The Divinity Of Jesus In Mark

Well, once again, this evening, we will be in the Gospel of Mark and we will be looking at a number of texts this evening, beginning with the baptism of Jesus.

Gospel of Mark, mainly looking at chapter one this evening, Lord willing.

But before we begin to look at what God's word has to say to us this evening, let us ask his blessing upon us.

Our gracious Lord, we would ask that during this time you would help us once again to consider your word and to remember your truth.

Lord, we will be going out into a world that is very much opposed to what we believe. And many of us will have opportunity in this coming week to give testimony to why we believe what we believe.

Lord, we ask you to help to prepare us even this night for those opportunities of bringing glory and honor to your name.

Help us to remember, help us to bring honor and glory to you. We pray in Christ's name. This morning, we began looking at the subject.

What does the Gospel of Mark tell us about the deity of Christ? We did so within the context of the fact that the

Gospel of Mark is normally considered by many in scholarship and certainly by those who oppose the

Christian faith to give a very different view of Jesus than what we have, for example, in the

Gospel of John. Normally, we have a contrast presented between the heavenly

Jesus, the exalted Jesus in the Gospel of John and the very human

Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. And we pointed out we believe that Jesus was truly human.

He was truly a man. The word became flesh. But the question is, does the Gospel of Mark know nothing of an exalted

Jesus? Does the Gospel of Mark simply give us a view of Jesus as a servant, as a prophet, as a mere man?

And there is no evidence, we are told in the Gospel of Mark, of any higher view of Jesus.

And we began this morning and we saw in the very first verses of the

Gospel of Mark a book -ending effect where you have the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God in Mark 1 .1, and then in the 15th chapter of Mark at the crucifixion of Christ, you have the centurion who is standing at the foot of the cross.

And when he sees how Jesus died, he says, surely this man was the

Son of God. And we looked at other evidences found within those verses concerning the exaltation of Jesus and the very high view that Mark has of him.

This evening, we will continue looking at evidence like that by beginning with Mark chapter one, verses nine through 13,

Mark chapter one, verses nine through 13, which says, In those days,

Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan, immediately coming up out of the water.

He saw the heavens opening and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens.

You are my beloved son in you. I am well pleased. Immediately, the spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

And he was with the wild beasts and the angels were ministering to him.

Now, here you have one of clearly the most famous statements in all of Scripture in relation to the doctrine of the

Trinity. In the early church, when the early believers sought to define and defend their belief in God, they could not help but see in the very earliest narratives we have of Jesus's ministry, this baptism of Jesus by John.

It is recorded for us in the Synoptic Gospels and the though Mark's version is somewhat shorter and more to the point, especially when we look at the temptations that follow.

You can see Mark's version of the temptations is very, very brief in comparison to the fuller version provided to us elsewhere.

But still, you have this at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry, this amazing situation.

You have Jesus being baptized and he comes up out of the water. Now, I hope you will forgive me if just for a moment

I point out that we are in a Baptist church. Yes, reformed

Baptist church, and sometimes people figure that because you're reformed Baptist, that means you're not going to talk much about this, but it's really tough to come up out of being dripped on.

OK, that's a difficult task to do. Some people say, well, coming up out of the water, as in walking up out of the water afterwards, after having gone down into the water to be sprinkled.

But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. It seems rather clear the natural meaning of the language would seem to indicate that the reason

John was baptizing it as a river is because he was baptizing, which is what the word baptizo means.

It means to dip into or to immerse as its natural meaning in the language.

And so I just mentioned this in passing in case you just need to be reminded of that particular that particular reality.

And so as Jesus is coming up out of the water, he sees the heavens being open. Now, we've all seen beautiful oil paintings of this and, you know, almost like someone was there with a.

Does anyone remember what a Polaroid was? You're dating yourself if you remember what a Polaroid is. Younger people are going.

Is that an app on the iPhone? I'm not sure what you're talking about there, but back in my day, if you want a picture immediately, you didn't get your cell phone out because there were no such things and you didn't get your digital camera out because there were no saying such things.

You had this big bulky thing and it went and out came this thing. And then it's a long process and you'll have to look it up on YouTube sometime.

But anyway, there wasn't anybody standing there with with a video camera or with a

Polaroid camera taking pictures of this. So I'm not really sure exactly what the heavens being open would have looked like.

But you have the spirit descending upon him as a dove.

And there's all sorts of pictures of this and certainly down through history when when

Christian artists have have sought to represent the spirit of God, they have done so primarily drawing from this physical manifestation as if that's the only physical manifestation the spirit could possibly take,

I suppose. But but the spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove and a voice comes out of the heavens.

Now, if you've ever gone out with us over the years out to Mesa, Arizona, for example, to the to the

Easter pageant of the Mormon Church and we're passing out tracts of witnessing the folks and we used to go to Salt Lake City and do the same type of thing or whatever situation we might be in where you encounter folks who who reject what we believe about the doctrine of the

Trinity. Even when I go to London, Lord willing, I'll have at least one night next month to do what we've done a number of times, go to Leicester Square.

Beautiful, beautiful place. It's an incredible place to do open air preaching and witnessing the folks. And I let other people do the open air preaching.

As soon as the Muslims show up, they bring them over to me and I spend the rest of the night talking to folks. And there's this one guy that shows up all the time.

He just tries to take up all my time. His name's Sammy. And he just he just loves to come up with every possible objection to the doctrine of the

Trinity. He's not really listening to what I'm saying in response. But anyway, one of the common objections that you'll get if you go out and, for example, talk to our

Mormon friends is they look at this and since they don't know what we believe, they'll go, so what do you think's going on here?

Do you think Jesus is a is a ventriloquist? He's he's throwing his voice because they think that because we believe there's one

God, that we are Unitarians or modalists, that Jesus is the father and the son and the spirit.

And while the leadership of the Mormon Church bears some responsibility for deceiving their own people about it at the same time, sadly, many times those young missionaries have gone knocking on people's doors and the even the evangelicals are like, well,

Jesus said I and the father are one. And they just don't know enough about what they believe to accurately explain the doctrine to them so we can understand why they would remain in their confusion.

But clearly we have distinguished here three persons. It is not the father who's being baptized.

It's not the spirit who's being baptized. It's the son. And the voice that comes out of heaven is not the voice coming out of Jesus.

Just as we'll see on the Mount of Transfiguration, there is a clear distinction made between the father and the son and the father's voice says, you are my son, the beloved one in you.

I am well pleased. Now, some in the early church took this text as a as a pretext for saying, well, this is when

Jesus became the son of God. And if you did not have the rest of the

New Testament, it would be difficult to argue one way or the other, because because Mark's not interested in entering into that particular discussion at this particular point of time, you might be able to argue that point in some other place.

But especially once you have the New Testament corpus, it is impossible to read it that way. What you have is at the very beginning, right before the temptations, a statement from heaven itself identifying

Jesus as someone who is special. As I said this morning, there were people in the

Old Testament who were called sons of God. But the idea of being the son of God in a special way.

That becomes even more fully explained, for example, in the Gospel of John, when when Jesus uses language that very clearly puts him on a different level than anyone else.

And that's echoed here. You are my son, the beloved one. That same type of terminology is used of a husband and a wife and the intimate relationship that is theirs, and that's a unique relationship.

It's not just you are just one amongst many sons of God because I created you. You are my beloved son in you.

I am well pleased. So right before the temptations come, we have the father in heaven speaking to the son on earth and the spirit then descending as a dove.

In the very next verse, drives him literally, Ekbalo means to cast out.

He doesn't just say, well, let's go out there. There is a normally a violence to this term, a casting used of casting out demons even.

And so there is a driving of Jesus into the wilderness for this period of temptation.

And we could expand upon. It's not really part of our subject this evening, but we could expand upon the fact that the spirit of God, the angels of God, there is ministration that is done to Jesus during the time of his fasting and temptation, which reminds us that sometimes we get the idea, well,

Jesus can't really be an example for me because he was God. And so, you know, he he could do anything he wanted.

You know, I mean, he could really have been hungry during that 40 day fast, because at any point he could have said to Iraq, become bread.

Well, he didn't do that. So, yeah, the hunger would be real. But wouldn't it just make it easier if you sort of knew?

But the reality is Jesus in the incarnation voluntarily makes himself dependent upon the spirit of God, just as we are dependent upon the spirit of God.

His glory is veiled, he responds to Satan's temptations, not by saying,

I am the son of God, I will destroy you. But instead, by quoting from the scriptures, and so I think that also relates to the statement recorded by Matthew and Mark in regards to Jesus' knowledge of the day and the hour, he says, no one knows neither the angels in heaven nor the son, but the father only.

I think this is part of this making himself completely dependent upon the spirit of God.

It's part of the self limitation that is a part of the incarnation itself. We don't have time to expand upon that this evening, but I think it is important to note that particular aspect.

And so after those words, after the Trinitarian encounter between the father, the son and the spirit recorded for us, skip on down to verses 21 through 27.

Mark, chapter one, verses 21 through 27. They went into Capernaum and immediately on the

Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and began to teach. They were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out saying, what business do we have with each other?

Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God.

And Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet and come out of him, throwing him into convulsions. The unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.

They were all amazed so that they debated among themselves, saying, what is this, a new teaching with authority?

He commanded even the unclean spirit, he commands even unclean spirits, and they obey him. Immediately, the news about him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.

And so here we have one of the first encounters that Jesus has on the

Sabbath day. This is going to be a regular, a regular issue, partly because Jesus precipitates these encounters purposely, but also partly because many of these encounters take place in synagogues.

And well, that's when you got together for the synagogue services and the reading of the law and things like that.

And so he enters the synagogue and this is a synagogue in Capernaum. And this is a place where many things happen.

We look back at the Gospel of John and we see what happened in the synagogue at Capernaum there as well.

But here very early on, he begins to teach and they're amazed at his teaching. Now, with all due respect to the to the ancient

Jews, I've spent some time reading what is called the Mishnah and the

Mishnah is the the collection together of the traditions of the Jews. It was put together about 250 years after Christ.

And in reading that, I must confess, I can understand why there would have been amazement at his teaching, because Pharisee ism as a whole had fallen into, well, what you see.

Likewise, in the medieval period, in the medieval church, where basically people would quote other people and well, such and so has said about this and then such and so said about this and then such and so said this.

And if you'd ask, yeah, but what do we believe about that? Then they just go back over the list. I remember that happening in seminary.

Once we had a particular teacher for a particular class and he was a he just graduated in seminary and he just wasn't a very good teacher.

And he had gone through a historical survey of what various theologians believed about some point in systematic theology.

And I remember one of the other students putting his hand up and going, that's all well and good.

But what do we believe about that? And you could just tell the professor was extremely nervous to answer that question, which

I found to be very odd in a systematic theology class. But anyway, it happens to a lot of folks. And and in this day and age, that is the day and age of Jesus.

That's pretty much what the scribes and Pharisees did. And so when

Jesus comes, he teaches as one having authority and not as the scribes.

The scribes not profess any particular authority for themselves, they grounded that in appealing to somebody else.

But Jesus isn't seeking to fit in with the religious direction of his day.

And so he is teaching. And just then there was a man in their synagogue with unclean spirit.

And that strikes me as a little bit odd. Maybe because the scribes didn't teach with authority that he had been there and no one had really noticed.

But when you are faced with the authority of the word of God, things happen. I've often said and I've been saying this a lot more recently in light of the great amount of apostasy that exists in churches in our land, that if you can have an unregenerate person sitting in your midst for a very long period of time and they are never challenged by the gospel, their sin is never called out, they're never called repentance and faith.

There's something wrong with your church and there's something wrong with what's being preached in that church.

And Jesus comes in and he teaches with authority and very quickly a person with a very serious spiritual issue is exposed because of that.

And notice when he encounters Jesus, the man cries, the man with the unclean spirit cries out and says, what business do we have with each other?

It's literally what is it between me and you? Jesus of Nazareth, and then note, have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the holy one of God. Now, obviously, this unclean spirit has spiritual knowledge that the people sitting in the synagogue do not.

They know something about the nature of Jesus and notice Jesus's immediate response is to rebuke him, saying, be quiet and come out of him.

Jesus doesn't say, yeah, why don't you testify a little bit more about me? No, he silences the spirit and removes him.

But notice what he the few words he gets out, have you come to destroy us?

Have you come, come from where? I mean, most of the time, a lot of people say, well, it just means have you come to the synagogue,

Capernaum? Really? That's all there is to it. You've got an unclean spirit here. Then a supernatural knowledge of who this one is.

Have you come to destroy us? What's behind that? We don't normally stop to think about that.

But what has to be behind this? The demons know that their time is short.

They know they're not going to win. They know they're going to be judged and they know who's going to do the judging and they know it's the holy one of God.

And so they are standing or whatever a demon does face to face.

With the one that they know has the authority to destroy them, to judge them.

And so this comes out, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are.

You can't hide. I know who you are. You're the holy one of God. Now, remember what

I said at the beginning. This morning, I reminded you that for the vast majority of scholars in New Testament scholarship today, it's just a given that the

Christology of Mark is down here and the Christology of John is way up here.

And there's an evolutionary process that goes up between the two. But as I said,

I've challenged many of these folks in the past and generally their conclusion is not based upon a study of the text, it's based upon preexisting assumptions and certain things, presuppositions they bring to the text itself.

And so if you were just to read this and ask yourself the question, is Mark trying to present to us a merely human

Jesus, if that's what he's doing, he's really bad at it. I mean, we haven't got now the first chapter yet.

And what has he done? He's he's defined the gospel of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's quote from the

Old Testament in such a way that sounds like Jesus is Yahweh. And now he's got a demonized person recognizing

Jesus, attributing to Jesus the divine authority to do the judgment, the final day and destroy demonic forces and says, you're the holy one of God.

He's not starting out real well on his. I'm only to present to you a human Jesus thing. And yes, that's what you'll hear repeated over and over and over and over again.

And so Jesus rebukes him. And notice when Jesus commands him to leave, he doesn't say in the name of somebody else.

When you see Paul casting out a demon, an axe, he does so in the name of Christ.

He does so in the name of the incarnate one. Jesus doesn't invoke anybody else's name.

He has the authority to do it himself. He cast him out, be quiet and come out of him. And the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him and they were all amazed.

Now, notice the. The theme of the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders hasn't started yet.

We're getting some of the foundation of it here, it's going to it's going to come, it's going to come in the very next section, actually, but it hasn't yet started.

So in the first chapter, if you're just to say, how's Mark doing here? Is Mark doing a good job giving us the merely human

Jesus thing, we wouldn't have to grade him as doing a good job because he's letting all this other stuff in.

He's giving us indications that certainly the unbiased person simply reading these texts or hearing them proclaimed the first time would have seen and would have recognized and would not have gotten the idea, oh, yeah, we're just talking about some guy, just just an itinerant preacher from Galilee.

I don't think so. So our third text this evening, I guess, point number three, if we want to follow

Pastor Fry's normal way of doing things, Mark chapter two. Beginning of verse one, and let's look at the story of the healing of the paralytic when he had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home and many were gathering together so that there was no longer room, not even near the door.

And he was speaking the word to them. And they came, bring to him a paralytic carried by four men being unable to get to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.

And Jesus, seeing their face, said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. But some of the scribes are sitting there and reasoning in their hearts.

Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Immediately, Jesus, aware in his spirit they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or say, get up and pick up your pallet and walk.

But so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.

And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone so they were all amazed and were glorifying

God, saying, we have never seen anything like this.

Now, here is an amazing story. It's one, again, that we all know very, very well.

We've all I remember. I can't remember how many times I, as a young person in Sunday school, heard this particular story and remembered looking at, you know, we would we would make these.

Well, of course, back in the old days, we had flannel board and stuff like that, but you probably still do the little things you cut out people and you make it was fun making the little guys, you know, lowering the paralytic down on the, you know, through the roof type of thing.

That was that was a fun thing. And in Sunday school, maybe some of you remember, remember the same thing.

I don't know, but I found it to be a wonderful thing. And so we know the story. So it's easy for us, again, because we know it so well to sort of skip over it.

But let's think again about some of the things that Jesus says in this particular text.

First of all, he's ministering the word. And now we have some of the scribes and Pharisees. They can't help but notice this is a rather popular guy.

There's someone and he's not from our circles. Let's go see what he has to say.

And it doesn't seem that what Jesus was saying at this point in time is causing them any particular problems.

He's probably talking about God's law. He's probably talking about how you are to live.

And and as long as you're not making real specific application to them, doesn't seem to be much of an issue at this point until all of a sudden you start noticing that there's dust falling on you.

We used to have, I'm not sure if we still know, we fixed it. OK, there used to be a crack right along here.

And every time I would come in, I'd sit down and I'd have to do this one because every every week there's just a little bit of coming down.

In fact, there's still a little bit right there from from the roof. And so you're sitting there and you're listening and.

And also now I don't know about you, but I don't think they got that roof opened up without dropping a whole bunch of dust on folks.

I mean, I mean, this is sort of a desert climb and and, you know, you start disturbing stuff up in the roof of a place like this and it can get pretty messy.

So I would imagine Jesus' teaching was somewhat disturbed. And if you think that like, you know, sometimes the door has been left open a little bit.

How many of you could possibly concentrate on this part of sermon to any meaningful level if the door was still open?

You know, you're trying to like, that door's open, that door's open. It's so easy to be distracted.

Well, if someone was coming through the roof, I guarantee you wouldn't be listening to me. So I imagine everything came to a grinding halt.

And finally, the sun comes in, you know, and it's like, oh, and here comes this guy on a pallet.

Now, there's obviously going to be some issues of some people, because we know from even extra biblical sources, but certainly from the

New Testament as well. We know that there were beliefs about sick people.

The scribes and Pharisees would look down upon these people as if they were, well, just not quite as good as they were.

They had done something. There was there was something involved. And Jesus does talk about sin in this man's life.

Doesn't go into details, but he does bring the issue up. So they lay down, they bring the man down and Jesus seeing their faith.

It's interesting when you look at the original language, it's the faith of them, plural. Does he include the paralytic?

I don't think he is. I think he's talking about the guys up on the roof, not about you, but I've opened up a roof.

I'm on the edge of that. I'm not so certain I'm going to be staying on the roof very long. You know what I mean? But they're willing to do this.

They lower him down. And so Jesus, seeing their faith, says to the paralytic child.

Your sins are forgiven. Now, again, we look at that.

Well, that's Jesus. Jesus says things like that. But how would you hear that?

The first time, what if you had never you didn't have the opportunity I had, you didn't grow up in Sunday school, you didn't have the nice little pictures of Jesus healing the paralytic.

You hear a man saying your sins are forgiven. What are you going to think about that person?

What do you get? What are you going to recognize? They're claiming for themselves. Now, when certain of the scribes and Pharisees.

Certainly, actually, it doesn't say Pharisees, certain scribes, the Pharisees will come along in time. They're sitting there and and it's they are dialoguing.

And it's actually dialogue is a transliteration of a Greek word. Dialogue is the term in the original language.

And they're they're dialoguing in their hearts, their reasoning, their hearts. Why is this man speaking in this way?

He is blasphemy. He's blaspheming. Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?

Or it's literally the one God, God alone. Now, theologically, they were exactly right.

The only one who can forgive sins is God. And so they've got their theology right.

They just don't have their eyes right. They don't know who they're dealing with here.

And so Jesus's response to them is not to correct their theology and say, oh, no, lots of folks can forgive sins.

He doesn't say that. Actually, he says, knowing in his spirit that they were reasoning in this way amongst themselves.

It didn't say he saw them mumbling. It didn't say he knew scribes so well that when they did this number, he knew what they were saying.

No, Jesus in his spirit knew what they were saying within themselves.

That sounds somewhat miraculous. Of course, what he's about to do is miraculous, but he knows what they're reasoning within them.

And so he asks, why are you reasoning in your hearts in this way?

That must have been, you know, that must have been an eye opener for them.

They hadn't made any outward statement. But all of a sudden, Jesus turns to them and says, why are you thinking like this in your hearts?

That's not normally how Jewish teachers do things. Jesus has knowledge of what they're doing in their hearts.

And then he asks, what's easier here? What's easier? That I, you know, say to the man, take up your pallet, walk or say your sins are forgiven.

But notice why Jesus did it the way he did it.

But in order that you might know that the Son of Man possesses, has exousia, authority upon the earth to forgive sins.

Jesus is doing this for a particular reason. I want you to know the

Son of Man, not a son of man, the Son of Man, the

Son of Man has authority upon the earth to forgive sins.

He then says to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet.

And this is what happens. Now, think about this for just a moment. The response is amazement.

And it's not quite yet that you start seeing the clash between the religious leaders.

I mean, it's starting here. Here's the first indication of it. Later on, there's going to be, you know, they're going to start taking counsel, what are we going to do about this guy, etc.,

etc. The tension becomes very strong, very quickly. But Jesus does this so as to demonstrate something.

To demonstrate that the Son of Man has authority upon the earth to forgive sins.

Who is the Son of Man? Well, we won't go into it this evening because our time is pretty much run out.

But we will next week focus upon a second sort of bookend.

This is still toward the very beginning of the book, at the very end of the book. Remember this, just keep this in mind because we're going to head there, we're going to spend more time on it.

When Jesus stands before the ultimate, the actual finale of his encounter and his arguments with the religious leaders.

When they have him arrested and when the high priest, not just some scribes up in Galilee, who are reasoning in their hearts.

That's just, that's the first level. Now we're at the ultimate level. The high priest says,

I abjure you by God. Who are you? Are you the son of the blessed one?

Which the demons have already identified Jesus as. It's, notice the irony.

Demons get it. Religious folks are still asking the question at the end of the gospel. Are you the son of the blessed one?

And Jesus' response is, I am. Ego -ivy, by the way, which you find echoes of in John.

I am. And you shall see the son of man coming with the clouds.

And they knew immediately what he was referring to. He's taking him back to Daniel. And the high priest tears his clothes and says, what need we have further witnesses?

You've heard the blasphemy. And what do they say right here? How does this man speak like this?

Blasphemy. He's blaspheming. Here, the encounter, low level, but everything's here.

All the stuff that's just going to keep growing and growing, get amplified and amplified and amplified. It's all here.

And what does Jesus do in both instances? I am the son of man.

And he refuses to compromise, even when he knows what's going to result. At the end of the gospel,

Mark, Mark, I'm confused here, Mark, you my my scholars tell me that that you're trying to tell us about a merely human

Jesus. We're barely in the second chapter. And man, Mark, you're not doing a good job of that.

You are giving us reason after reason after reason to realize, wow.

This one has authority, this, this is not Isaiah, this is this is not a mere prophet.

No prophet has spoken like this. Even the demons recognize something special about this one.

Mark, if you're just trying to give us a merely human Jesus, you're not doing a very good job of it.

But of course, we know that's not what he was doing. We recognize that the very same spirit that gives to us the gospel of John with its clear testimonies is the very same spirit that gave us the gospel of Mark.

And we just need to realize Mark was writing in a different context to a different people.

And so he includes different elements of the same story. And when we take all of them together.

We get the fullness of the Christian faith. It's when people insist upon isolating these books and then tearing them into little pieces.

It's no wonder they make them contradictory to themselves. And yet that is what we're facing over and over and over again in our society.

And I hope that not only are you once again given a reason to rejoice in hearing these stories, but as you have opportunity, you might say, yeah, but this week it's like last week.

A lot of topics that people don't want to talk about in the grocery store or talk about in the school room or, you know, across the back fence.

It's going to be about what's going on in the nation. It's going to be about marriage and why I believe that the

Bible defines what marriage is and all the rest of these things. How does that help me? Because fundamentally.

When you listen to what these folks are saying, the reason that they are able to attack what the word of God says about morals and ethics is because they fundamentally believe the

Bible is not really the word of God, that it's self -contradictory and they've accepted everything that these people have to say.

Take the time. Douglas Wilson, a man with whom I have a number of disagreements, but I believe he's a

Christian. We have disagreements on certain issues. We even debated back in 2004, but Douglas Wilson did a talk at the

University of Illinois back in March, I believe it was, on the subject of sexuality from a

Christian perspective, including homosexuality and marriage. And the videos are online.

They are fascinating to watch. Not only just the outrageous behavior of the people that tried to shut this down and, you know, everybody on the left, free speech, free speech, just for us, not for you.

But, you know, that that hypocrisy we all know and have seen very, very clearly.

But once you got into the audience questions and the police have had to drag out the people that weren't going to allow any type of communication at all, if you listened carefully to the objections that people did bring to what

Wilson was saying, it went back to this stuff. There are actually people sitting there saying, how can you believe the stuff you believe when the

Gospels contradict themselves, when you've got Mark giving a different Jesus than John does? And we will have more confidence to speak to what needs to be spoken to in our society when we have a real grounding in the

Word of God and a recognition that what we believe can stand examination.

It's those who attack the Christian faith that generally run from that examination. That's certainly what

I have discovered to be the case. And so I hope you're encouraged by that, encouraged by the

Word of God this evening. Let's close our time in a word. Indeed, our

Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for the fact that you have preserved your word for us.

We think about just the miracle of that, that these records that have been the object of hatred for centuries upon centuries have been preserved for us so that we might listen to what

Mark said and compare what Matthew said and what John said. We thank you for the preservation of your word and we thank you that by your spirit you keep drawing us back to your word and causing us to believe, to have faith and a desire to understand.

And as we have opportunity, our dear Father, in this coming week, may we be witnesses for you.

May our gospel proclamation be clear, forthright, and may you use it to bring conviction.