Everyone is a philosopher of
some sort, everyone has a wisdom of some sort. These were the
best of the best and Paul speaks to them. He talks about their
ignorance and then he declares, see God is declared God is not
offered to people, He's declared to people. He declares Him. In
verse 24, God, that made the world and all things therein,
seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, He dwelleth not in
temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands,
as though He needed anything. seeing He giveth to all life
and breath and all things, and is made of one blood, all nations
of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined
the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.
For in Him we live and move and have our being. A certain also
of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the God it is like
under gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, God tolerated, but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. The nearness of our God is so
near, And yet we see him as so far away in the garden when we
fell in Adam. What did we do? We did two things
that man in his wisdom always does. One, we robed ourselves,
we cover our shame by our own works. They stitched fig leaves
together, they made aprons for themselves of fig leaves. What
else did they do? They hid from God. They hid from God. And man, for
the rest of this Earth's time, will do exactly the same things.
They'll hide from God, and they'll cover their shame with the robe
of their own working. But the Gospel comes. It comes
to people like them. And it comes as good news, not
good advice. It comes as a command and a proclamation. So it's not a call to debate.
Paul didn't go up to the Areopagus there with these philosophers
to have a debate with them. He says, I've come here to declare
something to you. And when I've declared it, I'm
going to tell you what the command of God is. And I'm going to leave
that in the hands of God. And the wonderful thing is that
when God commands, God's commands in the lives of his people are
his promises. They are. When God commands to
his children, they are his promises. The God that's presented in this
modern world is a pathetic wimp, isn't he? A God who tries. A God who's done his best. A God who can do all sorts of
remarkable things until he comes up against this mighty, powerful
force that holds him back. man's will and man's wisdom. Isn't that remarkable, isn't
it? Any of you who have thought for a minute about how strong
your will is, you'd be horrified at the thought that in modern
religion the will of man is omnipotent over the will of God. What nonsense! When have you ever, when have
you ever carried out your will in any sort of a way whatsoever? that God is declared, God is
declared, and God is manifest in this declaration. I want to
keep reminding you, this is the Lord Jesus Christ that has commissioned,
and sent, and instructed, and determined where Paul would go,
and who he will speak to, and he's determined who will hear,
when they will hear, how they will hear, and how they will
respond. That's our God. He creates. That's why He begins,
doesn't He? He begins in verse 24 of Acts
17, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
He is Lord of heaven and earth. He's Lord of heaven and earth.
You can't put Him in a temple. A temple is too small for him. It's an insult to the glory of
God to think that you can put him in a temple. He dwelleth
not in temples made with hands. That word Lord of heaven means
it is the owner and the absolute possessor. This world is his. He made it all. He rules it all. He reigns over it all. So these
Epicureans and Stoics in this place were like the modern philosophers,
weren't they? The Epicureans held that matter
was eternal. But our God says that matter
had a beginning and had a beginning with God. God didn't create this
world because he was in need. God didn't create this world
because he was deficient in any way at all. He created this world
that his glory would be manifest. He's created all this for the
manifestation of his glory. The creation was good. The creation
was made for relationship. They heard Genesis 3.8. They
heard Adam and Eve. They heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. He spoke
to them. The Lord Jesus Christ created
them. They were made in the image of
God. They were made in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are a picture of him in his church, which is why marriage is so significant. Eve was taken out of the side
of Adam, close to his heart. to be a help meat for Him. It's
a picture of the Bride of Christ being taken out of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All of this creation speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and
His Bride. You can't contain this God in
a building is what Paul says. He's Lord of heaven and earth
and He's not going to dwell in the works of men's hands. It's
in this creation that God draws near to his own. What were his
words to Adam after the fall? Adam didn't have any words, did
he? But God spoke. Adam, where are you? He wasn't
asking a question because he was deficient in knowledge. He
was calling Adam to himself. God made all things in this world. God that made the world and all
things in this world. He's not worshipped, verse 25,
with men's hands as though he's needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. Everything that's in
this creation, everything that you have, is a gift from God.
The water you drink, the air you breathe, the heart that beats,
the mind that thinks, everything is his. He doesn't need anything,
but he's a giver. And we spoke about that last
week, he's a giver. God is revealed. is revealed to the consciences
and to the hearts of all of Adam's fallen people in two things.
He's revealed in creation, the heavens declare the glory of
God, and he's revealed in your consciences. You know when you
lie that it's wrong. You know when you cheat it is
wrong. You stand in judgment of other
people and your conscience declares you guilty. That's what Paul
says in Romans. God says in Romans chapter 2,
he says, He says, for when the Gentiles,
these Greeks, which have not the law, do by nature the things
contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. The law of God is written on
the hearts of all of Adam's children, the law of works, the law that
declares man guilty, guilty, guilty. They are a law unto themselves
which show, verse 15 of Romans 2, which show the work of the
law written in their heart, their conscience also bearing witness. This is the work of God in the
hearts of every human being. And their thoughts, the meanwhile
accusing or else excusing. I'm much better at the second.
Aren't they? You sin. What do you do? Almost instantly you find some
excuse. It was someone else's fault.
You learnt that in the garden, brothers and sisters, exactly
what Adam said. He said it was God's fault. You
gave me the woman. If you didn't give me the woman,
she wouldn't have been deceived by the snake and I'd be fine.
It's your fault. And we do it all the time. Romans 2, you judge. Romans 2,
3, what thinkest thou this, oh man, that judges them which do
such things? You see other people doing things
and you say, I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't do that. Look at those wicked sinners
over there. you judge, therefore you are
guilty. God's near in creation is near
in conscience. in the sense that he causes us
to be aware of our place before him. And he's near in providence. Let's look at verse 26 of Acts
17. He gives us life and then he
has made, verse 26 is a wonderful verse, isn't it? He's made of
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the
earth. He's made of one blood. There is amongst all human beings
this pride of race. If you travel overseas and you
hear the Australians being criticised, there's a pride wells up in you
saying, they're not as bad as all that. Rubbish. They're worse,
aren't they? We're all proud. Proud of race,
proud of face, and for the religious people, they're proud of grace. But listen to what God says.
God who is near, the God who hears and sees our thoughts,
may he make our thoughts his thoughts. He's made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth. He's
made of one blood. Out of Adam came all of the human
beings on this earth. They're all of one blood. This
notion that there is one race of people that's a cut above
the rest of them is absolute nonsense. We are from one blood. There is no place whatsoever
in all of the Church of God for any racism whatsoever. It's got
nothing to do with where you were born. You trace the lineage
of the sweetest, cleanest of all of the people you can possibly
imagine and what do you find? A pagan murdering idolater in
no time at all. This idea that we're a cut above
others because of where we're born and what family we're born
into and what circumstance we're born into is rubbish. God says
it's rubbish. Just look what he said, he's
made of one blood of nations of men for to dwell on the face
of the earth and has determined. See God reveals himself in history
as well and he's determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation. Did God determine where all the
nations on this earth would go? He's referring, of course, to
the Tower of Babel. Man came out of the ark. So all
men are descended from Adam. All men on this earth are descended
from Noah. And all men on this earth were
there of one language, building a tower for themselves with their
own wisdom and their own works at the Tower of Babel. And God
came down and He scattered them. He gave them their languages.
and he scattered them throughout this world. That's what he says,
doesn't he? God says it. He has determined the times before
appointed and the bounds of their habitation. So where were you
born? And who were you born from? God
determined that. and God set a limit on it. He
determined the bounds of their habitation. Why don't you turn with me to
Deuteronomy 32, and we'll see that there is a reason for God
setting the bounds. The fifth book in the scriptures,
Deuteronomy 32. Let's turn to verse 8. So Paul is referring to this,
to these Greeks who thought themselves special because they were Greeks,
thought themselves special because they were philosophers, thought
themselves special because of their great history, thought
themselves special because now they were part of the Roman Empire
as well, so they had double honour. Verse 8, in Deuteronomy 32, when
the Most High, this God, this God who is a rock, verse 4, and
His work is perfect and all His ways are judgment, a God of truth
and without iniquity, just and right as He, this is part of
what He did, a just and right God, He divided the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the
bounds of people for a purpose. Just listen to what it says,
according to the number of the children of Israel." So he set
the bounds for the people according to the number of the children
of Israel. He's not talking about the Jewish
Israel, he's talking about the Israel of God. He set the bounds
for people so that in China and Japan and England, and Australia
and South America and wherever you want to go on this earth,
he set the bounds for people according to the children of
Israel. That God was going to have his people scattered throughout
this world and the great shepherd of Ezekiel 34 was going to go
over hill and dale and he was going to find every single one
of them. And this great shepherd finds them and brings them home.
He sets the bounds of their habitation. No wonder the psalmist can say
in Psalm 31.15, my times are in your hands. Deliver me from
the hands of my enemies and from them that persecute me. Job says
that there is an appointment that you will make and I will
make. an appointment where we will
leave here and we will realise that God is extraordinarily close. And for the children of God,
that closeness will be the greatest delight on that day. Job 14, it says, seeing his days
are determined, the number of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds
that he cannot pass. You have, as we read in Psalm
39, you have an appointed time on this earth, and you have an
appointed way to leave this earth, and an appointed time to meet
God. As Job says in 7 verse 1, is
there not an appointed time for man upon the earth? There is an appointed time. God
has your life in his hands, and God's children Love it that way. Our days upon this earth, our
numbers, our times are determined in the counsel and decree of
God who does all things according to his will. And God's bounds
will not be broken. It doesn't matter whether you
have the blind fate of a Stoic or you believe in blind fortune
like an Epicurean. It's just ignorance in the face
of this God. He's appointed where they're
going to be. The God's nearness to all these people, a nearness
in creation, a nearness in conscience, a nearness in providence. Verse 27, there's a purpose in
all this, isn't it? He set those bounds that they
should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after Him and
find Him, though He is not far from every one of us. Has anyone got a white X-tray? X-tray? I lose those. Oh, what? I'm trying to look. It's packed
in the wrong spot. There's nothing there that I
can remember. All these little things sitting
there in my room. God has determined the bounds
of your habitation. God has determined the bounds
of your life. God has determined the bounds
of your habitation, that you should be in the place of His
habitation. And God does all these things with a purpose,
that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after
Him. God says, and find him, God says,
seek the Lord while he may be found, Isaiah 5, 6, and call
on him while he is near, though he is not far from every one
of us. The Lord is good to the soul that seeks him. For these
darkened minds and these foolish hearts, they're groping about
in the darkness, for really what is in plain sight." See, it's
not God's distance from the sinner, but the sinner's hatred of God. The sinner, unmoved by God, has
no desire to find Him. He's not far away. You don't
have to go far. Sinner's hatred towards God is
revealed when the God is revealed. It's like these proud people
in the Areopagus, isn't it? They said, we'll talk about this
some other day. Paul came with a command. He didn't come with
an offer for a discussion. See, people hear the Lord Jesus
Christ say, well, no man can come to me except the Father
draw him, and they say, well, that's unfair. He says, you believe
not because you're not of my sheep. And they say, we will
not have that God to rule over us. The nations conspire and
the people plot a vain thing. So the Lord is near. He hears
and sees the rebellion. Verse 28, for in him we live
and move and have our being. And even their own poets have
said that, for we are also his offspring. It is a delightful and sobering
thing, isn't it, that the psalmist could say, where can I go from
your presence? You're here now. We are in the presence of God
all the time. It is a good thing to ponder,
isn't it? You're always there. He hears your thoughts. He knows
what's on your heart. He knows the thoughts of your
mind. He knows the thoughts and intents
of your heart. The Lord is at hand. We live and move and have our
being in him. To deny his existence and to
deny his glory in his son is what Paul says of these Athenian
geniuses, your ignoramuses. You're just ignoramuses. Verse
38, God winked at it. So there's God's nearness in
creation, there's God's nearness in conscience, there's God's
nearness in providence, there's God's nearness in purpose, there's
God's nearness in reality. God's nearness in drawing the
boundaries of nations so that he can be near to his own. For
as much, verse 29, for as much then as we are the offspring
of God, we ought to change our thinking, is what he's saying.
Our thinking is silly, isn't it? The Athenian geniuses were
silly. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like under gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's
device. It's ridiculous, isn't it? The
God who fills everything, the God in whom you have your being,
can somehow be represented by some little idol. The Athenians
had 30,000 of them scattered around their city. In India,
I don't know what the figures are, but some people say there
were 33 million gods. They're creating them all the
time. Out of the dark forest of the depraved mind of man will
create these things. That's where the word image comes
from, our imaginations. If God is going to be our teacher
as he's promised to his people, then it's extraordinary and wonderful,
isn't it, that he actually takes his word and he makes his word
to his people, life and spirit to them. There is a limit. There's a boundary of this ignorance,
verse 30. At the times of this ignorance,
God tolerated, God winked at it. So there's a boundary of
ignorance. There is a place in which ignorance
ceases altogether. You read in Luke 16 about that
rich man who dressed in purple and lived in finery all the time
and probably mocked the beggar at his gate When that rich man met God, he
knew an awful lot of things. Your ignorance of God ceases
when you die, and you become then more intelligent than you've
ever been and more knowledgeable of God and his character than
you ever were. For the child of God, it's a
time of great delight. For those who now live in rebellion,
you see, the Athenians are worse off now. than they were before
Paul started speaking. The Lord Jesus Christ has come
and there's no more ignorance that's acceptable. Now it is
not ignorance, it is open rebellion against God. Now it is man in open rebellion
against the revealed word of God and the commands of God. It's a willful rebellion. The gospel comes as a command. The punishment is disobedience
to the gospel. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. I want to say to the Colossians,
but beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit and tradition of men and the rudiments of this world and
not after Christ. Don't let anyone spoil you. Now
God comes near and he comes near in the preaching of the gospel
and he comes near in judgment. But let's finish with the best
of all. God is near in mercy and grace. So your warrant for
coming is God's command. And when God says, come unto
me, and God says, look unto me, he's near. He's not a long way
away. He's not shouting at you from
a distance. He's speaking face to face to you. Call upon me. Knock and it shall be opened. Seek the Lord. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He's speaking
close to people. He comes in the preaching of
the gospel close to people. He's near. And He comes near in love and
mercy and grace. God comes near in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He comes as near as anyone could
wish him to be, bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh, touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He's walked through this world
and he knows exactly what you've gone through and he knows exactly
what you're going through and he knows exactly what's coming
along. You check with me in the Gospels. and mentally go through those
remarkable accounts of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you, like me, will not find ever one person who came to him when
he came near, not one person who came seeking mercy and went
away disappointed. You come to him needy and you
go away full. You come to him needing life
from the dead. And what does he do? Lazarus,
come forth. And he comes out. Jairus thought
his daughter was dead, and they were mocking the Lord Jesus Christ
at what they were preparing for a burial. And he says, just believe. Just believe. And he touched
the dead one, and she came to life. You need eyes to see. What did
Bartimaeus say? Lord, I want to receive my sight. It is to hear. You come to him
for faith. It's by him you believe. You
come to him like the crippled man and you have feet to walk. He comes near to the demoniac,
and what's he found doing, that Gadarene? He's sitting at the
Lord's feet, and he's clothed and in his right mind, and all
he wants to do is go after him, and the Lord just gives him the
simplest of instructions. You go back and tell them, this
is the Lord saying, you go back and tell them what great things
God has done for you. God comes. A heart to love him. A new heart
he gives them. A humility to receive gifts rather
than working to earn them. He gives them. He's near to give
them. He doesn't have to go any great
distance to be made a child of God. He gave them the power to
become the children of God. You come near to him. for sins to be forgiven. And he says, son, your sins be
forgiven you. You come near to him for repentance. And he grants repentance. You
come near to him for holiness. You come near to him and he comes
near to you. And what's he do, in those words
that I love repeating out of Colossians, what's his task in
this world? You who are not holy, you who
are worthy of being blamed for everything, you who are worthy
of being reproved for everything. In the body of his flesh, through
death, what's he do? He presents you. How near must
he be? He takes his bride, and he takes
her into the court of heaven, and he says to his father, here
she is. Here she is, all beautiful within. He's gonna present his bride.
and he does right now, he presents her as holy, unblameable, unapprovable
in his sight. He's not far away, brothers and
sisters. He's near to speak and he's near
to listen in prayer. He inhabits the praises of his
people. He's near in trouble and sorrow. He's so near that he says that
he keeps your tears in a bottle. His nearness in your trials is
a very present help in times of trouble. His nearness in death
He said to that thief, today you'll be with me in paradise. He's near to us and he's near
to his people in that new creation. He's so near when we meet him,
when he comes in glory that he'll wipe every tear from your eyes. How close must he be to wipe
the tears from your eyes? is near to make us to be like
Him, to be shown what manner of love
the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world doesn't know
us, because it didn't know him. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
when he shall appear. We shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. See, his humanity is to bring
him near, near to his own, Touched with the feeling of their infirmities. Delighting in their presence. Delighting in what he makes them
to be. Delighting in communion with
them. He's near, so very near. Near to live in his presence. to have union and communion with
He who is invisible, by an act of grace, by faith applied. That's our God. That's His work. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we do thank you
for your nearness to us and we pray Heavenly Father that we
would have our thoughts directed to him that the Lord Jesus Christ
would be our wisdom, that what is written and promised and revealed
in your word would be our guide in this world, Heavenly Father,
that we would think your thoughts after you rather than being caught
up with the silliness of our own thoughts and the ignorance
of this world around us. I, Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the revelation of your Son to us and the revelation
of your Son in your people, Heavenly Father. Father, we don't want to live
on experience. We want to live on your promises
in your Son. But we do pray, Heavenly Father,
that to your people you would come, as the Lord Jesus Christ
said he would, and come and personally speak peace to the hearts of
his people, that we might know his presence, we might know those
promises signed and sealed with his blood, that we might, through
faith, As our brethren in heaven do right now, behold the wounds
on your dear and precious son, and know, heavenly Father, that
our sins are forgiven completely and that we are robed perfectly
in his righteousness. Father, cause us to walk by faith
and not by sight, that causes Heavenly Fathers to walk by faith,
that sees our dear and precious Saviour in all of His glory and
majesty, close to us, carrying us in His arms, carrying us through
the floods and the fires of this world, and completing that glorious
work that He promised in eternity, to be the one that presents His
bride. holy and spotless before you
in love. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people, heavenly Father, and cause us to draw near to
him as he draws near to us. For we pray in his precious name.
Amen.