we're going to look at Genesis
12, where Abraham told Sarah to lie and tell the Egyptians
that he, she was his sister. And I've entitled that message,
In Spite Of. In Spite Of. Looking forward
to trying to preach from that. I've entitled This morning's
message, I perceive you are too religious. Now I think that superstition,
I perceive you're too superstitious, and the word means religious,
superstition, Is religion without Scripture? Superstition is religion without
Scripture. Is it possible to be too religious? That's what Paul said to the
Athenians. I perceive. Here's what your problem is.
I perceive that in all things you are too religious." Paul had been run out of Thessalonica,
and then he was run out of Berea, and he entered into the city
of Athens. You've all heard of Athens, Athens,
Greece. And at one time, it was the intellectual
capital of the world. This is where Socrates came from. This is where Plato came from. This is where Aristotle came
from. This is where the philosophers
came from. And it was the intellectual capital
of the world at one time, but it had fallen into decline by
this time. It was no longer the major city,
but Rome, was the major city. And we don't really ever read
of a church being founded there, but it was a very religious city. Look in verse 16 of Acts chapter
17. Now, while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him. Acts chapter 17 verse 16. Now, while Paul waited for them
at Athens, these men to come to him. His spirit was stirred
in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Now, I try to think of Paul being
in this city at this time. This is a famous city. And I
can see him, I asked Lynn if I should say this. She said,
maybe not. Well, I'm gonna say it anyway. I can see them, Paul,
wandering around looking at the architecture. There was the Acropolis,
there was the Parthenon, and I've been disagreed with here,
but I have no doubt that Paul was a sports fan. And the Olympics
were held there, and he made several references to the Greek
Olympics in his epistles. And he was interested in what
was going on in Athens, walking around, looking at the sights
to see, and I would too. I'd be looking at all that amazing
architecture. All of a sudden, his spirit is
stirred within him because as he goes around, he sees idols
everywhere. As a matter of fact, the scripture
says the city was wholly given to idolatry. Everybody there
was wholly given to idolatry. Now, what is idolatry? Idolatry
is a likeness of God. And here's the problem with that.
There's nothing like him. Any attempt to make a likeness,
an image of God or a false idea of God, that's what's behind
an image. A false idea of God is always
bringing him down. making him less to be than who
he really is. It's a false concept of God. It may be a statue, it may be
a cross, it may be a religious relic of some kind, it may be
an idea, but it's always supposed to stir up these thoughts of
God, and I'm sure it does, but it is always a wrong concept,
always. always a wrong concept of God,
bringing him down to a human level, making a God we can see
and a God we can understand. And seeing this grieved Paul,
it stirred up his spirit because he loved the living God. And
he was grieved to see God dishonored in this way, bringing him, him
being brought down to this human level. Verse 17, therefore disputed
he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout or religious
persons and in the market daily with them that met with him. Well, what was he saying during
this time? Well, we're not told in this
verse, but in the next verse, we read he was speaking of Jesus
and the resurrection. That's what he was speaking of
with this group of religious people who did not believe the
gospel. His message was Jesus. We're gonna get more into this
in a moment, but his message was Jesus, who he is, and the
resurrection. He spoke of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously, he spoke of his death,
why he died, and he spoke of his resurrection. Now, let's
look in verse 18. Now he'd been disputing with these people,
even in the marketplace. Verse 18, then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, what will this
babbler, what would this idiot say? Others some, he seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection." Now, there are a lot of Greek
philosophies. I remember studying these two
in a philosophy class when I was in college, the Epicureans and
the Stoics. These were two Greek philosophies
and the Holy Spirit causes these two philosophies to be mentioned
because these two philosophies encapsulate what every natural
man thinks. Now, who were the Epicureans?
Well, this was a philosophy, a Greek philosophy from the third
century BC by Epicurus, but it can briefly be stated like this. Happiness is found in the avoidance
of pain and the pursuit of pleasure. If you want to be happy, avoid
pain. and pursue pleasure. And this
was not necessarily talking about the pleasures of immorality,
although it turned into that with what's called hedonism.
But it's simply saying this, if you want to be a happy person,
happiness is found outside of you. It's found in avoidance
of pain, do what you can to avoid pain, painful situations, physical
pain, emotional pain, avoid it and get stuff that pleases you.
Materialism, whatever you find pleasure in, look for it outside
of you. Now the Stoics believe something
completely different. You've heard of, that's where
we get the word Stoic, that we use even today, a Stoic attitude. That means the Stoics said what
you need to do is not be affected by pleasure or pain. Find your happiness on the inside,
your self-control, where you're not moved by outside influences
like pain or pleasure. Be stoic about this. Now, the Epicureans believed
in God, but they believed in a God afar off. They believed
that he was not concerned with the affairs of human beings.
and your great concern is to avoid pain and find pleasure. The Stoics believed God was in
everything. They were very religious. Both
of these groups were very religious. They believed God was in everything,
but happiness is only achieved by self-control, not being moved
by pain or pleasure. Now these two philosophies, you
think about this, they summarize the way men think. And they often
vacillate between the two. Happiness is found in material
things. How much I got. What I have. What I, enjoy what I experience. Happiness is found there. Happiness is found in avoiding
painful experiences or being healthy or not having to deal
with pain. Who hadn't thought like that?
And then We get tired of that and see the vanity of that and
we think, I need to find some control within. I need to control
myself and not be so taken up with these outward things. Every
human being has dealt with that where they've gone too far and
they think, I need to get some, I need to get ahold of this.
I need to control this. And they vacillate between these
two philosophies. Now, then certain philosophers,
verse 18, of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him.
They'd been listening to him preach. And some said, what will
this idiot say? That's what Babbler, that's what
they were calling. Well, there's some. Well, he said, he seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods, gods we've never heard
about. Because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Now I love to think of Paul going
into this place where they've never heard of Jesus. They'd
never heard of the resurrection. He didn't try to meet them on
their philosophical standards. He didn't do that at all. He
said, let me tell you what you need to hear. You need to hear
of Jesus, who he is. He's the son of God. He's God,
the son. And he was raised from the dead.
He died, and he told them why he died. This man, Jesus, lived
a perfect life as the Son of God, God manifested in the flesh.
He lived a perfect life, and he died. Why did he die? Why
would a perfect man die? because God purposed it. He came
to die. You can bet he told them that.
He came to die. That was his purpose in coming.
He came to die. Well, why did he die? Because
the sins of God's people became his sins. He was made sin, he
was made guilty, and the only reason anyone dies is because
of the guilt sin. There are no other reasons. He
was raised from the dead. Why is that? Because in his death,
He put away that sin that He died for, and He made it not
to be. Everybody he died for, their
sins were blotted out. And now the very law of God demands
his resurrection because there's no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. He put away those sins. The very
law of God demands his resurrection. He is the resurrected Christ. I love when he was speaking to
the Athenians. Look, and this is what they came
up with, verse six. And when, No, he was speaking
to the Thessalonicans, verse six. And when they found them
not, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of
the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside
down have come hither also whom Jason hath received. And these
do all contrary to the decrees of Caesar, speaking of Paul,
saying that there is another king. One Jesus. This is what they got out of
Paul's preaching. He's saying Caesar's really not
king. There's another king that's under, Caesar's under his thumb. King Jesus is the king of kings. Boy, I hope somebody would get
that implication from our preaching when we preach. They're saying
there's another king, that Jesus Christ is king of kings and Lord
of lords. And I have no doubt that is how
Paul came preaching at this time. And let's go on reading, verse
19. Acts chapter 17, verse 19. and brought him unto Areopagus,
saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest
is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears, and we would know therefore what these things
mean. We would like to know just what
it is you're talking about. We've never heard anything like
this. And then Luke gives us his editorial comment on this.
For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their
time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. We haven't heard anything like
this before. That's all, they weren't really seeking the truth.
They just wanted to hear something different. We never heard anything
like this. We'd like to expound on it a
little bit more, perhaps to make fun of it. Verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill, in the midst of these philosophers, in the midst
of these people who wanted to hear some new thing. And he said,
ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too
religious. That's your problem. You're too
superstitious. You're too religious. And here's
why he says that, verse 23, for as I pass by and beheld your
devotions. You know, I talked to a man a
couple of weeks ago and I said, do you read the Bible? We were
talking about the gospel. I said, do you read the Bible?
He said, well, not really, but I read devotional material. Oh, good. Devotions? Well, that's what
these were. These were not necessarily scriptural, but they were devotional
material. Devotions devout to some kind
of God. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the
unknown God. Now, what would these fellas
do? As a matter of fact, there were a lot of idols in Athens that
had this description. It just wasn't one. What would
these fellas do? Well, these fellas were covering
all their bases. They were covering their tails, what they were doing.
Just in case I leave out a God, and maybe might offend Him and
Him get mad at me, I'll cover my bases and I'll worship Him
too. Any God that I've left out, any
concept of God that I've overlooked, I'm going to make up for it.
Here it is. Here's an altar to the unknown God. Now look what Paul says in verse
23, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. That's a sobering thought. I
don't want to be this. whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship. Him declare I unto you. Now you've been talking about
this unknown God, and indeed he is unknown to you, but I'm
going to tell you who he is. Him declare I unto you. And he mentions four attributes
of the unknown God, which are critically important for us to
understand, or we're never gonna hear the gospel. Now look what
he says in verse 24. This is the declaration of this
unknown God, God that made the world and all things therein. Now he speaks of the creator. And let me say this, I want you
to listen to this real carefully. Jesus Christ is the creator. The scripture is very strong
on this. All things, the scripture says
in Colossians 1, were made by him and for him. And he is before all things. And by him, all things consist. The writer to the Hebrews said,
by whom he also made the worlds. John 1.1 says, in the beginning
was the word. And the word was with God as
a distinct person And the word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by him. And without him was not anything
made that was made. Jesus Christ is the creator.
Now there was a time when there was no matter. And by his own
will, HE SPAKE THIS WORLD INTO EXISTENCE. JESUS CHRIST IS THE
CREATOR. AND IF I DON'T KNOW HIM AS THE
CREATOR, I DON'T KNOW HIM, PERIOD. BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT TELLS US
OF HIS DEITY. HE IS GOD. GOD THE SON. AND THE SECOND THING HE MENTIONS,
SEEING THAT HE IS LORD. heaven and of earth. Now, this is a reference to His
absolute sovereignty. He's Lord. Who is the Lord? The Lord is the one whose will
is done. Now, when we speak of the sovereignty
of God or the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, we're saying He's
Lord of heaven. He's Lord of earth. Everything
that happens in heaven is His will being done. Everything that
happens in earth is His will being done. He is Lord. He's Lord of creation. He spake
the world into existence. He's Lord of Providence. Everything
that happens in this place we call planet Earth and anywhere
else is all according to His will. Everything that has happened
to you yesterday, today, and tomorrow will be His will being
done according to His purpose. Do I understand that? Well, yeah,
I do in the sense that it's His will being done. Do I understand
why He's doing it? No, I don't. No, I don't, but I don't need
to, but I know this. He is so glorious, He brings good out
of evil. That's who He is. He's Lord. He's most especially Lord of
salvation. That means if you're saved, here's
the reason. He willed your salvation. It
wasn't because you willed it. It's because He willed it. He doeth according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay His hand. or saying to him, what doest
thou? God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth. Here's the next thing he speaks
of is his omnipresence. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. And there was all kinds of temples
in Greece, all kinds of devotions. in Athens, all kinds of aisles
and structures made for worship. He says, he doesn't dwell in
any of these temples made with hand. You see, the heaven cannot
contain him. Time and space cannot contain
him. You cannot go anywhere where
he is not. He said, the heaven is my throne
and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you build
me? He is the eternal I am. He's not confined to a place
or a building. People call a place like this
the house of God. No, it's not. It's a structure.
It's a structure that people meet together to hear the gospel,
but you can't go anywhere where he's not. He is omnipresent. He cannot be contained by the
buildings we build to place him in. And I love what he says next
in verse 25. Now we see that he's the creator.
We see he's sovereign. We see he's omnipresent. Look
in verse 25. Neither is worshiped with men's
hands as though he needed anything. Jesus Christ is utterly and completely
independent. He has no needs. He doesn't need anything to continue
his existence. He has no needs. Now, I've heard this said all
my life. You can't spell church without
you. Can't spell stupid without you
either. Jesus Christ has no needs. Listen to this. He does not need
you. You need him. The independent Lord Jesus Christ. He's the creator. He's the sovereign. You can't
go anywhere where he's not. And he is the independent one. We're totally dependent on an
independent Christ. Now let's go on and see what
he says next. Neither is he worshipped with
men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to
all life and breath and all things. Now, there's one reason why you're
breathing right now. His will. Everything you have. Everything you have right now.
He gave you. I love the way he says this. He giveth to all life and breath
and all things. Look what it says in verse 26.
He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell in
all the faces of the earth. He's made of one blood all nations
of men. Now, I was in the doctor's office
last week and I was filling out a form and it said, what race
are you? And I started to be a smart aleck
and put human race. There is only one race, the human
race. And he's made of this one blood,
all nations, all men, all ethnicities. They have this one purpose. And
he is made of one blood, all nations of men for to dwell on
the face of the earth. And look what he says next. He
has determined. Christ determined this. God determined
this. God the Holy Spirit determined
this. He hath determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. Now listen
to me. Jesus Christ has determined where you'd live. He's determined
when you would be born. He's already determined when
you will die. Jesus Christ determines everything. and he's already determined everything
about me and you. Now, I'm glad I don't know the
future, I really am. I would not like to know what's
gonna happen, but he does. That way I can always try to
have a more positive look at what's gonna happen and when
I'm gonna die in some kind of gruesome way, you know, but the
point I'm making is he's in control of that. You and me, we're in
his hands and he's already determined everything, but how come? Verse
27. that they should seek the Lord. Now, this is God's purpose for
you. Somebody says, what's my reason?
What's my purpose in life? To seek the Lord. That trumps everything. To seek
the Lord, this glorious Lord, this glorious divine being, your
purpose, my purpose here on earth is to seek him. And he that seeketh shall find.
I would want to be discouraging to anybody. If you seek the Lord,
you will find him. That's his promise. He that knocks,
it shall be opened. He that seeks, he shall find. That's the Lord's promise. And
your purpose on earth, your reason for being here is to seek him. Look what he says next. that
they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
him and find him. You know, the Lord's not sought
in vain. If you seek the Lord, you'll
find him. He's not sought in vain. Though he be not far from every
one of us. This glorious Lord that I've
been speaking of, he's mighty close. He's mighty close. You see in Him, verse 28, in
Him we live and move and have our being. Now that's how close
He is to you, everything about you, He gives. The reason you live right now
is because of Him, your being. Is because of him everything
about you he is in utter control of he is very very close And he appeals to these greek
philosophers For in him we live and move and have our being a
certain also of your own poets have said For we are his offspring
we come from him How close is he The word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth and thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's how close he is. The word
is 90. In him we live and move and have
our being. As certain of your own poets
said, you know, it's really only logical. Obviously, existence comes from
him. You know, there isn't anything
more irrational and logical than atheism. Now, I realize that
many very intelligent people are atheists, people who, probably
their IQ's a lot higher than mine, but it's really irrational. We gotta come from something.
We didn't just pop up. The universe didn't just matter,
didn't all of a sudden start, there it is. No, somebody made
all this, and nobody made him. He is eternal. Somebody made
this. and nobody made him. And this
goes along, he says, with one of your own philosophers. We
are his offspring, verse 29, for as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we have our being and our existence from
God. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the God is likened
to gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. And that word device means thoughts. Now the scripture says we were
created in the image of God. And that's why human life is
valuable, every human life. We were created in the image
of God, and just that ought to make us know that we ought not
to think that the Godhead is likened to our thoughts of Him,
our man-made idols, our man-made concepts, the things that we
just naturally think. Now listen to me, God is other.
God is other. He is unlike any concept me or
you can ever come up with. Somebody says, is God most like
an angel or a grasshopper? Neither. Neither. The natural person,
so I'd say, is more like an angel. Nothing to compare him to. And
that's why we should never make gods of our own imagination and
concepts and so on. I think of, he said, my thoughts
are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. I think of what he said in Psalm
50, thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as yourself. Well,
I'm not this surely God is. No, he's not. No, he's not. Verse 30 and the times of this
ignorance. Wasn't that a good name for our
natural thoughts of God and our natural religion? Ignorance. Ignorance. The times of this
ignorance, God winked at. That means he overlooked it. He's so long suffering. He's
so kind. He's so gracious. The times of
this ignorance, God winked at. But now, but now, right now, but now,
God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Now what does repentance
mean? I want to deal with that more
next week, Lord willing. But it means this, change your
mind. Most people, when they think
of repentance, they think of a change of behavior. I'm not
speaking against the change of behavior, but that's not what
repentance is. Repentance means change your mind. Quit thinking
these foolish, stupid thoughts you have about God. Get rid of
these high, wrong thoughts you have of yourself and your own
importance and your own ability. Repent of those wrong thoughts
you've had of salvation. Oh, I'm going to do something
and I'm going to make things better. Tomorrow. Quit thinking that way. Quit
thinking of do. It's done. It's done. Christ accomplished salvation. Repent of your wrong thoughts
of God, your wrong thoughts of yourself, your wrong thoughts
of salvation. Now look what he says in verse
31. Because he hath appointed a day 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 hath
raised him from the dead. Now, here's what's gonna happen.
The day is coming, it's called Judgment Day, when God will judge. There are two people on Judgment
Day, the righteous and the wicked. God's going to reward the righteous,
and punish the wicked. Now that just, we just know that
so don't we? God is going to reward the righteous
on that day. I mean, everybody gets by with
everything today, all kinds of wicked stuff going on, people
getting by with things. You think, how does it happen?
The day's coming when God is going to judge the world in perfect,
absolute righteousness. Now here is the standard. You're
going to be placed by the righteous one. The righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if your personal righteousness
is not exactly like His, you'll be condemned. You'll be sent
to hell. And if your righteousness is
exactly like His, you will be saved. Now somebody says, how
can that be? How could I have a righteousness
like His? Well, the only righteousness
there is, is His. And the only righteousness like
His, is His. Now here's the way this works. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, for
He, God the Father, hath made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to
be sin. Now that is why he was nailed
to that cross. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And when Jesus Christ died, it
was not the innocent dying. It was the guilty dying. He bore my sins. But what about
his perfect righteousness? Was just as truly as he bore
my sin in my place, his perfect righteousness is given to me
so that I am the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. For he hath
made him to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. And here's the assurance
of all this in verse 31. He's given assurance to all men
in that he raised him from the dead. Do you believe that? Do
you believe that? I do. Someone says, I don't,
doesn't matter whether you do or not, I'm still so. He raised
him from the dead. Why did he raise him from the
dead? He was completely satisfied with what he did. All sin was
put away, nothing to condemn him for. The very law and justice
of God demanded his resurrection. Verse 32, and when they heard
of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Why, this is the
most stupid thing I've ever heard. This is ridiculous. Who can believe
something like that? And others said, we'll hear thee
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them,
howbeit certain men clave unto him." They were glued to him.
They found such liberty in this message. They found such hope
in this message. Certain men clave unto him and
believed. Among that which was Dionysus,
the Areopagite, and a woman named Demarius, and others with them. There was some folks who believed. I want to be one of them. Let's
pray. Lord, we thank you that you are who you are. We thank
you that you're the creator. We thank you that you're the
sovereign of the universe. We thank you that you're everywhere.
We thank you that you're independent. We thank you that we have our
being in you. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us the grace to seek thy face in the gospel. We ask that
we might be enabled to repent and believe your gospel. We ask
that on judgment day, we might be found in Christ, beside him,
having his perfect righteousness accepted in him. Bless this message
for your glory and for our good. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
amen. Dwayne.