It's lovely to see you here all
on this freezing morning. This is as close as we get to
a polar vortex. The Americans know what polar
vortexes are. So, I was freezing when I was
there last year. John Hill, I'm in the business
of talking. No, no, come on my friend, you're
right. I went to, I had the privilege
an honour and responsibility of saying a few words at Adeline
and John's wedding. And they had their anniversary
just a little while ago, so that's five years, isn't it? Five years. Remember the passage you asked
me to speak on? Oh, dear, oh dear. Did I send you my notes? Oh, dear. Okay. They asked me to speak on Romans
Chapter 8. So why don't we turn to Romans Chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, what a great,
great chapter about our great God. It begins with no condemnation
and finishes with no separation. And every little bit of it and
every verse of it speaks in the most extraordinary ways about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love what it says, that
we are led of the Spirit. In verse 16, the Spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Let's turn over to verse 28.
We know these verses so well, but we all need to ponder them
yet again. And we know that all things work
together for the good of them that love God, to them who are
thee called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that we might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? What's your response to this?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And
who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded,
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
your word speaks so gloriously and wondrously of your dear and
precious son and the things that he has done and the things that
he has suffered because of the love for his bride and because
of the love for the glory of your name, our dear Father. And
we pray once again, Heavenly Father, that we would come to
you as dependent mercy beggars, coming to a throne of grace that
we might find help and seek comfort in our need. Father, make us
needy. Make us needy of your dear son. Make us needy of his righteousness. Make us needy of his cleansing
from our sins. Make us needy of his sovereign
rule over all the things of our lives. Make us needy that we
might find our rest and our comfort in him. Our Father, we do thank
you for bringing our friends from the other side of the world
and we do pray for their travels home and pray for their life
together and their life before you in this world and cause them
to be mindful of that meeting that we all must have with our
great God and Saviour on that day. May it be something as it
is in the lives of all the saints that we look forward to with
boldness and rejoicing because of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. Take away from us, Heavenly Father, all of the trappings
of this flesh that stops us from seeing Your Son in His glory. Conform us, Heavenly Father,
by Your Spirit's work in our lives to love Him, to long for
Him, to long to be with Him, to seek His glory in this world.
Bless us, Heavenly Father, as we gather together for your Son's
sake, and we praise you, Heavenly Father, that as you gaze upon
Him in Heaven's glory right now, seated upon that throne, and
the saints are gathered singing. Both we are seated together with
Him. and wondrously and miraculously,
according to your word, he is here with us. We pray that he
might be our teacher and our guide, our friend and our saviour
this morning, our father, for we pray in Jesus' name and for
his glory. Amen. Adelants ask us to sing
number seven. Great is thy faithfulness. There is no. As now has been, now forever
will be. Praise thy faithfulness. Praise thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. ? And have provided ? ? Praise
our faithfulness, Lord, unto Thee ? ? Summer and winter and
springtime and harvest ? ? Some who left scars in their courts,
there's a lot ? ? Joined with pain and injury ? Praise thy faithfulness. Praise thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. Though I am heathen, I am Lamb
of God. ? The sea and the haze were endured
? ? But only bread to steal and to die ? ? Strength for today
and I hope for tomorrow ? ? Blessings over 110,000 beside me ? Once again, it's lovely to have
you all here. It's lovely to have reminders of the work of
the Lord in his people throughout this world. It's nice to have
you back again, Jamie. Welcome. Lovely to see you here.
We have a lot of people away, as you can imagine. Taslo is
in Spain. John's Angus is about to go to
the army tomorrow. So John would, I'm sure, appreciate
your prayers to him and Angus. It's going to be a change of
lifestyle in remarkable ways, isn't it? Jackie and Lynn are
unwell, and Jenny's recovering well and should be here very
soon. So we long for our friends to be back with us. and we've
enjoyed having our friends with us from all the way away. We
are thankful, we're thankful that the Lord brought you here
yet again. Not yet again, next time, I'll
be saying that next time they're coming back. Let's turn in our
scriptures to Acts chapter 17, one of the remarkable chapters
of scripture, and it's one of the remarkable and famous sermons
in the New Testament, and it's the first sermon that Paul brings
to this Athenian part of the world and encapsulated in this
message and in this visit to Athens is Paul encountering all
the religions of the world. In one way or another, all of
the religions of the world are encompassed in the Jewish religion
of that time, which was a religion of works, righteousness. And
then we have, with the philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics,
and as we'll see later on, they encompass all of the philosophy
of men today. The Epicureans and the Stoics
are with us today. All of the philosophy, all of
modern philosophy is tied up with Epicureanism or Stoicism. And all of modern religion is
tied up with works righteousness. And so the Jews weren't the only
ones in the synagogue there. The Gentiles were there as well,
the Gentile proselytes. So these Jews had been active.
Here we are in AD 50. something like 20 years after
the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. that
always strikes me when I come to these passages and we meet
with the Jews in the synagogue is that how it must have been
almost impossible for all of those people who were there on
the day of Pentecost and who were converted and went back
to their countries not to have spread the message of the Lord
Jesus. And yet, and yet it doesn't seem to have been the case. And
these synagogues continued on as they did, and as I said last
week, the Jews in those synagogues, living in the midst of this pagan,
idolatrous world, would have looked down their noses at all
of that philosophy and looked down their noses at all of that
idolatry, and they would have been even more zealous for their
Jewish religion in the midst of that. They would have been
more zealous for their so-called sanctification under the law. So let's read in Acts chapter
17. Here what the Holy Spirit has
recorded for us and recorded both in terms of history and
in terms of these people and left us this remarkable record
of this sermon. This sermon which should be as
much stirring to this world and stirring to the hearts of God's
people as it was when Paul first delivered it. Let's read from
verse 14 and get some of the context. So Paul had left Berea
because the Jews from Thessalonica had come down there and stirred
up the Jews and made it extraordinarily uncomfortable for him. Wherever
Satan stirs things up, all he does is stir God's people in
the direction of more of God's people. So he never wins. He never wins. The enemies of
the gospel never win. So here we have this little group
that set out from Troas. We have Luke in Philippi, we
have Silas and Timothy left in Berea, and Paul, for the first
time in any of his journeys, is now on his own. Then immediately
the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea, but
Silas and Timothy abode there still. And they that conducted
Paul brought him to Athens, and receiving a commandment unto
Silas and Timotheus, for to come to him with all speed they departed.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred
in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore,
disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout
persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
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. And they took him, and they brought
him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either
to tell or to hear of some new thing. Then Paul stood in the
midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things you are too superstitious. For as I passed
by and beheld your devotions, I found an author with this inscription,
To the unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship, him declare I unto you. Here's the God that Paul declares. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
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 hath made of one blood all nations of men for
to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath 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. As 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 Godhead is
like under gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's
device. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, that means God tolerated, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day
in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom He has ordained, whereof He has given assurance unto all
men in that He has raised Him from the dead. And when they
heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, And others
said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed
from among them, howbeit certain men clave unto him. It meant that they were glued
to him. They were fastened firmly together
like cement. They clave unto him and believed,
among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named
Damaris, and others with them." So Paul turns up in this great
city, and there are three groups of people there, aren't there?
There are the philosophers, the Epicurean philosophers we'll
look at in a minute, and the Stoic philosophers, and then
the religious people. The Jewish religious people,
the religious people had a Bible in their hands. There were three
groups of people. And at the end, there were three
groups of people. Aren't there? Some mocked. Whenever the Gospels
preached, there were some people that mocked. Others who think
themselves extraordinarily wise say, well, we'll hear you at
a convenient time. Just like Felix, he said, I'll
hear you at a convenient time. This is the convenient time,
and there is no other convenient time. They might as well mock. and others believed. And they cling. They cling to
the Apostle Paul. It doesn't mean they cling to
him as a person. They cling to him and his Christ because they're
united as one to another. They cling to what he says about
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Let's sing again. We're going
to sing, I don't know, normally I'll leave it up to you this
time, sorry. Let all sorrows fall again For
the Son of God who came To blame sinners to regain Our love, O
God, for the Savior ? Wearing chain and scoffing hood ? ? In
my head he stoned and he stood ? ? Still my heart it beats and
hallelujah ? ? What a Savior! ? ? Guilty, helpless, lost, drooping,
lameless, sad ? What a Savior! He was risen up to die, His face
was reshined, Now He lifts His hope to life, Alleluia! What a Savior! I want to keep reminding myself
and reminding you as we have the journey of Paul through these chapters in Acts and the
journey of the saints of God, we have actually the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sovereign God who
said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not
prevail against it. He will gather his little ones
in his arms and he will carry them and he will lead them. But
he stirs the hearts of his people. He stirs the hearts of his people
to love him. Let's read again how Paul was
stirred. Verse 16, Paul waited for them
in Athens. His spirit was stirred in him
when he saw the whole city given to idolatry. How do you see this world? How
do you see this world? Do you see this world as a world
wholly given to idolatry? You've got to remember that Athens
is at the very pinnacle of all the cities in the ancient world
for the learning of men. It was. It was so extraordinary
in the minds of men at that time and beyond it. The likes of Socrates
and these others you hear of as extraordinarily famous men.
Aristotle and others are all citizens of Rome. And in this
very place, in this Areobagus, Socrates a few hundred years
beforehand had been brought there to trial. and had been found
guilty of bringing strange gods. So the charge against Paul is
no smaller charge, brothers and sisters. But how do you see this
world? Do God's children know? If you look up the things that
God's children know, we just read in Romans 8, God's children
know. that God works all things together for those who are the
called, the called by Him, the named by Him it is. But also
God's children know, I wanted to look at why Paul was stirred,
God's children know, as John says at the end of his first
epistle, he says, 1 John 5, 18, and we know, and we know that
we are of God. God's children know. Christian
life is a walk in the light, it's not a walk in a fog. We
know that we are of God, and how do we see the world? And
the whole world lies in wickedness. It's held in subjection to wickedness,
the whole world. The point is simple, brothers
and sisters in Christ, this is no place to build our nest. If
you were a bird you wouldn't build your nest in this tree. This is not a place where God's
children will ever find themselves at home. This is a place of enmity
against God. This is a place where we have
in Athens at the pinnacle of man's intellectual achievements,
we have the pinnacle of man's hatred of God. Paul went there and he walked
around this city. They have said that there were
30,000 idols in Athens. Big ones and little ones. Adds
that I and Lisa have spent a bunch of time in India and you can't
do anything in India without looking at an idol. You drive
along a truck and there's an idol at the back of the truck.
You go and do a shop. and there are idols in the shop.
The man takes your money and he gives thanks to the idol up
behind him. Everywhere you look there are
idols, aren't there? On every high hill and under every spreading
tree. Everywhere there are idols. The whole city is given to idolatry. But the thing that's really interesting
that stirred Paul's heart is the response. He was disturbed
by all of that idolatry. So the word image obviously comes
from the imagination of men. When they're actually making
that idol, they actually think that it means something. The
Catholics that have their lunch in here on Fridays have the little
idol. Brad and I took one away yesterday.
They actually stick it up there because it actually means something
to them. They think that it is of some
value. to the people that come in here. Paul's spirit was stirred
in him. But where does he go? Look what
it says in verse 17. It says, Therefore he disputed
in the synagogue. So judgment begins at the household
of God. When Paul was talking about the
idolatry, there was as much idolatry in the synagogue of the Jews,
the idolatry of man and man-centred religion. There was as much idolatry
in the synagogue as there was out there on the streets. He
disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout
persons in the market daily with them that met him. He began with
the Jews. He began with the Jews. And he
debated, he discussed, he laid out Scripture before them, he
laid out the Lord Jesus Christ before them. He began there. He began there. So what stirs, what stirs the
hearts of God's people to action? We have many pictures in the
Scriptures of people being stirred, haven't we? You might recall
that Elijah was stirred. on that mountain, and he was
stirred to anger when he saw all those priests of Baal. Elihu
witnessed the discussions between Job and those three miserable
comforters of Job. And Elihu, finally, at the end
of it, a young man, he couldn't restrain himself any longer and
his spirit was stirred within him. Why? Because Job was justifying
himself, brothers and sisters. It's just idolatry to justify
yourself. God stirs the hearts of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ His heart
was stirred in many, many ways, wasn't it? It was stirred with
love for his people when he came from his father's bosom to this
world. He was upset with them, wasn't
he? In Mark chapter 3 verse 5 it says, and he looked around about
them and they were being critical, critical of what he was doing
and critical of his declaration that he is the Sabbath of God.
And he had that man, the man with the withered hand in the
synagogue, and they watched him and whether he would heal him
on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him. And he said
unto the man which had the withered hand, stand forth. And he said
unto them, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to
do evil, save life or to kill? But they held their peace. And
when he had looked around about on them with anger, being grieved
at the hardness of their hearts, he says to this man, he says,
I am God. When I command When I command
something impossible to be done, it is done. Such is the power
of me as God. I trust the Lord stirs your heart,
brothers and sisters. I fear for not having a stirred
heart. I fear for being lukewarm. You
see, a lukewarm bath is neither a cold bath nor a really hot
bath. It's a comfortable bath, isn't
it? A dangerous place to be is to be lukewarm. We read about
them last week. It's the wise and the prudent that God hides
things from. It's to be pliable. See, Paul is not going into this
Areopagus to be nice to these people. I can't understand why
the modern commentators say that he was there as an invitation.
He was being very, very polite to these people. He was dressing
them down. He was stirred in his heart.
He saw idolatry everywhere he went. And he went there to speak
as boldly as he possibly could, and if it meant arrest, and if
it meant more flogging, if it meant jail, if it meant death,
he was going to stand up before these people where there was
an opportunity, and he was going to declare the Lord Jesus Christ
to them, and he wasn't going to back off for an instant. You know what he says in Galatians,
doesn't he? He says, if I yet please men, if someone standing
in the pulpit is wanting to please men, dear oh dear, my heart and
my flesh wants to please men all the time, it's ridiculous.
He says, if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of
Christ. So he's going into this place
which is the very seat of learning, the very seat of human achievement. And he goes there, he goes there
with his spirit stirred. and he reasoned with the Jews
and then he goes into that Areopagus and he speaks there and he preaches
the Gospel. All he did in that city was he
went there and he preached the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, the Lord Jesus Christ
and him resurrected. That's the response of stirred
hearts, isn't it, brothers and sisters? In a city that's wholly
given to idolatry, in a land, in a nation, in a world that's
wholly given to idolatry, our one task and our one hope is
that we might have a door of opportunity to declare the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whether they are the Jews living
religiously, living religiously and righteously, with all of
the knowledge of the scriptures that they bragged about, with
all of the fact that they could say, well, I'm not like, I'm
not like those filthy sinners down there in the marketplace
of Athens. I can go to the temple. I can go to the temple like the
Pharisee and I can say, I thank God. I thank God that I'm not
like them. I'm not like those filthy sinners. The sinners went home. justified. The Pharisee was an idolater
in his heart and Paul spoke to them. He spoke to them, he spoke
to the devout who were probably the proselytes, the Gentiles
that had come across to become Jewish worshippers, and to those
in the marketplace and the Areopagus. See, preaching the Gospel is
the power of God under salvation. If anything is going to happen
which is good for people in this world, it is simply going to
come because God brings you to a place where you hear the Gospel. God brings the Gospel to you
and He takes you out of this world and then He puts you back
in this world. He takes you out of this world
to see the glory of the Creator of this world and He puts you
back in this world to stand there as a witness for Him. So it's
our one task. And it's the one hope for sinners.
See, these Athenian idolaters, a whole lot of them, they thought
that God depended on man. They thought that God was a beggar. They thought that God depended
on man for his worship, for his work, for his reward. They thought
that God needed us. He needed us to create something
where we could imagine what he was like and that he might be
pleased with us. You hear it all the time, don't
you? I haven't heard it much lately, but it still used to
be said, God has no hands but your hands. Isn't that nice?
God has no hands but your hands, Beth Day. God has no feet but
your feet. God wants you to be saved. Now it's up to you. If you'll
just take the first step, God will do the rest. You can make
a decision right now. You can choose to make a decision
right now which will change God's verdict about you on the Day
of Judgment. at his religious best is man
at his worst. Man at his most pious and most
devout in the eyes of men and his own eyes is man at his worst. See, God says that you are dead. God says that every little tiny
moment of your life, everything you do is mixed with sin all
of the time. That's what it is to be a sinner.
A sinner is someone who can do nothing but sin. God says you're
depraved. God says you're unable to please
God with the works of your hands and the thoughts of your heart.
God says that you will not come to me that you might have life. God says that you cannot come
to me and have life. God says that your righteousnesses,
all of them, whatever they might look like to you and to the world,
he says that they are filthy rags, unproductive. But see, man in religion, whatever
sort it is, It's not the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man
in religion is saying, I'm better than that. I know that's probably
what you say, but I'm better than that. And I'll prove it
to you. See, what is the heart of rebellion
against God is man saying that I can do something, I can do
something that you say I can't do. And I'll prove it to you.
Look at my devotion. Look at my memorising of scripture. Look at the way I'm living my
life in the midst of these wicked Athenian idolaters. Look at the
way I can quote scripture and give verse and verse and verse.
Look at my zeal. Look at my zeal. I'm standing
here in the midst of this pagan land and I'm standing here with
all of my law and all of my legalism and all of my righteousness and
I'm dressed up nicely and I'm not like them. Look at me. Look at my moral life to be seen
by all. Look at all those proselytes
that have come in. Look at all those people that
have seen my progressive sanctification. There's a lovely sign up the
road and it says remastered. You know what remastered movies
are, don't you? A remastered movie is when you
take an old movie that's really sort of cruddy and you can't
see it very clearly and the sound's not very good and you remaster
it and you make it into something that still has all of those old
elements but it's better again. So remaster's just another word
for progressive sanctification. If we think, we think that with
our hands we can make ourselves better. We think that we can add something
of any sort whatsoever to aid or to embellish, to enhance the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's idolatry, brothers
and sisters. It's just idolatry. And when
we come and have a look at these Stoics and Epicureans, let's
just look there at verse 18, and certain of the philosophers,
you'll see that the Stoics and the Epicureans are religious
and philosophical, but they're not a heck of a lot different
from a whole lot of believers in all sorts of ways these days.
They encountered him and said, what will this babbler say? And
some said he seems to be a set-aforth of strange gods. They had 30,000
different idols in that town. They had a bucket load of gods
and they could make them at a drop of a hat. And all of a sudden,
not all of them weren't strange, but this one is strange to them. The real and true and living
God is strange to the ears of people who haven't met him. He sent a strange God because
he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. So what were
the Epicureans? As you think about this, I want
you to think about what's happening in the philosophy of this world
today and what's all around us. Epicureans were materialists,
they were atomic materialists. There was no first cause, there
was no God, and the world came about by chance. Have you heard
that before? You've been taught that down in school, aren't you
Noah? You'll be taught that in university. If you go to any
college in Australia, you'll be taught that. So therefore, because there was
no God and there was no first cause and everything just came
about by chance, they found superstition and divine intervention offensive
to their beliefs. And they believed that pleasure
was the greatest good. Have you heard of that before?
How did anyone like that before? Pleasure is the greatest good,
and it's the only object of pursuit. But they were moral people, so
you lived modestly, and you gained knowledge of the workings of
the world, and you limited your desires, and that led to a state
of tranquility, freedom from fear. Happiness in all of its
highest forms is freedom from fear and absence from bodily
pain. You ever heard of an epicurean?
They're all over the place. They're all over the place today.
Stoics. Stoicism is around and alive
and well today. There is a first cause, but I'm
the master of my own destiny. There was a first cause, but
I rule now. And I accept the moment as it
presents itself. And you control yourself in a
very strict way, a lot of stoics. You might have heard of stoic
calm. Someone who is stoic can deal
with the ups and downs and the rough things of life and remain
untouched by it all. You don't allow yourself to be
controlled by desire for pleasure or fear of pain. And you use
your mind to understand the world. And you do your part. in nature's
plan, and you do your part by treating others fairly and justly,
and you look after the environment, and you look after all sorts
of things, and virtue is the only good is one of their labels. Virtue is the only good. Everything
is rooted in nature. The virtue is sufficient for
happiness. Stoics and Epicureans. You could
throw a blanket with the label of Stoic and Epicurean over this
human race and most people fall into that. You can throw it over
all the philosophy that's being taught these days and somehow
or other it fits into those two camps. No wonder the great movements
of this Last thousand years in terms of the secular world were
the Renaissance. What was the Renaissance about?
The Renaissance was a rediscovery of the wonders of the Stoics
and the Epicureans and all of the brilliance of Athens and
their art and their literature and their philosophy. And the
Enlightenment was a similar movement a few hundred years ago. But
both of them, whichever way you look, it's all extraordinarily
man-centred, isn't it? So the Athenians thought that
God depended on them to build him idols and build places of
devotion. The Stoics thought that God depended
upon their strength to worship him. The Epicureans thought that
God couldn't be worshipped at all. Paul preached under both lots. He ignored their philosophy,
in a sense, and he ignored all their religion and he just preached
unto them the Lord Jesus Christ. And they took him, verse 19,
and they brought him there. And they say in verse 21, these
Athenians and strangers which are there, they spent their time
in nothing else but either to tell or to hear of some new thing. The gospel's nothing new. If
there's ever anything new in religion at all, it is always
wrong. people coming up with new ways
and new programs to entice people. People think that the whole Pentecostal
movement was new. John Owen in the 17th century,
I forget when it was, John Owen in the 17th century describes
a worship service in downtown London in the 1600s. and it was
exactly like a modern-day Pentecostal worship service. And they think
they're doing something new, that they're on the cutting edge,
and now we're doing new things for God, we've got new ways of
doing it. Everything new in religion is wrong. Everything new in Christianity
is wrong. If you've discovered something
new that no one else has ever discovered, brothers and sisters,
you're as wrong as you could ever be. If you've discovered
some new way and some new method, you are wrong. They put a slippery
dip in a cathedral in England last week. I opened it and it
was on the news. Did you see that? A slippery
dip in a cathedral. Because they want people to be
able to get up high and see the wonders of the wood and then
come down on the slippery dip. Because the purpose of it is,
according to the bishop of the cathedral, they want to entice
people to come in there. Anything new? You see, what he
says to them is something that's really significant, isn't it?
He says, he stood in the midst of Mars Hill, verse 22, and said,
you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very
superstitious. Very superstitious. We live in
a superstitious world. The kitchen out there's got their
little superstitious idols. All over the place are superstitious
songs they sing. Superstitious. What is it to
be superstitious? What does the Greek of that word
superstitious mean? It means to be fearful of one
who could distribute fortunes. Isn't that remarkable? To be
fearful. So perfect love casts out fear,
brothers and sisters. God's children have a reverential
awe of our God. But we don't live like this,
to be fearful. It means to be fearful, ultimately,
of an evil spirit. So why did they build the 30,000
idols? Why? When you hop into a rickshaw
in India, do they have all the little signs? They have those
little signs with about five on them, don't they? They have
a Buddhist one, and a Hindu one, and a Muslim one, and a Christian
one, and something else. I don't know, there's a bunch
of them, aren't there, and a little sign. Just so you can tick the box.
Why do they put up something like that? Why are they building
these statues all over the place? Why did the Greeks have 30,000
idols in this city of the greatest learning in the world? because they're fearful, they
are fearful. Why, why, when people are presented
with the gospel, why when they are presented with it and why
when they acknowledge that it's true, why don't they join like
these people, these believers in Athens do and cling to Paul? My family's there. I go there
because my family's there. I go there because all my friends
are there. I go there because my ancestors
have been there. Why? See, fear's an awful thing,
isn't it, brothers and sisters? If it entraps people in something
which just leaves them entrapped. See, if you don't, if you fear
man, The scriptures say, you've forgotten God. There is one to
fear. Fear him and everything will
be fine. But how much religion, whatever
name it might bear, is superstitious? How much is superstitious in
this world? See, the thing about the scriptures
is that God says they're living and active. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. Australia
is full of Epicureans and Stoics, and those that aren't Epicureans
and Stoics are religious, as the Jews and the Athenians in
the synagogue were. See, Paul looked at their devotions. He looked at what they were worshipped,
and his spirit was stirred in him. He wasn't saying anything
nice to these Ascenians. He says you're fearful of demons,
effectively. He says you ignorantly worship. You ignorantly worship. What's ignorant worship? It's meaningless worship, isn't
it? It doesn't bear the name of worship if you're worshipping
something in ignorance. Ignorant worship. That's what
he says of the Jews, doesn't he? In chapter 13. It's all very well an ignorance
in the things of this world and an ignorance of the religion
and the philosophy of this world, but to be ignorant of the things
of God in this world when you claim to know him, is the most
appalling ignorance." So that was the ignorance of the Jews,
wasn't it? They ignorantly worshipped. They would have died to protect
their religion, their ancestry, their temple. They killed because
you challenged their righteousness. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
did. He came along to that religious Israeli community, that Jewish
community. And he didn't say that the Pharisees
were a little bit better than the philosophical Sadducees,
or the politically oriented Herodians, or the Stoics out in the wilderness
who weren't going to get themselves polluted by those dirty people.
When the Lord Jesus Christ comes along, everything that man has
built is wrong. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
along, everything that man has thought about God is completely
wrong. Listen to God the Holy Spirit's
description of the people in Jerusalem and their ignorant
worship. Chapter 13, Paul speaks of the
ones that dwell at Jerusalem, Acts 13, 27. For they that dwell
at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not." So
they didn't know him, nor yet the voices of the prophets. What
an extraordinary thing. They heard the voices of the
prophets. They read every Sabbath day, and they didn't hear what the
prophets said. May God protect us from ignorant
worship. May he make us to be people who
hear the voices of the prophets. And the voices of the prophets
just have one voice, don't they? They have one voice. As 1 Peter
says, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
That's all they spoke about. That's all they spoke about.
When Moses and Elijah, who represent all of the Old Testament, were
on that Mount of Transfiguration, they had one message, didn't
they? They had one topic of conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ. They
talked about the death that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. That's what all the prophets
are about. They're about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
if you can't see Jesus Christ and Him crucified in the passage,
it's not because the passage is wrong, it's because we're
still ignorant. And we want the Lord to give more light. But
woe, woe to those who are like the Jews. They read it all the
time and they don't know Him. And yet what the verse goes on
to say, even in their ignorance, they are fulfilling the very
word of God. They fulfilled every jot and
tittle of the word of God relating to the Lord Jesus Christ in his
death and resurrection. And they read it out of the scriptures,
and they didn't hear it. May God send his spirit into
our hearts. May he be as he's promised to
be, the revealer of his son. Let's have a break, a cup of
tea.