Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 18, 2021 | Good Question - If Jesus Is So Great, Why Do People Not Believe In Him?

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July 18, 2021 | Good Question - If Jesus Is So Great, Why Do People Not Believe In Him? · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: So good to be back here.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's really fun for me to be in a preaching team with Alex last week, preached a great message.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Connor the week before.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we're in a series called Good Question.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Open your Bible if you have one.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I grabbed this one from the back of one of the pews.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you need a Bible, just reach down and get one of these Burgundy Bibles or use your cell phone.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I turn to John chapter 12, John chapter 12, verses 35 through 40.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll put these verses on the screen later, but they go like this.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told them, You're going to have the light just a little while longer.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Walk while you have the light before darkness overtakes you.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even after Jesus had done all these miracles, all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, who has believed our message?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: For this reason they could not believe, because as Isaiah says elsewhere, he's blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts so that they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn, and I would heal them.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we ask you that this morning you would open our eyes to hear and see things, answer questions that we've asked, and that we would grow and learn, and Lord, perhaps change lives this morning through your word.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's some things in the Bible and in Christianity that are just frankly hard to understand.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Pastors shudder as they tell the story, the famous story about the pastor who was finishing his sermon, and he happened to mention that the following Sunday he would be preaching the story of Noah and the Ark from Genesis 6, 7, and 8.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: In a turn of bad luck, a couple of teenagers in the balcony happened to be listening.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so they decided to play a trick on the pastor, and so during the week they slipped into the auditorium, came up front, took the pulpit Bible, turned to that passage, and glued two pages together.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the next Sunday the preacher got up to read his text, and he read, uh got to that place, and he said, Noah got himself a wife, and she was, and here he had to turn the page, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: The preacher paused, he scratched his head, he turned back, he read it over to himself, and finally looked up at his congregation and he said, You know, I've been reading the Bible for nearly 50 years, but there are just some things in it that I have a hard time understanding.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true of all of us with the Bible and with Christianity.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's always been true.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we have honestly a hard time understanding is why some people don't believe in Jesus.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've heard.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because I'm not talking about people here who are, you know, in some place across the world where they've never heard the gospel, never been confronted with it, never had an interest in it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about people who have an interest in it, people who've who have investigated it, people with whom you've talked, people who've heard the gospel, had it explained to them, have been friendly toward it, and then you get to the to the point that after they've listened, after they've considered, then they say, no thanks.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not for me.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the early Christians knew people like that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Knew a lot of people like that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: People who had unbelievably gotten to actually see Jesus himself while he was here on earth.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Had gotten to hear Jesus speak like no man had ever spoken before.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hear him say, I am the door, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hear him say, I am the shepherd of the sheep, the light of the world, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: They'd heard him promise fantastic things that every person on earth has always wanted: joy and peace and victory over death and an eternal home.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then they had watched him, they'd actually seen him perform incredible miracles that attested to what he had said.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: They'd seen him been there when he multiplied loaves and fishes and fed 5,000 plus, seen him walk in the water, seen him heal a man who'd been crippled for 38 years.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, seen him raise a man in the previous chapter here, seen him raise a man from the dead who'd been in the grave for nearly a week.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'd not believed.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the early Christians were just stunned.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were surprised.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: They said, How in the world can these people, some of whom are part of my own family, how can they refuse to believe?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a question that many of us ask as well.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: We know that people in our family, our brothers or sisters or cousins or dads or moms, we know that our good friends have really investigated the gospel.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: We've shared the gospel with them, we told them our story, they've been interested or whatever, and then and then they've just said no thanks.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they've turned away.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh the question that I'm asking and trying to answer this morning is if Jesus is so great, why do people not believe in him?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's the question a college student basically asked me when she came almost straight from a religion class.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she's so admired by this time, several weeks in, admired her religion professor.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's so knowledgeable, she said, and he's so kind, and he's so smart, and so forth, and he knows all of these things, and he calls himself a Christian, but he doesn't really believe any of it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world or that he resurrected or that Christianity is any different than any other religion.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: How how can he how can he not believe that if he's so smart, if Jesus is so obviously the right person?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this question is uh was a nagging question in the first century, and it gets answered in the passage I've read, and I want to take you to that passage because the answer to the question given in this passage to Jesus' disciples is the answer that you and I need today for our friends and neighbors and relatives and so forth.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' final invitation, here's the answer to a trivia question.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: What was the last thing that Jesus said in his last sermon to the Jewish people?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told them, You're going to have the light just a little while longer.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four times, light.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this, then he went and hid himself from them because it was the start of what we call Passion Week.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was the last week of his life.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, answer to trivia question number one, what was the last thing Jesus told, the last invitation he made, the last words in his last sermon, the answer is believe in the light.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: The um next verse, however, verse 37, sort of takes the Gallup poll, gives a survey, and says, let's just be honest about the summary of Jesus' success in his evangelism.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Even after Jesus had performed so many signs, that's what Jesus' miracles are called in John, signs, in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here, I know it's dark over in the College Avenue building, and online, this is a famous picture of the resurrection.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's Lazarus coming out of the grave in the previous chapter.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is resurrection from the dead.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we read that the crowds had come out from just a mile and a half away, Jerusalem, to see this.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so they saw they saw these signs.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know how people tell you, well, if only Jesus would reveal himself to my friend, I'm sure they would believe.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or if only I could see a sign, then I would believe.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they saw amazing things, and yet they still did not believe in him.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Answer to trivia question number two might be uh what would be the summary of Jesus' success in his evangelistic ministry?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer would be, they did not believe in him.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Many did, most didn't.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that stunning?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that startling?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is why, why didn't they believe?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: This question bothered the early Christians greatly.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the same question that bothers us today.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've stood at the bedside of a dying man, and uh he knows that he's going to die within 24, 48 hours.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've explained the gospel to him, ask him if he understands, and his answer is yes, and I've asked him if he wants to believe, if he's willing to say yes to God, and heard him say to my astonishment, no thanks.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in a couple of cases, I have been watched as he has slipped into a Christless eternity.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Many times I've had the experience that some of you have had.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Someone's been interested in the gospel, and they have come to me, or maybe I've come to them, and they've expressed an interest.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we've gone through all of the uh all of the gospel, the good news that Jesus is full of love for the world, and so he saw this lost world, and he came down from heaven to die for the world, and then he rose again, and now he offers eternal life to all who will believe, and explain that, and they have an objection, and uh, and so I give them stuff to read or whatever else.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I give them a book, and then they come back, and we have another talk, and then we have a third and fourth, and and at the end of it all, fully expecting, you know.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I say, uh, so what do you think?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, they've answered all my objections.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I can see it doesn't make good sense.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, are you ready to believe in Jesus?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, no, no, no, thanks.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe later.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Has that ever happened to you?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's happened to you.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know you have people in your family, and it's just really hard for you to believe that they haven't trusted Christ.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I had a I developed a relationship with a non-Christian attorney down in Dallas at one time, and we'd go out every week and we'd talk and so forth.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember finally, you know, after months, I thought, you know, I gotta bring this to a close.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can go bowling only so many times, or whatever else.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and I said, So what do you think?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, about what?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, about what I talk to you about every time we get together, about the gospel, about Jesus, about the fact that he died for the world and died for you, and so forth, and the wonder and the joy.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, to tell you the truth, I understand it clearly, it's the very same thing I've been hearing for years.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: No thanks.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I shaking ahead.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I found it utterly unbelievable.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it's common.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is the question is why didn't they believe?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer in this passage is very simple, and it's twofold.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer, number one, is they wouldn't.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: They just simply chose not to.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is speaking about the Jews.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, startlingly, they couldn't.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, they couldn't.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look at those answers really quickly, and we'll talk about uh our experience as well.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't they believe?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Answer number one, they would not, verse 37.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Even after Jesus had performed so many signs, did you notice that they still would not believe in him?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: They chose not to believe in him, they made a decision not to believe in him.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the next verse says this was no surprise to God because actually it fulfilled the word of Isaiah the prophet 700 years before, who said, Lord, who's believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is the most famous chapter in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 53.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most quoted chapter in the New Testament, and it's the perfect verse and chapter for the writer John to actually quote.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's the story of Jesus and his love and coming down and dying for us on the cross, Isaiah 53, 6, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of assaults.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: That story told from the viewpoint of a first century Christian who didn't believe it until after Jesus rose.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he lists the reasons that he and his friends did not believe in Jesus when he was on earth.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Isaiah 53 is about.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a why unbelief chapter.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the verse, Isaiah 53, 1, Lord who's believed our message.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: These are early evangelists who rejected Jesus but then accepted him after he went back to heaven.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is, how come people aren't believing our message?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Who's believed it?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: The answer was very, very few.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: To whom has the arm of the Lord, which is a symbol of salvation in the Old Testament, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the main point is here that unbelief is no surprise to God.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: People have always chosen not to believe.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: People don't believe because they will not believe.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: They simply say, I'm not going to.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah's day they wouldn't believe, and Jesus' day they wouldn't believe.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh, as you know, associated with uh Jews for Jesus.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um and one of them tells a story about uh about uh going up to a fellow Jew, an unbelieving Jew, and you know, saying, Would you like to hear the evidences that Jesus was the Messiah?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the person says, Well, yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so he goes through the Bible and he says, and he concludes, you know, look, as you've seen here, the it predicts in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, predicts that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, predicts that the Messiah would be the Son of God, predicts the Messiah would die by crucifixion, predicts that he would rise from the dead, predicts that Israelites wouldn't recognize him at first, but will one day believe in him.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty clear, isn't it?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh his friend says, even so, I still don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: My friend says, You don't.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nope.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And his answer wasn't five words, because I don't want to.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: So some people just simply don't want to believe.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just simply don't want to believe.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to share with you very quickly uh uh uh two two passages, John and an Isaiah, three silly reasons in Isaiah that we're told that these people said, here's why I didn't believe.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And these are reasons that are still super relevant, you'll see, 27, 2800 years later.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Isaiah 53 divides up into three verse packages, uh, five three verse packages.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And in the first three verses of Isaiah 53, they say, we didn't believe in Jesus because he was too blah.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: It says you're like a sucker plant.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know how you pull up those, you know how in your life, you do have them, I have them in my lawn.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're like these things and they grab, they suck on the ground, and they're all round trees and so forth.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you pull them up and you keep pulling up and you walk 10 feet.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, have you ever seen those things?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: It says Jesus was more like a sucker plant.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't like a weeping willow or a beautiful oak.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't like a rosebush or anything like that.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was like he was too blah.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was just plain.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was nobody went alongside the street going, whoo, look across the street.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like a king.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Looks like a, he looks like, you know, Neo or something.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he looks, he looks so cool.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody said that because Jesus was, he was blah.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: He was just plain.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: It said we didn't believe in Jesus because he was, you know, he just seemed, he had no flash, he had no star appeal at all.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: No model look.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first reason they said we didn't believe.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the second reason in verses four through six is as it said, if he's rejected, it's for a reason.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: They said, we thought he was condemned by God.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, anybody who gets put on a cross for heaven's sake, he must have done something wrong.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know how it is when all of the media and all of the celebrities and everybody start deciding that someone's just horrible in our society?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: After a while, everybody in our society pretty much agrees with him.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: But as you talk with people, you find out about 10% of the people you talk to, they've looked into it, and yeah, they agree he deserves to be disliked.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's awful.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: But about 90% of them just go, well, if all of those important and smart people and beautiful people on TV are against him, he must be bad.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's verses four through six.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: We figured that if he was hanging on a cross, he must have done something wrong.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: We figured that he must be rejected by God.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: He was rejected by everybody who was important.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So a silly reason that people didn't believe is, well, if he's rejected, it must be for a reason.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the third reason, in verses six and nine, third silly reason why people don't believe today, why they didn't believe in Jesus back then is he's too soft.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: They said, you know what?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: We were expecting a lion, not a lamb.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he was silent.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't even open his mouth.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they beat him, they spat on him, and all this other stuff, and he was just passive.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't open his mouth, he just took it.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's not the kind of hero we're looking for.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Silly reason.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you know, if you're expecting someone to come and kick the Romans out of the land, someone to dropkick, you know, unbelievers into the middle of the next week, someone to, if the Pharisees, you know, uh say something bad about you, slug them straight ahead.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for someone like Superman or, I mean, all of these people, and then and then you've got this guy carrying a cross walking up a hill, you're going, uh, he's not exactly what I'm looking for.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's just way, he's just too soft.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a silly reason?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course it's a silly reason.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you think that people don't believe in Jesus today for silly reasons?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Of course they don't, because he's not cool and the cool people, you know, reject him and so forth.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Isaiah says.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: We rejected him for silly reasons.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: He was too bleh.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Figured he must deserve what he's getting on the cross.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's not legit and definitely way too soft.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: But then we move to John, the book that we're in, and we are told just before chapter 12, three serious forces that fight belief in the people that you and I know, and in the people that lived in Jesus' day.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Three serious forces, and very quickly, let me say that uh the book of John divides uh into chapters you know one through twelve.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're in chapter 12 now, the first half.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in chapters 13, the upper room discourse through the end of the book, where Jesus dies and is resurrected, the last week of his life.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And in John 1 through 6, by the way, we have stories of belief.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's called the book of belief.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Scholars call it the book of belief, you know, in John.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is, you have all these people who listen to Jesus.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Simon becomes a believer, Nathaniel becomes a believer, the Samaritan woman becomes a believer.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Remember these stories?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus becomes a believer, individuals, the noble one becomes a believer in John chapter 1 through 6.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then all of a sudden, in John chapter 7 through 11, you have what scholars call the book of unbelief.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And now you have these groups, Jesus, brothers, the crowd, the Pharisees, and so forth, these whole groups that reject him.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' own brothers.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe they didn't believe?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And in the background, it tells you three serious forces in the world that fight belief and make people not want to believe.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and those three serious forces you've heard of before.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're called the world, the flesh, and the devil.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: The world is highlighted in chapter 7, the flesh and eight, the devil and nine.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the three serious forces are the world, which pressures people.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: The crushing pressure of the world pressures and squeezes people away from faith.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: The flesh seduces people.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: It has a pull that seduces and addicts them away from Jesus.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And third, the devil puts on blinders.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: He blinds people.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's John 7 through 11.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at those really quickly and just remind ourselves of how we've seen that in our lives and in the lives of our friends.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: First, the world pressures us not to believe.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is in John 7, and we read in John 7, I've selected phrases so we won't have to read the whole story.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews were seeking to kill Jesus.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews represent, you know, the popular people.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say the media and professors and all the important people in society, and they were against Jesus.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not even his brothers believed in Jesus.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he had these people who are listening to the majority view, which rejects Jesus, okay?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says to his brothers, the world can't hate you.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're saying, why don't you go down to Judea?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, everybody hates you down there and they want to kill you, but you know, show yourself.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's got to be a reason they don't like you.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Prove to them.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to prove to them that you're legit, go down to Judea.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, the world can't hate you.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't understand.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: But the world hates me because I tell them the truth.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I tell them that, uh, I tell them about the light and they want to live in the darkness.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And for fear of the Jews, we read, no one spoke openly of Jesus.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have this picture in John chapter 7 that the world puts pressure on everyone in the world to go along, right?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, 1, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: The world is always pressuring us.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: When we go to school, our schoolmates, our teachers, college professors, the media of all kinds, it's always pressuring us in a certain direction.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Our friends, right?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to get along with them.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And underneath, as the world pressures us, we have, as John 7 says, we have a fear we want to get along.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be liked.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: We want to go along in order to get along.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the message of John chapter 7.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: We read in John 7, 37 and 38 that Jesus stands up and he gives this wonderful invitation.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if anyone's thirsty, and they were, if anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: The one who believes in me, there's our phrase, will have streams of living water flowing from deep within him.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: What a gospel invitation.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the crowd was divided over him.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Many from the crowd believed in him.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: But notice what the world did, the pressure.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee said, Are you fooled?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a single one of us?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the bigwigs, the smart people, the brilliance, as the Washington Post calls it, the brilliance in society who believes in him?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: This foolish crowd is ignorant.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: See that?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the pressure was all not to believe from on top, from the world.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the first serious force, and we find this, that fights belief, is the world that pressures people not to believe.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and you find illustrations of this.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation about Christ with a teenage girl at one point who was who was really popular, head cheerleader, all that stuff.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and it came to the place where, and we talked until late at night, because she really was open and she was really interested and she really considered the claims of Christ.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I came to the place where I asked her, does that make sense?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Yeah, it really does.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like to trust Jesus for eternal life right now?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And she hesitated.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: You could just see it in her, you know, the wheels were turning, and she says, Well, I I I don't know.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Why is that?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she said, my best friend wouldn't understand.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a pressure that comes from outside of us that makes us want to please people that causes us at times not to want to believe.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Another friend of mine was at a college right here, uh, so we say in the Midwest, and want to identify the university.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh my friend was witnessing to this uh to this guy.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's a popular student, he was a frat leader and so forth, and he was listening and he's asking a number of questions, and my buddy told me that he asked him, he said, Wouldn't you like to receive Jesus right now?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a pause and there was a silence, and he could hear the guy under his breath say, But if I do, what will my f what will the guys say?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he heard him and he said, What guys?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, the guys in the fraternity house.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: My buddy was really smart.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'll tell you what, let's make a list of the guys who would object to your becoming a Christian.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they ended up with a list of six names.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it turned out, as he asked about each of the six, that they were all heavy drinkers and bad students.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my buddy, my buddy had the chitzpah, had the guts to ask, would you rather have your life governed by God or by six boozers?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: You got a choice.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Either bow to the will of Almighty God or bow to the will of six drunks.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: What's it gonna be, buddy?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy chose Christ.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: But others don't.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Others, others, others don't, because the world squeezes people with a kind of crushing pressure.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Fit the mold, don't be weird.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Impress your peers, and we all want to impress people.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to impress people.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the first serious force that fights believe is the world, and it's pressure.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: The second serious force that fights believe is the flesh.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: The flesh, and by and not just the outside of us, but the addictions we have, the desires we have, right?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Which seduces people away from the light, pulls us away from the light.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's in chapter 8.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you're familiar with chapter 8.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the chapter that starts off all about the flesh, with the woman caught in adultery and so forth, and Jesus saying, anyone here who's pure, you know, who hasn't done anything like this, feel free to cast a stone.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they all leave.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all about the flesh, and it's all about this kind of stuff.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and basically this chapter is an illustration of Jesus' statement to Nicodemus in John 3 when he said, Men love darkness rather than light.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, that's the word for the gospel in John 12, because their actions are evil and they fear their sins will be exposed.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in John 8, Jesus tells everybody, I'm the light of the world.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And many believed in him.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful invitation.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And again, many individuals believed in him.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: The majority didn't, but many people did.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus went on to say, listen, he who sins, we're talking about the flesh here, he who sins becomes a slave of sin.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about, that's the definition of addiction.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: The truth will set you free, however, and if the sun sets you free, you'll really be free, but if you don't believe, you'll die in your sins.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here you have, here you have the options.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the flesh grabs you and pulls you with a seductive pull away from Jesus and away from freedom and away from the light, right?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, listen, you can't give in to that.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you see, this flesh seducing people.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: When you're talking with people, I uh I was once uh once had a situation very interesting.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of guys were starting a business.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were young guys, and I'd gotten to know them, uh basketball or whatever else.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was in there and they were opening up their business, about to open up their new business, and I was in the shop with them and so forth.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and because it had worked that way, we're standing there and I'm sharing the gospel with them.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they seemed really open.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to the place where I asked them if they were interested in trusting Jesus as their Savior.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: And their answer just blew me away.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was so honest, but it was so sad.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: One of them looked at the other and he said, Well, actually, I'm not sure that would work very well.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that might limit some of the ways we're planning to make money.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that reminded me of a friend of mine who was who was uh witnessing sharing Christ with uh with a guy in a college dormitory in California.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the student listened and he seemed impressed and so forth, but he wouldn't respond in faith.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when when my buddy asked him why, he said, Look, I could give you a bunch of reasons that sound good, but the fact is that Jesus would upset my sex life.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you've got to appreciate that honesty, that clear-sightedness.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you, you know, you commend their truthfulness and their honesty, but it's an illustration of how sometimes we don't believe, people don't believe because they don't want to believe, and we don't want to believe because of the seducing pull of the flesh.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're a little bit like the smoker who said, I read so much about how cigarette smoking leads to cancer.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to give up reading.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And some unbelievers look at the Bible the way a cigarette smoker looks at that warning on the cigarette pack.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think I want to go there.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I made my decision, and I have a preference.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a lady who's saved out of the occult uh told us here in Topeka one time that in her coven there was an altar which was inscribed with the words, we love darkness rather than light.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: You go, right on.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: You do, and that's a problem.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the seductive pull of the darkness away from the light.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the third serious forces I put uh that fights belief is in John chapter 9, especially.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: The devil, believe it or not, we believe in the devil.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you do, but he blinds people, he puts blinders on people.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: There are people in our age who do not come to Christ because the powerful God of this world has blinded their eyes so they can't see the truth clearly.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: As he's and the interesting thing, so John Jesus wants to illustrate this fact.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so chapter 9 starts with a person who's blind.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: As he's passing by, Jesus saw a man who's blind from birth, like we all are, right?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're born in sin, we're blinded, we need the gospel light to shine upon us.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sees a man blind from birth, and remember, he heals him, and it's just amazing.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so at the end of the chapter, Jesus says, Do you believe in the Son of Man?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then explain, who's the Son of Man?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's me.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe, Lord, he said, and he worshipped him.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you have this wonderful story about healing a person born blind, but in the middle you've got you've got his enemies, Jesus, unbelievers, that come and they resist him.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so Jesus is speaking to them about blindness, and he says, I entered this world to give sight to the blind and show those who think they see that they are blind.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees say, Are you saying we're blind?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, You're of the devil.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when I tell you the truth, you don't believe me.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul put all that together in one sentence in 2 Corinthians 4 4, when he said, The God of this age, notice small g, the small g God of this age, that's the devil, has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they can't see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: How does he blind their minds?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in a number of ways, right?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he shines another bright light into their eyes to blind them, the light of a false cult, the light of the light of a false religion, the light of false philosophy.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: He sometimes, the devil sometimes shines that light and blinds them in that way.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he blinds them, I think, almost legitimately, as they come across stories of Christian celebrities or Christian leaders who've gone south, who've gone away from God, who've become hypocrites and so forth, and become the fodder for Hollywood movies that imply that all Christians are that way.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes he blinds them in that way, and sometimes he blinds them.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, with, you know, as they as they as they have a favorite philosopher, a favorite professor.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he blinds them with what they learn from that book or that professor.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: But but Satan finds a lot of ways to blind people.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the interesting thing is, so two verses later, God says, this is God with his large G, says, I've sh uh when you come to me, I shed my light into your heart so that you can shed it out to other people and open their eyes.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the middle, verse 5, Paul says, This is why we preach Christ.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we share the gospel.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because you've got Satan blinding people.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have the light of God in you and me who believe, and we're supposed to shine that light, whether we're using our cell phone flashlight or whatever it is, and we shine that light so that God will open their eyes and they'll believe.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, you see the double blinding people.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how does he do it?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you see sometimes the strangest things, as you're talking with people, they say things that reflect their blindness.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: I talked to a woman called one day to the office and asked to speak to me, and she actually wanted to speak about the gospel.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we talked about Christianity, we went through the gospel and so forth, and her final statement was listen, if God doesn't want me just like I am, then I guess he just doesn't want me.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what she meant by that was, I want to be able to believe anything I want to believe about Jesus.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes you'll hear someone uh reply to you, listen, I'm a very religious person.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try to tell me I'm lost.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love the story.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's when that's when you're blinded.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love the story that years ago, the SMU, Southern Methodist University Dallas, the prof uh press president told about being on a street when a woman was witnessing and she she grabbed him and she started Salvation Army Woman.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: She was sharing Christ with him, and he said, Listen, I'm the president of Southern Methodist University.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, That's okay, you can still be a Christian.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we get blinded by the fact that somehow we think that religion or church is the way to get to heaven.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, I've I've spent a lot of time on that.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: The devil blinds people.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh uh by the way, all three of these world flesh devil are captured in in just a sentence in Ephesians chapter 2.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Before you believed this is how you were, Paul says you followed the ways of this world and of the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil, gratifying the cravings of the flesh and following its desires and thought.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Those three things are serious enemies of the gospel.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to have some sympathy for people who don't believe.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even though they don't, they choose not to believe, you can't get angry at them.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they may have silly reasons, you know, as we review why don't some people believe on him, they don't believe because they just simply say, I will not.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the reasons are like, he's too blah.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: If he's rejected, it's for a reason.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or he's too soft.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, sometimes the reasons are pretty serious.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: The world is pressuring them, the flesh is seducing them, the devil is blinding them.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why people say, no, thanks.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: I won't believe.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if we stop there, we wouldn't be fair to our text because it answers the question if Jesus is so great, why do people not believe in him?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the first answer is most don't believe because they won't.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: But some people that you may come across don't believe because they absolutely can't.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds a little bit offensive.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: The verse goes like this for this reason, they could not believe because Isaiah also said he's blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can sound like what God said about Pharaoh.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: We studied Exodus earlier this year.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, and then turn, at which point I would heal them.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: God saves you if you turn, but he says, you know what?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to allow that.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that astounding?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, I don't like this idea that some people simply can't believe.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't the Bible say, Whosoever will may come, doesn't it say that whoever believes in him shall get everlasting life?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or if anyone thirsts, let him come to the water, or him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: I say, yeah, it does.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it also says, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's in Isaiah.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: So whoever wants to can come, no matter how old they are or how often they've rejected Jesus.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: But steadfastly refuse to come, persist in unbelief, and the Lord may finally say, as he said to Pharaoh, your time's up, game's over, I'll no longer be found by you, I'm no longer nearby.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to pray that our loved ones will not harden their hearts.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Those who we care for, our friends, our co-workers, those who are blinded in the cubicle or apartment next to us, those who are blinded across the sea in Pakistan, let's say in Saudi Arabia, or where my brother is today in Sudan.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, those people, we have to pray that that blindness be lifted, that the gospel will come, and they'll see the light of the glory of Jesus Christ, and their eyes will be opened.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: But listen, choose the world, the flesh, and the devil too long, too steadfastly, and God will finally hand you over, as he says in Romans 1, to the bondage of your own evil choices.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now notice the order here.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: First, would not, then could not.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you, uh I'm coming to a close.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you ever watch Wiley E Coyote, and some of you are old enough to remember how he's he's been chasing Roadrunner for so many years.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish you'd catch him.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, and it'd be nice to see the feathers fly once, maybe.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: But have you ever wished that he would stop and just let go, confess defeat?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: But he won't.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wiley Cody wouldn't stop chasing Roadrunner for every anything because it's in his blood.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's his desire.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's more, he can't.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't stop chasing the Roadrunner even if he wanted to, because the animator, the guy who makes up the cartoons, he's in control and he makes sure of that.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the sad result is you see it every week.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Wiley coyote's chasing him and he's zooming along, no problem.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's on solid rock and suddenly he's out into the open air over 10,000 feet or 5,000 feet or whatever, and then he tries to tiptoe back over a line of space or whatever, and he can't, and and now he's sorry, and but it's no good.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Gravity admits no exceptions, and he goes, yeah, and you watch him fly and you see this little poof of smoke.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some of your friends, and perhaps some of you are a little like Wiley Coyote.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've been chasing your own dreams for so long.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing what you want to do, and of course, you or your friends need to stop, you need to confess defeat, you need to give up, you need to surrender while God is near.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: You need to change the I won't into an I will.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because one day you'll wake up and you'll realize that it's too late.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: One day you'll realize that you're not on solid rock after all.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: You've zoomed off the edge of the cliff, and now the only way you can go is down, but you can't tiptoe back.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's really sober, but let me give you a word of comfort.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a word of comfort for those people you love that you've shared the gospel with, and you are wondering now if maybe they rejected Christ for so many years that their won't has turned into a couldn't.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the word of comfort is you and I never know.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we need to keep praying for them, because someone that you and I would definitely have said had moved from they won't to they can't has recently come to Christ.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's called uh perhaps the greatest thinker in our lifetimes in the land of Ireland.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: An Irish poet, a philosopher, a professor named John Moriarty, and he's recently written his autobiography called Nostos, N-O-S-T-O-S, the Greek word for homecoming.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: So uh he grew up in Ireland, in a little uh village in Ireland, and he went to church, Christian church, but he rejected its stale form of religion and so forth, and he was absolutely brilliant.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so he left Ireland and uh as he abandoned the Christianity of his youth, and he went to Canada and eventually became uh a well-known professor of English in the University of Manitoba.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: And during this time he's writing books of poetry, and he was uh really big in environmentalism and in ecology and wrote brilliant poems about that and so forth.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: And along the way, he became disillusioned with uh postmodern science, postmodern philosophy, with the fact that the mind was everything, but you know, they were playing games.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so he left Canada and he went back to live in the mountains of Ireland until he could figure this out.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh but at that time, you the universal verdict among all people who knew John would be John Mariart, he has rejected Jesus so long and so completely that he can't believe.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: But now he's walking in the mountains, right?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point he said, as I was thinking, he says, you know, I I had been searching for a truth that I could not only believe, but completely surrender myself to, and he said, I suddenly had a vision.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the vision was not of heaven, but it was of a void, of a dark void, of a starless abyss in which all of my successes, my poems, my my the books I've written, and so forth, all of which are bestsellers, that all of those things disintegrated into dust, and there was nothing.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: In an instant, he says, I was ruined.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he says later in his autobiography, I was shattered into seeing.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what I saw was that there was only one story that I had ever heard that was big enough to account for heaven and for a starless void and for everything I'd heard of, and that was true Christianity.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: And though he did not want to become a Christian, this mystic, this poet, this philosopher said at that point, I realized I had become a Christian.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, you can never know whether someone has passed the pale, and therefore we stop and we pray for our loved ones.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, Lord, though they've rejected you so long, would you please open their eyes, shine the light on them, and bring them home.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: Bow your head with me in a word of prayer.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for uh for allowing us to wrestle with this tough question about why people who've heard the truth don't believe.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Smart people.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: People we love, intelligent people.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the fact that you're not surprised and you understand this, and you're not cowed by it, and and and you identify the enemy as the world, the flesh, and the devil, and sometimes silly thinking, and we pray for those right now that we love.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that we've prayed for in the past, Lord, we're not gonna give up on.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep praying for.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we we ask that, Lord, somehow the seductive pull of the flesh, the crushing pressure of the world, or the uh or the or or the or the total blinding by Satan that those things would be lifted, that your spirit would come and work, and you would draw them to yourselves.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: And all God's people said, Amen.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming.