The Law of the Lord

Well, just before Christmas last month, we finished making our way through Paul's letter to the Galatians, and since then I've been giving much thought and prayer to what our next series of sermons might be. I've decided to preach a series, if the Lord wills, on the Old Testament book of Proverbs.

I've already begun studying and preparing for it, and my intention is for us to begin making our way through the book of Proverbs next Sunday. But today I want us to spend some time interacting with and meditating on a passage of scripture that in my mind addresses an overarching, sort of a big picture theme of the Christian life. At the start of a new year, it seems appropriate and helpful to take some time to remind ourselves of our chief end, the purpose for which we have been created and put here on this earth. Our chief end in 2025, as it is in every year, is to glorify God and enjoy Him. We exist to worship and serve and delight in God. We know this, and yet how often we get sidetracked or distracted in that purpose. We forget to worship God, and we end up giving ourselves and our affections to a thousand lesser things. Or we set out to make much of God by bringing Him glory and enjoying Him forever, but somewhere in the process we begin distorting and reinventing God to suit ourselves. We're created to worship God, but we are so easily prone to inventing and worshiping idols of our own making. So this morning we're going to consider a specific passage in God's Word that exposes some of the typical idols, some of our common misconceptions of God. This scripture points us to that glorious chief end of glorifying and enjoying God as He is revealed to us in scripture, as He has revealed Himself to be.

Now there's an underlying principle that is implied in the text before us today, and that principle is this. Our worship of God is shaped by our view of God. Our worship of God is shaped and influenced by our view of God. We cannot have an unbiblical understanding of the nature of God and then expect to glorify and enjoy Him in a biblical way. We cannot harbor misconceptions about who God fundamentally is and then think that we're in a position to offer acceptable worship to Him. Our worship of God is determined, for better or for worse, by our understanding of who He is.

And so we had better understand who He is. Well our text is Acts chapter 17 verses 16 through 34. Paul is in Athens and he finds himself confronting all sorts of false notions of who God is. I think we'll discover that we are not all that different from the Athenians of Paul's day. So let's listen attentively this morning to God's Word as we seek to kill our idols and to learn to worship God for who He truly is.

Acts 17 we'll read starting at verse 16 to the end of the chapter. Now while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said what does this babbler wish to say? Others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting for you bring some strange things to our ears.

We wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said men of Athens I perceive that in every way you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor as he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him yet he is actually not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring being then God's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and an image formed by the art and imagination of man the times of ignorance got overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked but others said we will hear you again about this so Paul went out from their midst but some men joined him and believed among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them let's pray Lord we exist because you have created us and you have created us to be worshippers of you so please use your word now through the power of the Holy Spirit in us to rid our hearts of idols and to increase the depth and sincerity and purity of our worship of you for your glory and the edification of your people I pray amen. This passage can be divided into two main parts in the first part Paul is discovering what the people of Athens are like and he notices three things about them in the second part Paul declares what God is like and he mentions eight characteristics of God so first Paul discovers what the Athenians are like when we meet up with Paul there in verse 16 he's just been run out of Thessalonica and Berea by hostile Jews so he escapes by sea to the cultural and religious center of Greece the city of Athens he's waiting for the arrival of his team Silas and Timothy and he has some time on his hands so he decides to see the city but what he sees in Athens grieves his heart verse 16 says that he saw that the city was given over to idols Athens was full to the brim with idol worship and this is the first thing we notice about the people of Athens the Athenians were infatuated with idols now this is not a shock to us the the religious extravagance of Athens is sort of legendary isn't it we've all heard of the pantheon of gods in Greek mythology if Athens had nothing else it had plenty of deities to choose from in fact it was once said that in Athens it was easier to find a god than a man how could these intelligent philosophical people become so obsessed with idolatry I think if we flip over to Romans 1 Paul explains how this is he says for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator we are made to be worshippers of God when we stop worshipping God something else will inevitably come rushing in to fill that void we will worship something either God or an idol but we will not remain neutral worshippers of nothing the Athenians were infatuated with idols because they had rejected the true God but then secondly we notice that the Athenians were infatuated with reason verses 18 and 19 say some of the Epicurean and stoic philosophers also conversed with Paul and some said what does this babbler wish to say others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection and they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting the Greeks loved philosophy Greek culture produced Aristotle and Plato and Socrates Greeks loved using reason to unravel the mysteries and the problems of the universe and and here we encounter two of their philosophies Epicureanism taught that the chief end of man is the avoidance of pain Epicureans were materialists not believing in the afterlife they believed that matter is all there is and that matter has always existed there was not some personal God out there who interfered in the affairs of men on the other hand the stoics believed that the chief end of man is self mastery that is that that man ought to strive for indifference to pain or pleasure life is what it is and that's the end of it I want you to notice something neither of these philosophies allows for a biblical conception of God and yet these people could not help but worship something it was ingrained in them they were created to worship and so they invented all manner of religious ideas and deities to conform to their philosophy because they simply could not suppress the drive to worship they unavoidably worshiped but they worshiped idols of course they were culturally refined in their idolatry they dressed up their idol worship in the respectable clothes of scholarship and philosophy but idolatry is idolatry no matter what it's packaged in well thirdly Paul observed that the Athenians were infatuated with not only idolatry and and reason philosophy but also with novelty with newness verse 21 now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new they were inquisitive of Paul's teaching not because it was good or true but because it was new and you know this tendency I don't think is unique to first century Athenians it's a tendency of humanity in general isn't it my kids when they were younger or a great illustration of this point they had a closet full of the classic toys you know Legos and Lincoln Logs and tinker toys but if you gave them a plastic thingy from a Happy Meal that spins around on a table or squirts water or something they'd be enraptured by it and completely lose interest in those quality toys that they had in their possession why was that because for about ten minutes it was new it was something they hadn't seen before it was novel and we adults just like young kids just like the Athenians are the same way we love new things because they're new but infatuation with novelty is not the only similarity we share with the Athenians we're also infatuated like them with reason with idolatry now perhaps we have enough insight to see the flaws in epicureanism or stoicism but there are plenty of philosophies that appeal to our modern sensibilities philosophies like pragmatism which says the end justifies the means or materialism that tells us we're justified in making life as convenient and leisurely and safe as possible we have our own vulnerability to being infatuated with reason we have our own vulnerability to being infatuated with idols of course we don't have statues all over town that we bow down to like the Athenians nevertheless we set up idols in our hearts misrepresentations of God we worship an idol when we worship a conception of God that is not consistent with the self-revelation of God that we find in scripture I'll say it again our worship of God is shaped by our view of God if we miss apprehend God we will eventually be worshipping a God of our own making which is to say we will be worshipping an idol so how did Paul correct the Athenians misconceptions of God well he preached to them about the God they did not know the unknown God and I want to highlight eight things that Paul highlights in his description of God eight things that combat the sophisticated idolatry of the Athenians eight things that combat idolatry in our hearts first Paul declares that God is the creator of everything verse 24 the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth and let's just stop right there for a minute when evangelizing Jews Paul started with the Old Testament when evangelizing pagans Paul started with creation God created everything in fact Paul doesn't really assert this fact and defend it he just assumes it it's almost as if he's saying God who by the way made everything and is Lord of it all his main point is yet to come but he starts with an assumption a presupposition that immediately creates a conflict between his teaching and the beliefs of those that he's speaking to you see the Epicureans believed that matter was eternal and therefore had no creator nothing transcended matter the Stoics who were pantheists that is they believed in many gods believed that God was everything and everything was God that the trees and the sky and the Mediterranean Sea were all God creation and creator were the same thing and so God couldn't have created himself but in contrast to these Greek philosophies Paul is saying that God owns every one of us in light of the fact that he created every one of us the implication then is this if he created us all we ought to all be worshiping him and him alone when we blur the distinction between the one who creates and the one who is created we misconceive our place in the grand scheme of things and consequently worship a God of our own making who is not the supreme creator of all the fact is there is a distinction between God and us that will never be erased it's a distinction of nature it's a distinction of knowledge it's a distinction of virtue and we ought never to diminish or erase that distinction that was Satan's downfall he wanted to be like God that was the downfall of Adam and Eve they wanted to be like God but God alone is creator and as creator he is Lord of heaven and earth secondly God is unlimited by space look at the latter part of verse 24 God does not live in temples made by man God is present everywhere at all times just let that sink in for a moment you know we really can't comprehend omnipresence can we but it is an essential attribute of who God is that's what Paul is saying here he's saying God doesn't need a house built by the hands of mere creatures whom he himself created you cannot confine the creator to a box he's everywhere do you know what this means Athenians it means that when you are engaged in immorality God is there watching it means that when you're worshiping at the altar of a false God the true God is there watching you cannot build a temple and expect God to just wait there for you until it's convenient for you to come and worship him he is with you always David said in Psalm 139 where shall I go from your spirit where shall I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven you're there if I make my bed and shield you're there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me if I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night even the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as the day for darkness is as light with you God is everywhere Paul's next point is that God is unlimited in power verse 25 nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything if God created everything that exists what could he possibly need from us nothing he needs nothing on the contrary we stand in need of him for everything now I would guess that most of us don't have a problem with Paul's assertion that God doesn't dwell in temples made with men's hands that kind of idolatry is not sophisticated enough for us I would however suspect that verse 25 maybe shakes us up a bit more this idea that God doesn't need me I remember very vividly in fourth grade in a Sunday school class being told by the teacher that the reason God created the world was because he was lonely and wanted some company folks if you're here this morning because you think God needs your worship your presence is blasphemous God does not need us he is eternally self-sufficient and self-existent and omnipotent and lacks for nothing now there's no question this is a hard truth it doesn't stroke my ego it in fact it infuriates my pride but just hold on for a minute because we're coming to verse 27 and I think that verse is going to shed some light on this attribute of God but the point Paul is making here simply that God has unlimited power at his disposal and does not need the assistance of his creatures we need him Paul continues in verse 26 by saying that God is in sovereign control of everyone verse 26 God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place even though the true God was unknown to the Athenians their very existence had been predetermined by him he had determined when they would live and where they would live and how they would live in essence Paul was telling them that they had nothing to do with the fact that they were Greeks and not barbarians they were rational people and not idiots they were civilized and not ungoverned simpletons and church God has not changed he is still in control of every single circumstance of our lives now up to this point Paul has been highlighting various aspects of of God that show his transcendence his his otherness those aspects of God's nature that set him apart from us but now Paul changes course a bit and he begins to point out the imminence of God his his nearness his involvement with his creatures Paul begins by pointing out that God delights to reveal himself verse 27 gives the reason for God's sovereign control over the circumstances of his creatures lives it's so that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him yet he is actually not far from each one of us God did not create because he was lonely he created us because he enjoys being found he finds delight in making himself known it thrills God to put himself on display because by putting himself on display he is glorying in perfect virtue and wisdom and power he is glorying in perfection next Paul asserts in verse 28 that God owns us all says for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets Athens have said we are indeed his offspring now this truth was implied when Paul said that God was a creator of all things but he makes it explicit here we belong to the one who has made us and put his image on us he owns us furthermore God is not limited to what we make of him he's not limited to what we make of him verse 29 being then God's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone an image formed by the art and imagination of man in other words we don't make God in our image he makes us in his image and I think that the full weight of what Paul has been saying to the Athenians about God comes to bear here on verse 29 he says in light of all that I've just told you about the unknown God the true God if God is everything that I've just asserted he is then don't you see that you cannot reduce him to an image which your imagination or your artistic skills have conjured up let's just set aside the Athenians for a moment and think about ourselves again we don't fill our churches and cities and towns with statues of made-up gods like the Greeks did back in the day but that doesn't mean we are innocent of idolatry it just means that we've gotten more sophisticated in our idolatry we may not form a physical image out of gold silver or stone but how prone we are to form beliefs about God simply out of made-up ideas that suit our tastes and our preferences it's the same thing the Athenians were doing anytime we bow to a God of our own making whether we use stone or sentiment we are crafting an idol that is not God beloved idolatry is not a sin that only pagans commit God's people are susceptible to it as well even Grace Church is not immune to the tendency of worshiping a misconception of God so what is Paul's conclusion it's very simple and yet infinitely profound Paul's concluding assertion about God is this God is long-suffering and holy verse 30 the times of ignorance got overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead so first Paul declares the long-suffering nature of God God waits as long as possible for idolaters to repent but Paul doesn't just leave it at that he proclaims also the uncompromising holiness of God by declaring that he will one day judge the world and here at the close of Paul's discourse is his first mention of Jesus Christ he tells the Epicureans and Stoics that a day of judgment has been fixed and the judge has been appointed and proof of this is that God has raised this one who is to judge from the dead now what's interesting is that at the very mention of the resurrection of Jesus the Athenians just stopped listening they shut down they lost interest why was that we see as long as Paul was talking theoretically about some deity out there in the universe the Athenians were intrigued but to assert that this deity is actually engaged in the affairs of men in time in space takes the discussion doesn't it out of the out of the safe and subjective realm of philosophy and into the undeniable and objective realm of history if the resurrection actually happened then Paul and the Athenians are no longer discussing a theory that can't be proved or disproved they're discussing a reality and if all that Paul has said is actually a reality then the rhetorical games of the Athenians have come to an end and they're faced with the prospect of impending judgment Paul's application of this his conclusion is totally unsophisticated and unrefined by Greek standards he simply pleads with the Athenians to repent you know congregation God says the same thing to us this morning if you're worshiping God in the wrong way if you're worshiping a conception of God that you've fabricated from your own imagination you need to repent because the true God is coming to judge the quick and the dead with a real judgment this isn't theoretical or philosophical it's actual it's concrete it's real so we need to repent of our idolatry you know I'd much rather be told to get therapy or read a book about how to deal with idols in my life but God's Word says repent turn away from false notions about God reject my man-made fabrication of who God is and embrace God as he reveals himself in the Bible it's so unsophisticated and simple which is why it's so often rejected by arrogant self-made men if the Bible says that God is creator of all things don't think and act as if some impersonal process has created the universe if the Bible says that God is all present and all powerful don't act as if he doesn't see what you do in private if the Bible says that God is sovereignly orchestrating every detail that touches your life don't act as if he cannot handle the problems that you're up against the Bible says you live and move and have your being only by and through God's divine decree don't think for a moment that your ingenuity or your moral resolve or your steel in your backbone has gotten you where you are today we either worship God as he truly is that is as he reveals himself to be or we're worshiping an idol there were three different responses to Paul's message among the Athenians and these same responses are present today wherever people are confronted with the true and living God some mocked others were intrigued and wanted to hear more but some believed what Paul was saying and embraced the God of whom he spoke our view of God shapes our worship of God it establishes our relationship with God and thus it sets the trajectory for how we finish with God so the question for each of us today as we begin a new year is this what is your view of God what is your view of God does it conform to God as he reveals himself in Scripture that is to say as he truly is or are you worshiping an unknown God of your own making we're either worshiping God as he truly is or we're worshiping an idol and church and idol cannot save your soul brothers and sisters as you fulfill your chief end this coming year know God know God and worship God worship him not as you imagine him to be but as he truly is let's glorify and enjoy the true and living God let's pray father oh how prone we are to worshiping our own ideas and ideals how easily self-deceived we are into thinking that the idols of our own invention are good and powerful and divine the Lord nothing could be further from the truth so we ask you today Oh true and living God by the power of your Holy Spirit in us that you would rid our hearts of idolatry that you would conform our minds to the truth of your word that you would immunize our souls against our tendency to love and to cherish idols and to disregard and demean you the king of heaven may this new year be a year of putting to death the false gods it holds our hearts captive it be a year of us growing in our knowledge of and and love for you our creator our Redeemer Lord may we swim against the tide of our culture and worship you alone in spirit and in truth in order that great glory might be given to you on account of our sincere and earnest worship of you Lord in far too many places you are still the unknown God may that not be so may you be known and adored and obeyed and served by all peoples and tongues and tribes and nations for you alone are worthy to receive glory and honor and power so help us this year to glorify you help us to enjoy you forever and ever pray in Jesus name. Amen.