Challenge to Unbelief (5 of 6) – Self Deception (Romans 1)

[00:00] It’s a pleasure to have been with you this weekend, and I trust that God has blessed you from his word, and that he’ll continue to do so as we look at it today by turning to Romans, the first chapter, Romans chapter one.

[00:13] Now, before we read God’s word together, for those of you who might not have been able to be with us yesterday for the first three sessions of our apologetic seminar, in essence, I have tried to explain that when a believer and an unbeliever get into an argument with each other, polite, non-contentious argument with each other, exchanging points of view, trying to convince each other of the truth of their respective positions, that we need to understand that the argument is not over isolated, particular ideas, such as creation or Christ’s resurrection, something like that, but rather implicitly, if not explicitly, the argument between the believer and the unbeliever is one between entire worldviews, a complete outlook on life that tells us about the nature of reality, how we know what we know, and how we should live our lives. We have worldviews that are in collision at this point.

[01:16] And because worldviews control the way we understand evidence and the way we reason and how we evaluate things, the believer and the unbeliever will not be able to convince each other by appealing directly to evidence or argumentation that should lead them from agreed-upon premises to a conclusion that shows one or the other to be right or wrong. But rather, the argument will have to be an indirect argument.

[01:44] The certainty of Christianity is seen in that God presents in his own word authorization for his own authority. God authorizes himself. His word has that character. It carries that kind of self-validating power and authority with it. However, people who have hearts that are unwilling to believe this are not going to submit just because we claim that God says something.

[02:11] It is necessary then to show that unbelievers do not have a system of thought which is cogent, do not have a system of thought in which they can make sense out of science or make sense out of morality, make sense out of logic or human dignity and freedom or any of these things which are so often taken for granted in our arguments. And then we think we’re supposed to move out and just discuss where we disagree, whether Christ rose from the dead, whether God created the world, and so forth.

[02:41] Instead, I have suggested that what we are to do is to present the self-attesting authority of God underlying those things that we take for granted about man and his place in the universe and about logic and science and morality, and then challenge the unbeliever, who the Bible presents as a fool, to offer an alternative answer.

[03:03] We need to, as Proverbs says, answer the fool according to his folly, lest that he lies in his own conceit, lest he feel that he has a wisdom in his own outlook on life that can make sense out of what everyone takes for granted about science and morality and logic and human dignity. And so we argue from the impossibility of the contrary that Christianity is true because without it you couldn’t know anything. Without it you couldn’t prove anything.

[03:31] Now if you’ve been at the conference, I would think that you would come in today and have a couple of objections. weighing on you. I would listen to this, and here’s Dr. Bahnsen telling us that all men truly do know God because of his self-attesting authority and his clear revelation everywhere. All men know God, even though they don’t say they know God, and they claim very vociferously that they don’t know God. Moreover, Dr. Bahnsen said that in principle, unbelievers couldn’t know anything, that their outlook on life, their way of thinking of man and the world and knowledge and conduct really undermines the ability to know anything, in which case unbelievers should be completely stupid, completely without knowledge whatsoever.

[04:20] So as you come this morning and as we approach the Word of God, I would encourage you to keep those two concerns on your mind as you hear what God has to say about the unbelieving world. Is it the case that all men know God? Is it the case that they would be driven to foolishness and ignorance if they were consistent with what they say about the world? I believe you’ll find that’s what the Apostle Paul tells us and explains, really gives us the key for how we can see the credibility of these perspectives because, he says, all men are self-deceived.

[04:54] Romans 1, beginning at the 18th verse. Hear now God’s word.

[04:58] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth by means of unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is manifest in them, for God manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity. that they may be without excuse, because, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

[05:44] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible men and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to the lust of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

[06:20] And thus far the reading of God’s holy word. Paul here declares with infallible authority that all men do know God notice how he tells us in verse 21 that knowing God they glorified him not as God neither gave thanks but became vain in their reasoning that might be the nicest little summary of what I was trying to tell you yesterday that you can find that all men know God And yet they won’t own up to it.

[06:53] They won’t live accordingly. They will not give him thanks. They will not bow before him. They will not deal with this knowledge that they have in an obedient and appropriate way. And for that reason, what happens is that their reasoning becomes foolish. I can’t rehearse everything that we said yesterday, but you will recall in the third session, I talked about the futility of unbelief.

[07:16] And we looked at instance after instance after instance where the unbeliever, in his understanding of the world, his understanding of knowledge, his understanding of human life and value, makes nonsense out of things that we take for granted. Makes it impossible that there would be a scientific method. Makes it impossible that there would be moral absolutes, even though he loses them all the time. Makes it impossible that there could be laws of logic or any human communication.

[07:46] Professing themselves to be wise, and boy, they do profess themselves to be wise. I’ve spent some time in educational institutions, and I have to tell you, professors can be some of the most arrogant people on the face of the earth. You know, find a professor who will admit in his class that he ever made a mistake, and you’ve found a rare man. Professing themselves to be wise, and oh, how they love their degrees, how they love their publications, how they love the fact that you’re forced to sit in their classes, listen to their lectures, take their exams, and they know so much, they think. Professing themselves to be wise, they nevertheless become fools.

[08:29] Fools that can be exposed by any of God’s children. You don’t need advanced training. You just need to be like that little boy who’s willing to say, the king doesn’t have any clothes on today. Standing there in the parade and watching everybody else fitting in, you know, playing this game that everything’s okay and the pomp and circumstance of the parade is very appropriate, the little boy said, the king’s in his underwear.

[08:54] And Christians dealing with university professors or anybody else who’s a wise guy in this world are able to say, you know what? You don’t have any clothes on intellectually. You tell me that we’re supposed to follow the methods of science, and yet on your view of the world, there couldn’t be any science, because everything happens randomly and by chance. You tell me that we’re supposed to follow the laws of logic and be reasonable, but on your view of the world, there’s no such thing as a law, much less something that is necessary and absolute that has to be followed. On your view of the universe, there’s no reason why we should reason at all. We’re nothing more but matter in motion, according to you. And so any Christian is able, at whatever level of sophistication you use vocabulary, any Christian is able to stop and say, you know, the king has no clothes on it.

[09:46] Professing themselves to me why they have become fools, Paul tells them. But, you see, if you push this very far, and if you’re not careful and precise in the way that you put it, the suggestion might be made that unbelievers don’t, in fact, know anything. It’s not just that they can’t justify what they believe, they can’t make sense out of the world that they understand and they live in, but that they, in fact, know nothing.

[10:14] But that isn’t what Paul teaches, and I want to make sure before I leave your community that I make sure you don’t think that or think that that’s the direction of thought that is to be taken from my lecture. I am not suggesting, and Paul does not suggest, that unbelievers know nothing.

[10:30] We do suggest with all of our hearts that if they were true to their profession, if they lived consistently with the philosophy that they profess, that they would know nothing. They would be utterly ignorant. They would become utter fools and unable to live in this world whatsoever, because that’s what the Proverbs tells us. God made this world, and when you try to live in his world, contrary to his will, you make nonsense out of everything. You can’t get by in God’s world, and you can’t get ahead in God’s world by going contrary to the directions of the Maker. You have to live in terms of His mind and His revelation if you’re going to get along well in this world. So to the degree that unbelievers are consistent with their unbelievers, to the degree that they follow out honestly the implications of their rebellion against God, to that degree they will be frustrated in this world, they will be ignorant, and they will be fools. But my point is not that unbelievers are as bad as they could be intellectually. My point is not that they know nothing, in fact. My point is not that they cannot understand and have no knowledge of the world. Well, Dr. Bonson, how do you bring these two things together? How can it be the case that on the unbeliever’s philosophy of life, he could know nothing, and yet you tell me he does know things? Well, here’s the answer. The unbeliever says one thing and believes another. He says that he doesn’t believe in God. He says that there is no personal maker whose holy character is the standard of right and wrong for all men and all ages. He says that he doesn’t believe in the sovereignty of a God who controls the universe so that it operates in a regular fashion. He says that he does not know and does not believe in such a God, and yet the Bible says he does believe in such a God. He does know such a God, and he cannot avoid such a God.

[12:28] Well, that’s a very bizarre situation, then. He says one thing, but he believes another. Well, is that so bizarre, though? Had you never been in a situation where you believed one thing and you said another? You believed that you took the last two cookies out of the cookie jar, but you said to your mother that you didn’t. You believed one way, you said another. It’s what we call a lie. When people lie, they say one thing with their mouth, even though they believe something else in their heart or in their mind. But then, see, not every lie that people tell turns out to be just a straightforward, malicious, very self-conscious departure from the truth.

[13:11] sometimes people lie and they do something else in addition to lying they rationalize what they know because it’s very awkward for them to know something that they’re denying it’s very indicting it’s something that brings guilt and it brings sometimes fear maybe even personal confusion and being uncomfortable in those various states of mind we tend to look at the evidence differently We start to shave off what we know to be true. We start to distort and to twist little things so that we don’t have to draw those implications that we don’t want to bear.

[13:53] Let me give you a story here. Maybe I can illustrate the kind of psychological process that I’m referring to. Let’s imagine that we have a woman who is a single mother. She has one child, and she lives for that child. That child is her pride and joy. That child has heard, from a human standpoint, reason for living. Her little Johnny is in school, and she loves little Johnny. And as far as she’s concerned, he is the be-all and end-all of children.

[14:21] Little Johnny’s a brat. He’s more than a brat. He’s a juvenile delinquent. He gets in trouble at school. He does horrible things. He beats up the other children and takes their lunch money. So Johnny gets in trouble, and the teacher punishes him. Nothing gets done at home. Johnny gets in trouble again, and the teacher punishes him again, and this time sends a report to the office, nothing has done at home. Johnny finally gets sent to the office, and after many threats, has to be expelled from school. But you see, Mrs. Jones, because she loves her little Johnny, and Johnny has her pride and joy, can’t bring herself to believe that she’s the mother of a juvenile delinquent.

[15:01] Is this so far-fetched? Maybe you don’t know Mrs. Jones, and you don’t know the boys who beat up kids for the lunch money, but you know situations like this, don’t you? Where people can’t bring themselves to believe things, which are just too hard, too much an insult, either on pride and self-esteem, perhaps, but just too difficult to swallow. And so what do you do? You start to rationalize.

[15:23] You know, Mrs. Jones understands that the teacher’s had it in for Johnny for a long time. And she takes courage in that conviction because there was, in fact, a time when the teacher, in a pit of frustration and impatience blamed Johnny when he hadn’t done something wrong. But the mother remembers that. She does not remember all the other evidence of Johnny’s true guilt, but she remembers the false accusation that one day. And so what she says is, my Johnny is not such a bad boy. The teacher has it in for Johnny. It’s what we call distortion of the weight of evidence, rationalization, twisting things, holding on to the minor point that the teacher made a mistake once, and missing the major point of all of the very genuine and persuasive evidence of Johnny’s nastiness as a child.

[16:12] Well, but now Johnny’s been expelled from school, you see, and Mrs. Jones has got to go further than this in her rationalization. Now she has to deal with the principal. But you know how principals are. They always back up teachers. You see, it’s an institutional kind of thing. They’re ganging up on her little Johnny. And so they’re closing ranks. They’re just helping each other. They’re protecting one another. my little Johnny who couldn’t meet the feet from the bully that he’s made out to leave.

[16:40] Now let’s say you know Mrs. Jones and you find it fascinating that she talks of her Johnny as this angel for pride and joy and so forth defends him to the hilt and yet you see other things about Mrs. Jones that suggest there’s something wrong here. She never leaves her pocketbook in the same room with her little Johnny the angel but what in truth do no wrong. She doesn’t grant Johnny the kind of privileges to be out on his own doing things like other children in the neighborhood are given. She’s very protective, you see, that Johnny not get into trouble, even though she’s also proclaiming in the loudest voice he could not get into trouble because he’s an angel. Do parents ever do this with their children? Does what I’m saying sound like a complete fairy tale to you? No, it’s a state of mind that we’re very familiar with.

[17:32] It’s called self-deception. Lying to yourself about something that is too painful to endure, or so you think. Here you have a woman who gives evidence that she believes in the innocence of her child, and yet she gives evidence that she does not believe in the innocence of her child. How do we deal with that? How can it be that a person says one thing, sounds very sincere, and yet also gives evidence that he or she does not believe the very thing they’re professing.

[18:03] Let’s say you have a friend who makes quite a point in telling you that he believes in the equality of all races. In fact, he prides himself in his progressive attitude, in his liberal spirit with respect to this matter. At work, he goes out of his way as a supervisor to promote people of color because he wants to show people that he has nothing against them, that he is an even-handed kind of person.

[18:31] And yet you know him in his personal life. You go out and drink with him. And you know that when he’s in the bar and so forth, he has jokes which put down people of color. He makes them the butt of his jokes so often and says things which are demeaning about them and their behavior and so forth. And you say, how can it be that somebody who so prides himself in his egalitarian attitudes at work, nevertheless can do this sort of thing and say these sorts of things afterward.

[19:01] Well, there are various possibilities. He couldn’t just be flat out a liar and a hypocrite. I know that. There are people in this world like that. They just say what is needed for the moment. But sometimes there are situations where people are not in a real self-conscious and sincere way lying. And yet they’re not telling the truth about their own convictions. What do you say about such people?

[19:26] Well, we say that they have lied to themselves, first of all. They have deceived themselves about who they are and what is true about the world in which they live. Mrs. Jones has deceived herself about being the mother of a good little child. She wants to be such a mother. She cannot endure the idea that she’s not. She sees the evidence that she’s not a good mother and her child is not an angel. But being unable to deal with that, she rationalizes the evidence and brings herself to believe you that she thinks of Johnny as a good boy. We have a friend who wants to pride himself, has a great deal of self-esteem because he looks upon people of all races as being equal.

[20:10] He doesn’t really believe that. He cannot act that out. He’s not consistent with that. And so you have somebody who lies to himself, and he lies to himself by distorting the evidence, by tuning out the evidence of his demeaning attitude and exalting and expanding and emphasizing and underlining the evidence that he goes out of his way to help people of other races and socials. This is what we call self-deception.

[20:35] It has seemed to many philosophers to be something impossible to do. And let me tell you why self-deception seems impossible when you try to analyze it, and yet it’s a condition we all know. we see it, sadly, we sometimes see it in ourselves. Looking back, we say, I was lying to myself.

[20:53] I was deceiving myself. I knew better. And yet I convinced myself contrary to what I knew. We see that in ourselves and others. And yet, why do philosophers tell us that can’t happen? Well, because, stop and think about it. When I lie to somebody else, what must happen for me to accomplish the lie? What must happen for this to be a situation where I lie. First of all, I must believe something to be false. I must believe some claim or premise or sentence to be false, and yet I get somebody else to believe that it’s true. Then I’m a liar. And so the one doing the deceiving knows that the sentence is false, and the one who is being deceived believes that it is true. And so you have someone believing that it’s false, someone believing that it’s true, those are contrary to one another. When we say that we lie to ourselves or deceive ourselves, then we’re both the one who believes that it is true and the one who believes that it’s false.

[21:57] And how can that be? How can one person believe that something is true and believe that it’s false at the same time? And for that reason, many philosophers have said, especially since it became a technical question in the theory of knowledge around the 1960s, many philosophers because he said self-deception is impossible. We may talk about it, but that’s just a strange way of discussing something else, wishful thinking or hypocrisy or something of that nature. I want to suggest to you that the Bible describes for us very exactly this condition, particularly in Romans 1, and that we as Christians do believe self-deception takes place.

[22:34] First of all, we believe it takes place in our own lives. It takes place in the lives of those who are God’s people. Turn with me, if you will, to James, the first chapter, and notice how James says in verse 26, James 1, 26, if any man thinks himself to be religious, but does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain.

[23:02] James tells us there are some people who profess Christianity who have deceived their own hearts. They are self-deceived believers. They give an outward show and profession of religion, and yet apparently they are not truly changed. And they are playing games with God. They are lying not just to God and to the world, they are lying to themselves in this very desperate spiritual condition to be in. We know that self-deception takes place. Well, how are we to understand it then. How can a person both believe that something is false and yet bring himself and believe that it’s true? We understand the process of rationalization, but how can one person be both, deceived and deceiver? I’m going to suggest that the way in which we can understand this, by looking at man believing not only things about his child or about people of other races or something in the world, their beliefs are not only about matters like that, but we also have beliefs about ourselves.

[24:14] If you were to make a list of all the things you believe, you might believe something about what day of the week it is. You might believe something about scientific matter. You might believe things about historical matter. But in all of the beliefs that you have, you also believe things about yourself. You believe that you were born on a certain day in the past. You believe that certain people are your parents. You believe that you had this kind of upbringing. You were raised in this city. And you believe not only things about yourself, you believe things about your beliefs, too.

[24:48] Say someone calls you up on the phone and says, this is Time Magazine, we’re doing a survey. What do you believe about Bill Clinton’s credibility? Something like that. And when you give an answer, in a sense, you have to stop and look at yourself and say, now, what do I believe about that? And then you give the answer. That answer reflects a belief about your beliefs.

[25:11] I don’t want to go too quickly here. What I’m saying is we not only believe things about things in the world and believe things about ourselves, we have beliefs about what we believe as well. Now, can we ever be mistaken about what we believe? It’s an unusual situation, no doubt about that. But is it impossible for me to be mistaken about what I believe?

[25:35] I bet you’ve had some situations where someone asked you something or you gave an opinion and then you said, no, I think I spoke too soon. I’m not so sure I really do think that way. Upon reflection, I’m going to change that. Can we ever be confused about what we believe? Well, sure we can. And now can we do things, can we rationalize not only about the things that happen in the world that we find uncomfortable and about people that we are disappointed in, can we rationalize about ourselves? Is it possible that we could rationalize about what sorts of things we’re able to believe or what sorts of things we really do believe? There’s no reason to think we can’t do that.

[26:18] And so if we go back to Mrs. Jones and look at it for a moment, You know, Mrs. Jones believes something about her son, namely that he’s a very bad boy. But she doesn’t want to believe that she’s that kind of mother. And so she brings herself to believe that she has confidence in her son. She doesn’t, but she brings herself to believe that she does. And so she believes something about Johnny, he’s a rat, and believes something about herself, she couldn’t be the mother of a rat. She brings herself to believe about herself that she doesn’t think of Johnny as a bad boy. But in fact, she does think of Johnny as a bad boy.

[26:58] And likewise, the person who seems to be a hypocrite about racial equality. Here’s somebody who does not believe that people of other races are of the same dignity with him. He doesn’t believe that, but he doesn’t want to think of himself as being such a lowlife as to be a person who exalts himself over others. And so he brings himself to rationalization to believe that he doesn’t believe that other people are inferior to him. He believes one thing about the other people, and he believes something about himself that is contrary to that.

[27:33] Now, if that seems credible to you, and I hope that it’s something that you should see readily, even in yourself, how about religious questions? Do you think people get very personally tied up in religious questions? Is there a lot at stake for people when they ask about what the nature of the world is and their relationship to God and their guilt and so forth? Well, this is one of the most ripe areas for self-deception, if you stop and think about it.

[28:01] And what Paul tells us in Romans 1 makes perfectly good sense. The unbeliever knows God. But how does he know God? Does he know God in a joyful, faithful, blessed way? No, Paul says in Romans 1.18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth by means of unrighteousness. The way in which unbelievers know God is they know him as a judge, the holy God who is angry with them. And they are guilty before him.

[28:39] Now, is that a comfortable feeling? That’s the sort of thing they just rejoice in and they’re glad and readily accept that? Of course not. Paul says they suppress the truth. They push it down. They want to rationalize and get away from thinking those kinds of thoughts. And yet Paul goes on to tell us they can’t escape.

[28:59] Because that which is known of God is manifested in them, for God is the one who manifested it unto them. for the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen being perceived through the things that are made even his everlasting power and divinity that they may be without excuse so they cannot escape knowing god and yet they desperately want to escape knowing god and so what they do is they lie to themselves though they know that there is a god who controls all things in the world though they know there is a god who is a holy character and to whom they will answer someday. Though they know this God very well, they rationalize the evidence and they convince themselves that they don’t believe in God.

[29:48] I’m not that kind of person. I’m not some kind of fool. I’m not kind of a Sunday school child just to be led around here believing these superstitions. I’m better than that. I’m smarter than that. I don’t believe in God. And yet they do. They believe in God, but they’ve convinced themselves that they’re not the sort of person who believes in God. They have deceived themselves.

[30:14] Now, can someone do that purposely? Is that just some kind of psychological condition, some Freudian way where you can’t help people grow up and they push down into the id somewhere what they don’t want to deal with? Is this just some kind of subconscious belief in God? Is that what Paul is talking about? Not at all. Paul doesn’t buy that view of human nature. Paul’s not talking about subconscious, you know, goings-on at all. Paul’s talking about people who suppress the truth, not in a Freudian sense, but suppress it by distorting and turning away from it.

[30:53] Because knowing God, they glorify him not as God, neither give thanks, but become vain in their reasoning so that their senseless hearts are dark. What you have here is the case of a man who chooses not to look at the evidence clearly. A man who chooses not to deal honestly with his guilt. A man who wants to distort and rationalize so that he can be more comfortable with the world in which he lives and more comfortable with himself. So even though he believes God, he’s convinced himself that he does not believe in God.

[31:29] Now what happens when people are in this condition? Well, two things are going on. First of all, he’s going to try to live consistently with his belief about himself, that he doesn’t believe in God. And to try to live as a man who doesn’t believe in God, then he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t praise Jesus’ name, he doesn’t believe that there are ethical absolutes, he doesn’t believe in creation, he argues with religious people, he puts them down and ridicules them. There’s all this evidence that he doesn’t believe in God, but in fact there’s evidence that he’s convinced himself that he’s the sort of person who doesn’t believe in God.

[32:07] And yet, on the other hand, there’s evidence that he doesn’t believe in God. He does hold in some way to moral absolutes. He does in some sense fear death. He does believe in human dignity and freedom. He does act like there are laws and laws of logic and human language and the procedures of science. So he has two things going on. He’s a man at war with himself because he has brought himself into the dreadful and sinful state of mind that we call self-deception.

[32:40] Now what hope is there for people who deceive themselves? As one author put it, the worst deception of all is self-deception. Because you see, when you’re not only the one who is deceived, but the one who’s doing the deceiving, What hope is there that it’s going to be cleared up? What hope is there that it will ever stop and you’re going to believe the truth? How do you ever come out of this dreadful condition of rationalizing and lying to yourself about what you know to be very true in your relationship to God? How could anybody who is self-deceived be rescued from this condition?

[33:18] One of the things that we were trying to see in our apologetic seminar is that we need to present such a strong apologetic answer to unbelievers that they realize they have no ground to stand on, yet they will not stand on God’s ground. We tried to show them that it’s not as though their lives are okay as far as they go, and they just need to add Jesus. What we tried to show the unbeliever is that they are lost, and they are lost intellectually as well as spiritually and morally and socially. They are lost in the entirety of their being, or as we as Calvinist put it, they are totally depraved.

[33:55] And that depravity has affected their thinking as well. Their reasoning has now become corrupt, and their senseless hearts have been darkened. And we need to show that in our apologetics. We need to argue that without the Christian worldview, without the truth of God revealed in the Bible, they could, in principle, know nothing. That’s one of the things we need to do, because people are self-deceived. We need to show them that there is no way to go except to Jesus Christ himself.

[34:27] If you turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 2, you’ll notice the other thing that needs to be said about this. Timothy is getting an exhortation from Paul about how to deal with unbelievers and those who depart from the faith. He says in verse 23 of 2 Timothy 2, foolish and ignorant questions refuse knowing they just engender strife. The Lord’s servant must not strive but be gentle towards all, apt to teach forbearing and gentleness correcting them who oppose themselves if for adventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him unto his will.

[35:15] When all is said and done, there isn’t an apologetical argument devised by man that can change the heart of a hardened unbeliever. Apologetical argument must glorify God, must be faithful to him, and will be used by him in his power and grace to change people’s hearts. We need to understand that beyond apologetical argument, God must grant repentance. You can have the better argument. You can have the better evidence. You can completely, from an intellectual standpoint and a debate standpoint, dominate your opponent, but it will do no good whatsoever to bring him out of his self-deception, to recover him from the snare of the devil, unless God, by his grace and sovereign determination, grants repentance to the heart of the unbeliever.

[36:07] But all is said and done, apologetics relies upon the sovereign work of God’s Spirit to see men change, not just change in terms of cleaning up their lives and going to church and living better lives, but change intellectually, change so that they see the world differently and they believe differently and they understand themselves to be those who are creatures of God and owing him all praise in the entirety of their lives until they have such a complete mental revolution, until their minds are turned around, they will never escape on their own from self-reception. They will never come out of the pit of rationalization and their habitual lies to one another and to themselves about who they are and what they really believe and how good their lives are. As Paul says, we must pray that peradventure God may give them repentance unto a knowledge of the truth.

[37:10] And of course, then when they know the truth, the truth will set them free. Jesus said, if you abide in my word, then are you truly my disciples, and you will know the truth which sets you free. The only hope for men to escape from self-deception is that they understand what a wretched condition they are in as long as they try to live according to the philosophy they profess, that they know that they are nothing but fools by suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. And then secondly, that God would attend our testimony and our argumentation with his power in Christ. The Spirit would rescue them from darkness, enlighten their minds, and give them a heart that is able to believe.

[37:53] Everything that I’ve taught you this weekend is absolutely worthless. If you don’t understand that it all comes down to the sovereign disposition of a gracious God. Who doesn’t expect us, therefore, to give up argumentation and testimony that glorifies him, but expect us to realize that he does not share his glory with another, and that all the glory from the changing of our hearts, as well as the hearts of those to whom we witness, all glory belongs to him. Because faith is not an accomplishment of intellect. It is a gift from God.

[38:31] We want to give you thanks, our Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, And Holy Spirit, we thank you that you have changed us and drawn us out of the bondage and darkness of the world and unbelief and rebellion and the blindness of self-deceived, self-esteem about ourselves and who we are. How we thank you that you have rescued us powerfully, graciously, that you’ve shown us your mercy, and not because we, in any way, earned it, not because we somehow were good enough or merited your love and attention, but simply, solely, because you chose, in your grace and mercy, to set your love on us. a love that is a powerful love, a transforming love, a redeeming love, a forgiving love.

[39:26] We thank you that you have forgiven us for our rationalizations and our self-deception, for our lies about you and our lies about ourselves. We thank you that you have rescued us from the bondage of Satan, that you have set us free. Oh, praise God that you have given us that free. And we ask, Heavenly Father, that you would so transform our hearts and give us sensitivity and concern for those who are yet in the bondage of sin and blindness, that we would be willing to be faithful to you, that we would be willing to testify to others, that you would give us the patience that is necessary to stay with them, to continue the testimony, to be faithful to you and faithful to them as well, that we might show them how lost they are.

[40:15] Not simply lost because they will go to hell if they will not believe, but they are lost right now. They are lost intellectually right now. We pray that you would attend our testimony and our argumentation with power and persuasiveness that we might truly shut the mouths of those who dishonor you. That we might convict them that they have no place to stand, that they are truly acting as fools. And yet we pray, Lord, that you would remind us that all of the work we do will be successful only if by your sovereign disposition you reach down and turn around the hearts of those who are perverted, who are hardened, and who are lost.

[41:00] We know that we cannot change sinners. We cannot stop them from running away from you. But you can. And we do pray that you would do that. We pray that you would use our testimony and our desire to be faithful to your word. That you would work through us in our witness so that men might come to know you and might glorify you with us. Help us to be bold in our testimony, Lord, but help us to be humble in it in your mouth. A humble boldness that brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. and recognizes that when all is said and done, He is the Lord of every spiritual blessing through this year. For in His name we pray. Amen.