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If you were here last Lord's 
Day, you remember that we began to look at the proclamation of 
the Christian God on the part of the Apostle Paul as he comes 
into Athens, as he is in Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas. His eyes land upon the various 
stoa and temples of Athens, and his spirit is provoked within 
him. His spirit is roused to a wholesome 
indignation against the madness and the darkness of the idolatry 
that plagued Athens at that particular time. And so he begins to preach 
to them Jesus and the resurrection, and these Epicurean and Stoic 
philosophers want to hear more. Remember, we noted that they 
most likely are mistaking Jesus and the resurrection as two gods, 
possibly as a male and a female deity. Not that Paul was somehow 
cryptic in his proclamation of the Gospel, but rather in the 
hardness of their hearts and in unbelief and plagued by their 
own reigning paganism, they misunderstand what the Apostle Paul is saying. And so they want to hear more 
and they bring him to the Areopagus. And now we have then before us 
in verses 22 through 34, the sermon that Paul delivers at 
the Areopagus, setting forth the glory, the unrivaled majesty 
of the Christian God over and against all conceptions of pagan 
deities and all sorts of madness. And we'll pick up reading in 
verse 22, of Acts 17, and we'll read to the end of the chapter. 
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men 
of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. 
For as I was passing through and considering the objects of 
your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to 
the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship 
without knowing, Him I proclaim to you. God, who made the world 
and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, 
does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He worshipped 
with men's hands as though He needed anything, since He gives 
to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from 
one blood every nation, of men to dwell on the face of the earth, 
and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their 
dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that 
they might grope for Him and find Him. Though He is not far 
from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our 
being. As also some of your own poets 
have said, for we are also His offspring. Therefore, since we 
are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine 
nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by 
art and man's devising. Truly these times of ignorance 
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 
because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world 
in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given 
assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. And when they 
heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while 
others said, We will hear you again on this matter. So Paul 
departed from among them. However, some men joined him 
and believed. Among them Dionysius the Areopagite, 
a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Amen. Let's ask God's 
blessing upon our time here in the preaching of the Word. Let's 
pray. God, we thank you that we can gather now as we have 
been already gathered, that we can observe now this act of worship, 
the preaching of the Word. Once again, we plead for your 
aid. We ask for your help as the preacher 
opens up the Word. We pray that you would give him 
words to speak. We pray that, Lord God, I would 
not rest upon my own strength, whatever that may be, or my own 
intelligence, whatever that may be, but rather resting upon the 
aid that a triune God affords, we pray that this act of preaching 
would be unto your glory, unto the strengthening of saints, 
and, Lord God, unto the salvation of sinners. Might we know you 
and know you all the more by an examination, by a proclamation 
of this passage, and, Lord God, might you be honored, might you 
be praised, might you be gloried in. We pray in the name of our 
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, to frame our minds, 
consider these words of Francis Turrett, and he remarks that 
reflection upon such passages as these, Acts 17, 22-34, reflections 
on these passages are given so that, quote, when we approach 
unto God, we may elevate our thoughts above terrestrial and 
fleeting things and think nothing concerning God but what is great 
and lofty. I think that's something that 
the Apostle Paul is wanting to do here. Remember, his eyes are 
scandalized, if you will, and his spirit is roused to provocation 
because of the madness of the idolatry that he witnesses in 
Athens. Paul isn't like a tourist with a brochure and, you know, 
with a tropical button-up shirt and a camera around his neck 
marveling at the glory of architecture. He casts his eyes and there is 
no marvel in a positive sense, but rather marveling that they 
have departed from the incorruptible God and had heaped to themselves 
all manner of corruption. They have heaped to themselves 
all manner of idolatry, all manner of pagan conceptions of deities. They had, in a sense, cast off 
the knowledge of God that comes by virtue of being created in 
His image. And they have heaped to themselves 
all manner of ungodly images, all manner of stoa with respect 
to Zeus and Hephaestus and all of these multitudinous deities 
of pagan madness. So we are, and hopefully by a 
reflection of this passage, we are to frame our minds, we are 
to fill our heads with the knowledge of the true God, that one who 
is great and lofty, and to cast off any intruding thoughts. of 
any God that is lesser than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We want 
to look at verses 22 to 34 under four headings and I'll give you 
those and hopefully we can proceed with God's aid and with allowable 
time limits through all of these. And those things are these. We 
want to look first at the prelude to the proclamation of the Christian 
God. We want to look at the proclamation 
of the Christian God proper and then the mercy extended by the 
Christian God, and lastly, the Athenian reception of the Christian 
God. Now, when I say the Christian God, hopefully you all know that 
I'm not saying the Christian God as an offering of a deity 
that can be considered, along with other possible conceptions 
of God that are out there. We offer to you our Christian 
God, but if you're content with your own gods, then that's fine. 
We don't confess a God that is just the best God among other 
deities out there in the universe, or we don't confess the Christian 
God as one among many other competing equals, but when we say the Christian 
God, we say the proper and the true and the the one that has 
been properly conceived and revealed and set forth and opened up in 
the Scriptures. In other words, the only living 
and true God. There is but one only living 
and true God, and He is Yahweh of our revelation. He is Father, 
Son, and Spirit. God in three Persons. Blessed 
Trinity. So notice the prelude to the 
proclamation of the Christian God, and we see this in Acts 
17, 22. and 23. Notice first what we find there, 
the location of the sermon. Then Paul stood, verse 22, in 
the midst of the Areopagus and said, what is this Areopagus? The name itself is two words, 
and two words, one which is the god Ares, the Greek god Ares. Now you perhaps might have a 
translation there, Mars Hill. It's commonly translated here 
as, the Areopagus is as Mars Hill, and we you know, we talk 
about Paul preaching at Mars Hill. Well, it was the god Ares 
who is the Roman god Mars and it is basically Areopagus means 
the rock of Ares or the hill of Ares. According to the madness 
of Greek paganism, the story goes that Ares was brought to 
this geological structure where juridical trials were sort of 
carried out and the twelve gods judged him for having murdered 
for having murdered the son of Neptune for raping his daughter. 
And so it's called the Rock of Ares because of that myth, because 
of that story. It had been in classical antiquity, 
in the life and times of Athens, a place where there would be 
a gathering for juridical, for judgments being made against 
criminals and usually charges of proclaiming foreign gods and 
for the crime of murder. Now, some have supposed that 
Paul is actually seen here or taken to the actual geological 
structure, the rock and the place where those formal judicial trials 
were carried out. So he's actually at Mars Hill 
or the Rock of Aries. But more than likely, he's not 
at that geological structure but was taken to a royal portico 
in the marketplace where the council of the Areopagus met. 
So if we have in our minds this picture of Paul standing on this 
rock, standing on Mars Hill, proclaiming the God, the Christian 
God, that's a fine image that you can have in your minds, but 
he probably wasn't there. He is proclaiming the Christian 
God with great vigor and apologetic strength, but it is in the midst 
of the council of the Areopagus, most likely, in this royal portico. Historians note that Areopagus 
had been a word that was sort of shortened and applied to the 
council that met for juridical procedure. So anyway, Paul is 
standing in the midst of this pagan council. And as we'll get 
to, he is proclaiming the riches and the excellencies of the Triune 
God. The occasion of the sermon, we 
note in verses 22 and 23, we see here men of Athens. I perceive that in all things 
you are very religious, for as I was passing through and considering 
the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this 
inscription to the unknown God." What is the occasion of this 
sermon? Well, hopefully you remember from last time, the Epicureans 
and the Stoics bring Paul to the Areopagus and ask if they 
can hear more of this Jesus and the resurrection. And so Paul 
has this glorious occasion where he can open up Jesus and the 
resurrection, the true proclamation of the Christian God and Jesus 
Christ whom he has sent to these Athenian idolaters. We have Paul 
addressing the men of Athens, and so no doubt what we have 
here wrapped up in men of Athens are those Epicureans, those Stoics 
and perhaps others, Pythagoreans and others who followed after 
the Homeric gods of ancient Greece. And they're all gathered before 
him, they're all present, they're all there waiting to hear as 
Paul opens up his God-inspired mouth to proclaim the riches 
of the triune God. What is the introduction to the 
sermon then? We're in the prelude to the proclamation of the Christian 
God, and we want to move quickly through this so that we can get 
to the proclamation proper, but notice Paul's introduction to 
his sermon. First we see Paul's assessment 
of Athenian religious devotion. He speaks to them and he says, 
Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. Now, we ought not let our minds 
to think that Paul is actually giving them a compliment here. 
That they actually are very religious, perhaps in the way that we might 
understand that in our modern mindset. You know, we hear very 
religious today, and we think, you know, goes to church, prays 
a lot, reads his Bible, is at every service, is at the Lord's 
Supper, he's out there at Wednesday Bible study, he's there at Saturday 
morning theology study. He's very religious, never speaks 
an ill thing, never reviles when he has reviled, does not answer 
sufferings with threatenings, those sorts of things. Well, 
here Paul is not issuing a compliment to the Athenians, these men of 
Athens, when he says, I perceive that you are in all things very 
religious. It's not a compliment, but it's also not necessarily 
an insult. This is not intended by Paul 
as a compliment, but rather we see if we know Paul, we know 
that he would not be complimenting the Athenians. And based on a 
historical witness, it's actually forbidden for one who is brought 
before the Areopagus, it's actually forbidden to engage in what's 
called complimentary exordia, according to Bruce. Introductory 
compliments to the council in order to garner their favor. 
It was actually forbidden by the Areopagus, and Paul no doubt 
would have known that, and so he's not issuing a compliment 
when he says, you are very religious. Most likely, and what this language 
carries the weight of is perhaps rather superstitious or too superstitious. That might be too harsh because 
Paul is navigating a measure of respectability here. It could carry the weight of 
somewhat superstitious. Some have contended for a harsher 
fearful of demons. The word translated very religious, 
if for those word nuts out there, it's actually the second largest 
Greek word in the New Testament. There is a larger word used in 
Acts chapter 10, I believe it is, but it's the second long, 
and it's a long one, 19 letters in the Greek language. And it 
contains the word, a root word that is included in it, for demons. And so some have contended for 
a harsher fearful of demons. Perhaps it means carrying your 
religious reverence very far or fearers of the supernatural 
spirits. The thrust of the message here 
is not that Paul's giving them a compliment, not that he's doing 
some sort of underhanded insult, but rather that he is cutting 
at the heart of their irreligion, cutting at the heart of their 
ungodly pagan idolatry, and he is saying that it is rather superstitious, 
or somewhat superstitious, or carrying their religious reverence 
very far. He says, men of Athens, I perceive 
that in all things you are very religious. And notice the evidence 
of this religious devotion. The evidence of it follows in 
verse 23, Therefore, the one whom you worship 
without knowing Him I proclaim to you." This is the evidence 
of, really, the evidence of their superstitiousness, is that they 
have an altar to the unknown God. Perhaps what that was, or 
what the back story is there, there's three approaches to what 
that might be, and perhaps there's a, well, there's probably not 
a little bit of everything, but perhaps a combination of two. 
But some have thought that this altar to the unknown God, this 
altar with the inscription to the unknown God is sort of a 
hat tip to the Jews that would have been there in Athens for 
quite some time. Remember, Paul preached in the 
synagogue. in Athens, there were some Jews in Athens, and so the 
idea is that these Jews have this unknown God, this one who 
is incomprehensible, this one who, yes we can know, yes we 
can apprehend, but we cannot fully enclose within the grasp 
of our comprehension because he is beyond comprehension, he 
is immense, eternal, infinite, and all of his glorious perfections. The Athenian recognition of the 
God of the Jews. Henry notes that the heathens 
called the Jewish God an uncertain God, the uncertain deity of Moses. So perhaps that's in view. Another 
option with regards to why is there this altar with the inscription 
to the unknown God. Another option is, one of the 
poets that the Apostle Paul quotes, Epimenides, later on in the passage, 
there was a time about 300 years prior to Paul's occasion here, 
where there was a plague in Athens. And so the people of Athens came 
to Epimenides and asked for his advice, and he said, release 
some black and white sheep into the city, and wherever they stop, 
there slay them and offer them up on an altar to the god of 
that spot. And so wherever they stopped, 
they were slain, and an altar was erected, and that sheep was 
sacrificed to an unknown god. Perhaps if they had stopped at 
the stoa of Zeus, they would have sacrificed it to Zeus. If 
they would have stopped at the temple of Athena, they would 
have sacrificed it to Athena. But in this case, it stopped 
at the Areopagus on the hill of Ares, and so no god being 
there, they offered it up to the unknown God, having built 
an altar there. And another option is simply 
to suggest that they erected these altars to the unknown gods 
of foreign nations, but whatever it is. Whatever the case, when 
we read here an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, 
Paul uses this as an occasion to proclaim the true and living 
God who can be known, who is known by Paul, and whom he will 
now make known to these Athenian idolaters. So that's the prelude 
to the proclamation of the Christian God. We want to now move then 
to the proclamation of the Christian God. Paul opens up this beautiful 
sermon where he discloses to these Athenian idolaters the 
glory of the living and true God. Hopefully you see as you 
read this passage, and perhaps without the aid of the preacher 
as we navigate through this passage this morning, our minds are to 
be drawn to the greatness of our God, over and against any 
other God, which are no gods at all that are propagated out 
there in the world. This is a glorious occasion, 
a victory for the fame of Yahweh here on this day at the Areopagus 
in Athens. Because Paul comes against. He's 
all by himself, remember. He's all by himself here at the 
Areopagus before this council. And before a multitude of idolaters 
of various flavors, he says, you're wrong. And there is one 
and only living and true God. He is Yahweh of Israel. He is 
God in three persons, blessed Trinity. He is this one that 
I now open up to you. We want to notice four things 
in the proclamation of the Christian God. And those four things are 
these. And this comes from the text. We're not just jumping 
now to a consideration of God on other matters or at other 
texts, but rather, this comes from the text. The exclusive 
lordship of the Christian God, the unbounded glory of the Christian 
God, the all-sufficient independence of the Christian God, and then 
the honor that is due, the Christian God. I want you to listen to 
these words of a fellow named Marcianus Aristides. And for 
anybody who is interested, this is connected to Athens. Marcianus 
Aristides was living in around 126 A.D. A.D. 126 is probably the proper way 
to say that. He was an Athenian philosopher. He's only two generations 
removed from the Apostle Paul. No doubt he would have heard 
stories of this Paul who came to the Areopagus and proclaimed 
Jesus and the resurrection. He might have been the pupil 
of the son of Dionysius the Areopagite. We don't know. But what we do 
know is that he was an Athenian philosopher, only two generations 
removed from the Apostle Paul, converted unto Christianity by 
the grace of our God, And He proclaims this with regards to 
our subject matter. And as we read through Acts 17 
and navigate the passage, listen how Aristides is rehashing, in 
a good way, he's reiterating the blessed words of the Apostle 
Paul. The heavens do not limit Him, speaking of God, of course, 
but the heavens and all things, visible and invisible, receive 
their bounds from Him. Adversary He has none, for there 
exists not any stronger than He. Ignorance and forgetfulness 
are not in His nature, for He is altogether wisdom and understanding, 
and in Him stands fast all that exists. He requires not sacrifice 
and libation, nor even one of things visible. He requires not 
anything from any, but all living creatures stand in need of Him. 
You see this Athenian philosopher converted unto Christianity, 
repeating the words of the Apostle Paul, repeating the words of 
the Apostle Paul who had proclaimed the glory of this God. So then 
let's have a look, first off, at the exclusive lordship of 
the Christian God. Notice in the passage here, the 
Apostle Paul, from the outset, after saying, The exclusive lordship 
of Yahweh, the exclusive lordship of the Christian God. You know, this comes to the minds 
and the hearts of the modern people in our landscape, a time 
of religious plurality, a time of your truth is your truth, 
and my truth is my truth, and this is offensive to the modern 
ear, because we need to be tolerant, we need to be open-minded, we 
need to just let everybody do whatever, we just need to sing 
kumbaya, play a guitar in front of the fire, and let bygones 
be bygones. The Apostle Paul proclaims the 
exclusive lordship, and it's not out of some, of the Christian 
God, and it's not out of some, like we said last week, curmudgeonly 
rejection of everything else that I don't like, but it's unto 
the end of what the passage closes with, that they would close upon 
the mercy and the glory of this living and true God, this only 
God of heaven and earth, and that they would find in Him what 
is proper truth. They would find in Him what is 
only true mercy, love, and grace, and all good things, that they 
would cast aside the madness of the hardness and the sinfulness 
of their hearts and own the living and true God. Exclusivity is 
a good thing with respect to truth, because there is only 
objective truth, one truth, God's truth. There are no rivals. There 
are no adversaries, as Aristides said. And so he proclaims the 
exclusive lordship, and he does so by doing this, by noting that 
God is, the only living and true God, is the creator of all things. He is the creator of heaven and 
earth. If you've read your Old Testaments well, you'll know 
this, that very often when the prophets are coming up against the gods of the pagans all around 
them, or when Israel herself falls after idolatry because 
of the nation's influences upon them. The prophets often go to 
that point to exalt God over and above every other God who 
is no God at all. And they do so by saying that 
He is Creator of all things. That He created the heavens and 
the earth. And so the Apostle Paul begins 
there because he knows that Old Testament reality. God who made 
the world and everything in it since He is Lord of heaven and 
earth. You can turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 
as we try to navigate the landscape of the glory of this Christian 
God. First, with respect to his exclusive lordship. Notice in 
Deuteronomy 32. If you'll turn there and try 
to turn there quickly, because we have much to work through. 
I don't want to rush anyone, but Deuteronomy 32. And notice 
when you get there, you can turn to verse 36. The confession of 
Israel. And this comes in the context 
of the folly and the madness and the error of pagan deities, 
of following after idols. And notice the language of God 
by the prophet Moses here in verse 36. For the Lord will judge 
his people. and have compassion on His servants 
when He sees that their power is gone and there is no one remaining, 
bond or free. He will say, where are their 
gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? Who ate the fat 
of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? 
Let them rise up and help you and be your refuge. Now just 
pause for a moment. You see the indictment of pagan 
deities and those who follow after them. Where are their gods, 
the rock in which they sought refuge? There is no refuge. There 
is no rock in anyone save Yahweh. And then notice the language 
in 38. Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine 
of their drink offering? As often as anybody, any idolater 
places bananas before a golden Buddha, that offering will not 
be eaten. As long as they put any sort 
of beverage before an engraved or a graven image, there will 
be no libation drank. Who ate the fat of their sacrifices 
and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and 
help you and be your refuge. Flee to them if you think you'll 
find mercy in these pagan gods. Run to them. The end will be 
misery. The end will be destruction. 
The end will be colossal and everlasting disappointment. Notice 
then v. 39, Now see that I, even I, am 
He, and there is no God besides Me. I kill and I make alive, 
I wound and I heal, nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. You see, God proclaims the exclusive 
Lordship of Himself. I, even I, am He, and there is 
no God besides Me. More pointedly, let's move to 
Isaiah 42 for a moment, because in Isaiah 42, We probably have 
what is in the background of the Apostle Paul when he's proclaiming 
the riches of the triune God at the Areopagus. Remember we 
said last time that Paul does take a little bit of a different 
tact here, a different track with the Gentiles. The Gentiles 
were not familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures. They didn't 
traffic. in Moses, they didn't traffic 
in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, and so while he doesn't 
openly cite or quote the Old Testament and refer to it as 
such, the Lord says, or the Prophets spoke, or just as it is written, 
but nevertheless, the Old Testament is in the back of his mind, and 
revelation, the revelation of God informs his proclamation. Notice in Isaiah 42, verses 5 
to 8, thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched 
them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from 
it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who 
walk on it. I, the Lord, have called you 
in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and 
give you as a covenant to the people. as a light to the Gentiles, 
to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, 
those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord, 
that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor 
my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have 
come to pass, and new things I declare before they spring 
forth. I tell you of them." You see, 
this is the proclamation of the prophet Isaiah that is sort of 
a pre-Areopagus sermon by Isaiah. The folly of idols is brought 
in view by virtue of the fact that there is one God, God the 
Lord of verse 5, who created the heavens and stretched them 
out, who spread forth the earth. and that which comes from it. 
You see, the pagans had all notions of a multiplicity of gods who 
were the gods of various things. You had the god of the sea, the 
god of the sky, the god of the sun, the god of blacksmiths, 
the god of wine, the god of war, the god of weapons, the god of 
potato chips. You had all manner of gods being 
ascribed to things that were no gods at all. And what the 
prophets of the Old Testament wanted to set forth and what 
the apostles, the proclaimers of Jesus and the resurrection 
in the New Testament want to set forth is that there is only 
one God and He is testified as the only God by virtue of the 
fact that He created all things and that He upholds all things. You can turn as well, if you're 
still in Isaiah, to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, and notice in verse 
18, for thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, 
who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who 
did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited, I 
am the Lord and there is no other. You see what the Apostle Paul 
is doing here when he says, As I observed the objects of your 
worship, I noticed an altar with this inscription, to the unknown 
God, and then when he follows that up by saying, him I proclaim 
to you, the one you worship in ignorance, him I proclaim to 
you, he's not tacking on an additional God to their pantheon of deities. 
I know you get that, but a wholesome reiteration. He's not saying, 
okay, you've got your Zeus, you've got your Hephaestus, you've got 
your Athena, you've got your Hermes, you've got your Heracles, 
you've got your Hera, you've got all 30,000 of your deities. Consider a little Jesus and resurrection 
in your life. Perhaps might give a little boost 
to your step and supplement your idolatry well. No. That's not 
what the Apostle Paul is doing. You see the biblical pedigree 
here is such that creation of the heavens and the earth and 
all that is in them testifies to the reality that the One who 
did that is the only living and true God and testifies to this 
reality that I am the Lord and there is no other. In other words, 
cast aside all of these on godly conceptions of deity and own 
the living and true God. Own the one that truly is the 
one and only God who created the heavens and the earth. Glory 
is due the triune God alone. He alone is to be adored. The Athenians had exchanged the 
glory of the incorruptible God for corruptible things. You know 
what is probably in the back of the Apostle Paul's mind as 
he was writing Romans 1? What's probably in the back of 
the Apostle Paul's mind as he's writing Romans 1 is the Athenian 
episode, is the Areopagus episode. He's casting his eyes upon all 
of this madness of corruptible things, four-footed creatures 
and crawling things, the incorruptible God exchanged for corruptible 
things. That's what he is casting his 
eyes upon in this Athenian episode. And so it is God alone who is 
to be proclaimed, the incorruptible God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One more text before we move 
on. You can turn to Jeremiah with me. If you were already 
in Isaiah and you hadn't yet moved back to Acts 17, you're 
not too far away. Jeremiah 10. Notice the language 
in Jeremiah 10 beginning at verse 10. You see, the heart of the 
Apostle Paul here... Let's make no mistake, yes, Paul 
has a wholesome indignation against idolatry here. But he also has 
a heart that those wrapped up and bound in darkness would be 
let free and liberated from that darkness to own the living and 
true God. You see, Paul will get to judgment. Paul will get to the reality 
that this God whom I proclaim to you will judge the world by 
the man whom He has ordained, and He's given testification, 
witness to this, by raising Him from the dead. And so he wants 
them to understand this God of Jeremiah 10.10. The Lord is the 
true God. He is the living God and the 
everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth will 
tremble. and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation." 
Notice verse 11, "'Thus you shall say to them, the gods that have 
not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth 
and from under these heavens.'" You see what is in the background 
of the Apostle Paul's preaching here? The gods, you Athenians, 
that have not made the heavens and the earth, shall perish from 
the earth, and you will perish with them, so do not follow them. 
Do not bow down before them, do not worship them, because 
this God, the God of verse 12, He has made the earth by His 
power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has 
stretched out the heavens at His discretion. The triune God. Yahweh. The Christian God. The 
only living and true God. Notice secondly as we get then 
back to Acts 17. Notice secondly, the Apostle 
Paul's next point is at this. The unbounded glory of the Christian 
God. Notice the language in v. 24. 
God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven 
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. the unbounded glory of the Christian 
God. What does it mean when we say 
unbounded? Kids, you know, hopefully what 
a bound is, a boundary, it's a, you know, limitation set, 
a formal or informal limitation set, confine set for a thing. In sports, you can't go out of 
bounds. You have to, you know, in soccer, 
you gotta keep the ball on this side of the touchline. If you 
kick it past or run past with it, you're out of bounds. So 
moving from low things to higher things, the unbounded glory of 
the Christian God means that He cannot be limited. He cannot 
be confined. He cannot be circumscribed. This is the language of the Apostle 
Paul here. He does not dwell in temples 
made with hands. This is a direct attack, a direct 
blow against the Athenians who were listening because all of 
their gods dwelt in temples made with hands. So the Apostle Paul 
wants to set forth the glory of the Christian God as the one 
who is unbounded, the one who is limitless, the one who does 
not dwell in temples made with hands. You can turn with me to 
1 Kings 8. The reason we're navigating Bible 
is to understand that the Apostle Paul is not arguing from natural 
revelation, though in a sense he appeals to the reality that 
the Athenians, by virtue of being created in the image of God, 
and yet having that image marred, affected, vandalized, violated 
by virtue of sin, have suppressed the glory of the incorruptible 
God, and are following after many deities. Paul's preaching 
from his knowledge of the Scriptures, the Scriptures being that revelation 
of God himself, the one who is to be known, adored, loved, worshipped, 
and gloried in. Notice in 1 Kings 8, in the context 
here, brethren, is that Solomon is giving the dedication of the 
temple. He's casting his eyes, perhaps, on the splendor of this 
temple that has been made with human hands. It's a beautiful 
structure, it's a glorious temple that he has made as a dwelling 
place of the Lord. We'll qualify that statement 
in a moment, but notice here in 1 Kings 8 at verse 27. In the context, we have here 
the dedication of the temple, his prayer to Yahweh, the one 
for whom the temple was built. And notice in verse 27, but will 
God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven 
of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which 
I have built. You see the language there. First off, but will God indeed 
dwell on the earth? You know, some point to Solomon 
here with the knowledge of the coming Messiah that he is marveling 
and the one who would fulfill the reality of the temple. Will 
God indeed dwell on the earth? It's a marvel looking forward 
to the fact that yes, God will dwell upon the earth. God, the 
second of the blessed triune, will come, assume man's nature, 
and dwell among men in order to bring redemption to the fallen 
sons and daughters of Adam. We have here a reality, though, 
a stress upon the greatness of God, the bigness of God. And 
that's even a language that we can't use, kids. Hopefully, in 
this church, you get at least the slightest impression that 
we seek to preach a big God. God is big, and yet that language 
is not helpful to our conception of God, because God is not marked 
by size. He is sizeless. He is not constrained 
by space. He is immense, eternal, infinite. But notice what the text says 
here. Behold heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain 
you. What's he saying here? He's saying 
that if we cast our eyes out upon the galaxy, if we look up 
to the heavens and we see the stars in the expanse, and we 
consider for a moment, does God dwell there? We have to say no, 
because the heavens cannot contain Him. Is God there? Yes, in the 
very immediacy of His being, His nature, and His essence, 
but He's not confined by the space, He's not confined by the 
expanse, and He goes beyond that to say even the heaven of heavens 
cannot contain you. Even heaven itself, though God 
does specially dwell there, the angels fly and they praise and 
they sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and yet God 
does not properly dwell there because even the heaven of the 
heavens cannot contain Him. You know, we need to divest ourselves 
of a Saturday morning or Sunday morning cartoon God who has round 
eyes, a gray beard, has a staff, and has this comical smile on 
his face and does whatever cartoon gods do. The universe and all that is 
in it, the expanse of the heaven, God doesn't dwell somewhere out 
there. God isn't beyond Pluto. in some 
size of his being, just pouring benevolence out upon an asking 
earth. God is big and that language 
even fails to express the God that we have. He is immense. 
He is eternal. He fills the heavens and the 
earth. The Apostle Paul here in Acts 17 wants them to know 
that the greatness of God isn't to be shrunk down, distorted, 
disturbed, and violated so that He is represented on a six foot 
tall, a 20 foot tall, a 30 foot tall stoa of Zeus. He does not 
dwell in temples made with hands. The glory of our God is being 
proclaimed by the Apostle Paul here, and it is at the point 
that he is immense. For anybody who's read Theology 
Immense, hopefully it doesn't scare anyone away, it speaks 
to an aspect of God's infinity. If the infinity of God is seen 
in the fact that He has no limitations, He is infinite. Nothing can contain, 
constrain, limit our God. He is Lord of heaven and earth, 
the creator of all things. He constrains, He limits, He 
sets boundaries. He is not limited and He is not 
bounded. Infinity. It's not a number. 
It's not the greatest number. It's without limits. Well, immensity 
pertains to the fact that God is limitless with respect to 
space. You cannot confine Him. He does not dwell in temples 
made with hands. You know, in efforts to cast 
away our notions of God as a big-eyed Sunday morning cartoon, hopefully 
nobody sees him that way, but that's the way the world presents 
him to us, is this comical old man. You think about the largeness, 
the bigness, again those words fail, but the immensity of our 
God. Anybody who lives in Abbotsford 
who has been there, if you drive down Whatcom Road from my side 
there, Sumas Mountain, you wind around Whatcom Road and there's 
a point where you wrap around the corner and you depart from 
the obstruction of houses and trees and all of a sudden you're 
presented with this majestic mountain, Mount Baker, on a clear 
day. It's absolutely amazing. You come around. I've often times 
wanted to stop and take a photo. I'm not sure why the photo would 
stay on my phone and nobody would ever see it. But anyway, it's 
just so amazing. You're confronted as you wrap 
around with the immensity of this mountain. That's improper 
predication of a mountain. A mountain isn't immense, but 
we can speak of it that way in our glowing poetry. But this 
massive mountain, Mount Baker. Now, if we then mount up, no 
pun intended, to a larger mountain, for those of you who don't know, 
Mount Baker, I think, is about 10,000 or almost 11,000 feet 
high. You'd still have to travel 4,500 
feet to get to base camp for Mount Everest. And then Mount 
Everest is another 14,000 feet on top of that. If we were to 
cast our eyes upon Mount Everest, we'd be casting our eyes upon 
a big thing. And yet to say that God is bigger 
than Mount Everest is to do Everest a favor and to cast dispersions 
upon the triune God. Because He is immense. He fills 
the heavens and the earth. No place contains Him. He is 
located nowhere, and yet He is everywhere. Because nothing bounds 
Him. Nothing confines Him. Glorious. Isaiah 66. You can 
turn there with me. to rehearse something of this 
reality. Isaiah chapter 66. Again, the Apostle Paul is looking 
at these contained deities, these temples made with hands. He's 
looking at these things and he is grieved and provoked in his 
heart that these are casting aside the God of glorious immensity 
for creeping things and images made after human likeness. Notice 
in Isaiah 66. Verse one, Isaiah 66, beginning 
in verse one. Thus says the Lord, heaven is 
my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will 
build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things 
my hand has made and all those things exist, says the Lord. But, excuse me, verse two, for 
all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist, 
says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on him who is poor, 
and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. You 
see that language? Where is the house that you will 
build me, and where is the place of my rest? You see, there is 
an indictment by God himself against pagan deities that surround 
the nations of Israel in that time, the time of the apostle. 
Where is the house that you will build me in? Where is the place 
that my rest? You know, it goes back to creation here. For all 
these things, my hand is made. And all those things exist. The 
Lord does not dwell in temples made with hands. I want you to 
turn for a second to Acts 7. And I want to make a connection 
here at the point of Acts 7 with regards to the Apostle Paul. 
In Acts 7, we have near the closing, of Stephen's preaching of Jesus 
Christ, we have in Acts 7 at verse 48, notice this language. However, the Most High does not 
dwell in temples made with hands. As the prophet says, heaven is 
my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for 
me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Has my 
hand not made all these things? In Stephen's employ of the prophet 
there. He wants to press upon his Jewish 
audience that this temple is about to be destroyed and it 
only anyway was the shadow of the substance that is Christ 
Jesus himself. You put to death this righteous 
one, worship him, follow him, believe in him. This temple is 
such that God no longer dwells there, having departed his glory 
from that place. by virtue of the reality that 
Christ, the promised tabernacle and temple, has come among men, 
redeemed men, and ascended to heaven. But notice the language 
in verse 48. Perhaps Paul here, in Acts 17, 
is reflecting upon his pre-conversion listening to Stephen. You think 
about that for a moment. Remember, this is probably 20 
years after he heard Stephen. There was a day on which he, 
as an unconverted Jew, was watching over the garments of those who 
were crushing Stephen's head. They had disrobed themselves, 
not entirely. They had disrobed themselves 
in order to be unconstrained, to pick up rocks and crush the 
head of Stephen. Paul is watching that, hearing 
that. seeing that, and he would have 
listened to these words by Stephen, the Most High does not dwell 
in temples made with hands, as the prophet says. And so on that 
wonderful day in Athens, Paul repeats the same and the glorious 
truth. Men do not determine the boundaries 
of God's dwelling. He determines theirs. In fact, 
that's the point in verse 27b and 28. Notice at this point, 
the unbounded glory of God. Verse 27, so that they should 
seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and 
find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him 
we live and move. Excuse me, back to verse 26. 
at this point, verse 26, and He has made from one blood every 
nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and notice, 
and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their 
dwellings. You know, we very often and rightly 
go to this verse and we see providence there. We see God's divine providence 
because God, and again, we rightly do this, God and He alone has 
determined the pre-appointed times and boundaries of everyone's 
dwellings. You see, there is force of the 
argument here that God is the one, as the text says, who determines 
the boundaries of us. We don't, as idolaters, determine 
the boundaries and the dwelling places of God. He does not dwell 
in temples made with hands. You see, He's coming against 
all these Athenians who are determining the dwelling places and the boundaries 
of their gods. They shape them, they form them 
out of the earth, out of wood, out of stone. They build and 
erect temples wherein they place their gods, who are no gods at 
all, and yet it is Yahweh alone who is unbounded, who Himself 
determines the boundaries of our dwellings. One other text, 
Psalm 139. Psalm 139, because brethren, 
God is immense. God is omnipresent. What that 
means, when we speak of his immensity, we ought not to scare anyone 
away from believing then that God is not imminent, that God 
is not present, that God is not near to every one of us. You 
know that God's omnipresence Which means that He is everywhere. 
Hopefully, kids, as we study the doctrine of God in your classes, 
you come to know that God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. 
His omnipresence is not the omnipresence of His power that dispatched 
beyond Pluto. He has the ability to affect, 
with His power, things on earth. But rather, that He is everywhere. 
He fills the heavens and the earth, is the language of Jeremiah 
23, 23 and 24. He fills the heavens and the earth. So while He is the transcendent 
God removed far from His creatures, nevertheless, He is the one who 
is immediately near by the everywhere presence of His glorious being. Notice in Psalm 139, He is a 
God who is present. Where can I go from your spirit? 
This is 139.7. Or where can I flee from your 
presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed 
in hell, behold, you are 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 fall on me, even the night shall be 
light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but 
the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are 
both a light to you." See the language there? Now, this cuts 
with a two-edged sword. This cuts with a two-edged sword. 
Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your 
presence? For the believer, this is absolutely 
glorious. All this talk about immensity, 
the greatness of our God, the fact that He is unconstrained, 
unbounded, that He is located nowhere and yet is everywhere, 
it might go over our heads and you might think that it smacks 
of the high learning of theologians, but it doesn't. It is ever so 
practical. God being immense and everywhere 
present comes to us and it brings glorious comfort and confidence. 
You see, kids, when you pray to God, and adults, when you 
pray to God, you're not praying to a God afar off. You know, 
our prayers don't go to God like a late 1980s, early 90s modem. It takes a minute and a half 
to connect and it has to travel through space and air somewhere 
to get to God. He, you know, He demodulates 
it and processes the prayer and then dispenses it, but we have 
to wait a while. When we pray to God, we're not 
praying to a God afar off, we're praying to a God that is near, 
who fills the heavens and the earth. God is near. Remember, when we read that God 
comes down from heaven, that's a special manifestation of his 
glory and his power and his condescension. God's not absent from earth. 
When God comes down from heaven, he's not coming to a place where 
he was absent. God is everywhere. And so comfort 
and confidence comes with this blessed reality that our God 
is near. For the believer, this is to 
bring blessed comfort, blessed confidence, because God is immediately 
present in the perfection of His unbounded goodness. When 
you pray to God, you're praying to a God that is immediately 
present by His unbounded goodness. So when you pray, you pray with 
confidence. Because of this truth that God does not dwell in temples 
made with hands, he is unconstrained, unbounded, and everywhere for 
his people. But you see, the other edge of 
that sword is the reality that God is everywhere. The language 
of the text, again, where can I go from your spirit or where 
can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you 
are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there for 
the unbeliever. out there. You have to realize 
that God is near. You can't close a door and block 
out God. You can't hide in the darkness 
and block out God. You can't call upon the rocks 
and the trees to hide you from the wrath of the Lamb, because 
God is everywhere. Where can I go from you is David's 
proclamation, David's prayer, David's declaration. If you're 
an unbeliever and you're seeking to hide your sin, you will be 
successful with respect to your parents, perhaps, with respect 
to those who are around you. You can wait till night and go 
under the covers. You can wait for night and go 
wherever to commit all manner of iniquity, but you cannot hide 
from God who does not dwell in temples made with hands. The psalmist says, if I ascend 
into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, 
you are there. Make no mistake, God is in hell. His special manifestation of 
his unbounded goodness is not there, but rather the absolute 
and abiding presence of his holiness and his justice for all eternity. 
You know, the one who departs or the one who embraces or the 
one who seeks after death in order to somehow leave God is 
the one who is gravely mistaken. He's everywhere. Notice the all-sufficient 
independence of the Christian God as we move toward a close 
and as we move back to Acts 17. Notice the all-sufficient independence 
of God from Paul's proclamation here. V. 25, "...nor is he worshipped 
with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives 
to all life breath and all things." Now God is not saying that we 
are not to worship Him with our hands or that we are not to engage 
in a Christian and worshipful service to our God. What the 
Apostle Paul is saying over and against the Athenian deities 
is that unlike those gods, who are no gods at all, who are served 
by men's hands, men's hands make them, men's hands serve them, 
they gain their fame, they gain their notoriety, They have a 
lack that is filled up by the contribution of men. God is not 
like that. He is not worshipped by men's 
hands as if He needed anything. He is all-sufficient. He is independent. The converse here is that the 
pagans give life, breath, and all things to their gods. Their gods depend upon them for 
their very existence. And even if we grant the legitimacy 
of pagan religion for a moment, In their own scheme, their gods 
depend upon what they do towards them and for them in order to 
have fame and in order to have vindication. Isaiah 44, 8-17 
brings out this reality. It's a wonderful scene that you 
can read on your own time. Isaiah 44, 8-17. In that, the prophet is proclaiming 
the reality and the folly of idolatry, where someone can go 
and chop down a tree. You know, the idolaters go up 
to the forest, go up to a hill, they cut down a tree, and they 
manufacture their god from the tree. Isaiah spends some time 
opening this up to see how mad it is. They cut down their gods 
with an axe and form them out of the felled tree. And then 
with some of that wood they put in the fire and they start to 
cook their meat. You know, the madness that our 
God is like unto that which is fuel for meat cooking is absolute 
madness. But there's something at the 
end of that particular passage that Isaiah says, and not at 
the end, but very close to the end, in verse 21 of Isaiah 44, 
he says, Remember these, O Jacob, in Israel, for you are my servant. 
I have formed you, you are my servant. O Israel, you will not 
be forgotten by me. You see, God is all-sufficient 
in His glorious independence and has no need of anyone. In Acts 17, at verse 28, this 
is brought out as well. In Acts 17, at verse 28, the 
Apostle Paul highlights this reality still, having not departed 
from his subject matter, but still proclaiming the Christian 
God, the one and only living and true God. The Apostle Paul 
speaks these words in verse 28. He says, For in Him we live and 
move and have our being. As also some of your own poets 
have said, for we are also His offspring. God is glorious in 
his independence and in his all-sufficiency. And you see, this is one of the 
cruxes of the matter here. These idolaters are giving life, 
breath, and things to their gods and all the while forsaking the 
life, breath, and all things reality that the only living 
and true God provides. You see, to follow after idols 
is to forsake the One who gives us life, breath, and all things. We see this close, this, therefore, 
in verse 29, Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, 
we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or 
silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. That 
pertains to the honor that is due the Christian God. You see, 
it is of the utmost dishonor to think that the divine nature 
is like silver or gold or stone. You see the folly then in the 
making of images. Perhaps you've thought in some 
of your own, in some of those moments of untaught Christianity, 
well, why was God so harsh against the nations for making, well, 
actually, more specifically, why was God so harsh to his own 
people when they just manufactured a god out of gold that represented 
Yahweh? What's the problem? It's the 
honor of God. It's the glory of God. The idea 
here is that we, being made in the image of God, we aren't making 
statues or we aren't following after some sort of religion where 
we think that our nature, our soul, our immortality is that 
which is immaterial. Why would we manufacture out 
of material things an image of the One who gives us our immateriality. Why would we make images of the 
One who is pure Spirit? Why would we make images of the 
One who is immense, eternal, and glorious in all of His perfections? 
It is to dishonor God. And the Apostle closes with the 
fact that this God is merciful. The implication of following 
after a God of idolatry is that you forsake the mercy of God, 
Jonah, spoke these words in his prayer, those who regard worthless 
idols forsake their own mercy. So Paul says, therefore, since 
we are the offspring of, or excuse me, verse 30, truly these times 
of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere 
to repent. You see, this comes as a mercy. This comes as a glorious mercy 
to these Athenians. The proclamation of this God 
wasn't to insult. The proclamation of this God 
wasn't to engage in some sort of unwholesome boasting. But 
it was unto the end that they would know this God, and that 
in knowing this God, they would know the mercy that He brings 
through Jesus Christ the Lord. That's why he preaches Jesus 
and the resurrection. That's why he unfolds and opens 
up the glory of God in his unbounded glory, in his exclusive lordship, 
in his all sufficient independence. And the honor that is not to 
be imaged is so that they might know him and that they might 
find mercy in this one in whom and in whom only there is mercy. And notice in closing the reception 
that this garnered the reception that this proclamation of the 
only living and true God received. Verse 32, and when they heard 
of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked while others said, 
we will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from 
among them. I know I've gone over and it's 
hot. Bear with me for about two minutes 
and 17 seconds. You hear this morning and you're 
found in verse 32. Some of you mock. You're not 
doing it openly, you're not doing it verbally, but in your heart, 
you're mocking this notion of this God. I don't know how you 
could. Mocking the notions of the pagan 
deities, yes, in a wholesome way. The psalmist does it. They 
have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they do not 
hear. Elijah says your God perhaps is relieving himself in the outhouse. But mocking this God? The God 
who is unbounded? The God who can be confined nowhere 
and yet fills the heavens and the earth? The one who does not 
need the works of human hands but depends solely and alone, 
in fact, doesn't depend on anything. He is independent. That doesn't 
mean that he's self-dependent. God doesn't have an attribute 
of self-dependence. He's independent. Those aren't 
the same things. But why would you mock this glorious one? Why 
would you mock this splendid one? And perhaps some of you 
are saying, we'll hear you again on this matter, or you hear this 
morning, and we'll hear you again. Come back next week, maybe, or 
I'll keep coming to church, but from Monday to Saturday, I'll 
keep engaging in those devised wickednesses that I plan when 
I awake from my pillow in the morning, and maybe one day in 
the future, I'll consider this Jesus and the resurrection. Know 
that the acceptable time is now, in fact, Paul, in essence, says 
that when he says, these times of ignorance God overlooked. 
The time is now. He commands all men everywhere 
to repent. You know, he's given evidence of this. He's given 
testification of this. Verse 31, because he has appointed 
a day on which he will judge the world, In righteousness by 
the man whom he has ordained, he is given assurance of this 
by raising him from the dead. Again, a two-edged sword comes. 
Glorious comfort to the believer. The certainty of the resurrection 
testifying that this God exists and will judge the world. Glorious 
comfort to the believer, the testification, the certainty 
that this Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, and so judgment 
will take place, and this mercy is real, this grace, this love. But you see, the other side of 
that sword cuts to the heart of the unbeliever. God has given 
assurance of judgment by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
And know that if you're here this morning outside of Christ, 
he will come in glory. with all his holy angels rendering 
vengeance upon those who did not know God and who did not 
obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believe on him, and you will 
have everlasting life, and you'll be found among those, verse 34, 
some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, 
a woman named Damaris, and others with them. We pray that you would 
be found in verse 34, and not in verse 32, that you would be 
found among those few who followed after Paul, who believed in this 
God of unbounded glory, and who believed in Jesus Christ and 
the resurrection. and who will have comfort of 
comforts and joy of joy in the knowledge of that God and His 
Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you 
for the truth of your revelation. We thank you for the glory we 
see in Acts 17 as Paul combated the madness of pagan idolatry 
upheld the glory of the living and true God. We do pray that 
you'd help us to glory in you, and that we would rejoice in 
you alone, and that we would see in you the only living and 
true God of heaven and earth, who made the heavens and the 
earth, who is so glorious, who is so unbounded that he certainly 
does not dwell in temples made with hands, but rather is even 
above the heaven and the heaven of heavens and we thank you for 
who you are and for what you do in the midst of guilty sinners, 
that you have set forth your Christ, that you've given forgiveness 
of sins and everlasting life in Him. We thank you for the 
certainty of judgment by virtue of the resurrection of the dead. 
We thank you for the certainty of judgment testified by the 
certainty of Christ's own resurrection and we do pray that you would 
help us as Christians to glory in the truth of your word to 
glory in You, our God, and in Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. 
And we pray, Lord God, that by Your grace and for Your glory, 
You would raise dead sinners to life, that by grace they would 
be saved, and that they would sing along with all Your saints. 
Hallelujah. What a Savior. And it's in Christ's 
name that we pray. Amen.