Jeremiah 10:6-16, PRBC 9/27/09 PM service

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A study of an important text.

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As is our custom, we normally preach from the
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Old Testament on Sunday evenings. And as you know, Pastor Fry has been preaching through the book of Jeremiah.
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The last time he preached, we were in Jeremiah chapter 10. And two weeks ago, since last week was the
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Lord's Supper, two weeks ago when he preached in Jeremiah chapter 10, after the evening service,
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I went up to him and I was sharing with him some information about the very next section of Jeremiah chapter 10, and indicated that I had written on the subject in a book a number of years ago.
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And he said, well, you know, you ought to preach that section. And then he started thinking, he said, well, next
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Sunday night is the Lord's Supper, and next Sunday night I'm gone. So why don't you just continue in Jeremiah chapter 10?
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And I think this might be the first time we've ever done this, sort of tag -team preaching in the same book.
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But we are going to continue in Jeremiah chapter 10. We're going to go through a section here in chapter 10, and then he'll continue from there.
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So I just need to let him know where he will be. So turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 10, beginning in verse 6.
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Really, we'll remind ourselves of the preceding material as well. If you recall two weeks ago, this is a section where the prophet is speaking to the people, and he is engaging in satire.
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He is engaging in mockery of idolatry. If you want to see parallel passages to this, look at Isaiah chapters 40 through 48, where the prophets mock the idols of the people.
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The idols of the people would be those creations of their own hands. And here we have another section of that.
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I'll begin reading at verse 1. We'll be focusing, we'll look farther down, but I'll begin reading at verse 1.
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And then I will go through verse 16. Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you,
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O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord. Notice that is, of course, the term Yahweh. Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them.
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For the customs of the peoples are delusion, because it is wood cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.
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They decorate it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers, so that it will not topple.
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Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, and they cannot speak. They must be carried, because they cannot walk.
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Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good. There is none like you,
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O Lord Yahweh. You are great, and great is your name and might. Who would not fear you,
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O King of the nations? Indeed, it is your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.
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But they are altogether stupid and foolish, and their discipline of delusion, their idol is wood. Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz.
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The work of a craftsman are the hands of a goldsmith. Violet and purple are their clothing.
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They are all the work of skilled men. But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living
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God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.
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Thus you shall say to them, The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.
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It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding
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He has stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth.
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He makes lightning for the rain, and brings out the wind from His storehouses.
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Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are deceitful, and there is no breath in them.
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They are worthless, a work of mockery. In the time of their punishment they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these.
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For the Maker of all is He, and Israel is a tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, is
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His name. And so you'll notice this entire section is tied together for the people of Israel by the concept of the true
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God versus the false gods. And what has attracted my attention to this text, of course, over the years, has been the ministry that we did long ago, and really continue to do through Written Form especially, but especially the ministry that we had amongst the
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Mormons. Because there is a need to provide an apologetic defense, believing that there is one true
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God, the Creator of all things. You would think that we would not need to defend that, that basic monotheism would be a given, but that is not the case.
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And even yesterday in the debate it was asserted by my opponent that the
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Jews were not monotheists, and in fact they were deeply infected with a love of pagan religion.
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Well, in the sense that they would frequently go into apostasy against God, that would be true.
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But that's exactly what Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets are constantly preaching about, is the fact that they would go after these false gods, and that they would abandon the one true
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God of Israel, who had revealed Himself from the beginning, as the one true God, and as the one who created all things.
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Now I know that I've mentioned this before, but I have to repeat it for your edification, that that was a radical message in its day.
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That in the day, even of the days of Moses, going all the way back to the earliest portions of the scriptures, the idea that God, your
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God, was the only true God, and that He had created all things, was a radical and revolutionary concept.
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In those days, in that part of the world especially, you had gods of the nations, and you would have gods who would be a god over a particular nation, and even then you might have multiple gods, you might have sort of a major god over a nation, but then you might have a god who's especially powerful in regards to the production of crops, another the fertility of your flocks, the weather, whatever it might be.
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But these would be gods who had limited influence. The idea that your god would rule and reign over another people, well, that would be considered, well, offensive.
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That would be something that would be offensive to other people, because they had their gods, you had your gods, we could all get along real well if we were just polytheists.
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And interestingly enough, it has come back up in our day. In light of the rise of monotheistic, unitarian
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Islam, there are those saying, monotheism produces wars.
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We should be polytheists. Where you just accept everybody else as gods. And that's how things were in the
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Roman world, the New Testament. The mystery of religions would allow you to believe in all sorts of gods.
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If you came to one pagan temple and gave your sacrifices, and did your worship of one god, they didn't have any problem at all.
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If the next day you trotted on down the road to the next temple, and did the same thing for another god, no problem.
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That's okay. Some people think that, in fact, my opponent was misled on this just yesterday.
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He said, well, didn't all those gods think that, all those religions back there, think that their religion was the one true religion?
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I said, no. That's the exact opposite. They allowed for all sorts of things.
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That's why the pagan mystery religions didn't have any problem giving a pinch of sacrifice on the altar to Caesar.
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Who cares? We can have Caesar in our pantheon. We've got this god here and that god there.
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It's okay. No worries. But that's why the Jews were so detested. Because they come along and they say, our god is
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Yahweh. Oh, great. Yahweh. Nice to meet Yahweh. He'll be over in your part of the world and we'll have our
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Baals and our Ashtaroths here. No, no, no, no. Yahweh created the heavens and the earth. Yahweh didn't come from the heavens and the earth.
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No, He didn't come out of the heavens and the earth. In fact, He rules over you, too. How offensive.
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We're going to go to war. That's how it worked. So, the Jewish people had a very firm understanding of who
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God was. And so, this mockery of the false gods we already saw two weeks ago.
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This section, the first five verses, is often used. I've seen it used many, many times in certain circles.
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In an attempt to describe Christmas trees. I'm not sure where they got that. Because this is talking about, yeah, it's wood cut down from forests.
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That's true. And it is decorated with silver and with gold. But it's fastened with nails with hammers that will not totter.
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And they, that which has been made, cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk.
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We're talking here about the idols of the peoples. And Isaiah includes the same kind of discussion.
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Mocking the man who would cut down a tree. And he'd cut the wood up.
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And he'd take a part of the tree and he'd put it over here. And he'd start to make his idol. And then when he gets hungry, he goes over here and takes the rest of the tree.
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And he burns it and cooks his food on it. And the scriptures are like, don't you see there's a little bit of a problem there?
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You're burning the same tree for your food. And then you're forming an idol. And then you put it up and you decorate it.
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And you nail it down so it doesn't fall over. And then you bow down before it and ask it for things. And it is pure mockery.
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It is satire of the foolishness of worshiping that which is clearly created.
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It came forth from the created order. That is the essence of idolatry.
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Now you might be saying right now, aside from odd religious groups, why should we care about idolatry?
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Well, obviously, the giving of worship. The giving of anything that is due to God alone to that which is created is idolatry.
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And we might think we've gotten past these hideous idols. You've probably seen pictures of some of these idols.
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And very rarely were they overly attractive. In fact, they often seem to be exceptionally repulsive.
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Which would make sense when you think about it. Because what was the life of these people like? Infant mortality rates to the ceiling.
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No modern medicine. Plagues that would sweep through. The total inability to control the growth of crops.
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One year you might have good crops. The next year you're ready to die. And so, who's in control of these things?
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Something beautiful or attractive? No, generally they would view these gods as being very repulsive and ugly in essence.
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You may have seen these idols in pictures in textbooks when you were in school.
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And you might go, well, I suppose we go down to some African nations. Or down in Central America or South America.
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Or some islands out in the Pacific. We would still find people bowing down to idols like this. But we've pretty much gotten rid of all that, haven't we?
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But the reality is, we live in a very, very idolatrous age.
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And the secularism of our age, which attributes to the natural realm, creation itself, is just as much foolish idolatry as bowing down before any pagan idol ever was.
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And modern man might think himself extremely wise. But that does not change the foolishness of idolatry in the human heart.
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I saw this yesterday when my opponent kept bringing up the argument of Richard Dawkins.
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Richard Dawkins, one of the best known atheists today. Not a man of wide learning.
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When he leaves his very narrow field of expertise in biology and attempts to address philosophy, when he attempts to address theology and history, he makes gross and obvious blunders.
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But I saw a man who almost worshipped this man yesterday. He has brought up the argument of the flying spaghetti monster.
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He likes to liken the Christian God to a God that someone might make up a flying spaghetti monster.
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What evidence do we have that flying spaghetti monster does not exist? And he uses this to mock various arguments that are put forth for the existence of God.
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And my opponent brought that up. And some of his followers in the audience could not help but cheer at the very mention of flying spaghetti monster.
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Can you imagine what it's like to be someone who breaks out in spontaneous applause and cheers at the mention of the flying spaghetti monster?
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What kind of twistedness, what kind of irrationality has to have so completely enveloped one's mind that you do not recognize the foolishness of such things?
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It is a sad thing to observe. It truly, truly is. But the people of Israel, in Jeremiah chapter 10, found themselves in a situation.
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Remember, by this time, the 70 years have begun. Some have already been deported. The Babylonians already have political control.
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And there is a point in time where finally Jerusalem itself is wiped out. But there is a period of time where they have political control before the destruction of Jerusalem.
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Jeremiah is one of those prophets saying, bow your neck to them and submit to them, or you will be completely destroyed.
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And so the Babylonians have come in. And, of course, they are promoting idolatry in the land.
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And once a political system establishes itself that has religious overtones, you find out who the true believers are and who the, well, it's sort of like in sports.
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You know, when your team's doing good, everybody's on board. But then when your team falters, you find out who the real diehards are, who the real fans are, and who the bandwagon fans are.
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I mean, I'll pick on my brother Rich here. He's a
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Redskins fan. And you know what? For the past few years and this year as well, it's pretty tough to be a
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Redskins fan, you know? Now, if he still is, that means he's a true blue fan. You know, you can look back to the heydays, you know, when they were good.
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But they're not anymore. And so if he's still a fan, then he's a true fan. But if he's gone off someplace else, well, you're just a bandwagon fan.
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Well, the people who worship God, when things were good in Israel, then along comes a change in the society, a change in the majority views.
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You bring in these idols, and well, it looks like maybe these idols are more powerful than our
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God because they've helped people to overcome our God. Look at now, we're submitted to these foreigners.
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Doesn't that mean that Yahweh's sort of abandoned us? Or maybe He can't fight these other gods?
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Lots of things go through the mind. And so what we have in this section is we have Jeremiah helping the people of Israel to see who the true
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God is. And he gives us some descriptions here. Notice he says, after this description of the false gods in the first five verses,
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There is none like you, O Lord. There's an idol on every corner, but there's none like you,
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O Lord, Yahweh. You are great, and great is your name and might. Who would not fear you,
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O King of the nations? Indeed, it is your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and the
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Babylonians certainly viewed themselves in that way, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you. So notice what's the first assertion.
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The uniqueness of their God. You see, when the Babylonians come into Israel, do they find any idols of Yahweh?
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No. Not supposed to. Not supposed to make an image of God. And so when the people would come into the land, they would say, well, where are your gods?
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They're accustomed to defeating other peoples, and there would always be these idols, but where's your
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God? We're looking for the image of your God. You don't have one. We don't make images of our God.
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He's the creator of the heavens and the earth. He's forbidden us from making images. How strange. What an opportunity it would have been for what we would call evangelism.
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But remember, why are these people triumphing over the people of Israel? Because of their sin.
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They would find the Asherah, the groves. Oh, I see you worship
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Yahweh, but it looks like you've got some other stuff going on in your temple, huh? Didn't really put you in a good position to be much of an evangelist when you're engaging in secret idolatry, does it?
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There is none like God. Yahweh is unique. But they, those who are idols of wood, they are altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion.
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Their idol is wood. Beaten silver is bought from Tarshish. Gold from Uphaz. We can even identify their sources.
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We can look underneath and find the UPC symbol. Made in China. That's where these idols are coming from.
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The work of a craftsman, of the hands of a goldsmith. Violet and purple are their clothing. They are all the work of skilled men.
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It doesn't matter how pretty the idol is, it's still the creation of man. That's the point.
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But notice the contrast. But, in contrast to that, Yahweh is the true
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God. He is the living God. The everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes.
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And the nations cannot endure His indignation. Contrast. He's not created.
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He is a true God. He is the living God. He's not a dead piece of wood covered in gold and silver and wrapped in purple and fine linen.
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At His wrath the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure His indignation. And it was at this point, the information that I want to share with the pastor comes into play.
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Because I think this is truly an indication of God's concern for His people.
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Look at verse 11. I don't know what kind of translation you have, but I'm reading from the
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New American Standard this evening. In the New American Standard, verses 1 through 10 are in poetic form.
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But verse 11 isn't. And at the beginning of verse 12, it goes back into poetic form.
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Right? Is that how most of the New Year translations are? Possibly. King James doesn't do that, but that's how most of the modern translations are laid out.
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There's a reason for that. In the New American Standard, in verse 11, there is a note.
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I'm not sure if there is a New Year translation. But the New American Standard says this verse is in Aramaic.
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So in verse 11, it says, Thus you shall say to them, The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from the heavens.
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The rest of the chapter is in Hebrew. And then one verse is written in Aramaic.
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Why would that be? Because that would be the language of the people who are inviting the children of Israel to idolatry.
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And so here, God provides in the language of the people that are inviting the children of Israel to idolatry, what apologetic defense the children of Israel should offer.
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The very words they should use in the language of the people to whom they're communicating. And what are they to communicate to them?
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The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.
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Now, this just might be another example of how weird I am, that I get excited.
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Look, this is in Aramaic! And it's not in Hebrew! Isn't that exciting? And you're all going,
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Yeah, okay, he's still in debate about this thing. But there's something more to it. Think about this for just a moment.
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This so clearly reflects the context in which it was written.
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This so obviously comes from that very period. This isn't somebody later on, hundreds of years later, making stuff up.
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This reflects an intimate knowledge of what was really going on and what the people believed.
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And for many, many centuries, Christians have preached through this and maybe didn't even recognize.
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I mean, think about for how many hundreds of years, most Christians in the world had no knowledge of the Hebrew language at all.
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Didn't even know this verse was offered in the Aramaic language so that it would provide a direct response to the people that were inviting
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Israel to engage in idolatry. That's a very important thing to see. God is so concerned that He gives
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His people the very answer that they're to give when they're invited to idolatry in the language of the people that are doing it.
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For how many centuries did the Christian church exist in majority without a knowledge of that?
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But what's more, for how long did the Christian church forget and not know the religious backgrounds of the peoples that we're talking about?
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During the Dark Ages, when this preaching almost ceased to exist, there was what you receive in this place, there was generation after generation after generation of Christians that got at best a ten minute sermonette.
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That's why the stained glass windows came into existence. That was the only way you could do teaching. It's a blessing to be able to know these things.
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But you see, we have come to understand in our modern time what had been forgotten for a long period of time.
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You may hear about the discoveries of ancient records of the peoples around Israel.
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And very often, skeptics and others will grapple and say, oh, see, this demonstrates the
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Bible is wrong here. And then, you know, a few years later, people discover it actually demonstrates the
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Bible was right. For so long, people would look at things in the
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Old Testament, well, there's no evidence of that. And then, you know, a few years later, the evidence turns up. And, you know, we think about the, just a few years ago,
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I think it was 2006, 2007, they found the Pool of Siloam. It was mentioned in the Gospel of John.
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And all these things that have been discovered over time to have been extremely accurate and things like that.
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It just takes time. But skeptics like to grab hold of these things. In reality, as we have discovered these records, we start finding out what these people believed about God.
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And where their gods came from. And their gods all came from the earth.
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They were made out of pre -existing matter. One of the most popular stories was gods would fight, which means they had swords and weapons.
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And they would fight with one another and you'd cut one god up and out of that god comes all sorts of things.
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The creation itself. But obviously that means that there was a creation before the creation. And there were swords and means of battle and all the rest of that kind of stuff.
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Well, look at verse 11. The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth. That is a perfect description of the gods of the peoples around Israel, especially those who were conquering them at this time.
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They didn't make the heavens and the earth. You might have had some gods cutting each other up and the heavens and the earth came from that.
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But that means there was a previous heaven before that that they did not make.
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They had no answer to the question where did all of this come from? They could only give a localized answer.
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Well, this particular world was from this half of this god that got cut up in a battle or something like that.
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But they couldn't answer the big questions. They could only say, well, we need to limit things down to where we are.
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God's the creator. We can come up with maybe an answer for this world but not all the heavens.
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God had to, whatever god you talk about had to come forth from this creation around us.
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And so notice then the real depth of this answer that is given. The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth.
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If your god is not the creator, not a creator, not a creator of some things, if your god is not the creator, your god will perish from the earth and from the heavens.
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Your god will die. Your god will pass away. Your god isn't the one true god.
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All through scripture, what is the primary evidence given to demonstrate who the one true god is?
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He is the creator of all things. You wonder why natural man is working so hard to try to get rid of god today?
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To try to say god did not create the heavens and the earth? Because that is his primary self -designation.
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I created all things. So notice what immediately comes after this challenge which would not have been taken well.
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Can you imagine? When god's people are obedient and give this response? Did your god create the heavens and the earth?
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No, he'll perish from the heavens and the earth. Your god's gonna die. Oh, that's how to make friends, intellectual people, isn't it?
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I mean, this is such a politically correct response that god gives to his people. And then he backs it up.
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It is he, it is god, it is Yahweh who made the earth by his power.
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Not by using pre -existing matter, not by organizing things.
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He made the earth by his power. He established the world by his wisdom.
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Notice he's not using things outside of himself. Power and wisdom, those are internal things.
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Those are part of his exercise of his will, his being. By his understanding he stretched out the heavens.
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Notice how he's avoiding any kind of idea that god used something else to create the universe.
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Power, wisdom, and understanding are internal to god, not external to god.
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When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens. He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth.
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He makes lightning to the rain. This is the god of creation. He brings out the wind from his storehouses.
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So god is in control of all things. He controls the forces of nature. Many of the gods were subservient to the forces of nature.
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No, god, as the creator, controls all these things. And then he returns again to the mockery and light of this.
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Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols for his molten images are deceitful and there is no breath in them.
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They are empty. They are a part of the creation. They are worthless.
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A work of mockery. And in the time of their punishment, they will perish.
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How many people still to this day worship those gods that were so popular in that time? Oh, one here, one there.
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But the vast majority are not even known to mankind any longer. The portion of Jacob is not like these.
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For the maker of all is he. And Israel is a tribe of his inheritance.
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Yahweh of hosts is his name. Now don't miss how ironic that would have sounded at this time.
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Israel is under punishment. Her glory is fading.
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The days of David, Solomon, are gone. Punishment has come upon the people for their sins.
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But there is always that promise of hope for the remnant.
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There is always that promise. Notice the description of God. The portion of Jacob.
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The portion of Jacob. What does that mean? That which is
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Jacob's. God provides to Jacob his portion, his allotment.
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The portion of Jacob is not like these. The maker of all is he. He doesn't just make
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Jacob. He's not just concerned about Jacob. He's the maker of all things. But Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.
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Not because they're more numerous or greater than any others. His whole choice of Israel was to demonstrate that he is free in this matter.
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It's not based upon us. He's not a respecter of persons. He didn't want... Who's going to be the greatest and most powerful?
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No. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. That's exactly what we saw in Amos 3.
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You alone of all the peoples have I known, have I chosen, Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.
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Yahweh of hosts is his name. He identifies himself. Yahweh. Couldn't find an idol of him.
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The claim was he's the maker of all things. Nothing exists that is outside of his creative decree and control.
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So here you have an illustration. Right here in the book of Jeremiah. God wants us to give an answer.
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God wants us to know what to say to those who invite us to idolatry.
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You might say, well no one's come along and invited me to worship any weird gods recently. What does this have to do with me?
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I can guarantee you, you'll be invited to engage in idolatry within the next 24 hours.
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You will. Young people, you're going to go to school. You're going to be invited to engage in idolatry.
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What do I mean? You might be sitting in science class.
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And you might be invited to think that man in his wisdom can be wiser than God.
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That man can look at this created world and without any reference to the creator, stand upon his two hind legs and say,
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Ah! I am so wise. I can discern all the purposes of all these things.
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We can know all about the creation without any reference to God at all. We can banish him.
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That's idolatry. You might be going to work tomorrow.
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You might be invited to engage in idolatry. How so? You'll be invited to climb up upon your co -workers by putting them down.
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By stabbing them in the back. Look out for number one. Always striving for the mighty dollar.
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It's idolatry. It's love.
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A love of things. Putting love of things before love of God. Not seeing yourself as a servant of Christ.
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Whatever your job is. Whatever your context is. You're there to serve Christ, first and foremost.
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You are His servant. When you put aside that yoke, that description of servant of Christ, and you become servant of self, it's idolatry.
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You'll be invited to commit idolatry.
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So many different, sometimes open, sometimes very subtle ways. That when we pray,
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Lord give you wisdom. To live in a way that honors and glorifies
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Christ, those can't be empty words. They have to have meaning.
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Each one of us has to consider, in light of what our callings are, how is it that I can glorify
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Christ by not committing idolatry? We need to be able to recognize what it is, even when it's in a subtle form.
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And then we need to be able to give an answer to those who invite us to commit idolatry.
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So just as God cared so much for His people, in Jeremiah chapter 10, that He even gave in the language that they would use to communicate it to those around them, the apologetic answer they needed.
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So too God has given to us in His Word. And provided to us with such clarity, in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, the apologetic answer we are to give to those who invite us to idolatry.