Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.
Here's Adrian Rogers. I have, I have, and it's a strange feeling. That's the situation that the Apostle Paul found himself in. Paul is now in Athens and he's on a missionary journey but Timothy and Silas have been left behind and Paul is by himself and he's walking the streets of this intellectual capital of the world.
It's one of the most beautiful cities ever built. But when Paul walks down the street of that city he sees things, hears things, and feels things that stir him to the depths. His heart was broken and at the same time there was an anger because he saw people peddling false religion, soul dope, just as people peddle dope in the streets of big cities today. And he was grieved. He stirred to anger.
Well, let's read about it. Notice in verse 16. And while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him and he saw the city wholly or completely 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?
And some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. When Paul walked down the streets of Athens, he met three challenges to the cross. And by the way, that's the title of the message, three challenges to the cross. He met three challenges that you're going to meet as you walk down the streets of this city or anybody in any city will meet. You're going to find out, dear friend, that this book of Acts is not mere ancient history.
It is as up to date as tomorrow's newspaper and the same three things that Paul met, you're going to meet and you're going to rub shoulders with. First of all, Paul met superstitious idolatry. Secondly, he met stubborn bigotry. And thirdly, he met sophisticated philosophy. Now, I want you to see what he met.
We're going to look at it because you need to be forewarned and forearmed. You need to understand what you're going to encounter tomorrow as a soldier of Jesus Christ. And you need to learn how Paul met these things so that you can meet them. Now, first of all, verse 16 tells us that Paul met superstitious idolatry.
Look at it again. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly that is completely given to idolatry. Well, you say, Adrian, we don't worry about idolatry here. Nobody is worshiping idols here.
Friend, that is where you are wrong. Our cities and sometimes our churches are filled with idolatry. Now, what is an idol? Well, when I give you a definition of an idol, then you're going to understand why I say that our cities and our churches are filled with idolatry. An idol is anything you love more than God. An idol is anything you serve more than God. An idol is anything you fear more than God. An idol is anything you trust more than God. Now, is there anything you love more than God, then you're an idolater. Is there anything you fear more than God, then you're an idolater. Is there anything you trust more than God, said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not second, not third, but first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And God said through Moses, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Let me tell you how an idol comes about. First of all let me say this, that mankind is incurably religious. It is instinctive in man to worship, not in animals but in man because man is made in the image of God.
And deep calleth unto deep. That is there is in every man's heart a God-shaped vacuum. And that's the reason no matter where you go on the face of this earth you're going to find people worshipping. Now pay attention, if man does not worship the true God he will worship a false God, but he will worship.
Every man will worship. If he doesn't worship the true God he's going to worship a false God because man is incurably religious. Now what is an idol?
Let me tell you what an idol is. An idol is a magnified sinner, a magnified sinner. Now what happens is this, that man takes his own worst desires, his own base proclivities and he takes those things and he so magnifies them that he makes a God out of them. His lust, his greed, his fears, his hates, his desires, he somehow just takes those things and magnifies them and then begins to worship him.
Paul said over there in Romans chapter 1 verse 22, in professing themselves to be wise they became fools. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God like to that of corruptible man. So what an idol is, is just man's vices. Even if you look at the heathen idols made of wood and stone, their grotesque faces, their distorted bodies, their marvelous physiques, all of these are just the highest ambitions and desires and ideals and lusts of mankind just magnified. So what an idol is really is just a magnified sinner. Man deifies himself and then because he deifies himself he worships himself really when he's worshipping his idol. And nothing is too good for a man's God.
You see? Nothing is too good for a man's God. So if man can make a God out of sex and then he worships sex, well he's got to put himself into it.
It's a pretty neat thing when you think about it. If a man makes a God out of money, well then he worships money and nothing is too good for his God, so he gives himself to that God. You see first of all the man molds the idol and then the idol molds the man. It is axiomatic that we become like what we worship. You worship God, you become like God. You worship Jesus, you behold His face, you are changed to the same image. You worship an idol, you become like what you worship. First of all the man molds the idol and then the idol molds the man. You say, well wait a minute I don't believe we have all of these idols that you are talking about in our city, alright?
Let me show you what I'm talking about. The ancients worshiped a God his name was Mammon, M-A-M-M-O-N. And that was the God of wealth, the God of possessions. And we have people today who worship that God. Oh, they don't call Him Mammon. But they are committed to riches, they are committed to wealth, they are committed to success, they are committed to achievement.
There is nothing wrong with riches. If you love riches more than God then you serve the God Mammon. The ancients had another God they named Him Bacchus. He was the God of wine, the God of drink. Now since they liked to drink they said, well let's make a God out of Him. Do we worship that God today?
Of course we do. Billions of dollars are spent paying homage to that God. He has His temples on every corner around our city. And people go in to worship that God through debauchery, and drink, and drugs. That's the God Bacchus. He's not an old God.
He's with us today. They had another goddess, her name Aphrodite, that's what they called her, or Venus the same god. She was the sex goddess. She stood for licentiousness and lust. They actually had temples where they would go in and commit acts of fornication and adultery in worship to that God.
I mean literal temples with temple prostitutes. Well you say, do we have that goddess with us today? Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. There is a whole empire, the Playboy Empire that is built on the worship of that God. And people are worshiping the goddess of sex, and lust, and licentiousness. Don't tell me that we don't have idols today.
Of course we have idols today. They worshiped another idol. Her name was Sophia, though name meaning wisdom. They worshiped the God of learning.
It's the word we get sophisticated from. They worshiped that God. Well you say that's a little more honorable God. Anything that takes the place of Jehovah God is dishonorable.
I don't care what it is. We have people today in our great vaunted universities. They bow down at the shrine of their computers. They are so proud of their learning. Without God it is but splendid nothingness.
That's all it is. Their Bible is the science textbook. Their salvation is the inevitable progress of mankind.
Their Heaven is the plastic utopia that they hope somehow to create. We boast of our great wisdom while civilization is tumbling in on our heads and we don't even know what we are going to do with a war torn world. We are faced with problems that are so far beyond us it is staggering. And yet we strut around and talk about our wisdom.
Friend what has it brought us? As we worship the God of wisdom. Now we don't call her Sophia today.
We just call it intellectualism. But what I'm trying to tell you dear friend that anything that a man loves more than God is an idol. Anything that a man serves more than God is an idol. Anything that a man fears more than God is an idol. Anything that a man trusts more than God is an idol.
And our world is full of idols. And Paul walked down the streets of Athens and he saw all of these gods. Now back in that day they were a little more superstitious. I mean they made their gods of sticks and stones. Somebody said it was easier to meet a god on the streets of Athens than it was to meet a man. They had 30,000 at least of these idols that they were worshipping. And Paul met in that day what I call superstitious idolatry. But I want to tell you what else he met. Not only did he meet superstitious idolatry but he met stubborn bigotry.
Now it is a completely different thing but yet just as hard to deal with. Notice verse 17, therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons. Now the word devout means religious.
But religious of a different kind. These were not idolaters. As a matter of fact they were 180 degrees from idolaters. They looked down their long noses at the idolaters. It was unspeakable, unthinkable to them that men would glorify their vices and then worship things.
Vermin and beasts and sticks and stones that was unthinkable. These were people who were monotheists. These were people who believed in the one true God, Jehovah God. And furthermore they had the Bible, they had the Scriptures, they had the Old Testament. But Paul went into that synagogue and he began to preach to them Jesus Christ. Would they hear him? No, they would not.
Why? They were so sure they were right and they were so sure he was wrong. They had a stiff necked bigotry. Now Paul ought to have been able to understand that because he had been just like them at one time.
Did you know dear friend the hardest man to win to Jesus Christ is the man who doesn't see his need of the Lord Jesus Christ? Many times he has a religious bigotry. Now you say, how do you know they were bigoted?
Well I'll tell you how I know. Because dear friend normally and naturally they should have come to Jesus Christ. Now I'll tell you why, because the entire Old Testament is about Jesus Christ and it is written to present Jesus Christ so that when Jesus Christ was presented they would come to Him for the Bible says the Law is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. That's all the Old Testament was, just somebody to walk you to school, that's all.
Just to bring you to Jesus Christ. But there was a stubbornness. And the Bible says that Paul disputed with them. That is he would give them the Gospel and they'd give him something back and he'd give them the Gospel and they'd give them something back. Rather than being open to the Gospel they were hardened and closed minded about the Gospel because they thought they were fine just like they were.
They were so close but so far away. And there are so many like that you'll meet today. You'll go to talk to them about being saved, about knowing Jesus Christ, about a personal relationship with God through Christ. And they'll tell you in no uncertain terms, look, I'm not a pagan, I have my religion. But friend most of the people in America need to turn from religion to Jesus Christ.
It was a religious crowd that crucified Jesus. And the hardest person to win is that person who doesn't see his need. And sometimes they're so blind. I was reading about a man who showed up, this literally happened, a man who was a memory expert and he was supposed to speak at a luncheon and when time came he wasn't there. When they finally found him he said, I forgot.
A memory expert going to speak at a luncheon telling everybody how to improve their memory. And I also read about an insurance company whose buildings burned down and they discovered they were not insured. Oh, friend, there are so many people like this in the world today who have a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof. And you meet them in your city wherever it is that you live and it is sort of a bigotry saying, leave me alone, I like what I've got, don't bother me. They have a sign around their neck. Some of them come to church on Sunday morning, I can read the sign it says, please do not disturb.
They are settled in their mind. Well, I want to tell you a third challenge to the Gospel that the Apostle Paul met that day. Not only was there what I call this superstitious idolatry, and not only was there this stubborn bigotry, but there was finally a sophisticated philosophy and perhaps this was the hardest of all to deal with. Now notice this sophisticated philosophy, notice verse 18, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him.
And some said, what will this babbler say? In some he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Now what is philosophy? Well, I told you that the goddess Sophia was the goddess of wisdom or learning. So, phileo means a lover, phileo and Sophia put them together you have philosophy. And so a philosopher is a lover of wisdom.
He is a person who takes pride in his learning. And there are those who are not idolaters as such, and there are those who are not bigoted as such, but they are philosophers. They are lovers of learning and they never do really come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because of their foolishness which keeps them from Jesus. Somebody said that a philosopher is somebody who tells us what we already know in words we can't understand. But philosophy leaves people so empty without Christ.
Schopenhauer who was a philosopher said when he got to the bottom line of his philosophy, life is a curse of endless cravings and endless unhappiness. Huxley a philosopher, historian, and a third going evolutionist, when he looked at the whole thing, do you know what he said about us? He said, it seems that we are a cancer on the globe. Talking about us. That brilliant but ungodly man Bertrand Russell said of philosophy at the end of his life, the age of 90, philosophy proved a washout to me, a washout.
That is a dead end road at the end of 90 years. The love of wisdom without the love of God. Now there were two kinds of philosophers that Paul encountered specially there. In Athens, first of all there was the philosophy of the Epicureans. Epicurus lived about 300 years before Jesus. He was a teacher, a brilliant man. He made Athens his adopted home, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Zeno.
These were the philosophers who taught in Athens. And Epicurus taught this, that God doesn't exist, or that if He does exist you can't know Him. There is no personal God. And since there is no personal God then life has no purpose, and that would certainly follow. If life has no purpose then life has no meaning, and that would certainly follow. And therefore if there is no knowable God, and if life has no purpose, and if therefore life has no meaning, what's the wisest thing you can do? Well just feel as good as you can until you die.
Pleasure. And Epicure is a person who lives for pleasure. And so he said just make yourself comfortable.
Be as comfortable as you can. Get as much pleasure as you can. Live for pleasure. Now Epicurus when he said this he was basically a gardener, a farmer, what he thought was the good life was just out growing things and living in the garden and so forth. A very plain and simple life. But remember he had said that pleasure is the end of all things and so when you tell somebody that they are going to take it and run with it.
By the time of Paul 300 years later they had said that pleasure was the grossest sort of immorality and gluttony. And so their motto in a sentence was, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die. Well you say, do we have that philosophy with us today?
Sure. You are going to meet them all over this city just like that. As a matter of fact Madison Avenue has taken that philosophy. There was a certain beer company that learned a lesson from Epicurus and sloganized this whole thing.
Have you ever heard this? You only go through life one time, grab all the gusto you can. Grab all the gusto you can get, you only go through life once.
That's the Epicureans. That's what they are saying, just live it up. I mean after all you are going to rot in the ground and it's all going to be over. Eat, drink, and be merry. Hey folks that's all around us. Sure it is.
If it feels good do it. Now this philosophy was philosophy of pleasure. There were the others, the Stoics. You read about the Stoics there in verse 18. Who were the Stoics? Well actually they were disciples of Zeno and Zeno taught from a porch.
And the Greek word for porch is stoa, so they call them Stoics. And the Stoics were those who believed in pantheism. Pantheism is pan meaning everything, and theos meaning God. So a person who believes in pantheism believes that God is in everything and everything is God. That is this entire universe is God. Everything is God and God is in everything.
Therefore there is no personal noble God. When you let all of the air out of it these were materialists, pure and simple materialists. And therefore they felt themselves as just victims of whatever happens.
Who are these people today? They are the humanists. They don't believe that there is a God who is imminent and working and noble in mankind. They just believe that God is there.
We are the sum total of the body chemistry and the environment. And therefore the Stoics felt there was nothing really they could do about anything. They are all just sort of victims of fate.
Just wait and let it happen. So therefore they said to themselves, look don't get too elated over joy, and don't get too disturbed over grief. Just intellectually be above it all. And it is just a form of Stoicism.
Just sort of grin and bear it. And live by grim determination. Are people like that around us today?
Hey folks they are everywhere, everywhere. Getting up in the morning taking an aspirin, drinking a cup of coffee, running off to work, drawing the breath and drawing the salary and getting bounced about. There is no meaning to life, no purpose to life.
They are just simply trying to get through. As the writer of Ecclesiastes said, there is nothing new under the sun. And this Apostle Paul went to Athens so long ago and there at Athens he met superstitious idolatry. He met stubborn bigotry and sophisticated philosophy.
Well, how did he meet it? Well let's see what happened here, it is very interesting. Notice in verse 19, And they took him, and brought him to the Areopagus, that was the speaker's forum, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?
Well I'll tell you what, you drop a handkerchief and tell Paul to preach he'll be on the second point before it hits the ground. They said, Would you tell us, for thou bringest certain strange things to our ears? We would know therefore what these things mean. 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. They wanted something to tickle their intellectual itch.
So they thought, well let's hear what this babbler will say. Now notice in 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. For I passed by and beheld your devotions, and I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you. Now what they had done in Athens was this, I said they had 30,000 gods but in case they missed one they had one extra called the unknown God.
And they just said, You know we don't want to offend him if he's out there and we missed him. So, they are kind of like the lady who had married four husbands in succession. First of all she married a very wealthy banker. Then she married a very famous actor. And then she married a notable preacher. Finally she married an undertaker in that succession. And somebody asked her, Why did you marry those husbands?
She said, Well, one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go. Now she had it all figured out. Now that's the way these Athenians had done.
They were just thinking this thing through. And they said, Well in case we have offended this god we'll make an altar to him. Now Paul used that as a preacher would just to get their attention. He said, I notice, I notice that you are worshiping a god, the unknown god.
And that's the only one that I want to tell you about, the one you don't know. And I'm going to tell you just who this god is. And very quickly I want you to see what Paul told them about this god. Because dear friend as we go out tomorrow this is the god that we are going to declare I trust. First of all Paul says he's the God who created you. Look if you will in verse 24, God that made the world and all things therein, saying that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth.
With this one statement He banished all of their idols. Notice this, He dwells not in temples made with hands. You're not going to corner this god in a temple.
You're not going to be able to make this god out of sticks and stones. He is the great God who created all things. He is the God who created you. He's also the God who controls you.
Look in verse 26, and God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, and so forth. Now what is He saying? He's saying listen, this God who created you is the God who controls you. He's not some pantheistic God. He's not some distant God. He's a God who is active in the affairs of men. He is the sovereign God who watches over the affairs of this world.
I wish I had more time to talk about that. But also He said to them, He is also the God who convicts you. Look in verse 27, that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after Him and find Him. Now watch it, though He be not far from every one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being. This God is the God who convicts you. That is as one of your poets has said, we're His offspring. That is we are made in the image of God. And therefore there is a longing to know God, to know the one true God. He's the one who convicts us.
For Christ is that light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. There's a man in Atlanta, Georgia who has a trucking firm. His name is Claude Brown. He's a fine Christian. I think he has perhaps 150 businesses across America.
A very successful man. That when he has an employee that comes to work for him, a prospective employee, he gives him a polygraph test. We would say today a lie detector test.
And here's an interesting thing, I was astounded when I read this, and yet I shouldn't have been. One of the questions he asks is, do you believe in God? And the polygraph technician has sworn an affidavit to this point that every person who says, no, I don't believe in God, every single one of them it registers he's lying. Every one. Every one of them. When they say, no, I don't believe in God, you do too.
You do too. You see, the fool has said in his heart there's no God. Not in his head, in his heart. Now Paul says, listen, this is the God. This is the God who created you. This is the God who controls you. This is the God who convicts you. And then he says, this is the God who commands you. I want you to see it in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent 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.
Paul said this, listen, listen, there's a judgment coming. There is a God, he's not some stone. And you philosophers who don't understand this God, this God became a man. He lived and died on the cross fire sins.
He was buried. He's raised again from the dead. Receive him and you'll be saved.
Reject him. You'll stand before him at the judgment. He's a God who commands all men everywhere to repent. Now I want to tell you what Paul told them.
If you'll repent of your sin and trust Christ you'll be saved. What was the result of all of this? Look in verse 32, and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Others said, we'll hear you again on this matter. Some laughed and some procrastinated.
So Paul departed from among them, how be it certain, clave unto him and believed. Every time I preached the Gospel that happens. Do you know what's happening today? Some people listening to me by radio, television. Some people listening later by tape, some of you here. Some of you are just kind of laughing. You sit there and you just kind of snicker. I don't want to be smart when I tell you this or smart alecky, but you can laugh your way into hell.
You can't laugh your way out once you get there. Some mocked. The mockers we have.
Others said, oh, we'll hear you at a later time. That's where many folks are going to die and go to hell. He that being often reproved and hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.
Boast not thyself of tomorrow, but thank God others believed. I can't make you believe, but I want to tell you this, that God loves you. He's the God who created you. He's the God who convicts you.
He's the God who commands you and calls you and says, repent, believe, be saved. Will you do it? Will you say, come into my heart, Lord Jesus, forgive my sin and save me? Friend, the same Christ that saved me will save you. The saved one that saved millions will save you today if you'll trust Him. And I promise you on the authority of the Word of God, if you'll trust Him, He'll save you. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.
