Mark Clark [00:00:03]:
So the text I'm about to unpack for you, these five or six verses that we're gonna get through this evening. Here is what scholars in the past have said about this text. All right, right up here. Thomas Shriner. This sentence is the theological heart of the entire New Testament. This paragraph is the very heart of the Gospel. This section stands at the center of the Christian message. This is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine.
Mark Clark [00:00:27]:
It is the center of the center of the whole Bible. And Dr. Leon Morris, probably the most important paragraph ever written. What passage? This is. This is the. This is the desert island passage, potentially, of the Bible for many people, many people's perspective. Meaning if you had one movie that you could go to a desert island and that was the only movie you could watch for the rest of your life, what would it be? Call them out. What? Godfather.
Mark Clark [00:00:59]:
Godfather. Okay, this is the guy right here. Let's give it up for the guy right here. All right, let's go. The only right answer. Shawshank. Redemption of the Godfather. No, here's the thing.
Mark Clark [00:01:08]:
What passage, though? If you could only get one page of your Bible, one paragraph ripped out, what passage would be able to tell the whole story from beginning to end and zone in on the very beginning? Beginning, beginning? Here's what it is. Romans, chapter 3, verse 21 to 26. Open up your Bibles there. Here's what we are going to do. We are going to unpack. Romans, chapter three, verse 21, to. To 26.
Mark Clark [00:01:33]:
And there's a lot to get through, so we're gonna do our best. I'm not gonna do the whole book of Romans.
Mark Clark [00:01:40]:
All right?
Mark Clark [00:01:40]:
I just sounded like Trump right there. I gotta do the whole book of Romans.
Mark Clark [00:01:45]:
All right, so here's what we're gonna do. Romans, chapter three. Are you ready for this? All right, here we go. Romans, chapter 3, verse 21. He says this, but. Now stop right there.
Mark Clark [00:02:00]:
Now, here.
Mark Clark [00:02:00]:
Here's the thing. Here's the thing. No joke. When you see a but in the Bible, I want to say this. The word but. The word but is maybe the best word in any language. And some of you are like, I.
Mark Clark [00:02:14]:
Don'T understand what you're talking about.
Mark Clark [00:02:15]:
What are you talking about? Listen, the word but is such a beautiful word because what it says is this.
Mark Clark [00:02:22]:
The doctor walks in and says, you have cancer. The doctor walks in and says, there's been a car accident. Somebody calls you up. The police officer says, a child is missing. What goes through your heart? Utter chaos. Pain.
Mark Clark [00:02:38]:
Fear.
Mark Clark [00:02:39]:
But there's a solution to your cancer. But don't worry, the people have been.
Mark Clark [00:02:45]:
Found, but the spouse survived a car accident. See, this is the pivot. And what the Apostle Paul has been doing in this whole passage is he's been telling us a lot of bad news. He's been telling us a whole bunch of bad news. He's been saying everyone's an idolater, everyone's legalistic, everyone is lost. No one actually seeks or searches for God at all. And then he pivots and says, but. And there's this beautiful thing, is he's saying, listen, nothing is gonna save you.
Mark Clark [00:03:13]:
New Age thinking's not gonna save you being a good person. You're not gonna go to heaven and have health and wealth and success because you positive think your way through life. Like Tony Robbins tells you.
Mark Clark [00:03:25]:
That's not what the Apostle Paul's about to say.
Mark Clark [00:03:28]:
He's gonna say, but God did something about your situation. You weren't seeking him. You were a mess. But. And then he says this. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. Now, this is a really debated topic. This phrase, the righteousness of God in the Greek language.
Mark Clark [00:03:52]:
It's a phrase that a lot of people debate. In fact, I did a master's thesis on the book of Romans, and I spent seven pages of my master's thesis explaining the different views of the phrase right here, the righteousness of God. Dikaiosune theu is the phrase. And there's all kinds of different debate about what it means. And there was earlier translations that used to say, if you had the 1984 translation of the NIV, the translation of this phrase is they said it's the righteousness from God. But later translations of the NIV that.
Mark Clark [00:04:25]:
I'm using here and the NASB and.
Mark Clark [00:04:27]:
The esv, they translated the righteousness of God, which is the better translation of the verse. Because here's the difference. You and I are so used to wanting to make the Bible about who, Us? So we read the Bible, and we love when the verse says the righteousness from God, because that means it's something to do with me. I need righteousness. And now we're gonna read a chapter where it's going to be something about me, and yet it's actually not. The Apostle Paul, before he ever gets to you, and I don't want to offend you, but before he ever gets to you, he wants to talk about him, which is actually the best possible scenario for you. But the problem is we're so kind of selfish, we're like, I don't know. I just.
Mark Clark [00:05:12]:
I just want the Bible to be about me.
Mark Clark [00:05:13]:
And so we sit with our morning.
Mark Clark [00:05:14]:
Coffee, and we take the photo, and.
Mark Clark [00:05:16]:
We'Ve already posted on Instagram, and we said, hashtag devotions, Jesus Bible.
Mark Clark [00:05:23]:
And you're reading Leviticus.
Mark Clark [00:05:25]:
And he goes on and on and on about shellfish and how the curtains on the temple are supposed to be three cubits by eight cubits. And you're like, what does this have to do with me? I have a secret. Nothing. It has nothing to do with you.
Mark Clark [00:05:41]:
Because the Bible was not written to you. It was written for you. The Bible is not written about you. The Bible primarily is a story about who God. And by implication, it's about you. So I remember a couple years ago, I did a podcast. I was releasing a book, and these.
Mark Clark [00:06:01]:
Two atheists wanted to do a podcast with me.
Mark Clark [00:06:03]:
And they said, we wanna do a podcast with you, Mark. And so we wanna just rip Christianity apart.
Mark Clark [00:06:07]:
And I said, awesome. Sounds like an awesome Tuesday afternoon.
Mark Clark [00:06:09]:
So I went on this podcast, and.
Mark Clark [00:06:11]:
It was a video podcast. And these guys just start leaning in, critiquing Christianity.
Mark Clark [00:06:15]:
And they said this. We are atheists. We are skeptics.
Mark Clark [00:06:18]:
And here's the problem we have with.
Mark Clark [00:06:19]:
God, that if God was real, if.
Mark Clark [00:06:22]:
God was healing people still, if God.
Mark Clark [00:06:23]:
Was doing all these miracles, there should be a whole bunch of YouTube videos showing all the arms growing back, all the people rising from the dead. Why is he doing this in secret? There should be all kinds of video evidence of all these miracles that people are claiming are happening in the seven.
Mark Clark [00:06:38]:
Continents of the world.
Mark Clark [00:06:39]:
But there's nothing that.
Mark Clark [00:06:40]:
So we're gonna continue to be atheists.
Mark Clark [00:06:41]:
And I looked at him, I said, you know why there isn't that? Cause maybe God has more important things to do than put some videos up so he can convince you two podcasters. And they kind of looked at each other and they went, you know, we're.
Mark Clark [00:06:57]:
Struggling with your answer a little bit.
Mark Clark [00:06:58]:
Because I don't think pastors are supposed.
Mark Clark [00:07:01]:
To talk like that to people.
Mark Clark [00:07:03]:
And I'm like, look, I'm not a very good one. So it's fine, all right? I'm a terrible pastor. But the point is, see, here's the temptation for preachers like me. When I get up here on a weekend and I open my Bible, I have to so quickly make it about you. I have to quickly get in there. And yet, sometimes the Bible's just about him, and there's no quick thing about you and your little life. But we as preachers, we're like, oh.
Mark Clark [00:07:29]:
But everyone's gonna get.
Mark Clark [00:07:30]:
I get up and talk about God for 15 measures.
Mark Clark [00:07:34]:
I know you're. You're not like that because you're at the Bible conference, all right?
Mark Clark [00:07:38]:
But you totally are like that, which is why we, as preachers, we go, hey, we're gonna come to a series, and we're gonna do the Seven Principles of Good Finances. And they all start with the letter P. All right?
Mark Clark [00:07:52]:
And you're all like, oh, so good. I love.
Mark Clark [00:07:54]:
I love the. And this is the thing.
Mark Clark [00:07:56]:
Paul stops for a minute and he goes, you know what? Sometimes the Bible's just about God.
Mark Clark [00:08:01]:
This is not just about you. It's something to do with him. The question of righteousness is the question of God. And as one writer I read recently.
Mark Clark [00:08:09]:
Said, he said, this is why it's very important, because your whole life has to be about Him. The universe is actually about God before it's about you.
Mark Clark [00:08:16]:
And this is the problem when you and I start bringing people's attention toward.
Mark Clark [00:08:20]:
Us, because the minute you start to bring people's attention toward you, look at my beauty. Look at my success. Look at how funny I am. Look at my Instagram page. One writer says, here's the problem.
Mark Clark [00:08:29]:
Not only do you take people's eyes.
Mark Clark [00:08:31]:
And gaze away from God and make it focused on idolatry, you're setting them up.
Mark Clark [00:08:36]:
Listen to this.
Mark Clark [00:08:36]:
For eternal misery.
Mark Clark [00:08:41]:
You get them distracted, away from him, to focus on you and how cool you are and beautiful you are and successful you are. The heart needs to treasure God versus you in order to have eternal life. And every time you pull people away from. From him, you're setting them up for eternal misery.
Mark Clark [00:09:02]:
So here's what he says.
Mark Clark [00:09:04]:
The righteousness, the. The justice, the covenant, faithfulness of God. The fact that in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he made a covenant that said, I am going to deal with.
Mark Clark [00:09:16]:
The evil in the world.
Mark Clark [00:09:17]:
I am going to deal. I am going to do a plan where I'm going to defeat evil.
Mark Clark [00:09:22]:
I'm going to birth a new world.
Mark Clark [00:09:23]:
I'm going to kick Satan in the teeth, right? The righteousness of God is what is at stake.
Mark Clark [00:09:29]:
When the world looks around and says.
Mark Clark [00:09:31]:
Why is everything so evil? Why is there still rape? Why is there still racism? Why is there so much terribleness? It's not your righteousness that is on trial in the universe. It's the righteousness of God. It's the justice. Has he been faithful? Is he paying attention?
Mark Clark [00:09:48]:
In Second Peter, there's a whole Bunch of people saying, see, God's not paying any attention because the world is so evil.
Mark Clark [00:09:54]:
He.
Mark Clark [00:09:54]:
He must be asleep. He must not exist. And Peter says, no, no, no. He's just patient because he wants as many people as possible to repent.
Mark Clark [00:10:01]:
Listen, for all of you who want Jesus to come back really soon, here's.
Mark Clark [00:10:05]:
What I'm glad of.
Mark Clark [00:10:06]:
I'm glad Jesus Christ never came back.
Mark Clark [00:10:08]:
Before 1997, or else I wouldn't know him.
Mark Clark [00:10:12]:
This is what God is doing. He's delaying so that if your heart doesn't love him. And so here's what Paul says, this righteousness, this covenant, faithfulness, this justice is. It's now been made known. It's been made known, which is so beautiful.
Mark Clark [00:10:28]:
How has it been made known? It's been made known through verse 22. This righteousness is given through what? Faith in Jesus Christ. Okay, we have a bit of an issue here too. All right, so in the first translation.
Mark Clark [00:10:48]:
We had a bit of an issue.
Mark Clark [00:10:49]:
With the righteous of God phrase. Now we got an issue with this phrase, faith in Jesus Christ.
Mark Clark [00:10:53]:
Because actually, and if you look at.
Mark Clark [00:10:55]:
Your little footnotes, this is fascinating, this is why I love the Bible, by the way. There's another option for this phrase. And it's not that Paul's talking about putting our faith in Jesus Christ.
Mark Clark [00:11:03]:
He's going to get to that in.
Mark Clark [00:11:04]:
Verse 25 and 26, what he's actually talking about.
Mark Clark [00:11:08]:
This exact phrase in the Greek can.
Mark Clark [00:11:10]:
Mean faith in Jesus, but it can.
Mark Clark [00:11:12]:
Also mean this, the faithfulness of Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:11:17]:
Christ, which makes the passing so much more interesting because now what he's saying is the justice of God has been made known in the world. His. His. His ability to defeat evil.
Mark Clark [00:11:29]:
All of that isn't by your faith in Jesus. It's by what Jesus. That Jesus remained faithful to the task that was put in front of him. Right? He left heaven. He. He lived 33 years in a beat up, broken world. He was tempted, but he succeeded. Adam failed.
Mark Clark [00:11:48]:
Israel failed. You fail, I fail. But Jesus was faithful to the task that was in front of him. He lived a perfect life in your place, died on a cross for your sin, for you, because of you. And instead of you. And rose again from death. And in that act, the righteousness of God is shown to the world. Does that make sense? It's actually the faithfulness of Jesus, which.
Mark Clark [00:12:16]:
Is awesome because you've heard me say this before. Who is the subject of the Bible? You have two options. It's either you or it's who. It's Him, Jesus. And if you read the Bible as if it's about you, it will crush you. But if you read the Bible as if it's about him, it's the most liberating thing in the world. Listen, when you wake up tomorrow and you're doing your devotions, and some of you, you might be in the prophet Hosea, and you're reading Hosea and God shows up to Hosea and he says, hey, prophet, I want you to marry this lady, Gomer. That's the name in the Bible, and I want you to marry Gomer.
Mark Clark [00:12:48]:
And you know what Gomer's nine to five is? Prostitute. And you know what happens when you're sitting there reading your drinking your Little Americano at 9 o' clock in the morning with your Bible out when you're reading that text, who are you in that story? You are Homer or Hosea. I put those two together. You're like Homer the Odyssey. You are Hosea. You are the pure prophet of God that God's gonna call you to go.
Mark Clark [00:13:18]:
And minister to all the prostitutes at work or whatever you are.
Mark Clark [00:13:23]:
You are the spiritual prostitutes around the coffee pot that don't know God.
Mark Clark [00:13:27]:
And you are Hosea the prophet.
Mark Clark [00:13:31]:
And I shall marry this world even.
Mark Clark [00:13:34]:
Though it's unfaithful and dirty, because I'm faithful. That's what you do in your devotions. The problem is you're the prostitute.
Mark Clark [00:13:47]:
You ain't Hosea, bro, you're Gomer. Jesus is Hosea. Jesus is the one who is faithful to his bride. Even though this bride cheats on him every single day and prostitutes themselves out to the gods of this world, Jesus stays married to her even though she's a disaster. That's how you read the Bible. Do you know how liberating it is to leave your house in the morning and say, I don't have to be Hosea, cause I'm Gomer.
Mark Clark [00:14:26]:
And then he says this great phrase. Now it can mean faithfulness, but it can also mean faith in Jesus, which he says later in the passage, he talks about the idea of putting faith in Jesus, which of course saves us, which is beautiful, because faith in Jesus is the center of the center of the whole Christian faith. This concept that Paul talks about to be received by what faith in verse 25, faith, the Greek word pistuo. In the ancient world, what it meant.
Mark Clark [00:14:52]:
Was to fully trust in something. Meaning it's been described like this. You have a stool and you trust.
Mark Clark [00:14:58]:
It when you sit on it and.
Mark Clark [00:14:59]:
You put all your weight on the stool and you trust that it's gonna hold you right? That's trust. And that's what he's saying. The only way you can ever be saved is by putting your faith in.
Mark Clark [00:15:09]:
Jesus Christ versus faith in yourself. Now, here's the other part of that that's beautiful. It's. It doesn't just mean sitting on the stool. As one conference presenter I saw one time, a guy got up at a conference I was at and he said, you know what faith is? It's like sitting on a chair, and you sit on that chair and you trust that the chair is going to hold you. And he left. And the next conference speaker came out and he said, listen, I love that speaker. And I think he's right.
Mark Clark [00:15:29]:
But here's the thing. There's another aspect to this word pasteo, and here's what it means. It's not just to trust it, it's to treasure it above everything else in the universe. It's not only that you sit on the chair, it's that you love the chair, it's that you hold the chair, it's that you treasure the chair. It's that you would die for the chair. It's that you take the heart, the chair, into you and go, this is the most important thing in the world.
Mark Clark [00:15:51]:
And this is the distinction.
Mark Clark [00:15:52]:
There's a difference between. Listen.
Mark Clark [00:15:54]:
How many of you read A Tale.
Mark Clark [00:15:55]:
Of Two Cities in high school? I read it. I was handed Charles Dickens in high school, and I read that book, and.
Mark Clark [00:16:01]:
It was a great book.
Mark Clark [00:16:02]:
And then I did my papers and did my assignments and handed the book back. And three, four, five years later, I was walking through a bookstore and I saw A Tale of Two Cities. And you know what I did? I bought A Tale of Two Cities. And I read it because it's one of the greatest books ever written.
Mark Clark [00:16:15]:
And as I read it, you know what happened?
Mark Clark [00:16:17]:
Something happened in my life.
Mark Clark [00:16:19]:
It went from Tale of Two Cities.
Mark Clark [00:16:22]:
Is useful to get a grade in school to now, A Tale of Two Cities is pleasure. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. And here's the thing. Some of you in this room, the only relationship you have with Jesus Christ is that he's useful to you.
Mark Clark [00:16:39]:
He gets you out of hell, he gets you to heaven, he forgives your sins. He's a utilitarian messiah who did some stuff for you that is helpful.
Mark Clark [00:16:53]:
But you haven't moved from him being useful to him being a treasure yet to being beautiful to being the thing. Because here's. Here's. I saw this online yesterday, actually believing in Jesus, but not obeying him is exactly what Satan does. Dang.
Mark Clark [00:17:17]:
Believing in Jesus but not obeying him is exactly what Satan does. See, there's a difference between just believing a thing and treasuring it.
Mark Clark [00:17:26]:
My, one of my staff, we had a church up in Vancouver a bunch of years ago. And my style is to be very pragmatic and we're doing ministry, we're doing.
Mark Clark [00:17:35]:
Practical things that were strategy and blah, blah, blah.
Mark Clark [00:17:37]:
And he went and hung out with.
Mark Clark [00:17:39]:
The pastoral staff of a church in Northern California. And it's the kind of church that's a little bit wonky.
Mark Clark [00:17:44]:
It's kind of funny.
Mark Clark [00:17:45]:
They do weird things. And it's the kind of church that kind of get behind the scenes is, ah, those guys are weird.
Mark Clark [00:17:49]:
Ah, that church is.
Mark Clark [00:17:51]:
And he went and hung out with their staff and he came back and.
Mark Clark [00:17:53]:
He said, yeah, they're totally weird, they're totally wacky.
Mark Clark [00:17:55]:
And we're like, see? Ha ha. And he said, but, you know, there's one difference with their staff to ours. I said, what is it? And he said, you know what they talk about all the time? I'm like, what? He goes, are you ready for this? They talk about God. I was like, wait, what?
Mark Clark [00:18:15]:
Hold on, what?
Mark Clark [00:18:17]:
What do they talk about?
Mark Clark [00:18:19]:
No. Strategy. No, no, we never talked about strategy. What do you mean? No multi site, no paradigms, no drawings, no triangles. No, no, just God. Crazy. And it was one of the most convicting conversations I've ever had because do I do that in my life? When you're sitting around with your friends, do you ever just go, you know what God did in my life last week?
Mark Clark [00:18:47]:
You know what God did? Dude, do you understand how crazy good God is? Like, that should just be your life all the time, right? You shouldn't just be tired. How's the weather, Tom? I can't believe how radiant. Shut up. Cares about the weather and the gas prices and all housing markets going up.
Mark Clark [00:19:17]:
All right, he says this, this righteousness of God has been made known to.
Mark Clark [00:19:24]:
Which the law and the what the prophets testify. So now he starts talking about the Bible. Now he starts talking about the Bible. So let's do the, let's do a couple things about the Bible really quick.
Mark Clark [00:19:34]:
Couple of these things I shared at Granite Bay in Orange county last week. But a couple of them are different things I've been thinking about.
Mark Clark [00:19:40]:
So first, is that the question. Paul is saying all of this is.
Mark Clark [00:19:43]:
Based on the law and the prophets.
Mark Clark [00:19:44]:
Which is the Bible, meaning you have to have an authority in your life.
Mark Clark [00:19:48]:
That Tells you what to think about everything.
Mark Clark [00:19:49]:
You can't just sit and read the cultural teleprompter because, as I talked about last week, you know, we used to have doctors telling us which cigarettes were.
Mark Clark [00:19:57]:
Better to smoke for pregnant women, right?
Mark Clark [00:19:59]:
And now we're like, ah, that's probably.
Mark Clark [00:20:00]:
Not real anymore, right?
Mark Clark [00:20:02]:
All of us have grandparents that say the craziest things. And you're like, oh, my gosh, Grandma, you can't say that you're racist, right? And then in 40 years, that's gonna.
Mark Clark [00:20:11]:
Be you, all right?
Mark Clark [00:20:12]:
Because everybody is a product of their culture, no matter how much you think you transcend it. You are reading the teleprompter of the culture that you live in every single day. You swim in its waters. And you think you're so smart that you can transcend them.
Mark Clark [00:20:27]:
And the Bible is the only thing that transcends them.
Mark Clark [00:20:29]:
So you have to build your life on the. The actual Bible. And here's what he says.
Mark Clark [00:20:33]:
The law and the prophets, this word right here, underline that, circle that testify.
Mark Clark [00:20:38]:
Meaning they tell you what God has.
Mark Clark [00:20:40]:
To say about everything.
Mark Clark [00:20:42]:
Have you ever been sitting around and.
Mark Clark [00:20:43]:
Going, I wonder what God thinks about X? Fill in the blank.
Mark Clark [00:20:48]:
The Bible is the thing that tells you, here's what I think about marriage. Here's what I think about money. Here's what I think about sexuality. Here's what I think about this. Here's what I think. He's told us all this stuff. The question is, are you gonna have.
Mark Clark [00:20:58]:
It as authority in your life or not?
Mark Clark [00:21:00]:
It's not like, oh, I don't know what he thinks about this. Yes, you got all this. Have you read this? He tells you, and listen, the question.
Mark Clark [00:21:08]:
Is, are you gonna let it be an authority in your life? Are you gonna let it play its part? I remember when Aaron and I were dating. We were young, 19, 20 years old, and we were full of hormones. And we'd be hanging out on a Friday night. All of a sudden, everyone's gone and we're there. We're like, hey, we're just here together. Yeah. What are we gonna do?
Mark Clark [00:21:26]:
I don't know.
Mark Clark [00:21:28]:
I don't know. And then I knew there was this passage. I knew there was this passage in 1st Thessalonians 4 that said, the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. And my pastor made very clear, you cannot have sex until you're married. So it'd be like, Friday night. What are you doing? I don't know.
Mark Clark [00:21:47]:
What are you doing?
Mark Clark [00:21:47]:
Let's get some lemonade.
Mark Clark [00:21:48]:
Okay.
Mark Clark [00:21:50]:
Hey, honey, I'm just gonna read first Thessalonians chapter four again, all right? And the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Mark Clark [00:22:00]:
Go again, go again, go again. All right, read it back, read it back. Because this thing is gonna cut across.
Mark Clark [00:22:11]:
All your little feelings. Our culture is gonna tell you, just go how you feel, do what you feel. That's the ultimate authority. The Bible comes and goes. No, no, no, no, no. So when I'm a 15 year old kid and my dad passes away and I'm standing at his funeral and I'm asking all these massive existential questions, is there a God? Is there evil? What's going to happen with my pain? I had no one in my life who could answer any of these questions until I met God through the Bible. And I started reading the Bible and the Bible started answering these things for me. See, this is why we do conferences like this, because we want you to get deep into this.
Mark Clark [00:22:47]:
We don't want you to just have a shallow read on this. I read a writer recently and he said, you know what the problem with modern day preachers is? They spend more money on their clothes than their libraries.
Mark Clark [00:23:01]:
They ain't reading books, they just look cool. And that's true. We know that's not true about Kevin Thompson, but that's true. So here's the thing. Yeah, you should only laugh at that if it kind of is true. Like, there's no reason.
Mark Clark [00:23:27]:
Why is he saying that? It's like, oh, Kevin Thompson, that was the guy up here earlier. So. So here's the thing, here's the thing.
Mark Clark [00:23:46]:
Stay in your lane, y'. All, stay in your lane.
Mark Clark [00:23:53]:
All right?
Mark Clark [00:23:55]:
Here's why we do these Bible conferences. Here's why I come back over and over and over again and we say, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible. Because, listen, some of you might be going, this is so simple. Why are you just telling us the Bible's true? The Bible's right, The Bible's perfect. Yes. Because as one writer has said, one.
Mark Clark [00:24:09]:
Generation believes something, the next generation assumes.
Mark Clark [00:24:13]:
It and the third generation rejects it.
Mark Clark [00:24:15]:
Or denies it outright. Which is why we keep coming back over and over and over and over again and just telling you, we're a Bible church. We believe building a life on the Bible is the best way to do it.
Mark Clark [00:24:25]:
Now, can you trust the Bible?
Mark Clark [00:24:26]:
Let me talk about this for a couple minutes.
Mark Clark [00:24:28]:
Can you trust the Bible?
Mark Clark [00:24:30]:
Here's what I'm gonna say. The reason you can trust the Bible is all the little things. Now, here's what I mean by the little things. So Christmas Eve services. We did a week and a half of Christmas Eve services. I preached 12 out of the 4, 14 of those, and was tired by Christmas day. I was looking forward to hanging out with my family and just chilling, having a good time for a week off.
Mark Clark [00:24:48]:
Hang out.
Mark Clark [00:24:48]:
Christmas day, we have people over for dinner. I go downstairs to get something in the basement, and my foot.
Mark Clark [00:24:53]:
Remember the weather, right? Rainstorm, right? My foot goes into the carpet.
Mark Clark [00:24:58]:
Bam.
Mark Clark [00:24:59]:
Water shoots up my leg. My entire basement is flooded, right? My entire basement is flooded. Totally dull.
Mark Clark [00:25:07]:
It's Christmas day, and I'm like, I don't know what to do. So for a week, 10 days, all we did was try to figure out where the water was coming from. What happened? How did it flood? What?
Mark Clark [00:25:16]:
Da, da, da.
Mark Clark [00:25:16]:
And I had people over. I had 10 construction workers. We're chasing this down, and we're chasing it. We're looking into things, and we're doing.
Mark Clark [00:25:21]:
Mystery solving, all this kind of stuff.
Mark Clark [00:25:23]:
Chat GPT. What happened?
Mark Clark [00:25:24]:
What happened?
Mark Clark [00:25:27]:
So me and my buddy, we get there, we follow the line, okay?
Mark Clark [00:25:31]:
Took 10 days, we walked to my backyard. And we go in the backyard and we look, and there's a little pump, and it's in the ground. And it's meant when the water starts flooding in, this pump is meant to pump that water out. Let's get it out. Let's get it out. And that pump was unplugged. How is this possible?
Mark Clark [00:25:57]:
Well, because two weeks earlier, my wonderful wife.
Mark Clark [00:26:04]:
Hired two young chaps from the.
Mark Clark [00:26:06]:
Church to put up some Christmas lights on our roof.
Mark Clark [00:26:11]:
And these young boys, after risking their lives on my roof, said, well, where do we plug this Christmas light plug into? And one said, I don't know what that thing is. Just unplug it. So I need you to text basement to 56316 because I am dead broke now. It's the little things, guys. It's the little things. How can you trust the Bible? Because archaeologically, the Bible is vindicated over and over and over again. It's the little things. Why can't you trust the Bible? As I talked about last week, Richard Bauckham, Jesus, the eyewitnesses, talks about the.
Mark Clark [00:26:53]:
Importance of all the names.
Mark Clark [00:26:55]:
He says, why is it that in Mark 15 they say Simon of Cyrene? And then they say he's the father of Alexander and Rufus? Bauckham says, it's because Alexander and Rufus existed still at the time of the writing of the gospel of Mark. And so skeptics look at it and say, this is legitimate. This is eyewitness testimony. He wants you to go and ask Alexander and Rufus what really happened. See, we miss these things. Scholars, scholars, those are the favorite Bible verses for us. No one in this room. Someone's gone, hey, what's your favorite Bible verse? What's the verse you put up on your fridge?
Mark Clark [00:27:25]:
You're like, he's the father of Alexander and Rufus.
Mark Clark [00:27:33]:
None of you did that.
Mark Clark [00:27:36]:
But scholars love it. The other thing I talked about last week was what they don't put in the Bible is one of the great legitimacies of the whole Bible. If you're a skeptic and you're here.
Mark Clark [00:27:45]:
What scholars point out is all the.
Mark Clark [00:27:46]:
Things that if they were making up the gospels, they would have written them in and put them on the mouth of Jesus because it would solve all the division in the church.
Mark Clark [00:27:53]:
The early church had all kinds of division. They fought about everything. Circumcision, food, laws, women in ministry, speaking in tongues. And the only thing that would have solved it all, the division would have ended. If you just have a Bible verse where Jesus says, hey, here's what. Women can preach anywhere they want. It's all. All the.
Mark Clark [00:28:09]:
It's all done. There's no more division. But they didn't.
Mark Clark [00:28:12]:
And scholars go, see, that's legitimate.
Mark Clark [00:28:14]:
It would be like us today. It's like Jesus, come on, just say, just, yes, women can speak and preach at all churches for all of time.
Mark Clark [00:28:27]:
All the Baptist fights go away.
Mark Clark [00:28:33]:
We need that verse where Jesus looks around and says, hey, I want you to build my church. And Peter says, okay, Jesus, we will build your church, but what about Greenland? And Jesus says to the crowds.
Mark Clark [00:28:54]:
Yes, take Greenland.
Mark Clark [00:28:58]:
It's going to be important. For me make Canada the 51st state of America. Just put it on the lips of Jesus and it's all done. But the early church rejected this temptation at every turn, and they never did it, which is why all these people actually trust the Bible. There's another thing that scholars point out, which is there's a lot of skeptics who say, well, why do we have Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but we don't have the Gospel of Thomas? What's wrong with the Gospel of Thomas? The early church, all they did was select the ones they liked, and they didn't put in the ones they didn't like. Gospel of Thomas is just as legitimate as Luke. And then you start actually looking into the Gospel of Thomas, and you realize there's a ton of reasons scholars actually.
Mark Clark [00:29:48]:
Deny the reality of the Gospel of.
Mark Clark [00:29:49]:
Thomas, for instance, here's what's beautiful about the Bible. If you want to like in the.
Mark Clark [00:29:52]:
Middle of the night, go, man, the Bible's legitimate. You know what's fascinating?
Mark Clark [00:29:54]:
Scholars tell us, you know what Matthew.
Mark Clark [00:29:56]:
Mark, Luke and John do, all the names that they use in their, in their stories, they all were names that were the most popular names in that.
Mark Clark [00:30:03]:
Geographical area at that, that time that.
Mark Clark [00:30:06]:
Jesus was walking around.
Mark Clark [00:30:07]:
So there was the top names were Simon, Lazarus, Joseph, Jesus. Those were the top four names and everyone had them. And during that time, Gospel of Thomas.
Mark Clark [00:30:17]:
They have names that were popular in.
Mark Clark [00:30:19]:
The 3rd century in Egypt that aren't and ever names that are used at all in that area during the time.
Mark Clark [00:30:25]:
Jesus walking around, it's like, hey, so.
Mark Clark [00:30:27]:
Dave said to the crew, all right? He's like, no, that wasn't a name back then. Wes Huff, who's a scholar up in Canada, he points out something that I.
Mark Clark [00:30:36]:
Found fascinating I read last week.
Mark Clark [00:30:37]:
He calls it undesigned coincidences. And he says, here's one of the reasons scholars actually trust the Bible. You take the example of the feeding.
Mark Clark [00:30:44]:
Of the 5,000, which is told in John and Luke.
Mark Clark [00:30:46]:
And he says this in John's gospel. John chapter 6, verse 5, Jesus asks Philip, where are we to buy bread? Now why does he ask Philip specifically? We don't know. Luke, chapter 9, verse 10 tells us that the miracle happened near Bethsaida. Well, John, chapter one, verse 44 tells us that Philip is from Bethsaida. Now that's interesting. See, Jesus is looking to Philip because he's the local guy and saying, you're from here. Where are we going to get bread? But John doesn't tell us that. You need Luke to tell us that to get that information.
Mark Clark [00:31:24]:
But they don't make a big deal of it. They don't go, hey, wink, wink, go read Luke.
Mark Clark [00:31:28]:
All right?
Mark Clark [00:31:28]:
They don't do that. And these are the reasons that scholars actually trust the Bible.
Mark Clark [00:31:36]:
Now, guys, I am so excited about the Bible right now, and I'll tell you why. I got my large print Bible, I.
Mark Clark [00:31:44]:
Got super extra large. Someone backstage is like, I had large.
Mark Clark [00:31:48]:
Print Bible, but it's not that large. And I'm like, yeah, it's a special large print, guys. I'm literally seeing things I've never seen before in my life.
Mark Clark [00:31:58]:
You know, I was reading. No, I'm not kidding. I was reading the other day and Luke's Gospel was talking about the fact that there were three women that were hanging out with the disciples. And one of Them was the sister of Herod. And the other one was so rich, she was funding the ministry of Jesus. I gotta be dead honest with you, I have two Bible degrees. Never seen that verse in my life. I was like, oh, these women are fun.
Mark Clark [00:32:22]:
Let's give it up for the ladies. Come on. You ladies were funding Jesus preaching ministry. I am so fascinated by the Bible right now. It's beautiful. Yesterday, no joke, yesterday I was just, I was just, I just read 10 chapters of Luke. It was like, it was like watching a good Netflix show.
Mark Clark [00:32:40]:
I'm like, what's going to happen?
Mark Clark [00:32:43]:
And my wife's like, hey, come out and clean up the backyard. And I'm like, hold on, I want to see what's next. They just called him Beelzebub, you know what I'm saying?
Mark Clark [00:32:57]:
All right, here's the beautiful thing about the Bible. It has personal power. Not only do you have to trust it historically, it has personal power to change your life. How many of you have been changed by the Bible?
Mark Clark [00:33:10]:
This is.
Mark Clark [00:33:11]:
You're Talking about an 18 year old kid throwing rocks through windows. The drug guy, the party guy. And I didn't meet God in the church. I met God by reading the Bible. This is why St. Augustine said the Bible is the face of God for us. Now it's the thing that's gonna instruct your life in such a powerful way. And so here's what Paul says.
Mark Clark [00:33:30]:
This righteous is given through Christ. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all.
Mark Clark [00:33:35]:
Verse 23. For all have what sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is now the center of the.
Mark Clark [00:33:41]:
Center of the center. Because he has to describe to us first what our situation is, what our plight is before we can appreciate what God has done. And if we think like in our culture that nothing's wrong with us and.
Mark Clark [00:33:52]:
All we need is a little tweak.
Mark Clark [00:33:53]:
And politics is gonna save us, or entertainment is gonna save us, or psychology is gonna save us, or philosophy's gonna save us.
Mark Clark [00:33:59]:
Then he wouldn't have had to send Jesus. But the reason he had to send.
Mark Clark [00:34:03]:
Jesus, because our problem wasn't psychology or philosophy or economics or politics.
Mark Clark [00:34:06]:
It was something so he had to send a Savior. And this verse is the one that tells us, you are so sinful you have fallen short of the glory of God.
Mark Clark [00:34:14]:
Now here's the thing. This is why preaching something other than Jesus as good example is very important in the church.
Mark Clark [00:34:21]:
See, oftentimes we are tempted as preachers.
Mark Clark [00:34:23]:
To preach Jesus as good example.
Mark Clark [00:34:25]:
What would Jesus do What would Jesus do? He's a good guy. He's a good revolutionary. He's a good prophet. He's a good teacher. Be a good someone. Love everybody.
Mark Clark [00:34:33]:
The problem is it doesn't actually work. Because Christus Exemplar is not the only version of Jesus you have to preach. Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said this.
Mark Clark [00:34:43]:
There are many who preach about the.
Mark Clark [00:34:45]:
Lord Jesus to no effect. And we can see why. They have no doctrine of sin.
Mark Clark [00:34:51]:
They never convict or convince people of sin. They always hold Christ before men and say that that is enough.
Mark Clark [00:34:58]:
But it is not enough.
Mark Clark [00:35:00]:
For the effect of sin upon us is such that we shall never fly to Christ until we realize that we.
Mark Clark [00:35:08]:
Are poor and helpless.
Mark Clark [00:35:11]:
That we come to a place where we realize we are sinful. And it's not the salacious sins. If you're sitting there going, I don't know that I'm sinful. I don't know that I am. And you're thinking, well, I've never committed adultery. And I've never do these and these and these.
Mark Clark [00:35:23]:
No, no, no.
Mark Clark [00:35:24]:
It can be really, really simple stuff. Like the fact that my wife has.
Mark Clark [00:35:28]:
The Amazon guy come to our house seven times a day.
Mark Clark [00:35:31]:
It can be as simple as the fact that when the Amazon guy shows up, I know his name. Hi, Sean. All right.
Mark Clark [00:35:38]:
Because something is broken inside of her. Guys, we are a complete message. I mean, you guys know me. I have obsessive compulsive disorder, which means I grew up doing all kinds of weird habits. And one of my things about obsessive compulsive disorder is that when I'm handed something like glass that is super fragile, I squeeze it to test it. That's what my brain does. It's a very weird way to go through life.
Mark Clark [00:36:12]:
I can't help. I just.
Mark Clark [00:36:13]:
Like.
Mark Clark [00:36:14]:
I was trying.
Mark Clark [00:36:14]:
You know.
Mark Clark [00:36:15]:
One of the reasons we got hired those guys to put the Christmas lights.
Mark Clark [00:36:17]:
Up, because every time I went up, it's like, okay, I can't.
Mark Clark [00:36:23]:
So I remember coming home and the kids were super young, and they'd done a project at home.
Mark Clark [00:36:26]:
You know, during Easter, when you take.
Mark Clark [00:36:27]:
Those eggs and you blow the yolk.
Mark Clark [00:36:30]:
Out, and that's a little fragile egg in there.
Mark Clark [00:36:32]:
Cause there's no yolk in there.
Mark Clark [00:36:33]:
And the kids spent all day painting these eggs just for Daddy. And they were little kids. And I walked in the door, true story.
Mark Clark [00:36:38]:
And Sienna ran up, she said, daddy, Daddy. And I grabbed this egg and I went, oh, it's beautiful. And then my second daughter came up. She's like, Daddy. Daddy. And I'm like, oh, this is so two of them. And my other daughter's like.
Mark Clark [00:36:53]:
Guys, we are messed up. We are a weird, weird group of people. We are fallen. We are sinful. As a husband, I am a sinner. Husbands, you feel that, right? You're a sinner. I tried to sneak in a game of golf a couple weeks ago without my wife knowing. She thought I was at work, just wouldn't mention it.
Mark Clark [00:37:25]:
Problem is, the guy I was secretly playing golf with, this is a true story. He got a hole in one, which.
Mark Clark [00:37:33]:
Means the golf club makes a big deal of it and takes our picture and posts it on the Facebook page. And I'm sitting there.
Mark Clark [00:37:48]:
I am a sinner. I am a sinner. As a father, I had a real conversation with my oldest daughter a couple months ago where I told her that she should drop her expectations so she can meet a man. She said, dad, you're not supposed to tell your daughter to drop.
Mark Clark [00:38:13]:
Supposed to tell her to elevate.
Mark Clark [00:38:14]:
I said, right, right, right. It's a good point. It's a good point.
Mark Clark [00:38:18]:
Here's what the apostle Paul is trying.
Mark Clark [00:38:20]:
To convince a modern world that has been told that we're too good and we're too unique and we're too great and we're too wonderful.
Mark Clark [00:38:25]:
You are sinful. You have fallen short of the glory of God. Ergo, you need saving. You can be not save yourself. You are in utter desperation. You can't tweak something about you. There's nothing you can do. You can figure out your little personality profile and solve your marriage.
Mark Clark [00:38:47]:
No, you're sinful. You've fallen short of the glory of God and nothing can save you. You have to be saved. You have to be saved.
Mark Clark [00:38:55]:
Like, my wife was at Disneyland with our kids six months ago, and I got a text from my youngest.
Mark Clark [00:39:00]:
She said, mom just saved a baby.
Mark Clark [00:39:02]:
Again, which is just a theme in her life. She saved, like, three or four different babies. It's really weird. Airports or whatever. She's like, a baby needs saving.
Mark Clark [00:39:10]:
And they were at Disneyland, no joke.
Mark Clark [00:39:12]:
This girl was on the Baby Bjorn.
Mark Clark [00:39:13]:
This little baby started choking.
Mark Clark [00:39:15]:
My wife ran up, took the baby.
Mark Clark [00:39:16]:
Off the Baby Bjorn, you know, breathed life back into it. Whatever she did, baby came back to life. Everyone, 40 people around, cheering, right? Minnie Mouse is there, like, in the costume, like, ah.
Mark Clark [00:39:30]:
And I'm going, we're. We. We ain't Aaron in that story. We're the baby.
Mark Clark [00:39:36]:
You are useless when it comes to your salvation. Some of you are like, no, no, no, I figured this out. You see, I'm smart.
Mark Clark [00:39:45]:
I evaluated all the evidence, and I made a decision. No, you're too dumb for that.
Mark Clark [00:39:50]:
First Corinthians tells us he enlightened your brain so that you chose him.
Mark Clark [00:39:58]:
You ain't smart enough to figure him out. You are dead in your trespasses and your sins. One writer has said this. The only thing you contribute to the equation of salvation is the sin that necessitated it in the first place. And I'm going to tell you this. This is why I'm pleading with you. Listen to me. When you get to the pearly gates of heaven and God asks you why.
Mark Clark [00:40:23]:
He should let you in, do not start your sentence with I start it with you. You loved me. You died for me. You hunted me down. You made sure I didn't die before I entered that church service and got an opportunity to receive you as my Lord and Savior and treasure. You made sure that I had those parents and not those parents. You made sure that that friend came into my high school class and told.
Mark Clark [00:41:03]:
Me all about you.
Mark Clark [00:41:04]:
You see, God, this is about your righteousness. What Jesus Christ did for me, it has nothing to do with me. And that's why I can come into heaven. You start with you.
Mark Clark [00:41:14]:
You're gonna have a problem because you are sinful. You are fallen. This is what he's trying to tell us, and he says so all of us, the only way salvation works. I mean, it is not hard to be convinced.
Mark Clark [00:41:28]:
Would you agree?
Mark Clark [00:41:28]:
Of your own sinfulness? If you're paying attention. See, I come from a family. No, no, we're not sinful. We're fine. No, no, no. Guys, pay attention. This is really easy when you have children, right?
Mark Clark [00:41:39]:
Because your kids, they're a great mirror.
Mark Clark [00:41:41]:
To how much of a disaster you are.
Mark Clark [00:41:43]:
Right?
Mark Clark [00:41:44]:
My kids. A couple months ago, when we were just starting chatgpt, they wrote in I want to roast Mark Clark. What does ChatGPT have to say? And this was ChatGPT's roast of me.
Mark Clark [00:42:00]:
The only guy who preaches like he's trying to win a cage match. With your worldview, every sermon feels like it was written during a caffeine overdose. In a midlife crisis, you walk on stage with the energy of a motivational speaker who just read Romans for the first time and then yell at people for wanting comfort while wearing sneakers more expensive than their car. Untrue. 40 bucks. You specialize in reaching skeptics, which is ironic because even your illustrations are.
Mark Clark [00:42:31]:
Kids don't believe what's happening.
Mark Clark [00:42:34]:
Somewhere between quoting Nietzsche and yelling at TikTok trends. We forgot if this was a sermon or a therapy session in a CrossFit gym. You're the only pastor whose sermons titles sound like Netflix documentaries. The Problem of God, the Rebel, how to Offend Everyone and Still Sell Books. And speaking of your books, you write like C.S. lewis and Joe Rogan co authored your inner monologue. You're not just preaching to skeptics. You're dropkicking them into belief and calling it discipleship.
Mark Clark [00:43:07]:
You planted one of the biggest churches in Canada, then left it to join Bayside, which is the megachurch equivalent of leaving a Tesla to drive a tank. You didn't downshift. You just decided to preach to 11 campuses and 900 soccer moms at once. And somehow you still find time to do podcasts, book launches, and social media reels. Each one starting with, okay, I might get canceled for this. Bro, we've wanted to cancel you since sermon three. We just can't look away. What the.
Mark Clark [00:43:40]:
What the. Look, look. They left the room laughing, and I was crying. Cause it hurts.
Mark Clark [00:43:56]:
It doesn't really hurt. Verse24.
Mark Clark [00:44:06]:
And all are justified freely by his what?
Mark Clark [00:44:10]:
Grace.
Mark Clark [00:44:11]:
Through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.
Mark Clark [00:44:14]:
Let me tell you something. I love this. The only way we get saved is by grace, which means undeserved favor. And when we get saved by this undeserved favor, here's what happens. We have redemption and we are justified. Here's the two concepts that you need in your life. You need the judge to declare you justified and innocent, which he only does through Jesus. And you need to be redeemed from all the things about you that are disaster.
Mark Clark [00:44:39]:
Let me just tell you something. Once you have justification and redemption, and as part of your identity, you walk through the world. Listen to me. In vastly different ways. Now, here's what I mean by this. Listen, I told Granite Bay this a couple months ago about my DMV problems, right? I couldn't register my truck in California for three and a half years. It took me a lot of time and energy to try to get this truck registered. And there'd always be a problem at the dmv.
Mark Clark [00:45:04]:
And people would reach out to me and say, I can help you with the dmv. I can help you with the dmv. And they'd all try, and it would go nowhere. It would do nothing. It was. Would do nothing. And finally, this lady texts me one day. Her name's Barbara.
Mark Clark [00:45:15]:
She said, hey, Mark, I'd like to help you with your DMV problem. I Think I can help? I said, you're not gonna help Barbara. Whatever.
Mark Clark [00:45:21]:
So she's like, no, come on.
Mark Clark [00:45:22]:
I'll meet you at the dmv and I'll help you. I said, all right, whatever. Just gonna waste my time. So I show up, and Barbara's standing out front, this sweetest lady you've ever met in your life. She said, let me. Let me take you through. And we walk into the dmv, and there's a big lineup. But instead of sitting at the back of the line, Barbara just keeps walking.
Mark Clark [00:45:42]:
And I'm like, dang. All right.
Mark Clark [00:45:44]:
I'm with Barbara. I'm like, hey, what's up? She's like, you peasants.
Mark Clark [00:45:49]:
You little numbers.
Mark Clark [00:45:50]:
E5.
Mark Clark [00:45:54]:
Barbara walks right up to the window, and she said, I am not gonna leave without this man having two license plates today. And the lady behind the counter says, yes, ma'. Am. And that day, 40 minutes later, I walked out with my two license plates to my truck after three and a half years. And I watched Barbara, and I was like, huh? What was the difference? There, you see? Barbara knew who she was and the power and authority that she had because of her title.
Mark Clark [00:46:24]:
She had been working at the DMV for 25 years, and she was a boss lady at the DMV. And that authority and power made her stride through that place like she owned it.
Mark Clark [00:46:38]:
And she got because of that authority, because the thing that was declared on her was, you are this. You are this. Now, here's the thing. Barbara's a real woman, and she has cancer right now. I found that out the day we were hanging out. And she's going through chemo. But you know what the beautiful thing is? She had cancer when she walked into that room. But it didn't change the authority that she had.
Mark Clark [00:47:11]:
Cause here's the thing. Everything in the world can be thrown at you. But if you have these two titles, Justified, Redeemed, nothing can hurt you. Nothing. Nothing can take that identity away from you. And so, Barb, Barbara, where are you? She sits over here every Sunday. There she is, guys, let's give it up.
Mark Clark [00:47:35]:
Let's give it up for Barbara, guys. Redeem. Justified. Not even sickness can take those away from you. Nothing can.
Mark Clark [00:47:55]:
I'm not quite done yet, but can I just pray for Barbara for a second? If you're around Barbara, just put your hand on her. Heavenly Father, we just pray right now. We know that you can heal cancer. We know that you have the power. The same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that is alive and well in Barbara's body right now. And we pray and we ask and we plead with you that you would heal the cells, that you would heal her body and she would be able to declare the great glory of God in this. We pray for comfort right now that she would know that your will is being done in her life, even if we can't fully understand it. Lord Jesus, be a presence with her.
Mark Clark [00:48:31]:
In your good name we pray. Amen. Let's give it up for Barbara.
Mark Clark [00:48:35]:
Barbara. Thank you.
Mark Clark [00:48:35]:
Thank you, thank you.
Mark Clark [00:48:36]:
You are the best. The best. Because she is redeemed, justified.
Mark Clark [00:48:45]:
Now, let me just end this way. There's this concept of justification and redemption, and then there's this concept of grace. And it all comes to the shedding of his blood. This is the center of everything that Jesus Christ died and rose again, and that's how any of us are saved and all of this. I remember when I was a kid and I went to this beat up old Baptist church and I just started going to church. It was the first church I ever walked into in my life. And it was the kind of church that I never wanted to walk into because people would invite me to church and I'd be like, I don't want to go to church. It's going to be.
Mark Clark [00:49:21]:
Everyone's going to be 300 years old and it's going to smell like mothballs and be orange shaggy carpet and brown wooden pews. And I walked in and this church was exactly like that. And I remember the first time we did communion, they laid out communion. And the guy got up and he said, hey, we're gonna do communion now. And we gather around the spilt blood of Jesus. We gather around the spilt blood of Jesus. And this did communion, took the cup and ate the bread. And this old guy walked up to me, you know, 80 years old, and he looked at me, he said, you're new to this church, aren't you? I said, yeah.
Mark Clark [00:49:56]:
He said, son, I want to tell you something. What that guy leading up to their communion said was wrong. I said, what do you mean? And he's like, the blood of Jesus Christ was not spilled like it knock over a glass of milk.
Mark Clark [00:50:10]:
It was shed. This was not a mistake. This wasn't an accident. He shed it for you.
Mark Clark [00:50:19]:
He knew exactly what he was doing. And I laughed at him. I'm like, what is. What kind of distinction? I don't know what this guy's talking about. And 25 years later, I think about it every time I take communion. The Father knew exactly what was gonna happen according to plan. The Son knew exactly what was gonna happen according to plan. He shed it for you.
Mark Clark [00:50:43]:
So this is the Bible Conference. We build all of our worldview and faith on what God tells us in the Bible. So let me end by telling you what I shared with the church last week. You're in your hotel room and you open up that drawer and what's in that drawer? A Bible. A Gideon Bible.
Mark Clark [00:51:02]:
Right.
Mark Clark [00:51:03]:
I don't know why you're looking in that drawer, you weirdos. Anyways, what are you opening the drawer for in a hotel room? What's in there? You got your keys in there? What's in there?
Mark Clark [00:51:11]:
But there's a Bible in there. A Gideon Bible. And next time you're in a hotel room and you see that Gideon Bible, open up to the introductory page, because.
Mark Clark [00:51:20]:
Here'S what it says.
Mark Clark [00:51:22]:
The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It's the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter. Here too, heaven opened and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good, the design and the glory of God, its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart and guide the feet.
Mark Clark [00:52:16]:
Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life will be opened at the judgment and be remembered forever. That is why we build our life on this. Heavenly Father, I do ask that hearts in here would not only want to understand you in a cognitive way, that we would not only just believe in that kind of half hearted way, but.
Mark Clark [00:52:47]:
That we would treasure you above all things. You say at the end of First Corinthians 16 that the people who are not condemned are not just the people who, quote, unquote, believe in you, but the people who love you.
Mark Clark [00:53:00]:
You.
Mark Clark [00:53:02]:
The people who the hearts and the affections, they stir for you to meet you. So you speak and they feel you and they can walk with you and they know you. And I pray that is true about every person in this room. And even if it hasn't been to this point, that you would ignite something beautiful in all of us. Do that, even over the next two days as we lean in to what you have to say to us. In Jesus great name we pray. Amen.