Standing Firm in a Pagan World | Part 1

What are we supposed to do about the opposition we face in the world?

Listen to Adrian Rogers. What are we to do? Are we to wring our hands or give up in despair, or are we to give a credible response to these challenges to the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? In this message, I want to tell you that what we are to do is to raise the flag of our faith and expect others to salute it, others to believe in the Lord that we believe in.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound truths simply stated by pastor and author Adrian Rogers. The opposition you and I face in this pagan world as believers in Jesus is really nothing new. In Acts 17, Paul finds himself surrounded by the pagan society of Athens, Greece. Yet the ones who oppose the gospel in this passage are much like those who oppose the gospel today. Paul's response to this opposition is a picture of standing firm in a pagan world. If you have your Bible, turn to Acts chapter 17, we'll begin in verse 16.

Once again, here's Adrian Rogers. Find in the book of Acts chapter 17 and when you found it, I want to say a word to you about something that's very meaningful to me and really very disturbing to me. And here's the thought. We are moving away from a Christian consensus in America. Now it is true that there are many who love the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is true that there are many who believe the Bible to be the word of God and Jesus Christ, the only savior. But those who do surveys like the Barna Institute and others have told us something that is very alarming. The Barna research report said that nearly two out of three adults in America contend that the choice of one religious faith over another, listen, the choice of one religious faith over another is irrelevant.

And why do they say this? Because they say all religions teach the same basic lessons about life. And increasingly Americans are believing that Jesus Christ is fine, wonderful indeed, but he is only one option among many options. And what we're calling that today is pluralism and that we're called upon to accept all religions as equal and somehow we're un-American if we don't put our arms around others and other faiths and say your religion is just as good as mine. As a matter of fact, they tell us that tolerance is wrong. We're not supposed to tolerate them for that assumes that we don't agree with them, but that's okay. No, now they want to go beyond tolerance to acceptance and approval.

And it is an insinuation that we think something is wrong with their faith if we even tolerate it. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what are we to do? Are we to wring our hands or give up in despair or are we to give a credible response to these challenges to the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

In this message, I want to tell you that what we are to do is to raise the flag of our faith and expect others to salute it, others to believe in the Lord that we believe in. Now, the episode that I'm going to talk to you about today is taken here from the 17th chapter of the book of Acts. The apostle Paul is in the great city of Athens.

The intellectual cultural center of the ancient world. He's waiting for his comrades to join him. So Timothy and Silas are on their way and Paul is alone in this big city. Have you ever been alone in a big city?

May I tell you this? The test of your character is what you do when you're alone in a big city. Paul is alone in this big city. He's waiting for his friends. And so while he's in the city of Athens, he's walking the streets of Athens. His spirit is stirred within him. He finds something moving because he sees the depth of depravity and the wickedness of that city. Paul saw false teachers who were peddling soul dope, a narcotic for the soul.

He saw pagan temples that were filled with empty people. Now I want to remind you that ancient Athens was the cultural center of that ancient world. The glory of Athens was overwhelming. I visited modern Athens many times and I always want to go to see the ruins of the Acropolis, to see there the Parthenon and all of the other things that were left over there from the city that was there in Paul's time and even before Paul's time. Paul had come to the city after what was called the Golden Age of Pericles.

And this city was absolutely overwhelming to see. Paul looked up at a mountain called the Acropolis and there sitting on the Acropolis was the most architecturally perfect building perhaps that man has ever created, the Parthenon, dedicated to the sex goddess Athena. And Paul saw the Parthenon that was there. And then not only was it the cultural center of the world, but Athens was the intellectual center of the ancient world. It was the intellectual capital of mankind. Art, literature, philosophy, this was the stuff that ancient Athens was made of. It was the native home of Socrates and Plato.

Things that are spoken with reverence in the realm of philosophy. Not only was it the native home of Socrates and Plato, but it became the adopted home of Aristotle and Epicurus and Zeno. And these philosophers were there as a result of this cultural superiority, as a result of this intellectualism. It was a city that was filled with cynicism. It was a city that was filled with snobbery.

It was a city that was filled with debate. And Paul is there. And Paul is going to share Jesus Christ.

And he's going to meet strong resistance. And we're going to learn some lessons because what happened so long ago, friend, is happening today in our society. This scripture that we're going to study is not just what has happened.

It is what is happening. It is not just what God has said to others so long ago. It is what God is saying to our society today, because history is like a broken phonograph record.

It just keeps repeating itself. There are three things that Paul met in ancient Athens. And those are the three things that you will meet, whether you live in Chicago, New York, Cincinnati, Dallas, or Miami, or Memphis. What three things did Paul meet there in Athens so long ago? First of all, he met superstitious idolatry. Secondly, he met sterile orthodoxy. Thirdly, he met sophisticated philosophy.

And God gave him an answer for these. Now, let me tell you what you're going to experience today as you stand for your faith in a pagan society and get ready and get your children ready because, friend, it's all around us. Here's what will happen as you go out to live for Christ. Point number one, you will experience challenges to your faith. You will experience challenges to your faith.

Don't get the idea that you're just going to sally forth and not be challenged. Today, if you are a Bible believing Christian, you will experience challenges to your faith. What did Paul experience as a challenge?

I've already told you. Number one, superstitious idolatry. Now look, if you will, in Acts chapter 17 and verse 16. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, that's Silas and Timothy, he's waiting. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given over to idolatry.

And then go down and look in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. There were idols everywhere.

Even images everywhere. Someone said it was easier to find a false god in Athens than it was to find a human being. They had some 30,000 different gods that they worshiped in ancient Athens.

Well, you say, Pastor, I thought you said that day would be like our day. We don't have 30,000 different gods. No, we have more.

We have more. This city and every major city in America is filled with idolatry. The difference is we give our idols different names. What is an idol?

Get it down big, plain, and straight. An idol is anything that you love more, fear more, serve more, or trust more than almighty God. An idol is whatever is in first place in your life. That is an idol. Whatever your heart clings to, whatever your heart trusts in, that is your idol. Now, may I tell you this, that idolatry is the greatest sin that a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl can commit.

Why? Because it transgresses the greatest commandment. What is the greatest commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy strength, all thy mind. That's the first and great commandment. Idolatry, therefore, has to be the greatest sin because it breaks the greatest commandment. And I said that we have perhaps more gods than they did in that day, and we'll face those gods.

You'll face them. We've just changed the names. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. Let me give you some of the modern gods that have old names. For example, the god of materialism. They had a god of materialism.

They didn't call it materialism. They called this god mammon, mammon. Now, there are many in this city who worship the god of mammon. Their lives are devoted to wealth. Their lives are devoted to business. Their lives are devoted to success and achievement.

If you were to be absolutely honest, if I would ask you what is the major thing in your life, it would be your possessions. You may tip your hat to God, but God's not going to take second place. God is not some sort of a moonlighting god with a duplex forethrown.

Many of you worship the god of mammon. That's only one god. There's another god, the god of alcohol. We say, is that a god? Yes, the ancient people gave this god a name. His name was Bacchus, the god of liquor, the god of alcohol, the god of drunkenness, drugs, and debauchery. We worship in America the god of sex. They gave this god a name.

Her name was Venus, Aphrodite, Athenae. This was the sex goddess, the god of sexual lust and promiscuity. In America, is not sex a god? We live in a sex-saturated society, and now it seems like the sluice gates of hell have been broken on us today, and around we are immersed in a swamp of adultery and fornication and pornography, which they call a victimless crime.

There's no such thing as a victimless crime. What about the god of violence? Do we worship the god of violence?

Look at some of the video games your kids are playing. They worship the god of violence. They just gave him the name Mars, which was the god of power and strength and revenge.

Well, you say, I'm more intellectual than that. Well, perhaps you worship the god of wisdom and knowledge. They named this god Sophia, the goddess of wisdom, and they worshiped it. And today, we worship at the shrine of our computers and our universities. Idolatry. Paul faced idolatry. Americans face idolatry. Anything you love more, fear more, trust more, deserve more than God is an idol.

Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We have no right to worship anything other than Almighty God. What is an idol? An idol is just a magnified sinner. A man takes his worst vices and lusts, and he worships them. And nothing is too good for a man's god. The apostle Paul tells us about it in Romans chapter 1, verse 24.

Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed, and that word literally means exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. I want to ask you a question. Which would be easier for a person to do on television or radio in the newspaper today? Say something disparaging about somebody's race, ethnicity, or to blaspheme God? Now, don't misunderstand the illustration. I'm not saying that we ought to say something derogatory about somebody's race or ethnicity. I'm not talking in favor of racism. But I want to ask you a question.

Which would be easier? It would be far easier, far easier to blaspheme God than to say something derogatory about some human being. Is that not right?

Why? Because we worship the Creator less than we worship the creature. Now, Paul, first of all, he faced sophisticated idolatry.

And when you leave this building, friend, you're going to face it head on. The second thing Paul faced this day in Athens was self-righteous orthodoxy. Look in verse 17, therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the underscore this, the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met him.

Now, Paul is not facing idolatry. He's facing those who believe in the one true God, but they are self-satisfied. They do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. These are the respectable sinners. The apostle Paul had been this same kind of a self-righteous bigot till he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and had his life transformed. But you're going to meet many who may not be open, devout idolaters, but they're going to be self-righteous and they're not going to see their need of the Savior. There's a third category that the apostle Paul met this day in Athens, and this was sophisticated philosophy. These are not superstitious idolaters. These are not the self-righteous orthodox. But these are they who see themselves as intellectual giants.

We're going to face those. Look in Acts chapter 17 verse 18. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him.

Some said, what will this babbler say? Others, some he seems to be a set forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Now I've already told you that Athens was not only the cultural, but the intellectual center of the world at that time. And philosophers clustered to the city. Philosophy abounded. Now what is philosophy?

The word literally means the love of knowledge. Somebody said philosophy is that system that tells us what we already know in words we can't understand. Has philosophy met the need of a man's heart? Let me read to you what some noted philosophers said about philosophy.

Schopenhauer, world famous philosopher, got to the bottom line and he said this, life is a curse of endless cravings and endless unhappiness. Well, for him philosophy was a dead end road. Huxley, brilliant man, Julius Huxley, wrote this.

It seems to me, he's looking at the human race and he says, it seems to me that we are a cancer on the globe. That's philosophy. Bertram Russell, arrogant, conceited, but honest enough to say philosophy proved a washout to me.

H.G. Wells, a noted historian and philosopher said this, and I quote, unless there is a more abundant scheme before mankind, this scheme of space and time is a bad joke. An empty laugh, raying across the mysteries. Our own Dr. Robert G. Lee, former pastor of this church, said philosophy is a chunk of cloud bank buttered with a night wind. He knew that philosophy, the love of knowledge, can never satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart. And here's the apostle Paul there in the great city of Athens and he sees this idolatry. He sees this orthodoxy. He sees this philosophy. What kind of philosophy was it? Well, there was, first of all, the philosophy of pleasure. Look in Acts 17, 18, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans.

Who were the Epicureans? Epicurus lived about 300 years before Christ and he had a philosophy that said this simply, that you really can't make sense out of life. The search for pure truth by reason is impossible.

You're never going to find absolute truth. And so what Epicurus said is this, enjoy yourself. This is all you have.

This is all you can be sure of. And so he says, the wisest thing is pleasure based on your own personal experience. And we talked today about Epicureans, lovers of pleasure.

We see this all around. What is their philosophy? It's just a philosophy of pleasure. As a matter of fact, one said, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. That's the Epicurean. Now folks, this stuff is not new to us.

It's one of the moldiest, dustiest things around. There was the philosophy of pleasure taught by the Epicureans. Go back to verse 18 again. There was also the philosophy of pride. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. Now who were the Stoics?

They were led by a philosopher named Zeno. Well, it's sort of a form of fatalism that everything is just happening to us. That we really don't have any real choice.

They were really pantheists. That is believing that everything is God and God is everything. And therefore we're just caught up and swept up in it. And life has no real vital meaning.

Just sit back and endure it. It was really a form of intellectual pride. And they just smirked at those who thought that they had some answer. It was self-sufficiency built on nihilism, stoicism, just sitting around. Now the Stoics and the Epicureans are with us today.

The twin philosophies of pleasure and pride with us today. I mean these ancient gods are with us today. These philosophies are with us today. This sterile orthodoxy that feels no need of God is with us today. How did Paul deal with this opposition and knowing that these philosophies are with us today?

How can we stand against them? We'll hear answers tomorrow in part two of standing firm in a pagan world. In the meantime, if you have questions about who Jesus is, what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through him, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources and materials that can answer questions you may have, lwf.org slash radio, and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title of the message, Standing Firm in a Pagan World. This lesson is also part of the powerful series, Challenges to the Cross. For the complete collection, all six insightful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD.

Go to lwf.org slash radio, or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, thanks for joining us in our study of God's word today. Here's a quote from Pastor Rogers to think about. The test of your character is what you would do if you were alone in a great city of wickedness and vice. What does that mean to your heart? Would you stand firm as Paul did? Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the profound conclusion of this lesson right here on Love Worth Finding.

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