let him stomp. And I will tell you this, there's
a good end, and we'll go through a few verses, not tonight, but
God will call out some believers. He'll call out of darkness some
in this place. But they're not a parrot yet. So Paul is doing what he could. He preached where the gospel
was in his mind. would be the best place to start
preaching. So verse 18, it says, Then certain
philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered
him. And some said, What will this
babbler say? Others, some, he seemeth to be
a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them
Jesus and the resurrection. Now, you know, As I read that,
just reading and knowing, just finding out a little bit about
these Epicureans and these Stoics, these philosophers, those that
pursue, this is what philosophers, this is what it means, those
that pursue wisdom are learning. You know, much learning gives
men a false sense of security. They think they know it all. They think, you know, much learning. Who are you to tell me? Evidently, you don't realize
who I am. Epicureans. Paul met with these folks when
it says that they met with him and encountered him. It means
they met with Him in kind of a haphazard way. Hey, we understand,
by the way, that you've been over in the synagogues and the
marketplaces. And what we've heard about you
seems to us to be that you're setting forth a strange God.
And we would like for you to come and meet with us. Now these
Epicureans and the Stoics both, these philosophers, they were
two groups that loved a good debate and they wanted and cherished
someone, anyone that didn't agree with them. We're just looking
for you. You know, a believer is not looking
for a fight. He's not. I want to preach the
gospel. I don't want to argue. There's
nothing going to come out of arguing. That's why a lot of
folks I know, Gary, I've told you there's someone best advice
that I could ever give somebody. They said, you know, I've got
a friend. I've got this, that person that
I know. And I've been trying to, I said, the best thing to
do is invite him to come because I've got a brother Scott's got
about 45 minutes and we're not here to debate. But this was
the way that they liked to do it. And so Paul the Apostle,
he came and he met with them there. And when they encountered
them, they debated. It was a question and answer
session. And the first group that they
met with was the Epicureans. Now, I had to look this up because
I'll be honest with you, I didn't know what Epicureans believed.
I didn't know what Stoics believed. I just looked it up. So this
is what I found. Number one, the Epicureans. They denied a
future life. They said this is it after this. There ain't nothing after this.
They denied a future life and they claimed that pleasure was
a man's enjoyment. That was the chief thing to be
gotten out of this life. Let's eat and drink and be merry
because tomorrow we're going to die and it's not going to
make any difference whatsoever, whatever you do, let's go for
all Augusto that we can, because we only go around this thing
one time. Well, you know, the way I see
it is that every unbeliever believes that too. An unbeliever, if you
ask them, do you really believe? that after this world, after
this life, that there's going to be judgment. Well, they really
don't believe that. Because if they really believed
that they were going to stand before God Almighty, and Almighty
God was actually going to put them in hell. And I'm not talking
about how men stupidly joke about this. They'll say, well, that's
where all my friends are going to be, so that's where I'm going.
That's all funny right now. But I'm telling you, they don't
really believe. They don't believe that there's
going to be a... So really, basically, all unbelievers
are Epicureans. I mean, what difference does
it make? Let's just have the best time we can have. And don't
worry about it. I don't know why you people want
to make such a big deal out of going to church all the time
and stuff like that. Listen, there's more to life,
they say, than going to church. The Stoics. This group believed
that a man's chief end was to be virtuous. Now they believed
in God, but they believed that their acceptance with God was
based on how good they are. A Stoic. They taught that a man
can absolutely master his own emotions, his passions, and if
he's virtuous enough, he doesn't think anything bad. He doesn't
do anything bad. He just works on establishing
himself a righteousness. You know, when I look at those
two philosophies, I think man, apart from regeneration, thinks
like that too. He really doesn't believe that
there's a hereafter, but bottom line is, don't worry about it,
because I'm just as good as the next guy. I'm really, I'm really
not that bad. I haven't killed anybody. I've
knocked off any banks. You know, I really, I do the
best I can. I help people cross the street
when I can, and I try not to lie any more than I have to.
But seriously, I'm just as good as you are. They have no earthly
idea how they stand before God Almighty apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, these men, Epicureans and
Stoics, they heard something about what Paul was saying. And
they said, you know, what will this babbler say? Now, if you
have in the margin here, you may see where it says babbler,
it's a base fellow. And that's true, that is true. But there was a few other that
I thought was real interesting interpretations of that when
they call him this babbler. The first one was a seed picker. What they accused him of, like
a bird that would just come around and just kind of, you know, I
think I'll take a little bit of this and I'll take a little
bit of that and I'll take a few of these. I'll tell you, just
a seed picker. He didn't see the big picture
is what they were saying. They saw Paul as being no more
than a trifler, a loafer, kind of a traveling mercenary type
person. He's setting forth a strange
God. They looked at him as like the
scourge of society. Nothing's changed. That's how
this world and its educated attitude, they look at God's people, God's
preachers especially, as nothing more than just loafers, triflers,
seed pickers. That's all they are. And the
reason that Paul's message was to them a set-aforth of a strange
God, it means new and unheard of to them. It was who Paul preached. He preached unto them Jesus and
the resurrection. Now, when you take what was just
said, Jesus and the resurrection, you say, well, everybody believes
that. Everybody believes Jesus and the resurrection. No, they
believe that they've heard of it and they believe that historically
it probably happened. But what Paul was preaching here
was this, that Almighty God before the foundation of the world had
a people that He chose in Christ, in His Son, the surety, the representative,
the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. And
God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, made flesh, came in the form
of sinful flesh, but without sin and lived perfectly before
the law of God for His people and went to Calvary and died
under the judgment of Almighty God as the representative and
the substitute of the elect. And God put away their guilt
in Christ and He died under the judgment of God and was buried. And God raised Him, accepting
what He had done and thereby setting forth that God had justified
all that He died for eternally. That's a strange God to this
world. I've never heard that before.
I've never heard. You're preaching that strange
doctrine that, you know, have you ever noticed every time someone
speaks of that, of the truth of the Gospel, what men refer
to as Calvinism, it's always with a slur. It's always with
a, you know, well, I'll tell you what. As long as, you know,
that old predestination stuff. Always with that estranged God. Estranged God. He preached Christ
and Him crucified. Him, Paul proclaimed. He is the true and living God. He is the God from heaven by
the determinate counsel of God Almighty that came into the world
to seek and to save that which was lost. His people. That's
what he was preaching. Well, verse 19, they took him
and they brought him unto Areopagus saying, may we know what this
new doctrine whereof thou speakest is. Paul was brought to the highest
court. that the Athenians have, Areopagus,
Mars Hill, that's what it was. They brought him to the Supreme
Court of the city and they were going to sit there and they were
going to hear about this new doctrine, this unheard of instruction,
like it was a novel thing. It may be brand new to them. It may be something that they're
never hearing of, that they don't understand, but I'm telling you
that this message This Gospel that we're preaching tonight,
that men are referring to as that new Gospel, that new message,
this is the oldest message that has ever been preached. This
is the message that God Almighty preached in the garden. This
is the message. When Adam and Eve fell in the
garden and the Lord killed the animals and took the skins and
made a covering for them, what He was saying is He was preaching
Christ the substitute slain, that they would have a covering
for their nakedness. The gospel is not new. All of these other false religions
that men have come up with. I mean, you can go back in history
and start finding out. I mean, you can start picking
out. If you want to take, you know, Mormonism or free willism. You know, Finney and that group
right there. That started at a point. making
decisions and walking down aisles. There was a beginning. Not this
message. This message is the gospel, the old past. The gospel of God's free grace.
What they're saying is, we want to know about this new doctrine
that you're talking about. Why? Verse 20, For thou bringest
certain strange things to our ears, and we would know thereof
what these things mean. preaching a message, that word
strange there, it means shocking. Shocking. Surprising. You're telling me? What you're
saying is that Almighty God is in control. That's what you're
saying. What you're saying is that God
Almighty rules and reigns and that He does as He will in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
men are at His disposal. That's shocking to us. We thought
that this message, it was spiritual. And it exalted the Lord Jesus
Christ. I challenge any man to show me
any message except the Gospel of free grace. The Gospel of
God that is consistent. Robin, they're all inconsistent.
Every message except the Gospel is inconsistent. You cannot. I've mentioned this so many times.
I know Brother Scott has. I've probably heard him say it.
But you take a message where a man says that God wants to
save everybody. Then I would tell you that if
He doesn't, then God's a failure if that's what He wants to do.
No, they said, no, I mean, he wants to do it and he's made
it available. But he said, you've got to choose. Then I said, then salvation is
by works, your works. No, no, no. Salvation is by grace. God graciously offers it. I said,
yeah, but you have the last word. That makes you the final word. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. God
died for everybody. He died for all of men's sins.
Then I said that if the Lord sends anybody to hell, he's unjust.
Christ has already paid for all their sins. Nothing makes sense
except the Gospel. Nothing is consistent. That message
that gives honor to Almighty God and puts a man in a position
as being a needy sinner, sinner in Need of salvation. That message was new to their
ears. We'd like to hear. We'd like
to hear about this. You know, for a believer, he
judges all things according to the Scripture. And he bows to
God's Word. Now these men, listen to this.
These men, the Scripture says in verse 21, All the Athenians
and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else
but either to tell or to hear some new thing." You know, that's
why they gave Paul a hearing. Because it was strange to them. It was intriguing to them. It
was different to them. It wasn't because they thought
that it was an issue of life and death. It wasn't because
they believed that's God's Word. It was just something new. I think whenever we started the
book of Revelation, I think when people first hear, you're going
to be preaching on Revelation. You know, we're going to be having
a week of revival meetings, and we're going to preach on the
book of Revelation. Well, they think that we're going
to come up here and put some charts, you know, back behind
here, and I'll have some pictures, and I'll have some demons, and
we'll have some locusts flying with stingers and stuff like
that. And it's all of that real mystical stuff. You know, tell
me about all that mystical stuff that's going to happen. Tell
me about that dragon that's got those, you know, ten heads and
stuff like that. Man, that's what I want to hear
about. But you know, when you preach Christ out of the book
of Revelation, they think, well, you're just saying the same thing
that you say every other time. I said, that's all a believer
wants to hear. You don't want to hear some new
thing. You don't want to hear some strange thing. You want
to hear Christ and Him crucified. That's all you want to hear.
These men did nothing else but sit around and think to themselves,
we're going to hear something that just satisfies our intrigue,
our emotion. Man is a God little g, a little
g God worshipper. They wanted to hear some new
thing. You know, because in the next
passage right here, Paul had when he was there at Mars Hill.
He passed by and he saw all of these devotions, these gods that
they had there in Athens where there was nothing but totally
given over to idolatry. There were gods everywhere. In
fact, I read where there were more gods, statues, than people
in Athens. More gods. And then there was
that one to the unknown God, but we'll look at that next time.
But man loves to worship a little g-god. A little one. Deuteronomy 32, 17 says, they
sacrificed unto devils, but not to God. It says, to God's little
gee whom they knew not. To new God's little gee that
came newly up whom your fathers feared not. Men love change in
their gods. In 2 Kings 16.10 it says, King
Ahaz went to Damascus to meet, and I'll just try to say this
name, Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, and saw an altar
that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the
priest the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it according
to all the workmanship thereof. He went there and he saw him
a new god. And he says, God, I want a god
like that. I don't have one of those. Man,
that's nice. I like that. Oh, y'all speak
in tongues? Oh, we don't do that. You know,
I'd like to try that. That looks really, really neat.
I like that. Oh, y'all do this? I think I'll
just try that. And when I get tired of this,
I'll find me another place." Not a believer. Not a believer. The Lord In Jeremiah 6.16 it
says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see and ask
for the old paths. Where is the good way? And walk
therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. You know what
a believer wants? This is what a believer wants.
I want to hear the same thing that I heard when God called
me out of darkness. I want you to tell me one more
time, as I've said before, you tell me one more time how Almighty
God had mercy on my soul. Tell me one more time how the
Lord has put away my guilt in a substitute. And that Almighty
God has never looked to me for satisfaction before the law.
That He totally looked at my Savior He looked at him and he
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And
if he's well pleased with him and he's chosen me in him, meaning
he looks at me totally in my representative. If he's totally
pleased with him, then he's pleased with me. If he's died for me
and put away my guilt, and oh how often I can think during
the day how much I failed Him. If He's satisfied with Him, and
I am accepted in the Beloved, I don't want to hear anything
else. Don't tell me anything else. I don't want to hear. I
want to hear of Christ. I want to hear of Him. Malachi
3.6, who speaks of the One that doesn't change. I'm the Lord.
I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. To all the sons of Jacob, the
objects of God's mercy, the elect that God is all together and
everlastingly loved. God has decreed, God has ordained,
God has purposed to show mercy and compassion and has established
an everlasting covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ for the remnant. The remnant according to the
election. And he will save his own. He who never changes, he's going
to save his own. Paul was in a place where all
they wanted to do was debate. Debate. Paul was there to preach
Christ. He was there to set forth the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that he did. And I will tell
you the good news just on a closing note. At least two that I can remember.
Maybe more, but there was two that I can remember that God
called out of darkness out of that city of Athens. The Lord
had some sheep there. And were God's pleased to send
the Gospel, there's some sheep. I'm convinced there's some of
God's sheep here tonight. And who knows? Maybe some that
the Lord hasn't called out yet. It may be your son. Maybe your
daughter. Maybe your sister, brother, son,
daughter. Maybe so. I pray so. Maybe God
might be pleased. Peradventure, He might show mercy. Well, I pray the Lord bless this
message to our heart and be it to our encouragement and to His
glory. We're going to have our closing
word of prayer in just a moment. And I'm going to have Gary come.
I want to sing closing hymn tonight. And then we'll have a closing.
But we're going to have, right after this service, We're going
to have just a little few minutes of fellowship over in Fellowship
Hall. Everybody that can, if you can't
stay, I understand. But we have a few minutes of
fellowship right after the service, and so if you can, let's just
stay. Okay, Gary, come lead us in a
closing hymn. Have you already picked one out? Let's sing the first and last
verse of 222.