Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm speaking from Acts chapter
17 this morning on Paul's message to the men at Athens. And I'd
like to read verse 22 by way of introduction. 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." Now, the word
superstitious means religious. Paul is saying to these men,
you are too religious. Now, I would define superstition
as religion without scripture. Everybody has their thoughts
and their views and their points of view about religion. and it
amounts to superstition unless it is not backed by scripture. And Paul looks at these individuals
and he says, I perceive that in all things you are too religious. That's what I've entitled this
message. I perceive you're too religious." Now, Paul had been
run out of Thessalonica, and he'd been run out of Berea for
preaching the gospel, and he now enters Athens. Verse 16, now while Paul waited
for them at Athens. Now Athens, Greece, At one time
was the intellectual capital of the world. That is where Socrates
and Plato and Aristotle were from, the Greek philosophers. Athens had been in decline for
300 years. Rome was now the epicenter of
the world. But at one time, Athens was the
chief city, really, of the known world. And it had amazing architecture. I think of Paul probably was
walking around Athens looking at the Parthenon, looking at
the Acropolis. It appears to me from the epistles
of Paul that he was a sports fan because he referred to the
Greek Olympics at least a half a dozen times during his epistles. So he maybe went to the Olympic
Stadium, I don't know, but he was wandering around Athens waiting
for his buddies to get there. And we read in verse 16, now
while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred
in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Now what is idolatry? Idolatry is a man's attempt to
make a likeness of God. Now right off the bat, God is
other. There's no one and no thing like
him. There's nothing you can compare
him to. He is an entity in himself who
is like unto me, were his words. The answer is nobody. And idolatry
is a likeness that men have made of God. It may be a statue, it
may be a cross, it may be a religious relic. It may be a false idea
of God that's supposed to evoke some kind of feeling of worship. And it always brings, without
exception, a false concept of God. It always seeks to make
God less than He is. A God that we can see, a God
that we can understand, a God that we can touch. Now, a God
that I can understand, there's not much to it. But that's not
the God of the Bible. Now, this grieved Paul when he
saw idols in every part of the city. His spirit was stirred
in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. You see, idolatry
brings God down to a human level in men's minds. And Paul loved
the living God. and it grieved him to see men
making images of the glorious divine being. So what did he
do? Verse 17, therefore disputed
he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons,
the religious people, and in the market daily with them that
met with him. What did he say? Well, verse
17 doesn't tell us, but verse 18 tells us because these people
who heard him said he seems to be a setter forth of strange
gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Now I know what he was saying
to these people. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. He is the
Son of God. When he spoke of his resurrection,
he spoke of his perfect life, he spoke of his sin-atoning death,
and he spoke of his resurrection, he was raised from the dead because
He accomplished what he came to do. He put away the sins of
everybody he died for. He satisfied the justice of God. The very law of God demanded
that he be raised from the dead. He preached Jesus and the resurrection. Oh, I would have loved to heard
this message. He preached Jesus. He's all in salvation, the resurrection,
salvation accomplished. He really was raised from the
dead. Verse 18. Then certain philosophers, now
remember he was in Athens, and this is where all the Greek philosophy
had its roots. And certain philosophers of the
Epicureans and of the Stoics. encountered him. Now, these philosophers
heard what he had to say, and they encountered Paul. Now, who
were these Epicureans and these Stoics? Now, these are two Greek
philosophies that had first come about 300 years before this,
and they are the philosophies that the Holy Spirit has recorded
in the scriptures that pretty much describe the natural man's
way of thinking. What is an Epicurean? An Epicurean
was somebody who believed happiness was found in the avoidance of
pain and the pursuit of pleasure. Now that's a simple definition
of what an Epicurean is. Now quite often that could turn
into hedonism, this shameful pursuit of pleasure to the exclusion
of everything else, and it does happen. A side note, I remember
one time I was on an airplane. And the man sitting beside me
said that he had just was returning from a hedonistic festival on
some island where all kinds of immorality was taking place.
And generally speaking, I don't like to tell people I'm a preacher.
You know, it just makes him uncomfortable. And I just don't, I don't even
want to be identified with most preachers. So I don't generally
tell people I'm a preacher. But when that guy asked me what
I did for a living, I said, I pastor a church. And his jaw dropped,
and he didn't know what to say, and we didn't speak the rest
of the time. He didn't want to talk to me anymore. But the point
being, Epicureanism, Avoid pain, pursue pleasure, that which makes
you feel good, that'll make you happy. Stoic, stoicism, we have
the word today, when somebody's stoic, that means they're not
affected by their surroundings. A stoic was someone who believed
that you ought to live above pain or pleasure, and control
should be from within, and you shouldn't be affected by circumstances,
either painful or pleasurable, control from within. These are the two philosophies
that summarize the way men think and often they vacillate between
the two of them. I want to be happy and they think
they'll be happy by the acquisition of stuff, material things and
pleasure and health and I want to be happy, I want to enjoy
beauty, I want to enjoy pleasure and so on. And then they'll get
tired of that and they'll think, I need to quit being slaves to
this and I need to start having some control from within and
not being controlled by these things. It's just the way men
think. Either looking for happiness
outside of themselves in stuff and pleasure, avoidance of pain,
or looking for happiness within by a proper mental attitude and
not being a slave. to things. Now, these Epicureans
and Stoics, they heard Paul preaching, and they said, what's this babbler
saying? What is this idiot saying? Certain
philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him,
and some said, what will this babbler say? Others some, he
seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached
unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Now, he was speaking to these
Epicureans and Stoics, and he talked about who Jesus Christ
is. He's God the Son. He's the Son of God. He's the
promised Messiah. He's the one God promised to
send. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He lived a perfect life. He never
sinned. He obeyed God's law perfectly.
Yet he died. Why did he die? Because the sins
of God's elect became his sins. He became guilty of the commission
of those sins. My sin became his. God punished
him, yet he was raised from the dead. Why was he raised from
the dead? Because he put those sins away. He was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. Verse
19, and they, these Epicureans and Stoics, after they heard
him, they took him and brought him unto Areopagus saying, may
we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is. Now
they'd never heard this before. For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things
mean. For all the Athenians," I love the way Luke gives his
editorial comment on these people. He says, all the Athenians and
strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but
either to tell or to hear some new thing. They heard something
they'd never heard before, and so they wanted to hear it expounded
on a little bit more. It wasn't because they had any
conviction of the truth, but they were always interested in
something new and novel. And at this time, this was new
and novel to them. They'd never heard of anything
like this. Verse 22, 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, you are too religious. Now look what he says, for as
I pass by and beheld your devotions, your religious relics, your shrines,
your temples, for as I pass by and beheld your devotions, I
found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God." Now, I've
read where there were many idols with that inscription in Athens,
to the unknown God. And here is what is taking place.
These people were saying, if there's any God that we have
We want to cover all of our bases. We want to cover our tails is
what they were doing. If there's any God we neglected and perhaps
offended Him, we're going to try to make up for it. And here
is a devotion to Him, to the unknown God. Now look what Paul says. He says
in verse 23, whom you ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you."
This one you call unknown and that you're ignorant of, I'm
going to declare to you who He is. And He names, in the next
two verses, four attributes of this unknown God that they would
come to know if they were going to know the living and true God. First he says in verse 24, God
that made the world and all things therein. Jesus Christ is God
the creator. Jesus Christ is the one who created
the universe. The scripture says concerning
Christ, all things were made by him and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. Hebrews 1.3 says, by whom also
he made the worlds. In John chapter one, verse one,
in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and
the Word was God. The Word was with God as a distinct
person. The Word was God. God the Son, the same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that were made. Now, Jesus
Christ, this Jesus Christ I'm speaking of to you, is the Creator. All things were made by Him,
and He created this universe as an act of His will. Now, there are all kinds of theories
regarding the creation of the universe. I hear the Big Bang
Theory, or just the life evolved from some primordial stew. Christ
created the universe from nothing. By the divine fiat, by his own
will, he brought the universe into existence. That's who Jesus
Christ is. Now secondly, he says, God that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that he's Lord
of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven
and earth. This is speaking of the absolute
sovereignty of Jesus Christ. He's Lord. That means His will
is always done. His will cannot be thwarted. It cannot be stopped. The scripture
says, He doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand. or saying to Him, what doest thou? He doeth according
to His will. Or God is in the heavens, David
said, He hath done whatsoever He pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the Lord. He's the sovereign of the universe.
He's your Lord. Somebody says He's not my Lord.
Yes, He is, because He's Lord of the dead and the living. If
you're dead in sins, He's still your Lord, and you're in His
hands. He's Lord of creation. He's spake the world into existence.
He's Lord of providence, everything that happens in time. is his
will being done, and he's Lord of salvation. If you're saved,
it's because he willed your salvation. You know, the leper understood
that when he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
Everybody that he saves understands that he is Lord. Not in an empty title, but he
really is in control of everybody and everything. And then we read,
he dwells not in temples made with hands, He is omnipresent. He cannot be confined to a man-made
temple in any way. He doesn't dwell in these temples
made with hands. The heavens cannot contain Him.
There's nowhere you can go where He is not. He said, the heaven
is my throne. and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that you can build me?" You see, time and
space cannot contain him. He is the eternal I am. He is
not confined to temples and religious structures that men build. He's omnipresent. And then he
says next, I love this, neither is he worshiped with men's hands
as though he needed anything. You see, Jesus Christ is independent. And you don't know anybody else
that's independent. We're all so needy, but Jesus Christ is
independent. You know what that means? That
means He has no needs. You know what else that means?
He doesn't need me, and He doesn't need you. He is independent. Now, I need Him. You need him,
but he does not need me or you. I've heard people say, you can't
spell church without you. Well, you can't spell stupid
without you either. That is just totally ridiculous
to think something like that, that you're needed in any way. He is utterly independent. And that's who he is. And what
has he done? Neither is he worshipped with men's hands as though he
needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all
things. The very breath you took just
now is what he gave you. You wouldn't even be breathing
apart from his will. Now look what it says in verse
26. This is Paul speaking to those people who were too religious.
He says, he hath made of one blood all nations, for to dwell
on the face of the earth, and to determine the times before
appointed, and the bounds of their habitations." Now, He's
made of one blood. That's talking about Adam. And
it could be Noah, too, because he had destroyed everybody. And
Noah and his sons were the only ones left a couple thousand years
after Adam. But here's the point. Everybody's
from one blood. There's only one race. I was
in the doctor's office last week, and I was filling out something
that you have to do when you're getting ready to be examined.
And they asked me, what race? And I thought, I'm going to put
the human race. I didn't do it, but I went ahead and marked out
what they were expecting, but there's only one race. They're
not different races. There's one race, the human race,
and God is made of one blood, all nations, and he has determined
where you live, when you would be born, When you would die,
he's determined everything about your life. Now that's how close
he is. Everything about your life, he
has determined. He's determined the times before
appointed. He appointed these things. And
the bounds of their habitations, you're not gonna do anything
that he has not purposed. You're not gonna go anywhere
where he has placed a bound where it's not gonna happen. And here's
why, verse 27, that men should seek the Lord. Now here is my
purpose, here is your purpose in life, to seek the Lord. Not
to be successful, not to get as much of this world that you
can, but to seek the Lord because of who He is. He's altogether
glorious, He's altogether lovely, He's the God of glory, and our
only aim and purpose in life is to seek Him. if happily they
might feel after him and find him. You know, nobody seeks in
vain. Everyone who does seek the Lord,
they do so because he said, seek ye my face, and they all find
him. Seek and you shall find, though
he be not far from every one of us. Now, listen to me. Whatever position you're in,
he's very close. The word is nigh thee. Paul said,
even in thy heart and in thy mouth, the word of faith, which
we preach, that if thou shalt believe the Lord Jesus, if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, he really is
Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, not just believing in the fact of the resurrection, but
the reason for the resurrection, God raised Him from the dead
because He did what He came to do. He put away the sins of His
people. And He was raised from the dead
because God's pleased with what He did and everybody in Him.
The Word's nigh thee, it's so close, even in thy heart, the
Word of faith which we preach. Look what He says in verse 28,
For in Him we live and move and have our being, as certain also
of your poets have said, for we are also His offspring. Now
for as much then as we are the offspring of God, our life came
from him. We ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to
gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. We ought not try to bring down
God to our human ways of thinking and by our art and by our thoughts. In the times of this ignorance,
God winked at. He overlooked because he's so
merciful and gracious. But now, Paul says to these men
who are too religious, and that would be all of us by nature,
but now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And me and you are in that demographic.
God commands all men everywhere to repent. Now, generally when
people think of repentance, they think of a change of behavior.
Well, If my behavior is bad, it ought to be changed, but that
is not what repentance is. Repentance is a change of mind. Change your mind about all these
foolish and wrong notions you had of God that are wrong. Change your mind about all these
foolish notions you have about yourself that you can be saved
by your works. Change your mind. Change your
mind about all your wrong views of salvation. Christ is salvation. You repent. You change your mind
of all those foolish and wrong notions. And here's why. Verse
31, Because he hath appointed a day, speaking of the day of
judgment, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he raised him from the dead." Now, this
is a reference to Judgment Day. Now, on a grassroots level, everybody
listening knows deep down that God is judge. and that he is
going to reward the righteous and punish the wicked. Everybody is born with that knowledge. God's going to reward the righteous
and he is going to punish the wicked. Now, what is the standard
of this judgment? Well, it says he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. And
here's what's gonna take place. Me and you are gonna be placed
beside the Lord Jesus Christ. And if our righteousness is equal
to His, we'll be saved. If our righteousness is not equal
to His, we will be damned. Now, here's the question. How in the world can my righteousness
be equal to His? There's only one answer to that
question. That is, if my righteousness
is his righteousness. You see, the only righteousness
that is equal to his is his. And here's what happened. He
lived a perfectly righteous life without sin. But the scripture
says, for he hath made him to be sin who knew no sin, On Calvary's
tree, Christ was made sin. He became guilty of the commission
of the sins that were charged to Him. All of His people's sins
were charged to Him. He died under the wrath of God,
and he did something that you or I could never do. He satisfied
that wrath. And everybody he died for, God
is satisfied with. And now they have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That perfect righteousness that
he worked out is theirs. Now, on Judgment Day, if my righteousness
is His, I shall be saved.