Introduction to The God Who is There

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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June 6, 2021

00:00: Well, for those of you who read it, the whole book, great.
00:04: You're going to probably read it again.
00:06: For those who didn't open it yet, that's OK because we're really not going to start the book itself till next week.
00:12: So you have one more week to at least hopefully read chapter one.
00:17: And next week, Brother Mike will take chapter one.
00:26: So what I wanted to do today was kind of just set the tone of what we would like to see as we study through the God who's there.
00:38: And I just wanted a couple of remarks.
00:39: And I want to look at a couple of scriptures to kind of settle some thoughts in my mind.
00:44: Why do something like this? What's the profit? Because some people will just say, well, you know, I don't really need to read the Bible that much.
00:55: And I want to kind of just give us some thought to think about, especially in light of going through this book, on why it's so important to study, that everyone should have some sort of regular studied life together.
01:10: And for anybody here under 18, no, Ron, you're not under 18.
01:16: Ma'am, no, you're not.
01:19: But for you young people, listen, I wanted to make sure, Brother Mike and I want to make sure that you enjoy what we do here.
01:26: And I say this to everybody, but particularly to you, if you have questions, please ask.
01:32: We have no schedule.
01:34: We can, I mean, it should take us a couple months.
01:37: But there's no rush, I mean, especially since we are going to look at things that take a long time in development, if you will.
01:48: So with that in mind, just a couple of thoughts.
01:51: And so I wanted to first say, ask you to think about what this book is not.
01:57: And so maybe we'll start with that.
02:01: So I will say this to you, this book is not a, good morning.
02:09: Well, with a train like that, you're welcome, you come in.
02:15: We were just talking about you guys anyway, so.
02:23: So what I said was, as we start this, what this book is not, and what it is not, is it's not a systematic theology.
02:35: So what is a systematic theology? I'm not going to use big words too much, but I wanted to at least give us some thoughts.
02:43: This book is not a systematic theology, because how would you define it? Anybody want to take a shot at what a systematic theology is? Sympathize.
02:58: That's John Calvin, by the way, sitting in the back.
03:01: You can tell by the beard.
03:04: So what a systematic theology does is it takes all the scriptural truths on a particular subject, whether it be God, or heaven, or hell, or whatever it is, and it gathers all that data together, and then it forms a doctrine.
03:20: So that's why it's systematic.
03:22: So as you would look at a book, or read a book, sometimes you read that, a systematic theology where someone will take all the material, put it all together, develop a truth.
03:34: That is not what this book is.
03:37: So what I wanted us to think about is what this book is.
03:40: And it's more of, let me do it this way.
03:46: Let me ask you to think about this.
03:48: We've done this before in our other studies.
03:51: But let me ask you to think about this.
03:54: Let's just say this is in the beginning.
03:58: In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.
04:00: So this is where we jump in in Genesis.
04:05: And this would be, let's say this is eternity past.
04:10: For anybody that doesn't know, spelling does not count.
04:15: At least, if I'm wrong, especially it doesn't count.
04:19: So let's say we start there.
04:22: And then we begin to move forward.
04:25: We just start to move forward through time, through history.
04:31: And let's just say we come to the cross.
04:37: And then we would continually go on till when? Thank you.
04:49: We'll come to the second coming, the consummation of things, the end of things.
04:54: So as you begin to think about it like this, what this book seeks to do is to walk us through from this point in Genesis and progressively, in a historical setting as the prophets wrote, begin to unfold God's purposes as we see them through time, space, and history.
05:21: Here's the other thought that God has already had, God in eternity past, which is kind of hard to define.
05:28: How do you define eternity past? I don't know.
05:31: But in the eternal counsels of God, God decided to do what? God purposed to do what, sir? OK, create the heavens and the earth, certainly.
05:43: And as far as his purposes for his creatures, what would we say that God purposed before he created anything? Let's use the word redemption.
06:01: So in the eternal counsels of God, God purposed to redeem.
06:07: Fair? Correct? OK.
06:10: What this book does, seeks to do, is to take us with this thought in mind of God's redemptive work, what God purposes to do, and unfold it as we see it throughout these chapters in the book.
06:26: Because to me, that's certainly what the Bible does in many ways, right? The Bible takes us from this point, unfolds God, discloses God here a little, there a little.
06:38: We come to the cross.
06:39: We have the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
06:42: And then we could say that still progressively, we're seeing the redemptive work of God take place, right? Not so much the canon or the scriptures, because we believe the scriptures have been complete and closed.
06:54: So that's what this book seeks to do.
06:56: It seeks to move us progressively along the line of God's revelation as the authors wrote it, and as we can understand it unfold.
07:09: So again, it's very important that we think about that as we read this book, because here's what I want to say in the beginning.
07:20: I'm going to ask you, if you would, to make every possible commitment to stay the course in this study.
07:30: In other words, I'm going to ask you, and I'm sure Brother Mike would echo, that if you begin to work through this with us in the class, stay until it's finished.
07:41: Because here's the point.
07:43: If you, let me ask you a question.
07:45: If you were to just open a Bible, somebody just says, I feel like reading a Bible today, and they do one of the, you know, I'll start here, right? What do you think they're going to find? So you said it, right? I heard you say it, right? Confusion, right? Because here's the thing.
08:05: Would you not agree that God has progressively revealed himself in the Bible? And that if you jump in, in any particular place, will you gain knowledge? Absolutely.
08:18: Will you gain some understanding? Yeah.
08:21: But really, unless you really have a framework or an outline or an understanding of what God has purposed to do and how it unfolds, it is confusing.
08:34: I mean, if you just opened the book of Leviticus, I mean, I've been reading the Bible 50 years, I've still lost to Leviticus.
08:40: I mean, it's just, why? Because there's so many things, and they don't really, they don't come to their fullest understanding until what? Sir? The end.
08:53: The end, or they don't really come to their fullest understanding until we, what? We see it in Christ.
09:01: Remember, what this book is about, and really what the Bible's about, is not only God's creation, but God's redemptive work.
09:09: And where is God's redemptive work seen? In the person of Christ.
09:15: Would you agree that that's where it is? So again, if you don't know anything about the Bible, and you begin to put these pieces together, it will help you, and the thought is it leads you here, it leads you to Jesus.
09:29: So again, to you younger people, as we go through this book, as you have questions about things, things you might never really understood, ask them.
09:42: And if you're a theologian, then ask Brother Mike, right? But I wanted to read something to you, and this is in the beginning of the book, and you can read it with me if you want.
09:55: It's in the preface, and I wanna kinda ask you to think about it.
09:58: Again, all I really wanna do this morning is to give you some groundwork for what we're gonna try to do.
10:06: And I'm gonna ask you to stay the course, because if you go through this whole study, I think on the other side, you will have a better understanding of what we started with when we get to the end, right? Again, the whole thing is about Christ.
10:24: But let me read this to you in the preface.
10:26: It's page nine if you wanna read in the book, and forgive me if I stumble a bit.
10:33: My eyes are a little bit hazy this morning.
10:37: Okay, so he says this.
10:40: If you know nothing at all about the Bible, this book you are holding in your hands is for you.
10:46: How many people know nothing about the Bible? Nobody wants to be booed, right? All right, all right.
10:55: Well, let's go a little bit further.
10:57: If you have recently become interested in God or the Bible or Jesus, but quite frankly, you find the mass of material rather daunting and do not know where to begin, this book is for you.
11:10: Anybody wanna? Okay.
11:14: Nobody's gonna raise their hand till we get to the theologians, I know it.
11:18: But certainly, think about it.
11:21: If you have been attending a Christian church for many years in a indifferent fashion, it's a nice extracurricular activity now and then, but I recently come to the conclusion you really ought to understand more than you do, this book is for you.
11:41: If you have quite a few of the pieces of the Bible stored in your mind, but have no idea how the Exodus relates to the exile or why the New Testament is called the New Testament, this book's for you.
11:55: If in your experience, the Bible has lots of data, but do you not see how they convey God to you or introduce Jesus in a fashion that is utterly humbling and transforming, this book is for you.
12:09: So up to this point, this book pretty much covers a lot of people, right? All right.
12:15: And then he says this.
12:16: He says, this book is not for everyone.
12:19: The person who does not want more than a bumper sticker introduction to Christianity may find this book a bit much.
12:28: What I have tried to do here is run through the Bible in 14 chapters.
12:36: Hang on a second.
12:40: Okay.
12:42: Each chapter focuses on one or more passages from the Bible, unpacks it a little and tries to build connections with the context, drawing the lines together to show how they converge in Jesus.
12:56: By and large, I have assumed very little prior acquaintance with the Bible.
13:01: What I do assume, however, is that a reader will get hold of a Bible, have it near at hand.
13:07: In the first chapter, I will tell you how you find your way around the Bible.
13:10: So I wanted to read that because, again, I'm not trying to get everybody to raise their hand or anything like that, but I do want to ask you a question and see what you think.
13:21: How many of us could honestly say that we have a pretty good framework of understanding of the whole Bible? Okay.
13:37: Well, I hope that as we go through this class, by the time we're done, you'll have a better understanding.
13:47: Because, honestly, as we look through the scriptures and see these things, I think you will find that maybe we don't know as much as we think we know.
14:03: It's a slow, again, a slow walk through the scriptures, and I ask that, again, don't just try it.
14:12: If you're serious about your Christianity, if you're serious about your faith, then, again, it's a book that I think will help.
14:23: I think, Brother Mike, you said, what did you say about this book? You said, as far as you're concerned, it's the? Yeah, yeah.
14:47: Yeah, because it's simple.
14:48: Yeah, it's simple, and you know why it's simple in the sense that if we were to be, and I want to look at some scriptures about studying and whatnot just for this first class, but here's the thing.
15:05: God, if what I said was right, even in a very sketchy way, if what I said was right, that God in eternity past certainly has purposed redemption and that the scriptures are given to us by God, through time, history, authors, and it moves forward that it's to our benefit to be able to grab not only individual pieces, right? I would say, what do you think is the most read book in the Bible? Just take a guess.
15:38: Psalms.
15:39: Psalms, okay.
15:40: John.
15:41: John, right? Maybe Romans.
15:44: The most popular books that people always seem to go to.
15:48: What book do you usually tell people to go to when they don't know anything about the Bible? John, right? Many people, what'd you say? Leviticus.
16:06: Okay, when we get to Leviticus, baby, you can take us to it.
16:11: No, but really, we would.
16:12: We would walk people through, John, you young people, I would guess that you have probably read the New Testament more than the Old Testament, would you think? I mean, your thoughts more are geared around the Gospels and maybe some of the other epistles than it would be going through Nehemiah or Habakkuk or one of the other books.
16:39: It's interesting, I go to Set Free once a month and those guys over there, so we've been going through Nehemiah and every time I go there, I ask, because there's always people moving in and out through the program.
16:52: And I asked, they said, how many have honestly never read Nehemiah? And you'd be amazed how many guys raised their hand.
16:59: I mean, so when you think about that, if we can get this, at least in a framework, it's gonna help.
17:06: And it's gonna begin to fill in the pieces.
17:10: To me, it's almost like doing a, and I'm not trying to undermine or be irreverent, but to me, it's like doing a puzzle.
17:17: I used to love to do the thousand piece puzzles.
17:21: You got to put all the frame together.
17:23: First, turn everything up so that you can see the colors.
17:27: And then I'd separate the colors and then I'd make sure I got the frame.
17:30: And then I separate the colors some more and I do the sky because it's usually, you know what I'm saying? So as you think about the Bible, in a sense, that's what we should try to do.
17:41: We should try to begin to get the framework and then begin to fill in the pieces.
17:48: And to many, that is more than they want, unfortunately.
17:54: Most people, well, I shouldn't say most, many people who say they are in union by faith with Christ are not as willing to spend the time, like I said, with the puzzles.
18:12: For me, I had to flip them all over.
18:14: That was the first big thing was to make sure I'm looking at all the colors.
18:18: Then the dumb cat would jump on the table and I'd start all over again, which is another issue.
18:22: That's why we don't have cats no more.
18:25: But you understand what I'm saying? In other words, you gotta take it slowly.
18:30: You're not gonna become proficient, if you will, or competent unless you follow the pattern, not just of D.A.
18:41: Carson, because I really believe Carson's following God's pattern.
18:45: Wouldn't you agree? I mean, if you think about it, he's gonna walk us through.
18:48: So you would think that the opening chapters would be hopefully from the beginning, and they are.
18:54: If you look at the, if you have your book with you, and again, you don't necessarily need it, he divides the chapters.
19:05: I'm just trying to see what, get to that.
19:10: Okay, so chapter one is the God who made everything.
19:14: That seems right, right? If we're gonna begin to start understanding what God has done through history and time, the God who made everything, and then the second chapter would be the God who does not wipe out rebels, and the God who writes his own agreement, the God who legislates, and the God who reigns, and on and on and on, and it takes us through 14 chapters, and it begins to, almost if you will, once we get through the first couple of chapters, which certainly we'll deal with, what, what would you think? Genesis.
19:53: I'll say this to you.
19:54: Maybe you'll agree, maybe you won't.
19:56: If you and I can get a good understanding of the first opening chapters of Genesis, which Brother Keith has been doing, right, and it just kind of lines up, if you can get the first chapters down and have some understanding, you will have turned over a lot of the pieces, and it'll help you walk through the rest, but you gotta put the effort in to get the results out.
20:22: So he's gonna take us through these 14 chapters a little at a time, and he's not gonna be exhausted, because again, it's not a systematic theology.
20:31: If it was, this thing would be, I don't know, I don't know how many volumes.
20:35: I mean, I've got some systematic theologies.
20:37: There's seven, eight volumes, right? I mean, it's exhaustive, but that's not what we're gonna do.
20:43: We're gonna kinda, we're not gonna get down in the weeds, right, we're kinda gonna stay a little bit above the ground and zoom across, and at the same time, we're gonna stop on our path along the way, here, here, here, here, here.
20:59: Just always keep in mind, it's all about Christ, and if we could just get that in our mind, he's the reference point, right, right? The testimony of Jesus is what? The spirit of prophecy, right? So if we have that set and fixed, well, that certainly will open our eyes and our understanding and our hearts to work through this.
21:25: Okay, Brother Mike, you wanna make any more comments about just what we plan to do, and then I'm gonna look at a couple scriptures.
21:32: You have anything? Huh? Okay, all right, so what I wanna do is try to take a few minutes and build some scriptural examples of why we would do this.
21:46: Why put in all this effort? And so I wanna take us through, so if you would, if you have your Bibles, let's go to First Timothy for a minute.
21:57: First Timothy, First Timothy chapter four, and I'm gonna look at some scriptures that y'all are familiar with.
22:08: See that, y'all? That's why you know I'm getting it.
22:19: You guys, First Timothy chapter four, and I wanna just read a couple verses, and again, very familiar verses, but let's put it in this context for this understanding.
22:31: As Paul writes to Timothy, and in verse 12, he says this to Timothy, remember, who's Timothy anyway? Timothy's basically his son in the faith, right? Paul, in many ways, is his father in the faith, and Paul is the one who is moving him along in the ministry, and he says in verse 12, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
23:03: Now watch what he says to Timothy.
23:05: Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine.
23:13: And don't neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, but meditate upon these things, give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.
23:31: Take heed to yourself and into the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this, and this, look at this, for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
23:45: He has Paul's instruction.
23:47: He tells Timothy to give attention, to set his mind on this that he's talking to him about.
23:56: Set your mind on it, bring it as close to you as you can, and what is it that he tells him to give attention to? Reading, exhortation, and to doctrine.
24:07: And you and I have to think about that.
24:09: You and I have to think about, to ask you a question, don't have to say it out loud.
24:18: How many of us would say, honestly, that we are as diligent in our study of God's word as we should be? Anybody wanna lie publicly? No, none of us could say that.
24:39: And here's the thing, many people don't think that that is absolutely essential.
24:46: Many people think that that's someone else's responsibility.
24:52: That's a pastor's responsibility, that's an elder's, that's a deacon's, that's a teacher's responsibility.
24:57: But I would ask us to think about it as we begin to go through this book, that you and I are responsible, and by the way, no age limit, right? If you could read, you're responsible as far as the study part, so you don't get a pass till you're 18.
25:20: So just think about that.
25:22: And he says that you have to give attention to it and you have to give yourself to it in a way that perhaps you maybe have not done in the past.
25:35: Because look what he says.
25:36: He says that you're, in verse 15, he says, meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to what? That your progress may be evident to all.
25:47: That your progress may be evident to all.
25:50: By the way, let me ask you a question.
25:51: When he says in verse 16, continue in them for doing this, you will save both yourself and those that hear you.
25:57: Is he saying that by reading the Bible, you get saved? I'm not gonna say it until somebody says something.
26:09: Is that how we get saved, by reading the Bible? I don't think that's what he is saying, but salvifically, you have to stay in the word.
26:37: Right, we would uphold salvation is by what? Faith alone, Christ alone, right? To the glory of God alone, and what? Found in the scriptures alone.
26:52: So I don't believe he's saying that just by reading the Bible you could save yourself.
26:58: But he is saying, and I believe what Brother Mike is saying is the case that if we're gonna make progress experimentally, if we're gonna move forward, if we're gonna begin to know more about God than just the bare basic facts, then we're gonna need to put something in in order to get something out, right? And I ask us to think about that because I think sometimes we all perhaps look at it in a way that we rely too much on others to gain our own experimental truth with the Lord Jesus Christ.
27:45: That we sometimes, we'd rather ask someone else for an understanding than get the understanding ourselves.
27:54: Right, and that's dangerous, friends.
27:56: Because what if the person that you ask for understanding, he's three miles off the beaten path, right? So in order for us to really work through this, we have to be those who are willing to meditate, give ourselves to it, and Paul says, give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.
28:21: And look at verse 16 again, look what he says.
28:23: He says, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continue in them for you in doing this, he not only says you will save yourself, but look, he says you're gonna save those who hear you.
28:35: So how does that, how are we supposed to understand that? Sister? Yeah, and certainly God does say that and God's word is to some a saver of life and to others it's a saver of death.
29:03: But think about this.
29:06: One of the, you ever have people say, or maybe you're younger people, maybe you're younger people say, I really wanna do something for the Lord.
29:16: Or maybe all of us are saying, I really wanna do something for the Lord.
29:22: Well, let me make this based on this.
29:25: I believe one of the greatest things we could do to do something for the Lord is to study the scriptures.
29:33: It says that those will hear us will be saved even by us studying on our own.
29:41: Why do you think that's, why could that be true? Would I be right or wrong to say the more I am able to understand this, that the more this should come out in me? Would that be a fair statement? Okay, so.
30:12: We give great devotion to our vocation.
30:19: True, yeah.
30:21: Why do we do that? And I'm not getting counsel to anyone, I could be talking to myself right now.
30:25: Sure.
30:27: Why do we do that? Why do we give great devotion and dedication to our vocation, to our jobs? It's the same way we should read the reason why we should read the Bible, you know? Yeah, number one, probably don't wanna get fired.
30:42: Number two, we want raises.
30:45: We wanna move ahead, we wanna make progress.
30:48: And to your point, the more we work on our own vocation in that sense, the more evident it is that we are not only competent, but we're prepared for the next step and those people take notice of that, right? And so think about it from that standpoint, as you start to think, well, what can I do for the Lord? I can't do anything for the Lord.
31:12: I'm to this, I'm to that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
31:15: Maybe the answer is that we need to dig in so that it comes out and then people can't help but see it.
31:25: Right, sister? You just said it, at the end of verse 16, continue and say both to yourself and those who hear you.
31:37: Yeah.
31:37: So what goes in comes out.
31:41: What goes in comes out.
31:41: And that's how the people get saved, is hearing by the word of God.
31:45: Right, and it's not, it just because it's, it just flows out of us.
31:50: Darian? Yeah, and here's the thing that I think about a lot.
32:18: I wanna know God.
32:22: It's basically, in many ways, it's for me.
32:26: I want to know him.
32:28: I wanna know him more, not less.
32:31: I wanna know more how this all fits together.
32:37: Brian? Well, don't keep it simple, the kind of way I see it is to be a Christian and not read your Bibles like- I would agree.
32:52: I mean, it's- I mean, that's the only way.
32:55: This is, you know, in John, it tells us that the word became flesh.
32:59: This is God's word.
33:00: This is how he spoke to mankind until Christ came along.
33:05: But, I mean, this is, any question, anything that we have today, God has answered it in his word.
33:15: And if we're willing to read it and study it, you know, this is just a communication of God to mankind until we're face to face again with Jesus, which, you know, could be more of what we understand now of a Bible instead of a written aspect.
33:34: Yep.
33:34: Remember what it says? It says that this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
33:43: And how many times people say, I just don't know what the will of God is for my life.
33:47: I just, I don't know what God wants me to do.
33:49: I don't know what he wants me to be.
33:51: I don't know this, that, the other thing.
33:55: Maybe if we spend more time on studying who God is and what he's done for us, maybe that becomes more evident and others will see it.
34:08: Again, just something to think about as we go through this book.
34:10: And that's why I asked you to stay the course in this, because I assure you, if we really work at this, by the time we get through this book, you're gonna have a better understanding of the Bible than when you started.
34:23: And again, I don't care where you are in the progress of spirituality.
34:30: All right, let me go to another scripture.
34:31: We got just a few more minutes.
34:32: Go to 2 Timothy for a minute.
34:34: 2 Timothy chapter two.
34:40: Interesting how Paul continually works and in that sense, encourages Timothy and in many ways, spiritually mentoring him.
34:52: And in chapter two of 2 Timothy, just look what he says.
34:56: And again, the very familiar verses.
34:59: He says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
35:11: Be diligent.
35:14: Again, it's not something that you and I can do halfheartedly it's not something that comes in many ways, it's not something that comes that easy.
35:28: You can take it and think of it in many different ways, but again, how diligent are we folks? How diligent are we in our own personal life to study, to present ourselves approved unto God and that we don't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
35:49: That doesn't mean you have to be, doesn't mean you have to use all the big words, right? But you need to know the big truths, right? What would you rather know? The big words or the big truths? I'll take the big truths, right? Again, if I need big words, I'll talk to brother Mike because he's got them.
36:10: I want big truths and that's what we need.
36:13: So even for you young people, again, I wanna encourage you to read your Bibles and don't try to understand everything, but try to understand what is God saying? The God who's there, where is he? How can I see him? How do I see him in Leviticus? How do I see him in Ezra, Nehemiah or in the Psalms? How do I see him and how do I put it together so that if I'm here, I could still understand something that happened here? And again, that's why I said, if you don't get this down, it makes it very difficult because this is a foundational, but something to think about.
36:56: And as Paul encourages Timothy, he says to be diligent to present himself that he doesn't have to be ashamed and he can divide the word of truth.
37:06: You and I need to be able to separate in many ways the truth from the error.
37:17: Wouldn't you agree? Who's responsible for that? Pastor, the elder, the deacons, the teachers? No, no, everybody.
37:24: To the same degree? No, but to some degree, yes.
37:30: So again, if someone comes up to you, the Jehovah Witness knocks at the door, what are you gonna just say? You're just gonna quote what John says and say, I'm not gonna bid you Godspeed, go away from me, don't come back no more.
37:44: Or, and I'm not saying you shouldn't do that, that might be, but are you able to refute his error? At least to some degree, at least in the person of Christ, when they start to come at us and take the divinity out of the Lord Jesus Christ? Again, show ourselves a proof to God, a workman that doesn't need to be ashamed.
38:08: Don't have to go and Google an answer or ask in a Sunday school class.
38:12: We're able, we're proficient, and we're sufficient to be able to do it ourselves.
38:19: All right, one more.
38:20: First Peter, a little different context in that Peter is talking about suffering, but I think the principle is still the same.
38:31: And again, all I wanted to do this morning is give us some thoughts of why we're gonna do this and how we're gonna approach it, and then next week, if you would, read the first chapter or read the whole book or whatever way you wanna do it, but we'll start, Brother Michael, start with the first chapter.
38:46: But I wanted to just ask you to look at this.
38:49: First Peter 3, and I'll just look at the one verse for time's sake, but look what he says.
38:55: He says, and again, it's in the light of suffering and being persecuted for righteousness' sake.
39:01: He says, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for, asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
39:18: Sanctify, set apart, and that's what we said, show yourself approved, be diligent, work at it.
39:25: Work at it.
39:26: If we really believe that God in his mercy chose us out of countless fallen creatures and God bestowed, I always quote 1 John, I will always, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon who? Us, that we should be called the children of God.
39:48: Do we not desire to be able to follow this and say that we ought to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for the reason of the hope that is in you.
40:03: And that's what I was saying before.
40:04: The more we get inside, it comes out.
40:08: It's not like you have to walk around with the Pharisees did with their little leases and the things on their head, but it flows out of us.
40:20: Sometimes when you meet someone, you can almost, you get a perception of them, right? They ought to get a perception of us that we're Christians.
40:30: Do they? You young people, I'm gonna keep picking on young people.
40:34: Please come back, I'm not really picking on you.
40:36: I'm picking on the old people, but I'm using you as a disguise by saying to the young people, see? But are we able to kind of confront error? Are we able to do that? If we say we're Christians, we should be able to at least give an account for the hope that is in us.
41:01: I mean, sometimes I look at Christians, I said, man, I'm one miserable child of God and we ought not to be.
41:10: I mean, I know I don't smile.
41:12: I got yelled at last night.
41:13: My granddaughter graduated high school and they took a picture.
41:17: And of course my daughter yelled at me.
41:19: She said, dad, you never smile.
41:21: And of course then my wife said, yeah, you never smile.
41:26: But I was smiling.
41:30: Yeah, thank you, brother.
41:32: I love you, brother Mike.
41:34: Yeah, but again, it should still, I hope that Christ at least flows out of me a little bit.
41:41: I hope people will see something that's distinct and different.
41:47: So anyway, I wanted to lay that out this way.
41:49: We're gonna stop there.
41:51: Again, read chapter one.
41:53: I have a couple copies.
41:54: I have one extra copy at this point.
41:57: Read chapter one, read it through.
41:59: It's not that long.
42:00: It's five or six pages.
42:02: Come with questions, all right? Bring questions.
42:05: If you read something that Carson says that you don't understand, let's talk about it.
42:11: Even if we have to, brother Mike and I said, if we have to take two weeks each chapter, we'll take two weeks.
42:17: Okay, with that, let's just close and continue worship.