Alright, here in Acts 17 and
verse 13, it says, When the Jews of Thessalonica, that is the
unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica, had knowledge that the word of
God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred
up the people. And then immediately the brethren
sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. But Silas and Timotheus
abode there still. And they that conducted Paul
brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto
Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed
and went back. Now, while Paul waited for them,
for Paul and Silas 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? Other some
said he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because
he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Now, the first
thing I want to point out to you here is that men, by nature,
love idolatry. Athens in Macedonia, what we
know as Greece, stands here as really the pinnacle of man's
wisdom. Now, we've all had to study Greek
mythology in school. And some of us have had to study
philosophy in school. Now this place where Paul stands
had been the center of it all. Athens had been the place where
there was such schools of wisdom as the Academy of Plato. the
Lyceum of Aristotle, the Porch of Zeno, where the Stoics originated,
the Garden of Epicurus, who the Epicureans are named after. This is where the Parthenon stood. Athens was noted, as you know,
for its art, for sculpture, and for Greek architecture, for Greek
theaters, and things of that nature. The public buildings
here were said to house, to double as sort of shrines for one or
more gods. Besides the ordinary mythical
gods, they also deified things like fame and things like modesty,
energy, persuasion. Some of the folks, the pagan
historians were quoted as saying that it was easier to find a
god in Athens than it was to find a man in Athens. It was just everywhere. This
was like an altar of... sacrifice to gods of various
just man-made gods is what this was. Now you know how, if you're
like me, the teachers I had that taught me about Greek gods and
about mythology, Greek mythology and things, they were impressed
with it. Some of them have given their
lives to studying about it and are impressed with it. And with the wisdom of philosophers.
I had professors in college that were just taken up with philosophy. It was everything to them. And
yet we read here, the Holy Spirit of God, in verse 16, calls it
this. It says that Athens was wholly
given to idolatry. You know, schools teach this
these days, but nobody would dare say that we teach this for
religious reasons. We just teach it because of the
artistry. I took a lot of art history. We studied all the Greek architecture
and the Greek statues of these idols and how they made the sculpt
of these idols and things, but we just studied them for the
artistry of it. You know, there's been times
when murderers did things to the human body
that were just grotesque things that they did to the human body.
What if we took those things that they did to the human body
and we studied those things? Not to study murder, just to
study the art of it, of how they did that. And you'd say, well,
that's not art. Well, the Holy Spirit said this wasn't either.
This wasn't either. In fact, Paul didn't walk in
there and say, well, you know what? I know these are just idols,
but that is some mighty fine artistry there. It says his spirit
was stirred within him. Because Paul saw this for what
it was. He saw this as exactly what it
is. It's idolatry. That's what Paul
saw here. You're going to have to learn
about these things in school. If you go to college or any university,
you'll have to learn about these things. But remember what they
are. This is idolatry. This is not
something to look at in admiration and to look at as part of a history
that to where you look at it and you think, wow, that wouldn't
have been a grand experience to walk down the streets of Athens
and to see all these things. Paul was there. Paul was standing
there. And the Scripture says his spirit
was stirred within him. Because what he saw was not anything
that was to be praised. He saw the base murder of God
in the hearts of defiled, depraved, backwards men and women. Idolatry. Turn with me over to Romans chapter
1. Romans chapter 1, in verse 22. Listen to this. Professing themselves
to be wise, they became fools. Who's that talking about? Men
and women. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Men were created by God. Men were created by God Man was
created in the image of God. And man's backwardness takes
God and tries to sculpt him into the image of man. God created
everything that's made, all creatures, great and small. And men take
and create a God out of the creatures. So that man's the creator and
God's the one created. in their vain imaginations. Wherefore, verse 24 says, God
also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts 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 more than the Creator, who's blessed forever. Amen. Now look back here with me. That's
the heart of the natural man who loves idolatry. That's why
when we still study this in our school, we're trying our best,
our dead level best, to put out of the schools any mention of
God. But we'll teach this. We'll teach
the Greek gods, and we'll teach mythology, and we'll teach philosophy. just as these were in Athens.
That's where we are in our day and time. That's where we are
right here where we sit in the 21st century. That's where we
are. We haven't progressed. We've gone further backwards
as a people in this world. And it says that man loves idolatry. Now look back there at Acts 17,
16. Now while Paul waited for them
in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him. when he saw the city
wholly given to idolatry. Now here's the second thing.
The first thing is men love idolatry, love to praise idols and those
who make idols and to worship those things, consider those,
that's wisdom. That's wisdom. But here's the
second thing. The child of God, born of the
Holy Spirit is turned by God. from dumb idols, from lifeless
idols and vanity that men call wisdom, the child of God's turned
from those things and is wholly given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wasn't moved. by those things. He wasn't moved and he didn't
admire those things. His spirit was stirred within
him. Why was that? Why did all of
these folks in Athens admire all these things and here's one
man by himself in the midst of that city and he's brought to
a godly anger and a godly sorrow over these things. Why is that?
Paul had the law of God written on his heart by the Spirit of
God. And when we read the law of God
written on the heart, it's the everlasting covenant, it's the
law of God's love, it's the law of faith, it's the law of liberty.
There's so much more there than just the law of God that you
read about from Mount Sinai. But that law is written on our
heart. Paul said, I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. And the law of God says this in Exodus 20 verse 2, the
Lord said, I'm the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them, For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous
God. And by the Holy Spirit of power
and wisdom that was in Paul, working in Paul, the Spirit of
Christ working in Paul, when he beheld these things, he didn't
admire these things, he didn't just say, well, It's alright. He was moved. He was stirred
within him and jealous for the glory of his God. Because he
had this law of God written on his inward parts. This was who
Paul was made of in the Spirit by God. And he loathed these
things. That's why he was jealous. He didn't have to have anybody.
He was there by himself. Paul was there by himself. Now
here's an example for us, brethren, of what Paul meant when he said,
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the
law but under grace. Because the Spirit of God dwelled
in Paul. Paul didn't have to have outward
constraints. He didn't have to have anybody
watching him to cause him to be stirred in his spirit against
these dumb idols and against these idolaters and against these
things to speak out. This was in him. Christ was with
him. Christ was in him and stirred
him in his spirit to go after these things. I like what Robert
Hawker pointed out. I hadn't read him on this and
I picked it up and was reading it on the way over here in the
car. And he said, if you get to the end there and you see,
when we get to the end of this chapter and you see that the
Lord had some people there that were going to be saved, The Lord
would never ever allow Paul to walk in there and not be stirred
in the Spirit. Because he had some there that's
going to believe. They're going to hear the gospel preached.
And he wouldn't allow Paul to walk in there and not be stirred
in spirit. Do you think he's going to leave you to yourself?
He's going to keep us. He's going to guide us into all
truth and stir us in the spirit so that we won't be taken up
with that which is contrary to the grace and glory of God. And
that's what took place here. Look over with me at 1 Corinthians
12. Paul wrote this to the Corinthians later. We're going to come back
to 1 Corinthians, so you might mark it here. But in 1 Corinthians
12, look there in verse 2. He said, he wrote this later,
and he said, You know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto
these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you
to understand that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth
Jesus anathema, accursed. And that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administrations, but the same Lord. There are diversities of
operations, but it's the same God which worketh all in all. in all His people. And Paul here
is an illustration of the difference between merely calling Christ
Jesus Lord with the mouth and somebody that's calling Christ
Jesus to Lord from the heart. That's alive to God and living
to God. He don't compromise here. Paul's
going to walk in here by himself and speak the Gospel. I tell
you, there's not any way I could do that. except God be with me,
except the Spirit of God embolden me to walk in and do that. By
the same token, brethren, that's how we started in grace. That's
how we continue in grace. That's how we follow after holiness. That's how we deny these ungodly
lusts and desire to serve God and to follow God and to be led
of the Spirit and to walk after Him. The emphasis, though, the
emphasis The moment we put the emphasis on us and our following
after and our doing, we've turned away from God. It's God doing
it. That's the poem. You see, Paul's
here by himself and he had been beaten at Philippi. He had been
imprisoned at Philippi. He had left there and he went
to Thessalonica where he'd been run out of town. And then he
goes to Berea where they come again and they persecute him
from there to Athens. And now he's in Athens all by
himself. And yet it says he was stirred
in the Spirit so that verse 17 says, therefore disputed he. He preached the gospel. He wasn't
going to pass by this thing. So that's the first thing. Men
by nature love idolatry. This city was wholly given to
idolatry. But the child of God, born of
the Spirit, is turned by God from dumb idols. He's given to
Christ the Lord. Paul was stirred, his spirit
was stirred within him, and therefore he disputed with him. 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. Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some
said, What will this babbler say? Other some, he seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And here's the third thing. No
sinner is able to know and believe on God by mere human intellect. These people were what the world
would consider wise men. They were what the world would
consider wise fellows. Now there's three kinds of people
represented here. We got in the synagogue, there's
Jews and devout Greeks. And these were, these manifest
to us that men and women can look into the word of God and
learn about God They can learn about God. And that's what they
did. They had learned something about
God, the Jews and the devout Greeks. Men and women can imitate
what others say and do in religion. That's what they were doing.
They didn't believe Christ had come in the synagogue. None did where Paul went so far.
I'm not just speculating on this. If it follows suit, like every
other synagogue Paul walked into, he was rejected in this one just
like he was in every other one. Our emphasis here is not on the
synagogue, it's on these philosophers. But let's talk about these synagogues
for a minute too. These were folks in there that
were pretending that they were really growing more and more
holy by their obedience to the Law of Moses. Listen, just because fellows
bring Christianity into it, that's what men think. That's what men
really think. I expect that these folks that
were in that synagogue, like the Pharisees, because they didn't
have idols. They saw in the Word that they
weren't to have images. They weren't to have idols. And
if they didn't have any in that synagogue, like all those idolaters
around them in Athens, I guarantee you they thought they was more
righteous because they didn't have one. Well, then you got the Epicureans. Now, they thought the world was
made by atoms coming together. These were your Big Bang Theory
folks right here. They thought the world was made
by atoms coming together and that the world is not governed
by God. and they believe that ultimate
happiness comes by pleasure. Some of them thought that this
pleasure came by morality. The Epicureans and the Stoics
were Who was it? Was it Plato and
Aristotle? They were talking about looking
within. They were talking about things within. These men were
practical, practical philosophers. They were talking about things
you do on the outside. And the Epicureans felt, they
thought that, some of them thought that by acts of morality that
you actually arrived at displeasure. And some of them thought just
by living in immorality you arrived at displeasure. But they both
thought it was by something done By your practice that you arrived
at these things at this happiness, and then the Stoics now They
believe there it there was there is a God they believe the world
was made by God But but that the world's governed by fate
just by fate. And happiness rested in virtue. And a wise, a good man, he's
not moved by passions. He has no uneasiness of mind. You want to deny any kind of,
you want to be stoic. You want to not be too joyful
and not sad. You want to have that stoic,
nothing moves you. Nothing moves you. No uneasiness
of mind. Always the same. Always joyful. Ever happy no matter what you
suffer. And they did believe that the
soul lives on after the body dies. But notice here, this is
what I want you to see here. They met here at this marketplace. This was where they came to and
they would come there and meet and they would have some of your
legal fellows would be there and some of your merchants would
be there and then these philosophers would come there and then just
loiters would come there. This was like a some of the squares
in major cities that we see where a lot of people gather. This
was where folks came and this is where your philosophers would
come and these Stoics and Epicureans and probably the Jews amongst
them, they would sort of do a little intellectual battle back and
forth and debate back and forth their various philosophical views,
you know. But nobody really, everybody
was so You didn't dare say, you know, well, we're going to reject
you because this is the way. Nobody was really so dogmatic
about anything so as to take a stance for anything, really.
And they all would receive one another. Everybody was fine with
this thing, with these various views. But then Paul comes and
he begins to preach to them. And they said, what will this
babbler say? What will this babbler say? Remember,
Paul said to the Corinthians, God has chosen the foolish things
to confound the wise. Base things. That's what they
call him, just base. Somebody said they call him a
seed picker. There's little birds that come
down, you know, there's little bitty sparrows in the square
that come down and they're just looking for seeds here and there,
you know, and going about pecking. That's how they perceive what
Paul was saying. Have you ever tried to to declare the gospel
to somebody. You remember before you understood,
before the Lord revealed Christ to you, how you just couldn't
put things together. These men just saw Paul as somebody
that's just picking here and there and there and there. None
of it made sense to them. And then others said he seemed
to be a setter forth of strange gods. That's an amazing thing
there, isn't it? They said they had over 30,000
gods in Athens. And I know they knew most of
their gods, but if there's 30,000 gods there, there had to be something
they weren't familiar with. And they were open to always
hearing about new things. But this god that Paul talked
about, they said, this is strange. As long as it's a god that man
made up, and it was of man's imagination, It was something
new and interesting. And let's explore that. But when
Paul comes preaching about Christ, they said, now that's strange.
What's this babbler talking about? And this was why. Look at verse
18 there. Because he preached unto them
Jesus and the resurrection. The doctrine of the resurrection.
Their gods were of man. Made by man. This is Jesus, God
in human flesh. That probably was strange. Their gods were dead, inanimate,
just made beings. Jesus, the Son of God, He's the
living God. Their gods were created in their
minds. They had systems of doctrines to go with these gods, and they
were systems that they had made. They had images of their gods
they had created by their hands. Paul comes telling them the true
and living God is before all and has made all things. None of their gods would raise
them to judgment. They wouldn't have to come into
any kind of being held accountable for anything. They would never
have to come into judgment. If you're going to create a God,
you're not going to create a God that's going to condemn you to
hell one day. Everybody's got a better sense
than that. Paul comes talking about a God
of judgment. The true and living God is a
strange God to this world. And the reason that they heard
Paul in this way, this babbling, base, seed-picking man, is because
that natural mind is unable to comprehend the Gospel. The Lord
told those, they said, why do you speak in parables? And he
said, it's given unto you to know the mysteries of heaven,
but to them it's not given. At Thessalonica, now look over
there at 1 Corinthians 1. We read this last week, but I
want to go back here. 1 Corinthians 1. At Thessalonica,
we saw how the most eminent religious Jews refused to even hear the
Word. They had some precepts of men,
the Jews had. By this time, Paul said they
had traditions of men. They had come from some, you
know, some washings and things. Like, remember when they accused
the Lord's disciples of not washing their hands before they eat?
And he said, it's not that which goes into the mouth that defiles
the man, it's what comes out of his heart. But they had turned
the washings that were in the Word of God into a precept of,
man, well, you've got to wash your hands. They had this thing
called Corban, where if you had something and your mother, your
father was suffering and didn't have any money, and you had the
means to provide for them, if you just said, Corban, it's a
gift to God, it meant you didn't have to give it to them. That's
just precept. And they taught this as being
the Word of God. You know what we call those in
our day and time? Creeds. That's exactly what we call them.
How many times have you ever heard of somebody who got saved
in the midst of a place that had their creeds and their church,
all their articles of faith and what have you, and that person
that was saved by God's grace went to the Word of God to try
to show the people what the Word of God says, and the people said,
but that ain't what our creed says. That ain't what this article
of faith... Those were precepts of men. That's why Isaiah said, the Lord
said throughout it, you teach the precepts of men as though
they're the commandments of God. Man made those things up. Me and Art was talking the other
day on the way over to Philadelphia about how these places where
you're just constantly trying to reevaluate the articles and
upgrade them and change them and make them. That ought to
tell you they're no good. This word don't change. You want
to know what my creed is? Here it is. I don't want anything
on that website that men will go to where they can just get
a quick glance and check us out and say, well, that, that, that,
that, it all checks out, looks good. Come here. Come listen. And sit and listen for a while.
I guarantee you tell a man that, And the first thing they'll do
is, well, I don't have time to do that. Well, I don't have time
for you either. Faith comes by hearing. You want
to hear what we believe? Listen. Sit down and listen. Take some time and listen and
search the Scriptures to see if these things be so. I'm not endeavoring to give you
a sound bite so you can just say, well, I believe it or I
don't. But that's what was going on here. These fellas came along
and they wouldn't even hear at Thessalonica. They wouldn't even
pay attention to what Paul said at Thessalonica because they
had their system down and they weren't going to hear what Paul
had to say. And then he comes here and this
is the pinnacle of wisdom, of man's very best that he has,
that he can muster right here at Athens. And this is what the
Lord says about the whole deal in 1 Corinthians 1.18. The Holy
Spirit said this through Paul, the preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is he? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? That's what these fellas came
into the marketplace to do, was to dispute. Worldly men want
to dispute and debate. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Where is it? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Isn't that wisdom? The wisdom of God. You know what
God did in his wisdom? He just left them to try to figure
them out in their wisdom. And they didn't know God. They
couldn't come to find out who God is. And after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Jews require a sign. I told you this last time about
when they came there to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said,
tell us what to do. And he said, this is the work
of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. And they said,
okay, then you do something. They wanted just to see something.
They wanted to see something. If there's no work of grace in
the heart, there's nothing going on in the Spirit, man's got to
see something. Show us something. Show us a prayer meeting. Show
us a mourner's bench. Show us an aisle to walk. Give us some work to go out and
try to win souls. Give us something to do. The Jews seek a sign. That's
what the Pharisees were seeking by making men do things. Seek
a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom.
That's what these fellows were there for. Wisdom. Wisdom. What kind of wisdom? The wisdom
that comes from above? The wisdom that's from God? Christ
the wisdom? No. Man's wisdom. Just man's
wisdom. That foolishness. That what God
calls foolishness. But we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, a stumbling block. And unto the Greeks, foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and wisdom of
God. You know what the Lord did in
Thessalonica and what He did at Athens? He'd manifest the
power and wisdom of God. You know how He did it? He took
some folks who all they were looking for was a sign. Those Jews, those religious folks
that just wanted to see something religious. And He took those
wise Greeks that just wanted to talk about wisdom of man. And He made both of them. to
fall on their face and cry out to God for mercy and to see Christ
as the power and wisdom of God. That's what He did to some in
Thessalonica and some in Athens. And that's how God makes foolish
the wisdom of this world. That's how God makes the sign-seeking
religious man and the wisdom-seeking philosopher of this world to
come to nothing. And he did it through a man named
Paul. When you see Paul going into
Athens by himself, nobody else with him. You think about that
city. I don't know how big it was. I didn't really look in
to see exactly the population or how big. It wasn't in its
glory days here, I know that. But it's still a mighty city.
And Thessalonica, I went over there with you last week, was
a huge place. But you see Paul here in And as far as we know in Thessalonica,
Paul and Silas were the only two believers in that place.
And now here Paul is by himself in Athens. As far as we know,
he's the only man in Athens that knows God and believes God. You
see a picture of Christ coming to this earth? See a picture,
an illustration of Christ coming into this place of religious
men and women in the synagogue and philosophizing wise men of
this world and walking right into their midst and declaring
the gospel that no man can be saved but by the power and wisdom
of God? You see something in that that
illustrates it's Christ who carried Paul there. It's Christ from
heaven's glory that walked him right in there to Athens. I kind
of feel like sometimes the Lord in these acts of the apostles,
the Lord's directing, moving, and moving the apostles just
to show us that this is what I did when I was in your midst. This is what I'm doing right
now. Well, I think we're going to
stop here and I'll come back here next week and we'll pick
up with when I took him into the and he preached this gospel,
but I just The Lord said this earth the
Spirit of God said this through Paul let no man deceive himself
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world Let
him become a fool that he may be wise I I was looking at some things
that the Lord said. Look over at Psalm 50. I want
to show this to you. Psalm 50. We'll get into this
next week. Look at Psalm 50. Look down there
at verse 7. Hear, O my people, and I will
speak. O Israel, and I will testify
against thee. I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before
me. I will take no bullock out of
thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest
is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." What are you
going to give God? What are you going to give God? I know all the fowls of the mountains. Do you? I don't. He does. And the wild beasts of the field
are mine, he said. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell thee. For the world is mine and the
fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats? Here's what God said. Offer unto
God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High and call
upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me." You know what he's saying? You want to glorify
me? This is how thou shalt do it.
Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most
High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble. I'll deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." This is both how we glorify Him,
and this is how we're brought to glorify Him. I'll tell you
what, the religion and the philosophy
and the wisdom of this world takes the things of God, looks
into the Word of God, and turns around, speaks some words about His being
all of God's grace, and all by the salvation and the work of
Christ Jesus the Lord alone. But then turns around and puts
the emphasis on man, and on what you've got to give back to God,
what you've got to do to God. and in doing so denies the whole
of the work. I'm studying something on this
thing of holiness when I tell you this is something I see already
about holiness. One, it's altogether different
from what this world preaches as holiness. I had a feeling
that was the case going in. But the second thing is this.
It has to do with giving thanks unto God It has to do with casting
all our care on God. It has to do with believing on
Christ. It has to do with not looking
to these members of our body or our flesh in any shape, form
or fashion. It has to do with what that thief
on the cross did when he had his hands and his feet nailed
to the cross and all he could do was say, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. It has to do with what Paul did
right here. when he walked into this place
by himself, alone, with no other constraint than the Spirit of
God working in his heart, the love of Christ constraining him
to behold these idols all about him, and to be stirred in the
Spirit, and to go into their midst and say, you men need Christ
Jesus alone. You need Christ Jesus alone.
It has something to do with that. I know that. Well, we'll come back next time.