Kennystix's podcast
Defending the Faith in the Public Arena
Let's pray together. Father, I pray that the few minutes we have together would be a means of magnifying your son and clarifying his supremacy. And I pray that you would guard me from error and grant us strength and energy to listen. And I pray, Father, that you would help these thoughts to come together in a way that would hit home and help us to be the kind of witness to your power and your grace in this nation and around the world that you call us to be. Father, purify our minds and our hearts that pray. Grant us the help we need through Christ I ask Him. Amen. I'd like to begin with two paragraphs from the financial times that are the jumping off place for where I want to go. And I'm probably going to get louder so whoever's doing the sound will want to be on top of it. Worship is an aspect of religion that I always found difficult to understand. This is by Michael Proust. Suppose we postulate an omnipotent being who for reasons inscrutable to us decide to create something other than himself. Why should he forgive the anthropomorphism? He says. Expect us to worship him. We didn't ask to be created. Our lives are often troubled. We know that human tyrants puffed up with pride, crave adulation and homage. But a morally perfect God would surely have no character defects. So why are all those people on their knees every Sunday? I have two theses to draw out of my response to this article that I'd like to develop with you. The first is that the supremacy of God is an increasingly public issue. And the second is that getting it right makes all the difference in the world. And God's self-exaltation in demanding worship from his creatures is not a character defect. But why it's not is not at all obvious to you or to the world. Because if you demanded worship it would be a character defect. If you were as self-exalting as God is it would be a character defect. So it's very natural that the world will read the Bible and stumble over God's God-exalting bent. So we have two things now coming at us out of this article. One is a massive issue about the nature of God. And the other is it's so public it's not coming from a theology textbook or a sermon on Sunday morning. It's coming from the financial times. So here's my approach. I want to illustrate with four other things the increasingly public nature of the issue of God's supremacy and its implications for media. And then secondly tackle Michael Proust and show that God's God-exalting bent is not a character defect. And what difference that makes for the media. So that's where I'm going. So first some illustrations of the increasingly public nature of God's God-centeredness. Mel Gibson's passion. You may have seen it last night. I saw it weeks ago and watched him on television last night, Diane Sawyer. Who killed Jesus? Number two, September 11, where was God? Every radio station asked that question just about. Number three, Islamic resurgence and its relevance for our lives. Who is Jesus for Islam? Do we worship the same God? Number four, the Israel, Israeli and Palestinian question. Whose land is it? Did he give it to Ishmael or Isaac? Or who cares what he gave it to? Is there a he anyway behind it? Does it have any political significance that there are two competing claims to religious promise? Let me take those one at a time. Gibson's movie. What a gold day for the media. To ask the question and get the right answer. And the best answer is not we all killed him. The deepest, most provocative, most profound, most urgent in the media is God killed him. Isaiah 53, 10, 5 verses after the first one you saw on the screen, it was the will of the Lord to bruise him. Or Acts 4, 27 and 28. Herod, conscious pilot, the peoples of Israel and the Gentiles were gathered together to do what your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Because until we give that answer, the world will probably just say we killed him? Well sure. Yeah, we do all bad things. Sin gets out of hand. He hasn't helped anybody until God enters the scene, puts his son to death and everybody screams why? And then you can talk gospel. You can't defend the gospel until you make the gospel plain. What a golden day for the gospel we live in in the public square right now. How long it will last? I don't know. September 9, I mean 11, September 11, where was God? Katie I asked call me up on the phone that afternoon and said would you come over and help us tomorrow morning? The answer is he was on the throne of the universe where he always is. And had he chosen with one breath of his mouth could have pushed those jets 30 yards to the side. What whips the media have been when it comes to the issue of the supremacy of God in suffering? You know why this is so absolutely crucial for the defending of the gospel is because in the end it's going to be a gospel issue. Because if God can't beat God during suffering he wasn't God at the cross. If he can't be God during evil he can't beat God at the cross. And that means that needs to be made really plain to the world. And another reason it's so crucial is because the very people who suffer the most whose relatives were in the buildings have to have a sovereign God to last now that they've lost their breadwinner or mom or both. In order to rescue God we remove him as the rescuer of the suffering. Oh what a golden opportunity for the gospel and for the supremacy of God we live in. Or the resurgence of Islam. Do we worship the same God? I wonder if when your radio program or your television or your interview with somebody on channel nine last night, does I watch some of you get interviewed? If you would be ready to say something like this, two things are clear in Islam. Jesus is not God and Jesus did not die for sins. Therefore the gospel is undermined by denying his deity. Hebrews two fourteen, clothed himself with flesh. You know that he might triumph over the one who has the power of death, the devil and deliver those who have been held in bondage all their life long. And if he didn't clothe himself with flesh as God he didn't deliver anybody. And by denying his death we nullify the grace of God according to Galatians two twenty one if righteousness is by the law Christ died in vain. Therefore if a religion denies the deity and denies the death and thus undermines the gospel who cares if you worship the same God. What does it mean to worship a God whose grace you undermine whose gospel you deny? It's a wrong question. It's a confusing ambiguous misleading question. Just go right to the issue of the gospel. What a golden opportunity we have to make the gospel plain almost every issue coming across our guest is a gospel issue if we will make it a gospel issue or the Jewish Israeli I mean the Jewish Palestinian question. What are we going to do about that? The most intractable thing it's at the root of all the issues almost that we deal with today. Well the Apostle Paul had a few things to say about it. Romans 11, 28. As regards the gospel Jews are enemies of God for your sake the Gentiles but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of the forefathers. Jews need the gospel really bad. And as a covenant breaking people rejecting their Messiah they have no right to the land. Now and when they finally have the veil lifted and become part of the tree from which they've been broken off they will get the land. I said that in an article in World Magazine and got a call from a senator this last week the United States senator saying I don't hear anybody saying that. You an evangelical? I need help. I'm wrestling with the Geneva Accords on this subcommittee and the only message I'm getting me is get out of the way and give you what they want. And of course the issue here is a gospel issue first. Will they trust Jesus? And while they break covenant with their living God and reject his son where in the bottom has God promised a covenant breaking people the land of Israel while they're breaking the covenant. My own personal opinion is we ought to settle the issue of Palestine and Israel just like we settle every other political issue in terms of justice and mercy with neither side preempting the discussion by claiming divine rights now. But you didn't ask me to come talk on that. I'm just illustrating the public nature of the Bible and the gospel today is in my lifetime unprecedented what a golden day to speak the gospel truth in response to what is happening around the world. That's point number one. First thesis that it's increasingly public and here's the second and the only other one. What about Michael Proust in the financial times that it's a character defect in God that all these people are on their knees because he demands them to worship him? What kind of a braggart megalomaniac self-exalting prick do we have in heaven anyway? The response to that question is absolutely huge for you to get straight, I think, in church and public square. Why is that so crucial for the defense and display of the gospel? To get clear why God's self-exaltation is not a character flaw. It's crucial for displaying the gospel because we won't understand the gospel until we realize that God's self-exaltation is at the heart of it because at the cross he was vindicating his own righteousness Romans 325. Secondly it's crucial for the display of the gospel because when you make plain how God is loving in being self-exalting you will unleash in the world a power for humans to love their enemies that will become the most powerful display of the truth of the gospel that has ever been lived and in the end all apologetics boils down to life lived in the power of the gospel for the world to see. Third it's crucial for the defending of the gospel because the supremacy of God is written on the heart of every human being and God wrote it there and therefore both truths are in the heart namely God is supreme and God wants me to know it and therefore there's this cut sense this has got to be true if there's a God he's got to want to be worship and I don't like it and it seems defective and if we don't answer that we won't answer one of the most fundamental things written across the heart of every listener and every watcher of our medium and it's crucial for defending the gospel to know that God is not defective in being self-exalting because as important as intellectual philosophical historical arguments for the gospel are to meet objections and they are very important a well-grounded certainty that Jesus is who he said he was who the Bible says he is a well-grounded soul certainty that Jesus is who the Bible said he is does not finally hang on intellectual historical and philosophical discursive arguments and reasonings but on the self-revelation of the Almighty God and his self-exalting bent is part of that revelation and therefore if we don't make it plain the defense of the gospel will suffer Michael Proust doesn't like it. C.S. Lewis didn't like it he hated it up until the age 29. Lewis said in his book of the Psalms that when he read the Psalms in his pre-Christian days it sounded that God was an old woman wanting compliments because he was such a good reader he got it God everywhere is saying praise me praise me praise me praise me everywhere in the Psalms and if you don't have a way to make that sound humble and loving and good news what are you going to do with the Bible in public put it under the chair hope people don't read those hope they don't think so we got to answer this we got to answer Michael Proust I've spent the last 30 years answering Michael Proust didn't even meet up with him till I read this article in 2002 so here's my answer first I want to concede the accuracy of at least one of the premises namely God is supreme God exalting the deepest passion of God's heart is to exalt God and if this were another kind of setting I would take a long time to develop texts I would argue from Ephesians one we're predestined for the glory of God I would argue from Romans 15 that we experienced the incarnation for the glory of God I would argue from Isaiah 43 six creation was for the glory of God I would argue from Romans 325 that propitiation is for the vindication of the glory of God I would argue from Philippians one nine and sanctification is for the glory of God and from 2 Thessalonians one nine that the second coming and the consummation of all things is for the glory of God but passing over those let me just give you three other texts so that the the premise that stumbles Lewis and Proust lands on you so that you don't blow this off this is serious and everybody who is thoughtful and comes to the Bible stumbles at this that God is so self-exalting Psalm 96 God says declare my glory among the nations so here you have it what if I said that now go out from here and tell everybody I'm telling you tell everybody piper's great you would just think that is sick sick sick sick and that's what God does on every page of the Bible or Psalm 91 the heavens are telling the glory of God well who wrote the heavens who designed them that way God he's really into self or Philippians two nine to eleven we don't read these texts to feel how offensive they are therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father now back it up and put the beginning of that text together with the end of the text God gave him a name so that through that name God would get the glory it's everywhere and it's really offensive to Michael Prowse and was really offensive to see us if you wonder you know you try to reach Michael Prowst we did we tracked him down on the internet and we wrote to him and I have not received back I won't go with that just a little while back I'd love to talk to him about this I'd love to send him this tape so I give him credit he has put his finger on to my mind one of the most fruitful observations in the Bible namely that God is radically and consistently and pervasively God-centered and self-exalting and the issue is all the rain and on television and you print media how does that come across as good news to sinners and it must it simply must that's our job we must respond to the financial times I wish more pulpits dealt with it we should more radio programs dealt with it more television programs dealt with it here's my answer to the question how can it sound like good news let me just read some verses from John 11 and draw an implication now a certain man was ill named Lazarus of Bethany village of Mary and Martha it was Mary who anointed the Lord with her ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was ill in other words he was really precious to Jesus verse three John 11 so the sister sent to him saying Lord he whom you love there's love again is sick but when Jesus heard it he said this illness is not to lead to death it is for the glory of God there's glory now you got love and glory so that the son of God may be glorified in it now Jesus loved Martha there it is again there's love now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus therefore and I I pause over this word therefore because it's not in the niv shame on them but it is in the Greek and it is absolutely essential to translate it carefully so or therefore would be okay he loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus therefore when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer where he was and let him die now the reason this is so relevant for Michael Proust is this the reason Jesus gives in verse four for why he's not going right away to take care of Lazarus is for the glory of God that God may be glorified in my dealings with Lazarus so now you've got this massive commitment of Jesus for his glory and his father's glory and the price of it is the death of his friend Lazarus and he calls it love he loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus therefore he did not go but stayed two days longer he called it love okay now we're on the brink of a great discovery at least for me it was an absolutely life-changing discovery that I think shapes everything I do and I think if you got it would shape everything you do and you probably do get intuitively and maybe I'm just putting words on it and the intuition is clarified in John 17 it's the priestly prayer of Jesus he begins the prayer in a most incredible way it's a very loving prayer I hope you would agree when Jesus prays a whole chapter for his people both those who were to live after that generation and that generation and yet it's a love that none of us until God gets a hold of us can understand it begins like this John 17 1 when Jesus has spoken these words he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come glorifying your son now that is an odd way to begin a prayer for your disciples my first request is that I be somebody in this world what an amazing way to love people father I desire that they also father glorify your son that the son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to whom you have given him this is eternal life that they might know you the only true god and the one whom you have sent I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work you gave me to do and now father glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had before the world was what an amazing way to begin a prayer about the disciples glorify me glorify me but here's the key verse 24 father I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory there it is Jesus assumes the best thing that could happen to his disciples is that they might be granted eternal access to behold his glory that would be all satisfying that would be infinite joy if that's infinite joy to see Christ in his glory forever to see the father in the son shining with infinite beauty forever fellow shipping with that god forever then for god to continually hold himself up is both infinitely self-exalting and infinitely loving god is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue in the most loving act because there is no other treasure that will satisfy your heart than seeing god exalted if he loves you he must put a priority on exalting himself that you might have the one treasure that will satisfy your soul that will never make sense to a Michael Prowst or any of your listeners unless you help them see god as all sad as night let me go to the implications of this I have severed I think for media let me restate what I just said in my response to Michael Prowst in a nugget form I have argued that it is not a character defect in god that he is self-exalting because being the infinitely valuable infinitely beautiful infinitely worthy god that he is the best gift he can give to us is himself exalted in glory for our everlasting enjoyment therefore god dare not choose between exalting himself and loving me it is not a character defect that he holds himself up it is character excellence that causes him to hold himself up for my everlasting enjoyment so the question I'm asking when I turn to implications for media is what implications are there for Christian media or I might say media in general since there's so much crossover opportunity these days what are the implications for the media of the beauty and the excellence of god self-exalting supremacy which is increasingly public put into two points together number one the loving self-exaltation of the supremacy of god implies that we need to get the gospel right at the root it's not wrong to say that the gospel is salvation the gospel is justification the gospel is forgiveness the gospel is reconciliation the gospel is eternal life the gospel is to know god and on and on but you know both in preaching and in media my sense is that there are very few people around today who are pushing people through the jargon of the good news to why it's good news let's take forgiveness as example everybody knows that's part of the gospel to be forgiven by god for all your sins can make a person weep for joy and they go to hell why because you got to ask the question why do you want to be forgiven and there's a wrong answer to that that sends people to hell like I don't like guilt feelings or I don't want to go to hell somebody's got to push on this and say you know what forgiveness is for to get you to god without him smashing you so that you can have fellowship and enjoy him forever do you want to go there and you know what there are a lot of people who want to be forgiven who don't want to go there one of the questions I ask our people from time to time is if you could have heaven like eternal golf or pick your sport or pick your relationship mom I would like to see my mom again pick it minus god would that be okay that's a frightening question for our churches everlasting health everlasting sex everlasting self-esteem and all the relevance and all the friends and all the sports and all the grass and all the skies no god that's devastating we got to have some preachers and some media who are pushing on the gospel and say why is forgiveness good news and see whether god is the answer or not or take justification take any of the words why do you want to be justified why do you want to have a right standing in the courtroom of heaven if the answer is not ultimately because then the judge would be my treasure and father and friend and I would have him not I'm going to get condemned if I don't have justification now believe me it's right not to want to be condemned and I think you can have a mustard seed size taste for the glory of god and still be saved but our job in media and preaching is not to leave mustard seeds mustard seeds number two the first implication was get the gospel right at the root and push people on through to what makes good news really good news number two is in order to do this media people need to know god pretty well and to know god pretty well you got to study god and you know what hardly anybody in your organization is encouraging you to study god and therefore the level of understanding of the nature of god is pathetic in america media and otherwise and i was just been thinking about that i was supposed to talk to these in our bee people i thought these are people who are speaking to the nation on behalf of the creator of the universe do they know him deeply of all the people who are to know god deeply are the people who speak on behalf of god and hardly anybody in your organization is encouraging you to read systematic theology or biblical theology or spend an hour a day doing serious study of the bible pray sure have devotions oh by all means but study is anybody on your case to grow in the knowledge of god so that when you craft programs or craft series of programs you're thinking he is really supreme we got to get this right we can have open theistic nonsense mainly etc etc etc so second implication i i just invite you to join me in the lonely quest and that's all it is for those who see through it last darkly quest to know him better deeply theologically biblically accurately you can't defend the truth of god if you don't know the beauty of god it's really sad that when i speak to my own people or two others about the beauty of god they draw a blade he's not in a category in spite of second Corinthians 4 4 which says the god of this age is blind in the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing now listen to this carefully keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of god what is the gospel the gospel of the glory of Christ that's the gospel not to have a handle not to get your arms around not to get into and swim in and grow in the glory of Christ is not to be in the gospel and glory could be well translated beauty radiance outflowing of magnificent beautiful perfections number three third implication the loving self-exaltation of the supremacy of god implies that christian media should prepare people to embrace the suffering of life under the supremacy of god i really want to plead with you to make suffering prominent in me because it's prominent in the world and if it doesn't come through you're dreaming right the world is suffering massively every day i mean just take this list this is the u.s center bolt my missionary research annual statistical table 2004 line 31 average christian martyrs this year 167 000 that's a 9/11 every week unspoken we are Disneyland America is the Disneyland of the world don't be guilty of that i don't want my church to feel like a Disneyland escapism i wanted to be real i want people with cancer to feel like i'm there broken marriages i'm there we must reckon with the supremacy of god over suffering you know there's a lot of that happening these days i frankly i feel really good about the worship resurgence in the contemporary mode i'm not on a soapbox hammering away at how bad contemporary worship music is i like most of it and some of it is really powerful and i just pause here to thank god for matt redman's song blessed be the name i cried the first time i heard that song because it's simply job 121 naked i came into the world naked i shall leave the lord gave me ten children and the lord the lord has taken away and he wrote this song blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering though there's pain in the offering blessed be your name he gives and takes away he gives and takes away he gives and takes away my heart will choose to say blessed be your name that's needed in the media takes a certain kind of heart to feel that to say that publicly so that people who are suffering don't have to choose between the supremacy of god and they're suffering or if you don't like contemporary music when piece like a river attended my way or sorrows like sea billows row whatever my lot you have taught me to say it's well exactly the same message one contemporary medium and the other in the gray old majestic medium we need to produce or help the church have a readiness to suffer because only by suffering i think for the sake of others not suicide bombing to kill others but suicide bombing to save others that is becoming a missionary where you might die of malaria or your child might die malaria which would be more painful you got to help people get there with the radio and the television and the print media number four implication number four the loving self-exaltation of the supremacy of god in all things implies that we should portray love among people i'm talking horizontal love now not god's love for us and our love for him but our love for people we need to portray that in the media in a Christ exalting way that cuts across the grain of god neglecting self-esteeming church and culture i don't think the average christian in america knows what love is i think the average christian in america defines love emotionally as being made much of i am loved when i am made much of and therefore i love by making much of you so for having a conversation and i can make much of you and help you feel good when you walk away you feel loved that makes the gospel unintelligent because as we've seen the love of god is not his making much of us the love of god is his enabling us at the cost of his own son's life to enjoy making much of him forever therefore love on the horizontal level which we in our media are supposed to cultivate love on the horizontal level is doing whatever we can at great cost to ourselves to enthrall other people with what will satisfy them forever namely god and until we are aiming to enthrall the souls of men with what will satisfy them forever we are colossal hypocrites to claim we love them i don't care how much they are benefited in this world by us and i believe we ought to benefit them plenty in this world so i hope i pray that god will so work that in the media love will be seen as self sacrificing joyful efforts to enthrall other people with what will satisfy them eternally fifth implication the loving self-exaltation of the supremacy of god and all things implies that christian media should help the church regain a sense of history where the best displays and the best defenses of god are we should constantly in the name of christ and his church be calling the church back back back to drink from the wells of history where the best displays and the best defenses of the gospel are to be found jonathan edwards has fed my soul after the bible more than any other dead teacher and i love him with all of my heart he's like a friend brother father i would die for edwards if he were allowed to die for he says things almost on every page that make me worship this one quote is a taste of why i think we should send people back over and over again here's what he says and this is to illustrate the previous points about what is it to be loved by god this is the difference between the joy of the hypocrite and the joy of the saint the hypocrite rejoices in himself self is the first foundation of his joy the true saint rejoices in god true saints have their minds in the first place inexpressively pleased and delighted with the sweet ideas of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of god this is the spring of all their delights and the cream of all their pleasures but now listen to this sentence this just blew me away in 1972 sitting on a rocking chair in munich germany on a sunday evening sent me to my face but the dependence of the affections of hypocrites is in a contrary order first they rejoiced that they are so made so much of by god and then on that ground he seems a sort of love to them where would you find anything like that written in the 20th century who is saying such things in books on the radio on television that many many many people who call themselves christians find god to be lovely because he makes so much of them and therefore they are the ground of their joy and lust while they worship hands extended we really need help from history we really need the anxious number six the loving self-exaltation of the supremacy of god in all things implies that the christian media should move away from so much levity to holy cheerfulness i choose the words levity and holy cheerfulness even though they're a little bit quaint because they come from a quote from chal's virgin and i'm going to read to the quote and then we can pick other words if you want we must conquer he's talking to his preachers lectures to my students and i'm talking to media people and i'm saying to you what he said to me we must conquer some of us especially that's a telling statement for spurgent because he was really guilty of this until he got the cap on his got the lid on his humor we must conquer some of us especially our tendency to levity a great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness which is a virtue and general levity which is a vice there is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh but trifles with everything it is flippant hollow unreal a hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry end quote many media people know they ought to be joyful in fact i would say all christian media people know they ought to be joyful the bible says so rejoice in the lord and again i say rejoice and so we go to our microphones with that ringing in our ears but where is the substance that makes the joy feel solid where's the majesty of god that makes our happiness serious that's a quote a paraphrase of cius lewis serious happiness indeed why is there so much slapstick on the radio christian radio slapstick empty banter jesting general silliness it can't help but come across as a pitiful attempt at happiness now notice i am not appealing for somber sullen dull dismal gloomy sad voices faces writing christians should be the happiest people on planet earth and it ought to show but spurgen is absolutely right there is a world of difference between levity and holy serious god root happiness and joy has another flavor and generally the flavor has been given by suffering and god the world doesn't need any more entertainers of elevity kind we can't begin to compete with the world at that level but the world doesn't have a clue how to be happy in suffering not a clue how to rejoice in tribulation we just had a magnificent evening what is today Tuesday day before yesterday of black spirituals woven together with slave narratives at our church it was a moving night the whole thing was to illustrate the conviction of the sovereign goodness and providence of god in the lives of these oppressed and suffering people now there's a message there's a joy that comes through deep river that never comes through slapstick never what do we think we're doing i don't get it i don't in fact i turn it off i turn it off almost immediate and go to public radio i think the solution to levity and slapstick and jesting and banter is not a technique and is not a style it is seeing the self-exalting and therefore loving supremacy of god in all things and holding fast to it through suffering we got to help people have balanced in their boat let's take this image the waters of life are often very rough the goal of christian media ought not to be to say christians have fun too rah rah but rather christians know god and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory right through the deepest waves why because this is balanced in our boat pulling it down sometimes almost to the water level so that it won't tip over and what's that balance the massive supremacy of god learned to be held on to through suffering there's no indian proverb that says it and there's paul who says it then there's isiah who says it who should give you a quote and then i'll close with a quote from seasmas the eye no the soul will have no rainbow unless the eye has its tears when i first read that i was absolutely blown away i said that's really significant the soul will have no rainbow unless the eye has its tears the rainbow is missing in large measure because we're so full of levity or the way paul said it in second karindian six sorrowful yet always rejoicing i want to be around people like that i want to be around people who've tasted pain and never stop rejoicing never stop loving god delighting in god holding fast to god rejoicing in god oh give me such people i need him so bad or isiah eleven three and his delight shall be in the fear of the lord delight to fear delight to fear that's strange and the christian life is strange god is strange i close this is implication number seven where seas louis closed his essay on apologetics it's called christian apologetics you can find it in in a collection of essay it's called essay collection and other short pieces and i'm going to read it and uh and pray and our time will be up and i'll hang out here for a few minutes sorry i didn't leave any time for the microphone louis says this the implication number seven is that in all of our arguing and making case for doctrine and truth in the gospel we desperately need grace and mercy and i do right now and that's why i read this one last word i have found that nothing is more dangerous to one's own faith than the work of an apologist no doctrine of that faith seems to me so spectral so unreal as the one i have just successfully defended in public debate for a moment you see it has seemed to rest on oneself as a result when you go away from the debate it seems no stronger than that week pillar that is why we apologists take our lives in our hands and can be saved only by falling back continually from the web of our own arguments into the reality from christian apologetics into christ himself that also is why we need one another and the continual help let us pray for each other close quote so father cover please anything amiss that i have said and grant that anything true would stick take this remnant of the nrb and grant that their lives their minds their mouths their money their life their families their vision would make much of christ and little of ourselves oh that jesus would be exalted because of our investments of energy and time father don't leave us to ourselves and as we walk out of here and feel very fragile and very inadequate and that the doctrine we have just defended is spectral and unreal to our fallen hearts rescue us i pray by the reality jesus our lord and our savior in whose name we pray [applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]
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