...Part
of the reason the Apostle Paul was grieved was that he had come to a city that
had been thoroughly influenced by all of these false philosophies. He had seen
how these philosophies and the false view of God they had begun with was now
affecting everything in their lives ... their view of life and the value of
human life ... their view of economics ... robbing from the rich to give to the
poor is only sensible in that kind of situation.
Frankly,
the Apostle Paul in Athens was provoked in his spirit in the same way that you as a Christian should be provoked in your spirit when you look at what's
happening in the United States ... There is an abandonment of God and a
biblical-centered worldview and philosophy ... When God speaks through His
Word, He speaks to EVERY part of your life. There is a biblical view or
politics. There is a biblical view of economics. We would call that the free
market or ... the stewardship of private property ... There's a view of the
family - a recognition of the high value of the family ... There's certainly a
view of law ... that God is our lawgiver ... The majority of people around us
today are now influenced by atheism, pantheism, or what we would call humanism
or secularism. You say, "Well someone is a secularist." Here's
another term for it - a liberal. The term "liberal" is describing
someone who is a secularist, and a secularist in the broad, general picture is
someone who is taking a worldview that is based upon an atheistic view that
there is no God, and if there is no God, it affects everything about your life
...
... It
is impossible to rid yourself of all that influence ... You need to understand
it, you need to see it, and you need to confront it ... and we say
..."Here's where we're going, here's where the culture around us is going,
and ... we're going to reject all of
their false views for what is a biblical view ... verse 21 - "It's always
about something new, novel, different ... That is not new. That's been the way
it's always been. We're always after something novel, something new, something
different ... That is the way that it is in the American church ... I have to
be honest with you ... I have no problem with that which is new. I like new
gadgets ... but I also love the foundation of biblical principles by which I
recognize there's not just something new and untried and untested. There's
something that is proven, something that is grounded - a solid rock upon which
I can build my life. So I'm not looking for something new, fresh. I'm not
looking for all the newest ideas. I'm looking for that which is tested, tried,
proven. I'm looking for something to stand upon.
Paul ...
sees their idolatry, their philosophy, their novelty ... He confronts what he
sees with Scripture ... "The Unknown God" ... becomes his launching
point ... "God who made the world and everything in it." That is a
great place for all Christian proclamation of God to begin. He is the Creator
... Biblically, you cannot think like a Christian ... you cannot believe as a
Christian that the Bible is true and that somehow evolution is a possibility.
You have to recognize that the Bible teaches through and through that God is
our Creator ... What Paul says is a strong statement that there is a God and He
is the Creator of everything that we see around us ...
... Some
of you would say, "... Are you telling me that if I am going to believe
the Bible that I need to be a creationist?" That's EXACTLY what I'm
telling you ... Every major portion of the Bible claims that God is the Creator
... "If I believe the Bible, do I have to believe that God is the
Creator?" Yeah. That's exactly what I've been saying...
... As
Christians, we have every reason to believe that there is a God and that He is
the Creator ... Talking about who this God is, we'll not only see Him as the
Creator, but we'll see Him as the Ruler, we'll see Him as the Sustainer, we'll
see Him as the Ordainer - the one who makes all history happen. And we're going
to see that God has spoken to us and that God has commanded us to repent and to
turn to belief in the Lord Jesus Christ ...
... As
Christians today we must not ever be intimidated by the philosophers and
idolaters and all those people who are looking for newfangled things. We must
not be intimidated by them. We must firmly stand and proclaim that God is the
Creator ...
To hear this entire sermon by Pastor
Jeff Anderson, click here.
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