Mars Hill Manifesto

Amen.

So it was August 28th, 1963, at the march on Washington, D.C., when Dr.

Martin Luther King delivered what many historians would agree to be the most powerful speech of the 20th century, I Have a Dream.

Delivered to over 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, this speech became one of the most powerful and iconic moments in the entire civil rights movement.

And while Dr.

King and his advisors had met the night before to put the finishing touches on what would be his speech, no one could have been prepared for what had happened that very next day.

In his book, Behind the Dream, King's speechwriter Clarence B.

Jones tells the story of what really happened as King was preparing for that speech and the astonishing thing that occurred as he was delivering it.

I want to read an expert of it for you this morning.

In the seventh paragraph of King's speech, something extraordinary happened.

He paused.

In that brief silent, Mahalia Jackson, a gospel singer and a good friend of King's, shouted, Tell him about the dream.

Few people heard her, with the exception of Jones, Ted Kennedy, and of course, Martin Luther.

Here's what happened next.

Jones saw King push the text of his prepared remarks to one side of the lectern.

He shifted gears in a heartbeat, abandoning whatever final version he had prepared.

He had given himself over to the spirit of the moment.

Jones leaned over to the person standing next to him and said, These people out there today don't know it yet, but they're about to go to church.

King went on to improvise the remainder of his speech, including the famous refrain, I have a dream.

And so as we continue today in our series through the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul, much like King, is about to deliver one of the more compelling and powerful speeches that's recorded in the entire Bible.

A speech that is renowned, a speech that holds very clarity and just boldness.

Maybe on up there with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, maybe not quite that high because it was Jesus, but it's up there in its infamy.

But considering the circumstances that Paul was facing, its impromptu nature, Paul delivers a masterclass in communication that we're going to explore this morning.

For there was philosophers and mental elites in the city of Athens that were his audience.

And he begins to unpack the gospel and bold faith and proclamation.

The title of the sermon this morning is The Mars Hill Manifesto.

Mars Hill Manifesto.

Manifesto simply meaning a public declaration of the views of the one that is issuing it.

And so Paul is going to declare the bold truth this morning in this area called the Areopagus, which we're going to explore where that is and its meaning and significance.

The text this morning is going to be broken up in three sections.

So verses 16 through 21 is kind of like the setting and the context of this speech.

Verses 22 through 28, we're going to see the revelation.

This is like the meat and potatoes of what Paul is proclaiming.

And then verses 29 through 34, we're going to see Paul's call to the audience to respond to what he has revealed.

So let's begin with our setting.

Verses 16 through 21 of chapter 17 of Acts, we read.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him.

And some said, What does this babbler wish to say?

Others said, He seems to be preaching of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus in the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting.

For you bring some new strange thing to our ears.

We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean.

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time and nothing except telling or hearing something new.

So let's talk about the setting.

See, Paul had just made his trek down from Berea, some two hundred miles north.

And we know that he left Timothy and Silas behind.

It says, while Paul was waiting for them, so Paul had gone on by himself and he's waiting for them.

And in his waiting, he is found in the city of Athens.

Athens had great historical significance.

Athens was the intellectual epicenter of the world.

Scholars and philosophers from all over had congregated in the city of Athens, and they now have made it their home.

Scholars of the like of Socrates and Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno.

Athens' cultural prestige and its renowned intellectual institutions made it valuable to the Roman Empire.

So much so that when Rome had conquered Athens in 146 BC, Athens retained this free city status which was unique.

They had such great admiration and respect for the Greek culture and wisdom that they let them be self-autonomous, still within the Roman Empire.

And so this is the setting that we find ourselves this morning.

And we read that Paul, as he's going through there, he saw that the city in verse 16 was full of idols.

The city was full of idols.

He saw this.

This word for Saul connotates like there was a theater.

It was portrayed all throughout the city that there's just countless idols.

Historical records would say at this time that the population of Athens was around 10,000 persons.

But if you've ever seen architecture and pictures of this area of Athens, there's estimated 30,000 statues of gods littered throughout the city.

So three to one statues of gods than it was to man.

No doubt Paul had seen the beauty of this city, but we see that his spirit was provoked within him.

It says he was provoked.

This word literally means he was angered by a lie.

He had seen the blaspheming of these false gods and how they were being worshipped all throughout the city, so much so that he was angered.

And so he began to reason with them, with anyone and everyone, anywhere that they would have it, whether it be the synagogue or the marketplace.

And then in verse 18, we are introduced to two parties, two parties.

We have the Epicureans and we have the Stoics.

The Epicureans were this well-known school of atheistic materialism.

Basically, they taught that pleasure was the meaning of life, and a life without pain was the chief end of human existence.

So they were big into stuff and material possessions.

And this materialism led them to like a skepticism, a religious skepticism and disdain for supernatural interaction.

They were kind of satisfied with the things of this world and indifferent to God.

Epicureans would say that pleasure is good and pain is evil.

So they were the ones that were chasing over the things of this world, this culture.

And the rivals of the Epicureans were the Stoics.

You've probably heard of Stoicism before, right?

Stoicism was founded by a man named Zeno in 340 BC.

They stressed that harmony with nature and dependence on one's own reasoning and other virtues like logic and ethics and physics was to be sought after.

They were uncertain about a future life.

In many ways, they had this apathy, this indifference, this disconnect from things.

They would be like our even keel, non-excitable.

They're not going to get too excited.

They're also not going to get too down.

If really tragic things happen to them, they're just going to kind of, that's that was meant to be, and that's just what it is.

Or if something really, really excited happened, they would just be like, wow, that was great.

And that's kind of where they live in this kind of lame level, I guess, at spectrum.

So we have these two parties, the Epicureans, they were materialistic pleasure seekers, and the Stoics, these stone-faced, calm, and collected individuals.

And then we're introduced to this person who's described as a babbler, Paul.

He's a babbler.

This was like a cultural reference.

That was kind of like a negative connotation to their day.

Another way to say it would be they would say that he's a seed picker.

Literally, this idea of a bird that would go along and pick up seeds and just continue to scatter them.

And they would use this as they like to interact with like mental thought process and different uh ideas and this intellectualism that was a part of their culture.

They would use this for someone that would pick up an idea that wasn't his own and just begin to like cast it out and not really own it or know much about it.

But they would just keep spitting out these seeds and letting them fall wherever they may land.

And they said this because Paul was preaching about a God that they did not recognize.

They said he had these foreign divinities, something that was new to them.

And so we read on in verse 19.

Verse 19 through 20.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting.

And so this babbler preaching foreign divinities throughout the city had stirred up enough commotion that he was taken before the Areopagus.

Maybe you've never heard of the Areopagus.

Remember, Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy here, but this Areopagus was translated as the Hill of Aries.

First of all, before I get into any more Greek stuff, is anybody like really good with Greek stuff in here?

Oh man, we got a couple.

This is trouble.

Luckily, no one in the first gathering knew anything about Greek, so I could say whatever I wanted.

My son's into Percy Jackson.

That's like the extent of my knowledge, and I watched Hercules when I was a kid.

So that's where I'm at on Greek mythology.

I'm sure I will butcher a lot of these words and people's names, so you can correct me.

So we have this Areopagus translated to the hill of Ares.

Ares.

This was a hill known in northwest Athens where the god of war named Ares was supposed to have been tried by other Greek gods for the murder of Poseidon's son, and I'm not going to even try to name him because I can't pronounce that.

So we have this hill in this important city of Athens with all these smart people and gods all around.

There's a photo, I think.

Holly and I visited this place.

Maybe you would know this place as Mars Hill.

Has anybody ever heard of Mars Hill?

Maybe a little bit more renowned.

Maybe you go to Mars Hill School.

We have one here in Mason.

But we have this fake god who gets this fake murder and then gets uh, you know, held on trial, uh, which was a fake trial.

None of this ever happened.

But this is the place where it was believed to have happened.

In addition to all that, this hill holds a lot of um importance.

This hill housed this important intellectual governmental society there where they would try some of their biggest criminals.

So these folks that have murdered and stolen, um, these folks that uh are proclaiming a God that was foreign to them.

Uh, we we see later on that other folks were were ordered or to death because of their false preaching.

And so this is the place that they are taking Paul because he's been preaching these foreign divinities.

They're taking him to the Areopagus.

And so we have Paul standing in the midst of these symbols of greatness, the gods of Greece surrounding him.

Statues and pillars and altars of gold, silver, bronze, and stone, and before him sits this exclusive philosophical review panel to hear what he has to say.

Our summary of verse 16 through 21 is that the Spirit of God moves through the people of God.

The Spirit of God moves through the people of God.

I don't want us to miss the fact that Paul was waiting.

He was just waiting in Athens, and in his waiting, something stirred inside of him so much that he had to proclaim the truth.

He saw these false gods, he saw these folks that were lost in their ways, and he was stirred by the spirit to be able to proclaim truth for their good, for the for the glory and right worship of his God.

And so Paul, sensitive to the spirit, was stirred at the sight of these idols, and he began to preach.

Let's unpack what he says in verse 22 through 28.

We see the revelation of Paul, verse 22 through 28.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

What therefore you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him.

Yet he is actually not far from each of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being, as even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.

And being then God's offspring, we ought not to think, oh, I should stop there.

That's the next section.

That's good.

For we are indeed his offspring.

So we see this revelation, this proclamation that Paul is going to be given.

So while the gospel had not changed, Paul's approach to his audience has changed.

He's uniquely engaging the culture that he finds himself in such a way that it's beautiful.

It is amazing.

See, Paul's approach here in Athens, he's using different Greek elements and cultures as a bridge to the gospel, and he starts this proclamation with a compliment.

It's kind of like that compliment sandwich.

I'm going to say something nice and then I'm going to smack you, right?

And then I'm going to come back and say something nice.

He just doesn't say something nice at the end.

He just starts out with a compliment and then boldly preaches the truth.

So we see in verse 22.

So Paul standing in their midst says, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

Paul is calling to their attention that this audience is an extremely religious group of people.

And then he goes on to expound and kind of reveal their problem.

He exposes them.

Verse 23 In my time in your city I found an altar to an unknown God.

This unknown is the root word where we drive agnosticism, meaning without knowledge.

And so Paul's telling them they're very religious, yet here is a statue to an unknown God.

And so he compliments them and then he reveals to them, you don't know about this God, this foreign divinity that I've been teaching on.

So let me introduce you to him.

See, they didn't know God, but he didn't tell them that.

Those were their own words.

And so Paul, in beautiful, masterful words, is articulating to them the brilliance of his statement that he couldn't be charged for setting forth a new religion.

He was simply announcing the religion that they had already acknowledged that they were self-ignorant towards.

He's putting on a masterclass in apologetics, knowing full well the weight of his words.

You see, this is serious business not only for Paul, but also for God, for the gospel to be rightly proclaimed.

It was serious for him.

He was angered and stirred to the point of trying to proclaim the truth at whatever cost, even the cost of himself.

In 399 BC, in this very place, the Areopagus, Socrates, the great philosopher, was sentenced to death for being found guilty of sins against the city of Athens after he failed to acknowledge the gods of their city.

And so he was sentenced to death, and he was forced to drink this potion of this poison hemlock, and he dies.

And so this is where we have Paul acknowledging their wisdom, but revealing where they have missed the God, the true God.

And he says, What therefore you worship as I known, I proclaim to you.

This is the on-ramp that Paul uses to begin to reveal the truth and beauty of his God.

Briefly, we see in 24 through 29, he says, God is creator.

He challenges their entire thinking.

He negates both people groups, both the Stoics and philosophers, who are either pantheists or atheists.

He reveals that God is the true creator.

In verse 25, he says that God is the life giver.

He is not absent as the Epicureans thought, or contained in creation or materialism like the Stoics.

He says that he does not dwell in the temples made by human hands, these beautiful temples that were built to house these gods.

Paul tells them, God does not dwell in that place.

And then he says that God is not only the creator and life-giver, but he is near to his creation.

He's not distant, he is not absent.

He tells them to search for him while he might be found, that he is near.

And in verse 28, Paul closes out his revelation by making this message extra personal.

See, he reveals to the Athenians that as God's creatures, they are born in his image.

They have intrinsic value and dignity, but then he goes on and he quotes two of their own poets.

So oftentimes in the New Testament, when we see verses that are broken up and stanzas and their quotations, we think that the writer is quoting a psalm or an Old Testament prophecy.

But here in Acts chapter 17, Paul actually quotes the poets of their day.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And the reason he does that is he's trying to meet them where they're at, something that they understood.

There was these half-truths that these poets and writers had understood about God, but they had missed the main point.

And so Paul masterfully draws to the writings of their day.

And he boldly proclaims to them that in God is life.

He is our creator, he is our sustainer.

We are indeed his offspring, created in his image to know and be known by him, who's not only able to be found, but seeks man out, seeks a meaningful relationship.

So to summarize verse 22 through 28, we see that the Spirit of God reveals the beauty of Jesus.

Paul transitions from this revelation portion of his manifesto by challenging the thought and beliefs of his audience.

He challenged them and he calls them to respond in faith and repentance.

We read in verse 29 through 34 this call to response.

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he appointed, and of this whom he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Now, when they had heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, We will hear you again about this.

So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed.

Others among them were Dionysius, the Areopagite, a woman named Demarius, and others with them.

So he begins in this call to response by establishing that they indeed are God's offspring in creation.

And as the offspring in the creation, how can the creation say to the creator how they should think or be perceived?

So he teaches them we ought not to think.

The Heidelberg Catechism in shorter question, number 96, says.

We are not to make an image of God in any way, nor to worship him in any other means or manner than what he has commanded in his word.

See, it wasn't up to them to determine how they would respond to God rightly.

God had revealed that.

And moreover, God couldn't be represented by some graven image, right?

The first and second commandments.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me, and thou shalt not have any graven images.

Paul is boldly proclaiming where they have gotten this wrong about their God.

The prophet Isaiah says it like this in Isaiah chapter 40 To whom then will you compare God, or what image will you set beside him?

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

An idol?

Made by an artisan plated with gold, by a metalsmith who fashioned silver chains for it?

Someone who cannot afford such an extravagant extravagant gift selects timber that won't decay, searching out a skilled worker to construct a statue that won't topple over.

Do you not comprehend?

Have you not paid attention?

Were you not informed from the start?

Have you failed to understand since the world's creation?

He reigns enthroned high above the earth's horizon, and its people appear like grasshoppers.

He unfurls the heavens like a canopy and pitches them like a dwelling tent.

He reduces rulers to nothing and turns the world's leaders into sheer futility.

Hardly are they established, barely are they planted.

Scarcely have their stems struck root in the ground.

When he breathes upon them and they shrivel, and a strong wind sweeps them away like chafe.

To whom then will you liken me?

Or who is my equal?

asks the Holy One.

So Paul is revealing the supremacy of his God, that he is like none other, and he's calling them to repent of their idolatry.

See, this is the one true God who sent his son to die for sinners like you, and he calls them to repentance.

He further draws the line in verse 31 that mankind is not moving towards extinction like the Epicureans had thought, or absorption into the cosmos like the Stoics believe, but rather towards divine judgment.

There was a king, he was resurrected, and he times of, his time of former indifference is going to end.

He is going to come and judge the world in righteousness.

The icing on the cake was the preaching of the resurrection from Jesus from the dead.

See, notions of a resurrection had been rejected in Greek culture since Apollo, as having said that when dust had soaked up the blood of a man, once he has died, there is no resurrection.

So here we have Paul proclaiming the resurrection of Christ.

And some began to sneer and mock.

And so Paul responds with going away.

So Paul left.

He proclaimed the truth, he proclaimed the call to respond, and he walked away.

Some heard of it and believed.

We read of a few that believed, just like the Bereans in verse 11 of this chapter, that they received the word with all eagerness and they followed in faith and repentance, but others began to sneer.

To summarize, verse 29 through 34, we see that the Spirit of God empowers transformation through Jesus.

See, the Spirit of God is what stirred the affection for God in such a way in the voice and hearts of the hearers that some of them would respond in faith.

It was a work of the Spirit for their minds to be transformed, for their gaze to see Jesus as not something to be angered by or put off or shunned away, but something to be rejoiced in and held as glorious and right.

Our main idea this morning is that the revelation of God requires a response toward God.

The revelation of God requires a response towards God.

This is the pattern we see all throughout Scripture, that God reveals Himself and we respond.

Revelation and response.

We talk about that a lot here at Sacred Mission.

It's the way our gathering flows.

We hear from the Word of God and then we respond in faith through coming up and partaking in communion and singing songs and going about our ways, responding to the beauty and truth of our God and Savior.

And in this passage, we see the Apostle Paul preaching the truth, and we get to engage and interact and witness the different types of response that the audience had.

Whether it's skepticism, indifference, apathy, sneering, mocking, or faith and repentance and turning away from their false gods.

And the reminder this morning is that the crux of this text is in verse 30.

Because he has fixed a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

You see, every man, woman, child that will walk the face of this earth will be held accountable in their response to the revealing of the beauty and majesty of our God.

Either through a willing surrender or a forced submission.

Paul stresses the urgency to repent.

The times of ignorance God has overlooked, but he's fixed this day.

And so will this audience, will we today respond in a willing surrender?

A whole life eagerness, lives poured out with fervency.

Or will we be like those who one day will be on a bent knee acknowledging Jesus as King through forced submission?

As we are found, as the righteous judge condemns us for our rejection and rebellion for his way and his truth, as we mock and sneer against his self-revelation.

Romans 1 says it like this for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God had shown it to him, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal powers and divine nature, had been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and creeping things.

God has revealed Himself to us in such a way that we are responsible with how we respond.

See, the revelation of God requires a response towards God.

And as the Spirit of God continues to reveal the beauty of God, the beauty of Jesus, and stirs our affection for him, he transforms, he empowers transformation through Jesus.

And he begins to work and move through his people, advancing his kingdom in such a way that he would establish his church.

See, Paul's example of being a ready and willing minister of the gospel should challenge our approach to the culture that we find ourselves in.

It should shape the way that we engage our day-to-day lives.

And while most of us would not consider ourselves Stoics or Epicureans in our response towards God, often we become numb to the things of Jesus and the presence and work of the Spirit in our lives.

While we most likely wouldn't consider ourselves Stoics or Epicureans, we have become calloused or indifferent or casual towards the way we engage his revelation.

Instead of wholehearted fervency and eagerness and affection, our faith becomes stale and our devotion unsteady.

I think we do this in a number of ways.

I'm going to attempt to characterize them and explore that the invitation for us wherever we seem to find ourselves in these characterizations as we engage with the Spirit here and now.

So a few ways that we respond unhealthily or even sinfully to the revelation of Jesus.

Caricature number one is the cultural Christian.

Maybe a better way of saying this would be a casual Christian.

Right?

We go about our lives.

We like being called a Christian, but we we live lives that are very far from him.

We come to church, we do these things.

Maybe we come regularly, maybe we only come on the big holidays and Easter and maybe at a baptism, right?

But we engage with God in such a way that we really are not eager and hungry for the things of God.

This is someone who with their mouth would profess Christ, but their day-to-day would preach something else.

This is someone who wants the benefits of God's presence, or the benefits of God over his presence, his very being.

Like the Epicureans, someone who worships the creation over the creator.

The casual Christian chases after the various pleasures of this day and age.

Like the Epicureans, they would say pleasure is good and pain is evil.

And so we feast on pleasures to distance ourselves from pain or any sense of discomfort.

The casual or cultural Christian interacts with the unknown God because they have not taken the time to get to know him.

Our spirits haven't been provoked towards a righteous anger for the idols of our society because we are too busy embracing and enjoying them ourselves.

Maybe the self-diagnosis for this is seen as a constant dissatisfaction in a pursuit of God.

Maybe a constant state of restlessness or being tired, chasing after the benefits of God instead of feasting and interacting with the very being and presence of God.

And if that's you this morning, the invitation is to come to Jesus, to rest in him, to believe that he is our greatest treasure.

And he's inviting you this morning to draw near to him.

Psalm 16 says, You make known to me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy, completely lacking nothing.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And so if that's you this morning, I invite you to return to Jesus, to sit down at his hand, to trust that he is good and great and far above anything that this world could ever offer.

Our second characterization plays itself in a couple ways, but this is the crusty Christian.

The crusty Christian.

Maybe you could say calloused Christian or hardened Christian, like crusty crabs.

I see that up there.

It's good.

The crusty Christian plays itself out in one or two ways.

Whether it be spiritual apathy or spiritual self-sufficiency.

This spiritual apathy is this state of spiritual depression.

Maybe an indifference like the Stoics, this non-excitable nature to the things and wonder and majesty of God.

Maybe you're apathetic because you've for years poured yourself out in service to God, maybe even here in this church, and you feel empty and you feel numb and you feel lacking and wanting.

Maybe it's in your ministry of motherhood for the mothers in this room where you have felt like you have poured yourself out to your home.

So much so that you have become callous because you feel like God is not meeting you.

He's not working in and through you.

And you become hardened to God, angry, maybe even at God, guarded.

Or maybe you've been wounded by God.

You have these real spiritual wounds, whether it be by the people of God or the ways of God, how would God let this happen to me?

That you exhibit yourself through self-preservation.

Maybe medicating on the idols of this day and age, maybe busying ourselves to not feel the pain.

But this spiritual apathy, this spiritual indifference is often expressed through confusion and jealousy and a sense of being wronged, than rather a sense of joy and peace in Christ.

For this person, our spirits haven't been provoked towards righteous anger for the idols of our society because we become indifferent towards the things of God.

And this is seen as maybe a numbness.

Hurting hearts, barricading themselves from the presence of God.

If that's you this morning, if that's you, if you feel indifferent or apathetic or maybe hurt, the invitation from Jesus is to come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The invitation this morning is to come to him.

The second is the spiritual self-sufficient.

The self-sufficient would never verbalize that they had no need for Jesus, but they embody an endless pursuit to earn God's favor, to earn his love, to earn his acceptance.

So instead of working from that love and acceptance, they are working for it from him.

Much like the Stoic that could achieve this virtue and inner peace and happiness through self-discipline and spiritually self-sufficient, they strive for peace apart from God in their own understanding, in their own efforts, in their own striving and ways.

And the problem with that is that our hearts become separated from the presence of God and angry towards the ways of God as we try to seek for God in all the wrong places.

And try to say, look at what we've done.

In the Gospels we see, haven't we prophesied in your name?

Haven't we cast out demons from your name?

And He says, Depart from me, for I never knew you.

So these people were trying to be self-sufficient in their saving themselves by their works.

And God's saying, I just want a relationship with you.

I don't need your works.

I want you.

The invitation this morning, if that's you, is to look to the self-exposure of the cross.

Repent of your pride and root your satisfaction in the power and sufficiency of the gospel alone.

Psalm 51, David says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is before me.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

See the remedy of all three persons, whether it's those who reject God in their ignorance, or those who are indifferent or apathetic or even sour towards God, is to run to the cross, to behold the beauty of our Savior, and to respond in faith and repentance.

Our gospel conviction is that in raising Jesus from the dead, God reveals the infinite glory that is due his name.

See, Christ in his resurrection reveals the altogether set-apart supremacy of his nature, his deity.

There is no God like him.

All the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.

He cannot be described as unknown because he has revealed himself.

The gospel is a mystery, but he is not mysterious.

Mankind is without excuse because he is self-revealing.

He's not absent or distant.

He's not indifferent towards his creation, but he walks among us.

He calls us by name, and he desires meaningful relationship.

And unlike the other gods, he is not dead, but rather he is resurrected in glory as he appeared to hundreds, assuring his followers of all his ways and promises.

This is the glory due to his name.

A glory that's infinite in time, unable to be bound.

It's endless, it's eternal.

A glory that is infinite in weight and matchless and measurable and unable to be compared with.

And at the sight of this glory, we are called to respond.

We are called to respond rightly.

And we cannot do this on our own striving.

We need a work of God.

Church, we need the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, even here today.

The transforming, resurrecting power of the Spirit that raised Christ from the grave, not just to give us faith, but to renew our faith, to stir our affections for Jesus here and now.

See, the Holy Spirit enables us to see the beauty of Jesus and to respond and faith in his ways.

And as that spirit, which raised Christ from the grave, transforms our hearts and minds to see his and behold his beauty, we can sing of his salvation day to day.

We need a real and tangible encounter with the Savior.