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Resisting the Inner Skeptic in Our Bible Reading · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Monday, we looked at doubt. Can we ever hope to experience a deepening
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  joy in God during reoccurring seasons of doubt? And your answer, Pastor John,
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  was Yes, we can experience deepening joy in God during recurring seasons of
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  doubt. And you explain how. And in the Monday episode, one of
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  the battles you briefly mentioned was the battle when thoughts enter our minds that make
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  us wonder whether something in the Bible, something the Bible teaches, is really
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  true. It's one form of doubt that we face as believers, and today
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  we drilled down into Bible doubt. So how do we fight off this inner
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  skeptic in our Bible reading? The frank and honest question comes from a listener
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  named Kristen. Pastor John, I'm ashamed to say that my Bible reading is
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  often hijacked by a sense of doubt. It sometimes even feels more like a
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  spiritual battle than an intellectual battle, and scares me because it attacks my faith
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  at the foundations the truth of the Bible. Do you have any advice for
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  attacking a spirit of doubt and cynicism when reading the scriptures? You know,
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  Tony, I pray I stop it. I pray over every one of these
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  questions as I try to answer them, so that in the hundreds of things
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  you could say, the lower will help me choose the things that might be
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  most helpful. And this one, this one felt like I needed to pray
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  more because when she conceded that it's a spiritual battle and not just an intellectual
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  one, I felt that's really true, and not just for her, but
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  for all of us. The intellectual things that rise up that make the Bible
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  seem problematic are often covering a Satanic attack. The devil really hates the Bible,
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  he hates truth. He's a deceiver the beginning, and he can make
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  things look merely intellectual when in fact some pretty heavy, heavy spiritual stuff is
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  going on. So I'll just tell Kristen now what the answer is. Yes,
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  I do have some advice, and I based every one of these six
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  counsels on scripture, and I'll mention the Scripture. So I'm praying for Kristen
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  and lots of people who, when they read the Bible find stumbling blocks that
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  get in the way of their enjoyment and their belief. And one of these,
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  maybe, if not all of them, might prove from the Lord for
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  her. Number One, pray that God would help you, that he would
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  fight your doubts and cynicism with you and for you. In other words,
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  cry out to God, fight for me, help me defeat these obstacles.
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  And we all know where that's coming from. Mark nine twenty four. Immediately
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  the father of the child who had this epileptic fit that nobody could heal,
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  and he said, do you want me to do anything here? And the
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  man said, if you can, And she said, what's this if stuff?
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  And then the man cried out, I believe help my unbelief. And
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  that's a strange way to say it will help your unbelief. Do what like
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  die? That's what which means that Kristen and I need to preface our Bible
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  reading every day with prayer, God, help me with my unbelief. That
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  is, kill it, destroy it, do whatever, get at whatever's causing
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  it. So prayer number two, seek in all your reading and praying in
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  the Bible not just to no truth, but to see the glory of Christ.
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  There is a spiritual light shining from Christ that is self authenticating. If
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  you saw it. And I'm thinking here now of the doubting Thomas, I'm
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  glad he exists and is in the Bible for Kristen and me. Then Jesus
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  said to Thomas. Remember Thomas said, I'm not gonna believe in my finger
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  in his side, And so you're Jesus showing up, and he says,
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  put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and
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  place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered
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  him, my Lord and my God. In other words, he did not
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  touch him, he saw him. Something happened when he saw him. He
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  thought that he would need to do more, he would need more evidence for
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  a ghost. You know, he's gonna be a ghost. I'm gonna be
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  tricked. And when Jesus showed up, he didn't need anymore. He didn't
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  he didn't have to push it to the limit of his evidential demands. And
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  Jesus said, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed of those
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  who have not seen and yet believed. And I think that means not seen
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  the way you've seen, but believed by the seeing that comes through the word.
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  And so I'm saying to Kristen that when she reads asked the Lord for
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  this, this kind of not physical but a spiritual desermined, a spiritual sight
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  of Christ that is different than a kind of argument from evidences drawn with inferences.
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  So number three, think much about the patience and mercy of God.
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  To doubt. Peter said, Lord, if it's you command me to come
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  to you on the water, He's gonna walk on water. And Jesus said
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  come. So Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water and
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  came to Jesus. And then it says, this is Matthew fourteen thirty.
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  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink.
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  He cried out, Lord saved me. And Jesus did not say, tough
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  man, I don't know what a jerk. I just told you you could
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  do this, and you were doing it. No, no, that is
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  not what Jesus said or did. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took
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  hold of him, saying, oh, you a little faith, Why did
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  you doubt? So meditate on the kindness and the patience of Jesus to doubters.
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  So Peter's doubting and Jesus reaches out his hand. So maybe that's what
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  Christen would feel as she reads, he is reaching out his hand to me
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  in my doubt. Number four, seek out people of strong faith to read
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  outside the Bible and to be around in person, and make them your heroes.
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  So Hebrews thirteen seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you
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  the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life. Imitate
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  their faith. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
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  So he explicitly wants us to look to people who are ahead of us
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  in this battle of faith and take heart from looking at the outcome of their
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  faith. And here's another one in Hebrews. Hebrews seems to be really big
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  on this communal nature of fighting the fight of faith. So Hebrews three twelve.
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  Take care, brothers, less there be in any of you an evil,
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  unbelieving, you could say, doubting heart leading you to fall away from
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  the living God. Exhort one another every day, as long as it is
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  called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
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  In other words, we need to be in groups where people fight with
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  us and help us and direct us to things that will give strength to our
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  faith rather than weaken them. Number five, remember that the body has many
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  members, and some are scholars who have thought long and hard about things that
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  puzzle you and have solved many of them. So First co Indians twelve twenty
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  one. The head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of
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  you, and vice verse. And it may be that sometimes those of us
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  who are doing footwork at any given time might need to remember hair. There's
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  some heads, and don't let this conflict with Jesus as they head. That's
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  what he says here in First Green These twelve twenty one. Summer heads and
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  summer feet, and the feet should never say I don't need you head when
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  the head has spent ten years solving the problem. You're just doumbling over.
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  No. No, no. The point of the Body of Christ is there's
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  an answer to our problems. God is a god of coherence. He's not
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  a god of contradiction. There answers to the issues and the Bible and the
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  issues of culture, and people have gone before us, and there's a wealth
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  of wisdom in books, and we should befriend those people. And finally,
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  number six, don't don't stop reading your Bible because of these doubts and because
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  of a spirit of cynicism. This is one of Satan's main aims in your
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  doubt and your cynicism is to get you to stop reading, when in fact,
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  the Bible says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
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  Christ. And one last, ti blessed is the man who walks not in
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  the council of wicked, or stands in the way of sinners, or sits
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  in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the
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  Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like
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  a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.
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  Its leaf does not wither, and in all that he does he prospers.
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  So the seasons come, the dry desert winds blow, and those whose roots
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  are not planted by the streams whither by cynicism and doubt. But the person
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  whose roots have gone down, meditating day and night on the word of God,
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  are like a tree that have roots way down by the water, so
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  that they're not killed by the drafts of doubt. Are men help my unbelief
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  die? Yeah, it's a creat word. I think of Pastor John.
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  And thanks for joining us today. If you want to ask Pastor John.
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  Email your question to us that asks faster John at Desiring God dot org.
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  Next time, we ask why God chose the foolish things of this world and
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  not the wise and powerful. Why not use the wealthiest innovators, the smartest
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  geniuses, the most articulate orators, the world's greatest athletes, the most recognizable
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  movie stars, all to spread his gospel around the world. Why does God
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  prefer to choose and use the weakest in his mission? I'm here, Sonny
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  Rankie. We'll answer that on Monday. I'll see then.