WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.560 You know, after those testimonies, I feel like I can just say, amen, let's pray, and 00:00:07.560 --> 00:00:13.439 ! we can all go home early. No, thank you all for sharing. I really appreciate it. And I know, 00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:18.660 ! please, for those of you who are members, look, keep on lookout for Lindsay and Michelle's as well, 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:25.179 because it, there's, it's just a beautiful picture of God's work in people's lives, and it's a joy 00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:32.359 to hear these testimonies, so just want to encourage you with that. You have made it here. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:38.280 Well done. The snow has not daunted you, although it's probably still falling, so we'll see how 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:42.620 it is going home, but I'm glad you have joined us this morning. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.820 I want to begin this morning as we look at God's Word by asking a question. 00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:55.659 Why do we think the gospel that we preach is the true gospel? 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:04.980 You know, it's interesting, because in my lifetime, the, the way that this question has been asked, 00:01:05.219 --> 00:01:13.740 has changed over time. Back in the 1980s, when I came to faith, the question was usually framed 00:01:13.739 --> 00:01:24.780 along the lines of, is this gospel actually true? Is it actually the content of it? Is there evidence 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:36.299 for it that would convince a rational person that the gospel is true? Today, people are less concerned, 00:01:36.479 --> 00:01:42.219 not unconcerned, but less concerned often with the question of, is it true? And often, 00:01:42.219 --> 00:01:48.780 they ask a question of, is it real? And by that, they often mean, does it make a difference? 00:01:49.739 --> 00:01:58.280 Does it actually produce good in people? Both of these are reasonable and understandable questions. 00:01:58.939 --> 00:02:05.120 Both of these are things that we ourselves often ask. But one of the interesting things 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:17.439 is that they start both of them with a standpoint of, we as humans are the ones sitting in the judgment 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:26.800 seat to say, we know what is right. It's a very human-centered worldview, right? Whether God's Word 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:35.760 would meet my criteria for truthfulness, or whether the experience that you've had or that I want to have 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:44.480 meets my criteria for what it must be right, so that I would know that this is the true gospel. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:54.239 This human-centered attitude is expressed in many, many different ways. 00:02:56.079 --> 00:03:03.199 So, for instance, one of the leading people today, Bart Ehrman, who is a theologian, 00:03:03.519 --> 00:03:10.319 was quoted as saying that he views the Bible, he writes, the Bible is a very human book with human 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:17.680 mistakes and biases and culturally conditioned views in it. And realizing that made me begin to wonder if 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:24.799 the beliefs in God and Christ that I had held and urged on others were themselves partially biased, 00:03:24.799 --> 00:03:33.439 culturally conditioned, or even mistaken. Again, that's a reasonable question, 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:43.039 question, but what does the Bible actually say in response to that? Now, look, this is a huge question. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:51.039 I am dipping my toe in the edge of an ocean of understanding and conversation about religious 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:57.840 epistemology and how do we know what we know and all sorts of things. And I want to be careful to say 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:05.599 that what I'm going to say next is not the whole answer to this question, but it is the question that our text is 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:14.719 actually answering this morning. So, we are in the, in our series, we are in the book of Galatians, and we're in 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:20.160 chapter 1, starting in verse 11. If you want to turn there, we're going to read it in just a minute. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:33.680 It will be found in the pew Bibles in page 913. But Paul is arguing for his gospel being the true 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:42.480 gospel, right? If you were here last week, you heard Pastor Nick read the words and explain why Paul is 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:48.800 defending this idea. He said, I preach to you a gospel, and if I came back later and preach something else, 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:55.920 if an angel from heaven came and preached something else other than that core that I first preached to 00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:01.220 you, it's not the true gospel at all. It's a fake gospel. It's a false gospel, and it's going to 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:08.319 disappoint you, and it's going to harm you spiritually if you believe in it. He's writing this because the 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:15.240 Galatian church was hearing voices who wanted to dismiss Paul and the gospel that he had originally 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:24.600 preached to them. And so, Paul is defending the gospel that he has preached, and that's the purpose 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:28.319 of the text. So, we're going to read the text this morning. We're going to pray for God's help, and then 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:33.340 we're going to look into it for a few minutes. So, Galatians chapter 1, starting in verse 11. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.199 This is what God's Word says. 00:05:36.199 --> 00:06:06.180 Verse 12. 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:13.639 So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers, but when He who had set me apart before 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:22.240 I was born and who called me by His grace was pleased to reveal His Son to me in order that I 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:29.539 might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:36.620 to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia and returned again to 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:43.280 Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 00:06:43.280 --> 00:06:50.520 days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. In what I'm writing to you 00:06:50.519 --> 00:07:00.740 before God, I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in 00:07:00.740 --> 00:07:08.539 person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, He who used to 00:07:08.539 --> 00:07:17.060 persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me. 00:07:17.060 --> 00:07:26.319 Let's pray. Lord, we pray for your help this morning. We thank you that this Word is your Word, and we 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:31.959 thank you that by your Spirit we are able to understand it. Lord, I pray for us this morning that 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:39.259 our hearts would be willing to receive from you this morning, Lord, the truths of your Word. Lord, may we 00:07:39.259 --> 00:07:45.439 not only understand the truth of it, but may we love and delight in the truth of it, and may it move us to 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:52.399 our lives of obedience that glorifies you. And Lord, I pray for your help this morning. You would help me to 00:07:52.399 --> 00:08:01.579 speak as I ought. Lord, help me to speak your truth. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:11.279 Amen. So, Paul's claim here is actually fairly straightforward. It's actually fascinating. 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:18.560 The commentaries on Galatians have said things like, this is the least theologically important 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:23.419 passage in the entire book of Galatians. There's not much here. We're going to see what we can find 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:31.100 for nuggets this morning. Paul's thesis is this, right? It's in verses 11 and 12. The true gospel 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:39.960 was not made by humans, but it was revealed by God. That's the thesis. You can see it very clearly in 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:48.240 verses 11 and 12. And then you see that in 12 and 13, they both begin with the four. And so, he's saying, 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:55.539 let me explain to you why I say that. And so, he goes on to explain to us how it wasn't received from 00:08:55.539 --> 00:09:01.100 men, how it was revealed by God to him, and what that means for us. So, that's what we're going to 00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:09.120 look at this morning. That's our outline for where we're going. And I want us to see that 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:15.960 Paul had a purpose in this. His purpose was to give the early church confidence in the gospel that they 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:24.540 had first believed in. The gospel that was just preached up here a few minutes ago by these 00:09:24.540 --> 00:09:33.300 testimonies, right? The story of God's work for us, that we would have the same confidence that the 00:09:33.300 --> 00:09:41.680 Galatian church would have. So, point one, why does Paul say this is not from man? Well, one of the 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:47.719 things that he does is he turns immediately to his own story and begins by saying, I was a happy Jew. 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:54.620 Not only was I a happy Jew, I was a successful Jew. I was actively involved in my faith, tradition, 00:09:54.679 --> 00:10:04.359 and community in a way that was bringing me everything that I wanted, right? And he was living a life that 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:11.759 had no desire to pursue this gospel of Jesus. Remember what Acts chapter 8 verses 1 through 3 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:14.899 says about Paul. It says, 00:10:15.019 --> 00:10:21.320 And it arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:27.460 throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:35.080 lamentation over him, but Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:46.060 off men and women and committed them to prison. Paul was in this position of power, and he was in this 00:10:46.060 --> 00:10:54.600 position of influence, and he had all the benefits of his Jewish pedigree. You go on, if you look at what 00:10:54.600 --> 00:11:01.779 he says in his own testimony in Philippians chapter 3, he says, I was circumcised on the eighth day of 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:07.259 the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:12.680 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 00:11:14.340 --> 00:11:23.240 He had every reason to stay, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ, 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:29.680 he goes on. So, Paul says, one of the reasons I want you to see that this gospel didn't come, 00:11:29.980 --> 00:11:35.480 because there's no human motivation for me to want to have believed it. I had everything 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:47.220 except Christ, and as we'll see, and God intervened. So, just pause there, because there's a second 00:11:47.220 --> 00:11:54.480 argument that Paul says about why it's not a human thing, right? He said, I didn't…it wasn't even that 00:11:54.480 --> 00:12:00.120 I wasn't not seeking it, but also, when I did receive it, I didn't receive it from any human 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:08.700 authority. His conversion on the road of Damascus, as he tells the story, he says, when I received this, 00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:14.440 I didn't consult with anyone. I preached the gospel. I went away for three years 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:22.460 before I went up to Jerusalem. And even then, I only saw the apostles for, I don't know, like two weeks, 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.660 you know, minus the Sabbath. So, he didn't…you know, anyway, you know what I mean. He wasn't there 00:12:28.660 --> 00:12:35.860 long. He didn't go to the apostles, to Jerusalem, to say, hey, teach me this gospel. Tell me more about 00:12:35.860 --> 00:12:45.340 Jesus. The word there, consult, seems to be more of corroborating rather than instructing. Paul went 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:52.560 so that the gospel…so that he would affirm and confirm that the gospel that he was preaching 00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:58.860 was the gospel that they were preaching, and that together they were preaching the same gospel, 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:05.360 right? Now, we know there's some development in the book of Acts. There's a 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:11.039 confrontation with Peter that we'll read about next week about maybe the apostles were still 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:16.259 figuring out how to apply this gospel right. We'll see in Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council, 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:23.080 solving the problem of how do we understand the relationship between the gospel of grace and the 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:30.120 Old Testament law, and how is that lived out perfectly? But what Paul is fundamentally saying is, 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:42.159 I didn't get this from any human being. Now, stop for a minute. If someone came up to you and said, 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:50.200 God has revealed something to me, and no other human being told me about it, you would be skeptical, 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:57.560 wouldn't you? So would I, right? Someone comes to us, and they claim the high ground of religious 00:13:57.559 --> 00:14:05.619 epistemology. I have a revelation from God. I must be right, you know? And we know the damage that this 00:14:05.619 --> 00:14:16.239 can do. We know that these claims can be spurious, right? I mean, I'm old enough to remember Jim Jones 00:14:16.239 --> 00:14:25.479 and the Jonestown cult that ended up in a massacre of people. Or remember the Hale-Bopp comet followers, 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:30.220 the people who killed themselves, thinking that the return of the Hale-Bopp comet was going to bring 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:36.680 about some new spiritual something or other. I don't even know the details, right? And these were 00:14:36.680 --> 00:14:46.860 all led by men who said, I have heard from God. But we need to recognize that our skepticism is a 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:53.240 skepticism that Paul himself already knew. Because he said in verses 6 through 10, he said, 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:59.620 listen, listen, I preach to you the gospel that I received from God. And if I come back and I preach 00:14:59.620 --> 00:15:09.060 anything else, or if an angel from heaven came and preached something else, right? So he's claiming 00:15:09.060 --> 00:15:20.379 a uniqueness about what he is sharing about the biblical gospel, the content of Christ crucified for us. 00:15:20.379 --> 00:15:28.840 He's saying it's different. He's saying it didn't come from human beings, 00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:38.019 but it was revealed by God. And this is my second point, because this is Paul's second point, right? 00:15:38.580 --> 00:15:45.460 The foundation of this is his own experience. He was on his way to Damascus, as was read earlier by 00:15:45.460 --> 00:15:52.720 Susan and Ivor. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians there, and God appeared 00:15:52.720 --> 00:16:01.740 to him in a supernatural encounter that cannot be explained in any other way. The light shone, 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:10.759 a voice spoke, and Paul met Jesus. And God revealed in this moment that Jesus was God, 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:19.159 the Christ, the appointed Savior of the world. Now, the Acts account doesn't unpack that very 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:26.059 clearly in the initial stages. As the story goes on, do you remember, he goes to Ananias, 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:33.019 and Ananias was this Jewish man who… and God told him to go and bless this… or he was a believer, 00:16:33.019 --> 00:16:40.419 and Ananias said, go bless this man. And so… but what it doesn't say is that Paul went to Ananias, 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:48.519 and Ananias explained to him the gospel. All Ananias did is pray for his healing and his vision, 00:16:48.620 --> 00:16:57.620 and he was restored. What we do see, though, is that Paul emphasizes how this was God's initiative. 00:16:57.620 --> 00:17:07.059 Look with me at verse 15 for a second, right? But when he who had set me apart before I was born… 00:17:07.059 --> 00:17:18.420 that's God… God who saw him before he was even born… God had a plan, and God was initiating this. 00:17:19.059 --> 00:17:27.240 And he who called me according to his grace… underscoring the message of grace that it's not 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:34.500 by any desert or any works or anything that Paul had done that God called him, but God initiated with 00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:46.599 him to extend to him undeserved favor in this calling. And then you do see at the end, right? 00:17:47.660 --> 00:17:55.359 He was pleased… this is the beginning of verse 16… he was pleased to reveal what? His Son to me. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:03.179 And friends, this is the very core of the answer to the question that we're wrestling with, because what 00:18:03.179 --> 00:18:14.859 Paul says is, God revealed to me that Jesus is God's Son. That's what I knew. He knew of Jesus, clearly. 00:18:15.199 --> 00:18:20.199 He was alive during Jesus' time. He saw people who were following him. It wasn't like he was questioning 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:33.039 Jesus' existence, but God revealed to him that Jesus was God's Son. Now, we know that from the very end 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:41.720 of the passage that was read in Acts 9, 20 through 22, because when Paul goes to the synagogue, 00:18:41.900 --> 00:18:48.019 immediately he preaches, Jesus is the Son of God. He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying, 00:18:48.019 --> 00:18:54.160 He is the Son of God, right? And people said, who is this guy and what's going on here? But it said 00:18:54.160 --> 00:19:02.119 that he confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. Now, if he 00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:09.799 hadn't received this from anywhere else, there was content that was passed on. This was the substance 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:20.639 of the revelation that God had given to Paul about his gospel. It was about who Jesus was. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:30.639 And friends, you've got to admit, this is not a story that we ever would have made up on our own, 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:37.539 right? I mean, Paul says, this didn't come from man, it came from God. Well, one of the things we can 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:45.740 know, we can think about is, would we have ever thought, you know, the way God's going to reconcile 00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:56.559 us to himself is by becoming a human being, living a life of perfect revelation to ourselves in humility 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:02.920 and in weakness, laying down his life for us by dying on the cross and then rising from the dead. 00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:07.300 This is how God is going to reveal himself to us so that we can know him. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:20.980 Because we live post-Christ, we're too familiar with it to be shocked by how incredibly odd 00:20:20.980 --> 00:20:27.940 and amazing the gospel is. We would not have come up with this. 00:20:27.940 --> 00:20:35.340 It's not about what laws to follow, because that's what our hearts love, is rules to keep and rituals 00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:41.740 to do. It's not about our experiences with God, because we love to pursue experiences that seem 00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:47.700 to fill our soul in the moment. It's not about finding the right person, the guru, the teacher, 00:20:47.860 --> 00:20:53.700 whoever it is that we can hitch our wagon to and believe that he's going to take us into glory and 00:20:53.700 --> 00:21:04.500 perfection and utopia. It's about the person of Jesus who was a historical person, who did historical 00:21:04.500 --> 00:21:14.500 things. And if you remember from 1 Corinthians 4 15, Paul reminds us that if Christ was not raised from 00:21:14.500 --> 00:21:22.980 the dead, if he did not, if the historical account that we see in the New Testament is not true, 00:21:23.299 --> 00:21:30.019 then we're just fools. We've just believed a myth or a happy lie, and we are no better than any other 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:34.779 human-made self-help. We hope it makes you feel better for the day. 00:21:34.779 --> 00:21:45.559 But Paul here is saying, the answer to the question, how do we know the true gospel, 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:55.680 is it's because God has revealed that Jesus is the Son of God. This is what the writer of Hebrews says 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:01.680 in Hebrews 1, 1 and 2. Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:09.420 but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:15.480 and through whom He also created the world. This is the answer to how do we know God, 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:22.820 because God has spoken to us, and the content of that speaking is about who Jesus is. 00:22:22.819 --> 00:22:33.559 and this gives us confidence, because it's not about my experience or your experience. 00:22:33.939 --> 00:22:35.200 We may have experience. 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:52.940 So the question, how do I know which is the true gospel? If it centers on Jesus, 00:22:54.059 --> 00:22:57.420 the Son of God, this is what it's about. 00:22:57.420 --> 00:23:05.500 So Paul tells his story in order to exalt this. And friends, what a wonderful thing it is, 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:13.440 this testimony that he gives of an unlikely convert. And friends, you've heard more this morning. 00:23:14.300 --> 00:23:23.800 Tren didn't come looking for Christ, but God came looking for Tren and revealed to him who Jesus was. 00:23:23.799 --> 00:23:28.019 And the same thing is true for each of those testimonies. 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:36.099 There are great stories of how people have seen and encountered the living God 00:23:36.099 --> 00:23:38.680 and come to believe that Jesus is the Christ. 00:23:39.639 --> 00:23:43.639 If you haven't read these stories, Rosaria Butterfield is a professor. 00:23:44.899 --> 00:23:49.539 She had been a very liberal professor, a lesbian. 00:23:49.539 --> 00:23:58.799 She lived her life an anti-Christian. She was doing research on what the religious right was doing 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:04.039 in attacking the gay, lesbian community. 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:09.460 And she was not looking for Christ. 00:24:10.299 --> 00:24:12.240 She was looking to understand this. 00:24:13.339 --> 00:24:14.899 She was happy in her community. 00:24:14.900 --> 00:24:20.460 She saw good things in what her friends were doing. 00:24:21.540 --> 00:24:25.620 But she encountered Jesus as the Son of God 00:24:25.620 --> 00:24:30.259 through the Scriptures in conversation with a local pastor 00:24:30.259 --> 00:24:34.019 and his wife who loved her well. 00:24:36.019 --> 00:24:37.800 And she came to faith. 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:48.839 And it's a beautiful story of God revealing himself to her by helping her see Jesus is the Son of God. 00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:52.440 If you've ever read The Cross and the Switchblade, 00:24:52.859 --> 00:24:54.940 you know the story of Nicky Cruz, 00:24:55.700 --> 00:24:59.779 who was a Puerto Rican boy sent away by his family from Puerto Rico 00:24:59.779 --> 00:25:02.399 to New York City to make his own way. 00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:12.820 To make his own way, he became a warlord of the Mau Mau gang in Brooklyn in the 1960s, early 70s. 00:25:13.580 --> 00:25:17.280 But he encountered a country preacher named David Wilkerson 00:25:17.280 --> 00:25:20.600 who told him that Jesus loved him. 00:25:23.140 --> 00:25:24.720 Nicky Cruz threatened to kill him. 00:25:25.580 --> 00:25:27.940 He said, David Wilkerson replied, 00:25:27.940 --> 00:25:30.799 You can kill me and chop me into a thousand pieces 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:33.680 and each one of those pieces will say to you, 00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:35.360 Jesus loves you. 00:25:39.120 --> 00:25:41.480 And the message of Christ's love broke through. 00:25:42.600 --> 00:25:44.820 And his life was changed. 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:46.680 And he was transformed. 00:25:50.580 --> 00:25:52.480 Or to go back just a little bit further, 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:57.779 there's this curmudgeonly professor named C.S. Lewis, 00:25:58.360 --> 00:26:00.559 an atheist who mocked Christianity. 00:26:01.900 --> 00:26:05.220 But because of the companionship of Christian friends 00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:11.740 and the insufficiency of the worldviews that he was espousing and exploring and teaching 00:26:11.740 --> 00:26:15.360 and the compelling beauty of Christian writing, 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:18.599 he was brought face to face with Jesus. 00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:21.779 Is he the Son of God or not? 00:26:21.779 --> 00:26:28.559 And he wrote later, 00:26:29.660 --> 00:26:32.759 Either he was and is the Son of God 00:26:32.759 --> 00:26:35.920 or else a madman or something worse. 00:26:36.619 --> 00:26:38.019 You can shut him up as a fool, 00:26:38.819 --> 00:26:41.019 you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:44.700 or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. 00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:47.839 But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:49.819 about him being a great human teacher. 00:26:49.819 --> 00:26:52.379 He has not left that open to us. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:54.740 He did not intend to. 00:26:58.279 --> 00:26:59.939 Friends, that's part of my story. 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:02.700 I read his book, Mere Christianity. 00:27:02.700 --> 00:27:08.860 And at the beginning, I didn't know what I believed. 00:27:09.080 --> 00:27:09.900 I was wondering. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.059 And at the end, all I knew is that if Jesus really was God, 00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:20.360 then I needed to respond. 00:27:20.700 --> 00:27:22.559 And I was convinced that he was. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:30.039 And that led me to faith in Christ because of that. 00:27:31.559 --> 00:27:36.079 And friends, this is what Christian testimony is meant to be in this world. 00:27:36.399 --> 00:27:40.440 We may not have all the intellectual arguments to Marshall. 00:27:40.579 --> 00:27:42.159 I spent time this week reading. 00:27:42.399 --> 00:27:44.659 There's a great book out called The Gagging of God. 00:27:44.660 --> 00:27:47.900 It's an older one by a professor of mine named D.A. Carson. 00:27:48.380 --> 00:27:51.779 It's talking about the intellectual movements of the last 200 years 00:27:51.779 --> 00:27:56.440 and why it leads us to skepticism about the reality of believing the gospel 00:27:56.440 --> 00:28:01.220 and the impossibility of saying that the one gospel could be true 00:28:01.220 --> 00:28:02.320 and why he thinks it's not. 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:05.620 And at the core of that, anyway, I read it all. 00:28:05.700 --> 00:28:07.279 And I was like, can I try? 00:28:07.540 --> 00:28:08.120 I can't. 00:28:08.119 --> 00:28:09.679 I can't explain it to you. 00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:12.039 It's a whole other seminar or maybe. 00:28:12.739 --> 00:28:17.659 Anyway, but what I can say is that in wrestling through these questions 00:28:17.659 --> 00:28:21.859 that we all wrestle with, Paul says, here's my testimony. 00:28:22.379 --> 00:28:28.539 And my testimony points to the fact that God revealed himself to the world 00:28:28.539 --> 00:28:34.199 in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:41.200 And we, as those who bear testimony to what God has done in Christ, 00:28:41.360 --> 00:28:45.259 are like the trophy cases in my high school gym. 00:28:45.600 --> 00:28:48.700 You walk in and there's this big trophy case, right? 00:28:49.120 --> 00:28:54.559 And it's got, you know, championship and MVP and, right? 00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:56.019 It's got all these trophies. 00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:59.779 This is what we are meant to be, friends. 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:00.779 This is what Jesus has done. 00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:05.299 Trophy cases, not for look what we have done, look what we have won, 00:29:05.819 --> 00:29:08.960 but trophy cases of this is what Jesus has done. 00:29:09.579 --> 00:29:13.059 This is what Jesus has done because he is the Son of God 00:29:13.059 --> 00:29:15.059 and because he has rescued us. 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:19.039 And this is what happened in the early church 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:23.579 because they didn't even know Paul, 00:29:23.579 --> 00:29:28.339 but they heard he who once persecuted this 00:29:28.339 --> 00:29:32.740 is now proclaiming and defending the very truth 00:29:32.740 --> 00:29:34.279 that he once tried to destroy. 00:29:34.799 --> 00:29:37.059 And they glorified God. 00:29:39.559 --> 00:29:41.980 And like the blind man, we can say, 00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:44.299 I don't know all the answers to all those questions, 00:29:44.579 --> 00:29:47.859 but all I know is that he came to me 00:29:47.859 --> 00:29:51.519 and I once was blind, but now I can see. 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:55.900 Now I can see that Jesus is the Son of God. 00:29:57.759 --> 00:29:59.559 So if you're here this morning, 00:30:00.180 --> 00:30:02.359 if you're following Christ, 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:05.339 if you put Christ in the center of your life, 00:30:06.119 --> 00:30:08.740 then encourage you, pursue more and more 00:30:08.740 --> 00:30:10.200 and have confidence. 00:30:10.859 --> 00:30:14.779 Have confidence because if Jesus really is the Son of God, 00:30:14.859 --> 00:30:15.879 it changes everything. 00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:21.100 And as you grow in telling your story, 00:30:21.780 --> 00:30:24.440 grow in making it about God, 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:26.080 just like Paul did. 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:30.480 Grow in making about God the way we heard this morning 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.300 from our brothers and sisters. 00:30:34.060 --> 00:30:37.440 Grow in saying, this is what God has done in my life. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:40.720 And friends, if you're here today 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:43.600 and you're still wrestling with 00:30:43.600 --> 00:30:49.019 or exploring the question of who is Jesus 00:30:49.019 --> 00:30:53.100 or how can I believe that this is the true gospel, 00:30:54.059 --> 00:30:55.440 you're in the right place. 00:30:56.200 --> 00:30:56.900 Pursue him. 00:30:56.900 --> 00:31:00.259 And if I might be so bold, 00:31:01.060 --> 00:31:02.940 might even say, receive him. 00:31:03.400 --> 00:31:06.759 He is God's Son and he died on the cross for you. 00:31:07.980 --> 00:31:09.019 Put your faith in him. 00:31:09.280 --> 00:31:09.740 Let's pray. 00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:14.480 Lord, we thank you for this morning. 00:31:15.120 --> 00:31:16.420 We thank you for this word. 00:31:16.800 --> 00:31:17.860 We pray that you will, 00:31:19.660 --> 00:31:21.460 Lord, help us. 00:31:21.860 --> 00:31:23.120 Help us to have confidence, 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:26.399 not because we have done anything, 00:31:26.679 --> 00:31:29.000 but because you have done everything. 00:31:30.019 --> 00:31:32.519 Lord, not only have you worked for our salvation, 00:31:32.699 --> 00:31:36.139 but you have revealed yourself to us in Jesus 00:31:36.139 --> 00:31:38.399 in such a way that we can know 00:31:38.399 --> 00:31:40.059 and we can respond 00:31:40.059 --> 00:31:42.619 and we can believe and trust in you. 00:31:43.659 --> 00:31:44.559 Help us, Lord. 00:31:45.459 --> 00:31:46.959 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:31:47.619 --> 00:31:47.899 Amen.