The Other Side of the Gospel

People in Paul's generation in Athens and beyond often had these letters written on their tombstone.

N-F-N-S-N-C. It was an abbreviation for the Latin phrase translated into English, I was not, I am not, I care not. And Paul comes along and announces bad news about a coming judgment, this terrible truth, as if to say you'd better care. Do you know people who live as if this world is all that there is? They live with no thought to the fact that there's an afterlife they should prepare for. As Christians, we need to remember that there really is two sides to the gospel. On the one hand, God is love. He lovingly offers salvation through his son, Jesus Christ.

But the problem is that most people take God's love to mean that he would never punish sinners. Well, that's the other side of the gospel, because God's wrath will be poured out on those who refuse the salvation he offers. Stephen Davies' lesson today is entitled, The Other Side of the Gospel.

So let's go back to Acts chapter 17 one more time. Paul has nearly finished his introduction in Acts 17 of this unknown God and he's revealed several attributes. So far we've discovered that God is creator of the universe, that he is transcendent, that is he is above and separate from all of creation, yet he is imminent, that is personally deeply involved in his creation.

He is the maker of mankind, the human race from one man, one original man, and is white. He is sovereign over the nations. He in fact determines how long they'll exist and their borders. He's determined that. Now Paul has sort of laid all this out as background. And by the way, he doesn't begin his message with hell. He doesn't begin his message with judgment.

He reserves that after he's delivered all of this background information about who God is. And I think that's instructive, by the way, for us as well. In fact, background information is very helpful. I came across this rather humorous illustration of what happens when you don't give enough background.

This is from James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA. He told the following story of a funny incident. It wasn't funny at the time, but funny later, when FBI agents were conducting an investigation at the San Diego Psychiatric Hospital for medical insurance fraud. And they'd spent all day, hours and hours and hours, reviewing thousands of medical records, dozens of agents. They worked up quite an appetite. The agent in charge of the investigation called a pizza parlor across the street to order dinner for all of his colleagues.

And the following telephone conversation was taped, and it could be played back in transcript form. The agent calls and says, hello, I'd like to order 19 pizzas and 67 cans of Coke. Pizza place. Where would you like them delivered? Across the street to the psychiatric hospital.

You want 19 pizzas delivered to the psychiatric hospital? That's right. And who are you? I'm an FBI agent. You're an FBI agent. That's correct.

There are a number of us over here. We've been working around the clock and we're starving. Oh, is that right? Oh, yes. And by the way, deliver the pizzas around to the back entrance.

We've got the front doors locked. The pizza guy said, I don't think so, and hung up. That was the end of it. Background information.

Okay. He should have given a little bit of it, having provided all the background of information about this unknown God. Now Paul moves to this eternal verdict and he brings up what I'm I'm referring to as the other side of the gospel. Let's pick it up at verse 30, chapter 17. Therefore, now this is his conclusion on the basis of everything I've said.

Therefore, on that basis, here's the verdict. Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. This is not, by the way, Paul's way of saying that God has chosen to overlook sin.

Paul actually uses a play on words here that's lost to the English reader. He uses the word for ignorance. It's the same word translated unknown for unknown God.

Earlier, for their altar to the unknown God. In other words, he's saying all this time he'd been worshiping the unknown God out of ignorance. And God has mercifully left you unpunished because of your ignorance. He could have, in other words, already brought judgment because of your unbelief. But God is gracious and long-suffering, and we know this from other texts of Scripture. Paul's hinting at this. He's merciful in withholding his wrath from being poured out, which he could have done. He could have buried all of you and this Areopagus, this hill, long ago. Paul is effectively saying you're still alive, which means the judgment of God hasn't happened yet. And there's time to repent. Do it now. There's an urgency.

Why? Look at verse 31. Because God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, perfect justice.

Judgment is coming. By the way, Paul isn't just talking to the Athenians. Notice how Paul refers to the whole world. God is going to judge the whole world. And you notice that God has determined a date.

He's already determined a time for this to take place. The term Paul uses for judgment is in the future tense. It points to a future moment when he will judge the world. This word judge carries the legal technical nuance in Paul's day of being hailed into court. There's a coming day when you will have an appointment in the courtroom of God who will judge you rightly. He will judge you justly.

The date has already been set. He has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. Notice, through a man, capital M, this is a reference to the God-man, Christ, whom he has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. Now let me kind of push the pause button here for a moment and tell you about a couple of judgments the Bible clearly reveals for us. There's more than one.

They're very different. There's the judgment of all believers. We call that the judgment seat of Christ or the Bema seat of Christ.

The Bema was the place where victorious athletes were awarded their laurel wreaths and different Greek city-states made their laurels out of different vines, different leaves for having run their race. The Bible is very clear that this judgment is going to be for the purpose of then determining all that was profitable in a person's life and thus worthy of rewarding. You can jot a reference down and read at your leisure 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

I'll read a brief verse, verse 10 from that text. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be rewarded, recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether profitable or unprofitable. Keep in mind this judgment has nothing to do with whether or not you're going to get into heaven. Frankly, nobody gets into heaven by doing profitable things, right?

Nobody gets in for doing more profitable things than unprofitable things. The fact that you're being rewarded for that which profited the glory of God, as it were, proves you're already there. No unbeliever will ever be rewarded for anything except judgment. It's also important to understand that the rewarding of the individual believer is the outcome of the evaluation.

That's the outcome. The believer will be judged on how they ran their particular race, how they brought glory to God and the mundane acts of repetitive service in the home. Being faithful to spouse and family would be rewardable. At your job where you clock in and do your duties well would be rewardable. In the church where you serve the body will be rewardable. In the world delivering the gospel, planting, sowing, watering the seeds of the gospel. Perhaps dying a martyr's death, we're given specific texts that will be rewardable. Perhaps serving the church faithfully as an elder, a special reward as well. These are all mentioned in Scripture. Following this evaluation, the believer is then going to serve Christ in the kingdom in their assigned honored position. The Lord talks about the faithful steward of one talent is given five, the one with five given ten. This relates to our service for him in that millennial kingdom. So the judgment is going to take place sometime after the rapture of the church. We're never given a text that tells us specifically when. I believe it will be at the end of the tribulation period when all of the spiritual fruit from someone's life will be able to be tallied by our sovereign rewarding Lord.

Here's why I believe that. Imagine that the rapture of the church takes place tomorrow. Your testimony is going to linger. The effect of your witness will linger in ways that we can't even imagine, right?

There will be neighbors, there will be friends, there will be classmates who know you're just not showing up anymore and they remember what you believe. And we know during the tribulation there's going to be an incredible movement of the Lord bringing many to believe from every tribe, tongue, and nation. It's going to be an amazing period of spiritual harvest as God also calls Israel to repentance and faith as a nation. Those 144,000 Jewish evangelists, they're going to circle the globe.

It's going to be absolutely amazing. All that to say it's possible that something you are now doing, something you have said to someone can trickle down through the course of that tribulation period and bear spiritual fruit that then would be rewardable. So it's still effectively being tallied so to speak. And since the purpose of the Bema Seat is to reward the gospel and the character of God lived in and through your life, God will more than likely wait until the end of human history as we know it preceding the millennial kingdom to reward his church. I can't remember if I told you this or not. You'll enjoy hearing it again. That's optimism for a preacher. J. Vernon McGee has been on the radio for decades. In fact, it's almost now 30 years after his death. How many of you have heard J. Vernon McGee? Look at that.

Isn't that amazing? Well, J. Vernon McGee has a desire, among others, to be on the radio during the tribulation. After the church's rapture, he had the strong desire to be used by the Lord as long as his radio program could be aired. Even during that tribulation period, I think he wanted to irritate the antichrist as only J. Vernon McGee could irritate the antichrist. Actually, he wanted to add to the fruit for the glory of Christ through his ministry. He's right now being heard more after his death than during his life.

He is, I believe, right now in about 100 languages delivering the gospel. So the reward and the spiritual fruit of his testimony isn't going to end until the end of that tribulation period and the end of that age. There's another judgment described in Scripture. And this is the judgment that Paul is referring to here in Acts chapter 17. It's the judgment we call the judgment of the great white throne. Now that judgment is for unbelievers only.

If you're there, it is forever too late for you. The books will be opened and God will reveal through the deeds of every individual why they are worthy of this verdict. How, in fact, their rebellion against God was nothing less than idolatry and their heart worshiped themselves. So he's going to take time, we don't know how, but he's going to reveal the truth of their just punishment and Paul writes, their mouths will be stopped. Now Paul tells the Athenians here that that judge just so happens to be Jesus, God the Son, the man, God the Father, raised from the dead. So if you can even imagine the irony and the fitting nature of the Lord, God the Son, being the one with a gavel in his hand, so to speak, he's going to sit as judge over all of humanity.

Why? Because ultimately they worship themselves rather than place their trust in the plan of God through blood atonement that looked toward the cross and those who lived after the crucifixion who trusted in that blood atoning sacrifice after the cross looking back toward it. So after their own personal judgment by Christ himself, having been hailed into the courtroom of God, they will be sent to hell forever. Now when Paul delivers this verdict, the most popular opinion in Athens, and by the way to this day, is the opinion that at your death you cease to exist. That was the popular opinion in Athens. In fact, people in Paul's generation in Athens and beyond often had these letters written on their tombstone, N-F-N-S-N-C. It was an abbreviation for the Latin phrase translated into English, I was not, I am not, I care not. I was not, I am not, and I care not. And Paul comes along and announces the other side of the gospel, which is this bad news about a coming judgment, this terrible truth, as if to say you'd better care.

You'd better care. He's speaking to these Epicurean and Stoic philosophers gathered here on the Areopagus before the Supreme Court of Athens. Mankind, he effectively says, is not moving toward extinction, which the Epicurean philosophers would have believed. Mankind is not moving toward being absorbed into the universe, as the Stoics believed. Mankind is actually moving toward this unavoidable appointment with the risen Christ who will be seated on this terrifying white throne. So Paul delivers this in his first message to these Athenians. Mankind is not heading toward a reunion with all their friends.

Is that what people tell me? Now what was the reaction of Paul's audience? The same reaction we get to this day, three of them. First, some ridiculed. Look at verse 32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer. Now the language here indicates that their sneering didn't begin right when Paul mentioned the resurrection. Paul is actually finished with his message and then they begin to sneer, primarily because of the resurrection. The verb to sneer means to scoff, it means literally to mock. There's ridicule. Secondly, while some ridiculed, others procrastinated.

Verse 32 again, the end part. Others said, we shall hear you again concerning this. Hey, let's make an appointment. I'd like to hear a little bit more about that stuff. It's interesting that many do that with me.

How about you? We have no indication that Paul ever returned to the Areopagus, that he ever returned to that hill, that he ever returned to that Supreme Court ever again. Some ridiculed, some procrastinated. Thirdly, some believed, verse 34. Some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Don't you love that? Some believed, some believed. Now we're not told anything about Damaris and we're not given other names of those who became Christians.

We're only left with this one name, which is interesting. Verse 34, Dionysius the Areopagite. In other words, Dionysius belonged to the council that sat on this hill.

He was a member of the Supreme Court of Athens and he believed. Now can you imagine all the other long robes, as it were, are mocking and jeering or putting them off? And you have this one guy who bucks all of that current and by the grace of God believes.

God was at work. And when you deliver the Gospel, by the way, to your Athens, some will sneer, some will mock, some will jeer. They may not do it to your face, they may do it behind your back. Some might procrastinate and say, you know, you're a nice guy.

Such a nice crutch you have. I'd like to hear more about that one day. But you never know in whose heart God is moving who will believe. James Montgomery Boice in his commentary on this text told the story of something that happened in a church pastored by one of his assistants before joining his staff. James Montgomery Boice, of course, with the Lord now.

He retells the story in his commentary. There's a man who lived next door to a church there in St. Paul, Minnesota. And he never wanted to go to church. However, one week the church had a series of special meetings and it featured really wonderful music. And the neighbor heard the music. It was so taken that he decided to go in and hear it. He reasoned with himself, I'll just go in for the music and then I'll leave before the sermon.

So he went in. He sat down in the back of the church, the last pew, you know, the good seats. And he said, I'm just going to listen to the music and leave. When the musical portion of the evening was over and the pastor stood to preach, he realized that every seat was taken around him and he was hemmed in. And there was no way he could get out without being noticed. And he didn't want the pastor to know he'd been there.

So he thought to himself, I'll just do the next best thing. I'll put my fingers in my ears so I can't hear him. So there he sat with his fingers and his ears hemmed in by people as the pastor began to preach. However, God had been at work in his heart through the music and the gospel that was presented and the lyrics and the joy on people's faces as they sang it and God had a plan. It wasn't long into that sermon, Boyce writes, that a little housefly began to buzz around the man's nose. The man ignored the fly as long as he could.

But finally that little fly buzzing around his nose got to be too much for him. He took one hand and he swatted at the fly and at that moment the pastor said, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. His hand froze in midair and he knew this was for him and he listened and he believed and was saved by the grace of God. What I discovered in my study is about a hundred years after this event took place in Athens, a church leader in Corinth there in the church mentioned in one of his letters that Dionysius became the first elder in the church at Athens. He became one of their shepherds.

Can you imagine this church now, a church whose pastor was a member, more than likely a former member of the Supreme Court? This city where God was introduced and some of his attributes explained and his coming wrath delivered and a call to repentance extended. And Dionysius and others were saved. And it's intriguing to me, beloved, that all Paul did was simply describe God as Creator, as the sovereign ruler, the Lord of the universe, of all the nations of earth and the coming judge and that was enough.

That was enough. And some believed. And I think this is instructive to us. This is the gospel we really must introduce to the Athens where God has placed you and me because, listen, he is still the unknown God. He is more than ever the unknown God. Our world may respond in the same way, but in spite of that we go into Athens like Paul, burdened over their unbelief, asking, as it were, God to use us, being willing to deliver both sides of the gospel, heaven and hell, peace with God and the wrath of God.

And some will ridicule you and some will put you off and some will have ears to hear. That's up to God as we deliver the gospel. And some will believe and be saved from the wrath that is coming. What an important reminder from God's Word today.

It's not pleasant or comfortable to discuss the wrath of God, but because it's a reality for those who don't place their faith in him, we must. The most loving thing we can do for those who are facing God's judgment is to warn them and let them know that God offers them hope and salvation instead. You've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart. Today's lesson was the conclusion to Stephen Davies' series entitled Introducing God. It might be that as you were listening today, the Lord brought to mind some people who would benefit from hearing this lesson.

If that's the case, I want to encourage you to share it with them. You can go to our website, wisdomonline.org, and send your friend the link to this lesson or the link to the entire series. That's a great way to share and spread the truth of God's Word. If it would encourage you to have this series in your library of biblical resources, we have it available as a set of CDs that you can receive in the mail or as a digital download that you can access from your computer. Information on all of that is available at wisdomonline.org. If you prefer, we can assist you over the phone today if you call us at 866-48-bible. That's 866-482-4253. On tomorrow's broadcast, Stephen begins a series from 1 Corinthians 13 entitled True Love. Be sure and join us for that right here on Wisdom for the Heart. .