Expository Apologetics Part 2

Well, last night we introduced a concept, that concept of expository apologetics, the idea of engaging in apologetics. And you remember that we define that from Peter's Epistle as, in its essence, knowing what we believe, why we believe it, and being able to communicate that to others in an effective and winsome way. That's, at its essence, that's what apologetics is all about. It's not about us all becoming debaters and philosophers or anything else. It's really about us knowing what we believe and why we believe it, and being able to communicate that. And essentially, we talked about the fact that, you know, the Bible elf has a limiting effect on apologetics because what I believe is that which comes from the Bible. I'm not responsible to give a defense for something other than what's in the Bible because that's not what I'm arguing, that's not what I'm believing. What I'm believing is what is in the scriptures. And so because of that, if we become familiar with what we have in the scriptures, we are able to offer that defense. So what ends up happening is when we become familiar with these ideas, and when we use the scriptures as sort of the backdrop and the foundation for our response, we are able to engage in a way that may seem unusual, but it's not. Example of this, I was at Oregon State University several years ago and they're on the campus. Some Christian groups got together, found out I was going to be there for something else, and they wanted to do an event on campus, like a lot of Christian groups often do, and so I said, sure, I'll come. And what they wanted me to do was basically give a presentation for forty five minutes to an hour on the Bible and its reliability and then just field questions. So we walked on the campus and you know these flyers that they had put up, you know, come here, you know, doctor Vodibaka and talk about the Bible and its reliability And said, did y'all do anything else? No, no, no, no, we just put these flyers up. Okay, that's all y'all did. Yeah, that's all we did. You know, you put these flyers around campus, and you know, when you get people to you know, these people you see expect the lost people in the Oregon. At Oregon State university, who have no idea who I am to just come over to the student center because y'all said it's yeah, yeah, yea, yeah, we're fine. So the rest of the time that we're there, I'm just kind of praying, getting myself ready to comfort these students. When this whole thing flops, I go to the back room to get ready, you know, because I want to see. I want to give everything I got. I don't want these people to think I'm disappointed because nobody showed up. And I, you know, just this is all about these these young people. You know, God, teach them something, Use me to teach them something, use me to encourage them. There's two people out there, just Lord help me. One of them runs back to the room. It's time. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm I'm I'm ready. It's gonna be all right. He goes they're here, said who's here? And he said everybody. So I walk out. There's students like sitting on top of each other. It's normal. I said, y'all don't do anything other than it's no, we didn't do it, so okay. And having you know, lived in the Bible Belt for for much of my life and all my industry. I'm used to being on college campuses, and you know, you do a presentation and people ask questions, and usually college students ask questions because they want other college students to hear them ask the question, not so much because they want an answer. And so we're here. I do my presentation about an hour and write sister and he listen, and then hands glinn up all over the place from students who were Wickans, Pagans, Bahi, Hindu, Buddhists, I mean, just all do you name it. And these people were asking what the real questions, legitimate questions. So for about an hour and a half, you know, we stood there and did that and answered questions and it was great, it was wonderful. I just had to go, Lord, I'm sorry, I even doubted you. And so we went out to eat afterwards, and these students, you know, these leaders from the Christian ministry, they're just quiet. So do y'all think it went okay? All right? I mean, you know, it was excited. We had some great gospel conversations, and you know a couple of people, you know, have follow ups and this that and the other. I'm like, yeah, yeah, you know, it's great, right, that's what's wrong. And one of them goes, dude, we're a little scared of you right now, said why because you just stood there for an hour and a half and these people ask you these questions. You know what the questions were. You answer the questions. You're awesome? Yeah, I said, no, I'm not awesome, half man, half amazing, but not necessarily awesome. I said. You know what's interesting about that, said, think about all the questions that I was asked, and I'll let you in a little secret. If you understand seven or eight categories of theology, the basic categories of systematic theology, and know a couple of key passages where those things are discussed, no one will ever ask you a question that you can't answer, and if they do, they're asking you something that you don't believe, so you don't have to answer no. So we went over the what questions? Well I ask was I asked tonight? Well, you were asked this question and this question yep, that question falls into the doctrine of the Bible. You know in revelation. Yep, that question falls into that category. You asked this yep, falls into the whole question in the nature of God. It was about this question yep, the nature of Christ, exclusivity, the Trinity basically yep. Yep. This one falls into the problem of evil and suffering. Yep, this one falls into everything fell into those seven or eight categories. Every question from that night, and every question that you will ever have to deal with is going to fall into those same case categories. Interestingly enough, we talked about catechisms and confessions, right Our confessions are broken up into these major categories as well. Our catechisms designed to teach us those confessions are broken up into those same categories as well. You see, it's only when you get out of a view of apologetics that falls into this category here, which would basically be presuppositional apologetics. It's only then that you feel like you've got to run off into every other field in order to be able to talk to people and actually engage in apologetics. Listen, I'm not denying that it's helpful to know things about science, or about philosophy, or about God Bless you. It's wonderful if you know things about that, that's great. But as far as doing apologetics, it's about you always being ready to give an answer for the reason for the hope that is in you. And you do not believe what you believe because some philosopher told you. You don't believe what you believe because some scientists told you. You believe what you believe because of what you find in the text. So again, if we understand these categories, and we understand the key text, the seminal texts that deal with these issues, we can answer questions. Different people will ask the questions in different ways, but you're going to get the same categories of questions. Is there a little work that needs to be done, Yeah, there's a little work that needs to be done. There is. But once we do that work, we can be comfortable and confident. Now, don't make this mistake, because here's the reality. God says sinners, not apologetics. So a lov dog. What happens as people go out and they get all ready with their apologetic and somebody asks you a question and they just serve it up and you can see it coming and you're just ready to just boom, here's your answer, and you give them the answer and it's just the greatest answer that anyone had ever given to this question. Nobody had ever been able to answer that question for them before finally they have an answer and you say, there it is. They're about to bow the knee and come pray and receive Christ. And they just ask you something else and then answer that question, and it just covers all the bases and just wow, that's great, Thanks so much for that. Well, what about which is why ultimately in apologetics you have to get to the gospel. Apologetics ultimately is just sort of pre evangelism. Right. We're sharing the gospel and people ask us questions because we're sharing the gospel, and then we answer the questions so that we can get to the heart of the gospel. So what I want to do tonight in the time that we have is I want to kind of, you know, fill two birds with one stone. Because expository apologetics is not just what happens as we do apologetics with unbelievers, as individuals who encounter unbelievers out there in the culture, out there in the world. We need to be able to do that. We need to be ready to give answers in that regard, and we need to be able to use the scriptures and rely on the scriptures to give those answers. Why, because these are answers that were given under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and are going to be more powerful than any answer that we could come up with on our own. So we need to be able to do that. But then secondly, there are a lot of preachers here, and as preachers, we need to learn how to preach apologetically. We need to learn how to preach the Word of God. And part of that, you know what part of this is, part of doing apologies from the pulpit is this stop assuming that everybody out there agrees with you. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. When you're preparing your sermons, assume that they are going to be people out there with their arms folded saying prove it, because there are. And assume that even if there aren't people out there with their arms folded, go and prove it. Assume that there's a person who works with a person who sits there with their arms folded saying prove it. And when you bring up this issue, they're thinking about a conversation that they had at work and they're going, yeah, this person asked me a question about that and I couldn't answer it. And if you dodge the apologetic issue in the text, you're basically communicating to your people. Yeah, there's not an answer. Deal with it. Deal with it when you're dealing with issues, and you know the person of Christ and the nature of Christ. Deal with the questions that come that people ask when you engage with them on this issue, which means that you might want to consider, I don't know, engage in with some lost people every now and then. It's the thought so that you can hear these questions and think about these questions. Remember when you were lost and how you read the Bible before you were a student of the Bible. Come at the text in that way, think about it in that way, and how you can engage. So I want to do both of those. So I want to do an exposition of a passage, and I want you to think about this from two perspectives. On the one hand, think about it from the perspective of you as an individual in a conversation with someone. And secondly, think about it from the perspective of you as a preacher preaching to your people. And the way you put the way you can put these together. Pastors, think about these texts, prepare these texts, and say to yourself, appreach you this for the person who sits out there and asks these questions. Open your bibles to Colossians Colossius chapter one, and here we're not going to deal with, you know, a classic apologetics question, but here we're going to deal with a broader issue. Two ways to look at apologetics. First, you look at apologetics from the standpoint of you know, those those categories and the questions that come in those categories, right about the nature of God, the nature of Christ, about the nature of the Bible, and how how we get the Bible, About the problem of evil and suffering, exclusivity, you know, things of that think about you know, that's one way to think about it, those classic issues. Another way to think about it is the meta narrative. The meta narrative, the over arching story that explains the world. We have a media narrative and the culture at large has a meta narrative, and oftentimes what you can do in conversations with people, they may not bring up a specific issue, like, you know, when Jesus was praying, who is he praying through? If you's God, they may not bring that up, But when it comes to the media narrative, they're always bringing this up. So the basic meda narrative has to do with the way that we answer these four questions, Who am I? Why am I here? What's wrong with the world? And how can what is wrong be made right? Every person is asking those questions. Every person who's ever lived has asked those questions. Every person who will ever live will ask those questions. They may not ask him in that order, it may not be that succinct, but they're going to ask those questions. Things are going to happen in their lives and they're going to ask those questions. They're gonna stand outside and look up at the stars and ask him who am I? Why? Why am I here? Something bad's gonna happen, and they're gonna say, what's wrong with the world. Boko Haram goes crazy in Nigeria, people get killed in France. These things happen, and people say, what is wrong with the world, and ultimately, what can we do about it? How can what is wrong be made right? These are the questions. Now, the culture has a meta narrative. The culture has a story that explains this. Okay, the culture's answer goes like this, who am i I am? The result of of random evolutionary processes I'm a cosmic accident. That's the culture's answer. I'm an accident. I'm the result of evolution. There was no rhyme or reason. I'm just here because this is the stage at which evolution stands today. Why am I here? Cultural response to that question is really simple. I'm here to consume and enjoy. That's why I'm here. I'm here to consume and enjoy. And here in America we have to add. You know, I'm here to consume and enjoy and be a nice person. I mean generally, you know, I want to be a good person. But basically, I'm here to consume and enjoy. You don't believe me, Just watch some commercials. Watch some commercials. I remember one time watching a commercial. It was a it was a it was a Cadillac commercial, and you know they show the cars and the beautiful lines of the car and the car out there running, and you know it's awesome, you know, getting in the car and the leather and Cadillac. And then here was the tagline, Cadillac because you deserve it. It's like, really, because I don't. Nobody does. I mean, I'll take it, but I don't deserve it. Amen. But we do we believe that we are here to consume and enjoy. That's the reason for our existing, for our existence, Okay, to consume and enjoy. What is wrong with the world. The culture's answer quite simply is that people are either insufficiently educated or insufficiently governed, or the third one, insufficiently medicated. That's why it's our answer to everything. In fact, it's not our answer to everything. It's our answer to everything that's beyond everything. Okay, somebody's violent, you need an anger management class. You're insufficiently educated, or you need to be governed better, or you need to be medicated. How is what is wrong made right? Well, obviously, if what is wrong is we're insufficiently educated, insufficiently governed, or insufficiently medicated, the way that what is wrong is made right is that we educate people, and that we govern people, and that we medicate people. And this leads us to utopia, which no one will enjoy because we'll all be drugged out of our minds. That's the culture's medinarians, and it just doesn't satisfy. It's horrible, I mean, think about it, because this is the story that we tell, and yet there are things that we want that don't fit the story we set up, and we tell children you are a cosmic accident. You are here because of Darwinian evolution. Johnny, don't hit Susie. Why? Well, because you just shouldn't. Why I'm bigger, I'm stronger, She's got something I want. If we're both just the result of random evolutionary processes, the only right thing for me to do is to take what I want from those who are too weak to stop me. Explain to me how anything else is right if what you believe is true, especially if we're just here to consume and enjoy. I want to consume what Susie has that will bring me joy. This just doesn't work, does it, Because all of a sudden, that's a world that we don't want to live in. So what do we have to do? Well, we've got to educate, Johnny. What happens when you educate a violent person, you get a more sophisticated violent person. Amen, Unibamer was a smart dude, Right, we're educated. What does that mean? That means that instead of having to get real close to one another with clubs, we can do that and wipe one another out by the thousands. Because we're educated. Now, well, you just need to be better governed. Okay, who's going to govern the governors? You just need to be better medicated. What happens when that doesn't work? And answer is not okay? That world is not okay, and people who hear that are not okay with it. So here's a great opportunity for us to say to people, you know what, this is what I heard, and this is what I was taught, and this is what I believed. But it just didn't sit well with me, and I don't believe it's just well with you either. But the Bible is a different answer to those questions. And then write from the scripture, we can answer the same questions who am I? Colossians one fifteen. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Interestingly enough, the question is who am I? The text starts with who he is? Yes, exactly, because you can't understand who you are and lessen until you understand who he is? Who is he? He? Here is Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. So now God has been seen by man. God has manifested himself to man, and he is the first born, or has pre eminence over all creation. So now we learn that there is not only a God, but that God has created and that we are part of that creation. So the culture says, I'm the result of random evolutionary processes. The Bible says, I am the crowning glory of the creation of God. Ah, now we can get somewhere, Johnny, don't hit Susie. Why we're both the result of random evolutionary processes and I'm bigger and stronger than she is. No, you're not, Johnny. You were both created in the image of Almighty God, and therefore both you and Susie have inherent dignity, inherent worth, and inherent value. My worldview teaches me this. The culture's worldview doesn't teach us this. The culture wants the results that you can only get from my worldview, but it wants to reject my worldview and accomplish it, and you cannot do that. It is only the Bible that does that. How do we end slavery without this worldview? Riddle me that, bat man, How does slavery end without this worldview? Ah? I know what you're thinking. You're sophisticated people. Well wait a minute, you know I actually were Christian people who you know, own slaves, and there are people who actually use the Bible to promote the idea of slavery. Yeah, but the only place that slavery ended where the places where the Bible was preached, right, and the dignity and inherent worth and value of all human beings talk clearly, that's why they're slavery today in for example, the Islamic world, but not in the Christian world. Why doesn't fit our worldview? Doesn't fit our worldview? The crowning glory of the creation of God. That's who you are. That's who I am. Why am I here? Culture says I'm here merely to consume and enjoy? What does the text say? For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, Whether thrones or dominions, or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. There you have it. I was created to bring glory and honor to God, my creator. That's why I'm here. Who am I the crowning glory of the creation of God. Why am I here? I'm here to bring God glory. That's the purpose of my existence, to bring God glory. Well, does this mean that we don't get to consume things or we don't get to enjoy things. Of course we do, but to the glory of God. So now I govern the things that I consume, and I govern the things that I enjoy, and I also govern the way that I consume them and the way that I enjoy them. The only way to get to conservation is through worship. Let me say that again, the only way to get to conservation is through worship. What does the culture do. The culture looks out and says, well, we want clean rivers, and we want an abundance of fish and wildlife, and we want, you know, beautiful green spaces and this and that and the other. How do we get there? Worship that stuff. That's what the culture says. These things become divine. How do we get there? Worship the creator who made us stewards over the creations, gave us dominion over the creation. The only way you get there is worship. One of them makes you an idolatry, the other one does not. Why am I here to bring glory and honor to God? What's wrong with the world? They say, We're either insufficiently governed, insufficiently educated, or insufficiently medicated. He is the head of the body of the Church. He is the beginning, the first born of the dead, that in everything he might be pre eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross Verse twenty one. And you, what's wrong with the world? You amen, me too, But mostly you who once were alienated and hostile and mind and doing evil deeds? What's wrong with the world? You alienated from God, hostile towards God, and doing evil deeds. Who am I the crowning glory, the creation of God? Why am I here to bring glory and honor to God? What's wrong with the world? I don't do what I was created to do, And instead of bringing glory worry to God. I'm alienated from God, I'm hostile toward God, and I'm engaged in evil deeds. In short, what's wrong with the world is sin. Our culture doesn't have this category. Our culture doesn't like this category. And because our culture doesn't like this category, there is much in evangelicalism that attempts to avoid this category, and so we attempt to preach the gospel without dealing with the issue of sin, which is akin to making an omelet without breaking any eggs. You can't get there from here. This is the crux of the matter. What's wrong with me is sin. Here's what's interesting. The culture looks out and the culture says there's a problem, there's problems. It looks at an individual and says, this individual has a problem. We need to fix this individual. How, pray tell, do you fix this individual? Well, we need to get this individual into the right environment because his problem is he was in the wrong environment. Well that's interesting. Why because Adam was created in the perfect environment and he felt okay, well okay, it's well, we need to get him the right companions. He's been running with the wrong crowd. That's interesting on two accounts. Number one, I'm still waiting to meet that one parent in America who will say it's me, My kid is the wrong crowd that everybody else is running with. Have you ever noticed that nobody's kid is the wrong crowd. They just run with the wrong crowd. His companion was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Well, what what what well, okay, fine, well with this guy, this guy, this guy, he had an imperfect upbringing. If he just had a better upbringing. Adam was brought up by God. How many times do we fall into these traps? Even when we talk about our own children. What's what's wrong with them? What? What? What's wrong with them? They're just insufficiently governed, They're insufficiently educated, they're insufficiently medicated. What's wrong with them is that they're in the wrong environment. What's wrong with them is that if you put them in the pristine environment with perfect companions and perfect parents, they would be in the very environment that Adam was in when he fell and brought sin into the world. What is wrong with the world? Sin? You're not innocent. You can't look outside of yourself to find the problem. You must look inside yourself to find the problem. It can't be educated out of you, it can't be governed out of you, and it can't be medicated out of you. Your problem is sin. How can what is wrong be made right? You who once were alienated and hostile and mind doing evil deeds? He has now reckoned, chiled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you, holy and blameless and above reproach before him? How can what is wrong be made right? The cross? The cross? The culture says that who am I? I'm the result of random evolutionary processes. Why am I here to consume and enjoy? What's wrong with the world? Insufficient government, insufficient education, infiicient medication. How can that which is wrong be made right? Somehow? We have to educate people better, and we have to govern people better, and we have to medicate people better. That doesn't get us there. It doesn't get us to utopia. We do all of those things in abundance, and things continue to get worse. Is that what you believe? It doesn't satisfy and it doesn't ring truth? You know what does? Who am I? I'm the crowning glory of the creation of God, created by God himself. Why am I here to bring glory and honor to the one who created me? To fulfill the purpose for which I was created? That's why I'm here. What's wrong with the world? Me sin is what's wrong with the world. I'm what's wrong with the world. And the fact that you have the same problem that I have, That's what's wrong with the world. And if I am a sinner and what's wrong with the world, and you are a sinner and what's wrong with the world, then we have no hope unless someone can come from outside of this world who is not tainted by sin and somehow rescue us, which is exactly what the Gospel say happened. That's the only hope. God made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him. This is the good news. All we, like sheep, had gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way. But God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us. All that doesn't work unless he comes from outside. That's the only hope. That we are reconciled to God by the blood of Christ. Our only hope is that somehow God can punish our sin, but can somehow do it vicariously, which means that somehow God has to be, as Paul says, both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Christ, which means that some kind of exchange has to take place, And that's exactly what happens. Christ is born without sin, but somehow what he's born with has to get to me. Christ too is born without sin, also lives without sin. This is his active obedience, so that in his active obedience he actually achieves perfect righteousness. So he is born perfectly righteous, and in his active obedience he achieves perfect righteousness. This is important because if he does not achieve perfect righteousness, he cannot impute perfect righteousness to me. And if I'm going to stand before God, perfect righteousness has to be imputed to me. Alien righteousness has to become mine. So Christ, in his perfection, This is why all the gospel matters. This is why the virgin birth is not optional. Now I have this imputed righteousness. But Christ does not just bring active obedience. He also brings passive obedience. In his passive obedience, he is nailed to the tree and he dies a sinner's death, But he wasn't a sinner. Why would someone who is not a sinner die a sinner's death? Because of the other side of imputation. His righteousness is imputed to me, My sinfulness is imputed to him. So that Christ dies on the tree, satisfying the righteous wrath of God, so that God is just, and we all know God's gotta be just. One of the first things we learn how to say is that's not fair. That needs to be punished. You're absolutely right. God punishes sin in Christ. But because Christ is perfectly righteous, he is able to endure that punishment and overcome that punishment. And having nailed my sin to the tree and imputed his righteousness to me, having laid down his life, he is able to take it up again. This is our answer, and it's the only one that satisfied. The irreligious person is searching for utopia and knows that we're no closer to it today than we were his today. The religious person basically has this view. You need to have a religious experience and then from that point on do more good things than bad things, and hope for the best when you die. There are two problems with that number one. I can't be good, amen, somebody. I can't be good, y'all. I tried it. I can't be good. And you know what I found out. One day, I actually was good. I was real good. I was so good that I was proud of the fact that I was good. And then I wasn't good anymore because I was proud. There's a song in an old movie the old movie called The Wiz. The Wiz was the black version of the Wizard of Oz. Well, it was I'm sorry if I haven't seen it. Michael Jackson was the Scarecrow and he sang this song you can't win, and the lyrics or something like that, you can't win, you can't get even, and you can't get out of the game. That's resonated with me since I was a boy. That's everyone without the Gospel. You can't win, you can't get even, and you can't get out of the game. You have no hope. But God. Look at the last part of this verse twenty two again, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy, blameless and above reproach before him. This is the imputed righteousness. This is the imputed righteousness. This is not just I get to escape hell. This is not I give my best life now, which by the way, I can only have if I go to Hell when I die. Amen, you do realize that, right. The only way you can have your best life now is if you go to Hell when you die, because if you go into heaven, you go have your best life. Then some of y'all get that on the way home. But I don't think we realize what this means that as believers, we're not going to limp into heaven. He's going to present us. It's faultless, faultless righteous. What does this look like? I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea what this looks like. I can't even work it out trinitarily in my mind. What this looks like when Jesus presents me in heaven. No idea. But one day I got a bit of a glimpse. I think grew up with my father, but I knew my father. My mother and father were high school sweethearts. My mom got pregnant with me when she was seventeen, gave birth to me just after she had turned eighteen. Back then, you got married when stuff like that happened, you just did. So my parents got married and they stayed married for like that long. I'm named after my father, my son is named after me. We're all named after my grandfather. My grandfather has a different middle name, which is why I'm a junior and not a third whatever. Later in life, God, by his grace, reconciled me with my father, and as I was able to take my son to meet his grandfather and his great grandfather. Unbelievable. I hadn't thought about it before it happened. But we were there, and we were all together in a room, and I just didn't even it didn't even enter into my mind that there might come this moment where we were all there in this room together and I'm sitting down with my pops and my grandfather comes and all of a sudden, here comes Trey tooling into the room and I just picked him up, and I'm holding my son and I'm looking up this first time we were all together, and I looked at Trey. I said, you don't understand this, but son, this is my daddy. That's your granddaddy. That's the same name as you. This is your grandson. Your name's sake. Son. Right there, that's your granddaddy. Yeah, a real old dude right there, that's your granddaddy. You're a great granddaddy. Becuse, that's my granddaddy, granddaddy right there, look at him, that's your great grandson. And all of a sudden, my father begin to weep. And I thought about this text you present you, he will present you, He will present you. He will present you one day for those of us who are redeemed. Christ will look upon us whom he has redeemed, clothed in his righteousness, and he will say, Father, that's your son. I redeemed him with my blood. Child, that your father. You belong here. You belong here. You belong here, You belong here. But I but you nothing. You belong here. I shed my blood for you. You belong here. Imputed my righteousness to you, and that's all he sees. You belong here, claimed you redeemed you. And there was absolutely nothing in you, or around you, or about you that made you worthy of it, other than the fact that my father set his love upon you and said, go get him. You can have utopia. You can have it because there is nothing that this world is offering or proclaiming that comes close to that. And deep down inside, we know that our meta narrative doesn't work. We know it doesn't work. And here's the beauty. Everybody knows it doesn't work. So there are people all over this world who are being told over and over and over again you are a random cosmic accident, over and over and over again. There's no rhyme or reason. For your existence over and over and over again. You're here this to consume and enjoy, and the more they consume, the less they enjoy. Over and over and over again. You just need some more education, some more government, some more drugs, some more whatever. And all over this world there are people who are saying, this doesn't work for me. You know what they're waiting for. They're waiting for somebody who knows and is willing to tell them that's not the truth. What is true is you're the crown and glory of the creation of God. You were made to bring him glory and honor. But you don't do that. And that's what's wrong with you, and that's what's wrong with all of us. But God was rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. He sent his own son to redeem us. And when we come to him and repentance and faith, acknowledging these truths, forsaking our sins and embracing His active and passive obedience in the place of our sinfulness and unrighteousness, not only do we have that presentation to look forward to one day in glory, but guess what is wrong is also made right in the here and the now, and there is rime, reason and purpose to your existence. Here and now, there is joy here and now and there there is even hope in the midst of your despair. Here and now this is our gospel, This is our message. Answer these questions for yourself? Are these not the exact questions that everybody around you is asking me? You know they are. Is there a better answer that you or I could come up with by philosophying? You know there's not. You know there's not. Is there a greater hope with which any one of us, or anyone we know or met, could be left? You know there's not. The word of God is an errand the word of God is infallible, And the word of God is sufficient even to answer the questions of those who don't even believe it. Are you here today without Christ? Have you come into this room answering those questions the wrong way? Did you limp into here spiritually? Did you come here hoping that maybe you could get some more information, maybe you can find some more better ways to govern yourself. How you trying to figure out how to better medicate yourself? Did you come in here with this today? Is this the way you walked in here, limped in here tonight. My prayer for you is that you recognize that you've been lied to, but that tonight you've heard the truth. The day you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. If you limped into here tonight, you can dance out. Flee to Christ. Flee from trusting in yourself. Flee from blaming everyone but yourself. Flee from attempting to put band aids on gaping wounds. Flee from self reliance, Flee from self pity, Flee from self righteousness. Flee to Christ. Run to Christ. He is righteous, you are not. He is sinless, you are not. But it doesn't have to remain that way. You can turn and flee from your sin. You can turn and flee to Christ and have his righteousness imputed to you, your sinfulness imputed to him, and lived the rest of your life with the anxious anticipation of the day that you will be presented. Oh sinner, would you run to Christ? That's great, Oh gracious God, our Father, Grant by your grace that we might hear and heed these truths. Grant by your grace that beyond that we might proclaim these truths Forgive us Lord for believing that there is something more significant than your word when it comes to answering objections about our faith. Forgive us for believing that there is something more sufficient than the Gospel when it comes to healing man's deepest hurts and wounds. Forgive us for believing that there is something other than Jesus to which we or they should cling. And forgive us for believing that there's anything that we can do to make Jesus more precious and more priceless than simply proclaiming him as he has been revealed. Your grace, that we might hold to this truth, knowing that our holding is not the deciding factor, but the fact that this truth is holding us is what matters. Grant that we might be found in Christ. Grant that we might hope in him, trust in him, believe in him, flee to him, cling to him. Grant that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. This is our prayer, This is the earnest desire of our verious souls. We ask it in the name of Jesus.