Thank you, brother, for an encouraging conclusion to those introductory chapters in Proverbs. With Chapter 10, we come to the sort of parallelisms of Proverbs that we're all used to and think about. So those first nine chapters are really critical to set the stage for the rest of the book. So thank you so much for that. I want to make a comment very quickly before I begin about the Reformed Standard Reading. I think all of you got, hopefully you got the email if you would like the plan as it's laid out. I have some copies tonight. Just see me afterwards. I can give you that plan or email it to you otherwise. I also wanted to point out that I think last week I introduced you to this sort of classroom edition from Mid-America Reform Seminary that I got almost 25 years ago. This is what I'm using. I really like it. It's what I have used. And I tried to order another one just to see what the price was and see what they looked like. Now they look like this. So it's the same thing. It's the Mid-America Classroom Edition, but it's much larger. This sort of cover opens up. It's still spiral bound, which I like about that. This is $20 plus shipping, I think, is what I paid for it. It has the tabs for all of the readings, which is great. But also, the reason this is so large is because, first of all, there's a lot more white space than in the original one. But secondly, each of the standards has all of the scripture text referenced. Whereas in this one, I think it's only the shorter catechism, the Hatterberg catechism, that actually has the scripture proofs. This has it relative to every single document, except for the Canons of Dort, which doesn't really have scripture text or scripture references. But as far as the Belgic and both catechisms and such forth. So if you'd like this, you can find it on the, I think I sent a link, the Mid-America Reform Seminary website, their bookstore. But that's what you'd be getting. You wouldn't be getting this little bitty one anymore. Inge? Yeah, I tried to order this. Oh yeah, I sent you the link. Did I get the last one? From Mid-America? I just ordered it for $20. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll look that up again. But in either case, another great option is Sandy found a wonderful app called Reformed Companion. And as you go to the App Store, download that if you'd like to read on your phone. But the nice thing about this app is it's not just the standards themselves. but it has footnotes for the scripture references. You can click on those and it takes you right to the scripture. It also had the option of King James or ESV for the scripture text. Anything else? It had all the standards that we'd be reading. Yeah. So yeah, that's called the Reformed Companion. She showed it to me. It looks great. So if you're one that would like to read it digitally, on your phone or your iPad, that seems to be a really great resource, especially having the scripture text. Because the point is to drive you to the scripture, but also to help scripture, to open up scripture to you. So, but I wanted to show you this just so you know what you'd be getting from Mid-America if you put in that order. And then again, if you would like the schedule, the reading plan, I have some copies of that tonight I can pass on to you. And I do want to encourage all of you to prayerfully consider that. At least try, try it for the first couple of months, see how it goes. Like I said, the largest text of reading is a larger catechism, which would only be four of the months that would have a larger substance to the reading of a given day. But the idea is to read the standards that are listed, and let it just drive you to prayer. Let it be the substance and the text for your prayer, which I find very, very fruitful. All right, well, we come tonight to consider how the gospel converts the whole person, particularly coming to the mind. So before you look at your notes, I want to ask you this question. Metzger introduces two extremes in Christian circles relative to this topic, all head knowledge and little head knowledge. So how would you describe those two positions and why are they dangerous? A position of all head knowledge and a position of little head knowledge relative to the gospel. What do you think about either one of those? Jimmy. Right? Okay? Exactly, right? Right? That's the danger of that position, right? Because if everything is merely intellectually ascribed to, then it's not traveled, they say, that farthest distance from your head to your heart. If it don't travel to your heart, then it'll never travel to your hands, the will, right? Because remember, the whole man, we're talking about the whole man, it's head, heart, and hand, right? It's mind, affections, and will. So you have this all head knowledge, right? We've got the right words, we've got the right doctrine, Even the reform doctrine, right? You can have the best doctrine. It really doesn't matter in that regard if that's the only place it goes. If it doesn't make it to the heart and to the will, then it's an intellectual grasp, it's a mental assent to the things of Christianity, but never a true, very possibly, never a true trust in Christ, right? What about the other side, little head knowledge? What's the danger there? How would you describe that? Again, being a bit critical here, and it's okay to be critical as we think about these positions. We're not judging anyone, we're just thinking about these positions. Okay, yeah, what you think is the truth is not the truth, right? But if all head knowledge, it's all stuck up here and never reaches the heart, if there's little head knowledge, then where is really the substance of your Christianity? Carnal there in 1st Corinthians was about them behaving in a carnal way, right? And so that's not really the context here, but if you think about, switch these two extremes, if everything's in your head and never reaches your heart, if there's little in your head, then where does it reside? It's in your emotions, right? So the trouble with little head knowledge is the substance of your Christianity, again, being critical here as we think about these in their extreme situations, right? When you think of a situation with little head knowledge, in this case, biblical truths have a measure of conviction, but not in a foundational sense. The danger here is subjectivism, emotionalism, feelings. The danger here is that we talked about in another study, or previous in this particular study, that we're driven by emotional experiences. That what makes something true, to me, is emotional experience. There's an emotional experience attached to it and therefore that validates it for us, right? It's validating in that sense because that's where we have put all our trust in how it makes us feel, how it changes us emotionally. But the problem with that we saw in an earlier chapter, the problem with that is what if someone comes along with better experiences, right? More spiritual experiences, right? More transcendental experiences. There's all sorts of experiences being proffered from all sorts of religions, right? That this has better emotional tact to it, if you will, and what happens is then is there's nothing to keep us from moving from one experience to another experience and chasing experiences and chasing emotions. Because if you think, if this is where it is, this is where the substance of our Christianity is, then what gives religious experiences any priority over non-religious experiences? If our experience is the test for the truthfulness, then what makes my religious experience, my Jesus, church, Christianity experience, any better than your non-Jesus, non-church experience? How do we know? How do we judge which is better? I can say mine makes me feel great, but yours makes you feel better. So really, how do we determine which of us is right? We're just then weighing experiences, weighing impact, impressions upon our lives, upon our hearts rather than there being a place, a litmus test, a content, a substance for truth. So come to your notes then. These are the two dangerous positions when we think of the mind, right? And the mind is important. We'll see this as we unfold. Number two there in the middle of your page, if the mind is never made to bow to the authority of God's word and thoughts and scripture, then it will continue on its rebellious course of autonomy and anthropocentrism, man-centeredness. So faith, as we've been looking at, saving faith is not some casual intellectual assent or even embrace, an intellectual embrace, a conviction about the truth or the substance of Christianity in fact. That's not true saving faith. Again, as Jimmy pointed out, if the heart isn't changed, if the life isn't changed, then it's mere head knowledge, it's mere intellectualism, which does not save. Now look at letter C. Metzger says, if the content of the gospel is Jesus Christ, then the intention of the gospel is to bind the mind of the unbeliever to the authority of the New Testament and to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What do you think about that statement? What's he trying to say? We've been talking, we remember we did a whole part one was on the content of the gospel, right? Now we're talking about the whole person being affected by it. So if the content of the gospel, think of those five pillars, is Jesus Christ, then the intention, the goal of the gospel, is to bind the mind of the unbeliever, to the authority of the New Testament and to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Thoughts? Do you like that statement? Is it missing something? Why is it just to the New Testament? Because the gospel, right, is brought on display in the New Testament where Christ comes, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's limiting it, of course, in that regard, not that the rest of the scripture is left out. but the fact that the gospel is put on its clearest display in the New Testament, and therefore to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now notice the focus of the statement is to bind the mind. So we're dealing with, the point of this chapter is that the gospel needs to impact the mind. We're gonna see in the next two weeks with the Lord's help, the gospel needs to impact the heart and needs to impact the will. Again, all the faculties, the whole person, But the reason the statement focuses on the mind is because we're in a chapter where we're focusing on that, so we're narrowing on purpose here. And what is the gospel trying to do? If the content of the gospel is Jesus Christ, then the intention is to bind the mind, to bring the mind subject to the authority of Christ. The point he's making is back up to number two. If the mind is never made, if the thoughts of man are never brought subject to the authority of God's word, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in particular, then the mind is going to continue on its rebellious course. And on its rebellious course, what does the mind do with the things of God? C.S. Lewis, it puts God in the dock. Prove yourself to me. Right? Convince me. Change my mind. That's what we say to the Bible, that's what we say to God. We put God in the dock and we sit in judgment over God. And so the thinking of where, again, keep Metzger's whole picture in view here. We're gonna reach the whole person, but you have to start with the mind, right? It's important to understand this, the gospel, evangelism starts with the mind, why? Because the content of the gospel is facts. It's not just facts, it's not just facts, but it's facts. God, man, sin, Christ, and response, it's facts, right? Creation, the person of God, fall, sin, savior, redeemer, the law, failure, all of this, And because the gospel at its core is facts, information, the gospel has to go to the mind. Think of preaching. What is preaching intended to do? The chief means of grace, right? The chief means of grace is to transform and persuade and change the heart. Because if the heart is changed, then the life will be changed. But how do you get to the heart? Through the mind, through words, right? The primary means of grace being the preaching of God's word, it still has to go through the ear to the mind by way of words that carry content, that carry freight, a message that's proclaimed. Think of the great apostolic gospel, the keruso in Greek, the heralding, the proclamation. It's Jesus Christ, the content. But the key issue here is that the content of the gospel is a person. It's not just bare facts. That's why this letter C, this statement I've given you from Metzger, if the content of the gospel is Jesus Christ, that is the person of Jesus Christ, then the intention of the gospel message is to bring the mind to submission to the authority of Jesus Christ. Where is that authority of Jesus Christ put on display? In the written word, then in the preaching of the word, and in this case, in the sharing of the gospel via evangelism, right? And what we're bringing What we're bringing to bear upon people is this is truth and you need to receive it as truth because it's not my truth, the church's truth, it's God's truth. It's the truth of Holy Scripture, right? So this reminds us then, look at letter D and this is where it'll become crystal clear. This reminds us that there are three aspects to saving faith and I'm sure you've seen this before. If you've been through my membership class, you've seen this. There are three aspects of saving faith. And all three are necessary to genuine conversion. A right knowledge of the facts of the gospel. The gospel is factual content about a person, Jesus Christ. So right knowledge of the facts of the gospel. And acceptance of the truth of the facts of the gospel. Not mere facts, those facts are true, right? It's not just historical information, it's true. And then thirdly, a confidence and trust in the facts of the gospel. for one's personal reconciliation with God. So the famous Latin words, right, noticia, assensus, and fiducia, right? The mind, this knowledge, right, receiving the knowledge, the noticia, and then assensus, assenting to the truth of the knowledge, and then fiducia, this trust, trusting in the truth that has been received and acknowledged. But it all comes back to the facts of the gospel. This is why the gospel starts in the presentation, the preaching, the sharing of the gospel starts with the mind, right? The battle starts in your mind, that's where the devil starts the battle, but the truth comes to the mind, and from there, by God's grace and by the work of the Holy Spirit, it penetrates the heart, which changes the will. So turn to Romans, we see this in Romans really clearly. Turn to Romans 10. The Gospel is a presentation of facts. Think of what the Apostles are doing in Acts. And those facts then appeal to the mind with an eye by God's grace to reach the heart and change the life. What does Alistair Begg's radio show? Truth that Transforms? Truth for Life? Yeah. Truth for Life. Truth that transforms, changes, affects life. Not just truth in your head, but for life. That is, it has to go through the heart to the will. That's right. So you've seen this in a lot of different places, but look at Romans 10, 13 and 14. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Think of that, remember that from Joel chapter two. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So work backwards, right? All three are there. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's the promise of the gospel. But three things need to happen, right? How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? That's fiducia, that's the third step. They need to believe, right? Embrace, to trust. But how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? That's where that assent is, assent to the truthfulness of what they hear. You only believe what you, you only cast your soul upon what you're convinced is true, right? Someone will catch you, if you will. Someone will hold you, there's someone there. And so we've gone from Viducia back to Ascensus, now ascending to the truth of it, but then you see the third step, or backing up the first step, and how are they to hear, ascent to anything, without someone preaching? Verse 17, so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Again, all three steps, right? So since Christ is the content of the gospel, saving faith, this is D1, saving faith, is knowing the facts about Christ, bowing before those facts as trustworthy, they're true, and then thirdly, personally entrusting oneself to their truthfulness, to what their truthfulness demands, namely, faith, repentance, and new obedience, which is what our catechism makes clear as part of examining oneself for one's worthiness to take of the Lord's Supper, right? Examine yourself for faith, repentance, love, and new obedience. And those are the three things here. And so when we share Christ with people, we're sharing truth content. And what we're asking and what we're appealing to the person is to acknowledge these things not just as facts, but as true facts, facts which proclaim in truth from God, and then cast themselves upon that truth, entrust themselves to the one proclaimed by those facts, even the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ isn't abstract, he's very concrete. He's not just a mere fact, he's a person. But the communication of Christ, the preaching of the gospel of Christ, is by the proclamation of the facts of his life, death, resurrection, right, the gospel. What we've been seeing again in Acts, as Peter preaches, particularly there in Acts 2. And so we have these extremes in Christian circles, Metzger says, all head knowledge, little head knowledge. So on the one hand, all intellectualism without true conversion, on the other hand, Very likely no conversion, but now this emotionalism. There's a danger of mere subjectivism. It's my experience, and that's all it is. What we need to remember as we think about approaching the whole person with the whole gospel is the mind needs to be deeply affected. Only the Holy Spirit can do this, of course. It's not our ideal presentation of those five truth clusters. It's relying upon the Holy Spirit to give instruction to the mind and change the life. So the balance then between these two extremes is thinking God's thoughts after him, but not judging God's ways, right? This is the balance. The point we need to understand here is our minds are not to be bypassed in our Christian faith. And sometimes the mind is bypassed. Again, step back, be critical for a moment. In modern evangelistic approaches, sometimes the mind is bypassed. The truth content is so limited It's so narrowed down to where very little is actually being communicated about the contents of the gospel, because what are we driving for? A decision, a prayer, a response. Remember what Francis Schaefer said, we're so quick to get to the response that we run past what it takes to actually, by God's grace and the Holy Spirit, generate a response, to generate conviction, to show need, need for a savior, to help one see the truth of their real condition. Like Paul says in Romans 7, I was alive once without the law, but then when the law came, I died. And that death then led to true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so sometimes we're so rushed in modern evangelistic approaches, we're so quick to get to the end and cross the finish line, that we narrow, that we slim the content down so small. And what we need to understand here is our minds are not to be bypassed in our Christian faith. But neither, here's the balance, neither are our minds to stand in judgment over God's word, over the revelation that God's given us in Holy Scripture. Rather, the mind is to be taken captive and surrendered to the truth of God and his word. So turn to 2 Corinthians 10.5, a verse we all know. Always good to put our eyes on it again. Verse 3, 2 Corinthians 10, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. What kind of strongholds? Verse 5, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So go back to what that letter C, if the content of the gospel is the person of Jesus Christ, then the intention of the gospel is to bind the mind to the authority of the facts concerning Jesus Christ, that is particularly to the authority of Holy Scripture. God speaks in his word and we are to hear it. So faith and reason then are not incompatible, but faith is primary to reason because only by humble faith can we come to see and accept God's word as the truth Infallible, inerrant, inspired, entirely trustworthy. Shorter catechism question two, the only infallible rule given by God to teach us what we are to believe and how we are to live. Only by faith can we come to acknowledge and submit to the authority of God's word, right? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter two. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might understand, where does that take place? The mind, understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this, the things freely given us by God, the things that need to be understood, we impart this in words. Not taught by human wisdom, however, but taught by the spirit. interpreting spiritual truths, truths of the Holy Spirit, to those who are spiritual, have the Holy Spirit. The natural person, the unbeliever, those without the Spirit of God, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, go back to Proverbs, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. In other words, you need the Holy Spirit to receive the things of the Holy Spirit, the truth of the revelation of God's love and grace in Jesus Christ, You need the Holy Spirit to humble you by faith, to open your heart and mind to receive that truth, because they can only be spiritually discerned or understood or received. Without the Holy Spirit, what do we do by nature? We resist. We suppress. We deny. We argue. Again, we put God in the dark. So we don't want to deny our rationality. To deny our rationality, our reason, is to deny our humanity, is to deny what it means to be made in the image of God. And it's to behave like a beast. The beast are described in scripture as without understanding. And when man behaves in his wickedness and sinfulness, he behaves, says scripture, like a beast. Right? Like you're mindless, thoughtless. You're not reasoning properly. Contrastly, in Hebrews 5, the mature are rational. They're rational. Not without faith, but by faith. They use their minds to know and learn and study and understand the things revealed to us by God and his word. So turn to Hebrews 5. So we don't check our minds at the door when we come to church. We don't check our minds when we come to read scripture. We bring our mind, our reason, to scripture. God speaks to our minds. The Lord says, let us reason together. But we subject our minds, we bring, we take every thought captive, and we bring the mind, we bind the mind to the authority of God's holy word. And we can only do this by faith. We can only do this as a work of the spirit in our hearts. So Hebrews 5 verse 11, he goes on, he says, about this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. Not that they couldn't hear, but they couldn't think. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Think of Romans 12, be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. Be transformed in your life by the renewing of your mind. that you may discern what is the good and perfect will of God. So bring your mind subject to holy scripture. And again, by nature, we don't do this, and this is the problem. As a result of the fall into sin, our minds are fallen, our minds are corrupt, self-deceived, blind, ignorant. By nature, we can't reason our way to God. By nature, we can't even interpret natural revelation properly. Natural theology doesn't work for us. Enough to leave us without excuse, of course, but not enough to bring us to glorify God aright and to praise and worship God. Instead, go to Romans 1. What do we do? We turn creation on its head. We worship the creature rather than the creator. The thing we need to understand here is our minds are not neutral. Our minds are fallen. Our minds are at enmity with God and His truth. And again, we see this. Turn to Romans 1. We see it so clearly. Look at the forceful, willful language here that Paul uses to describe natural man. The one who doesn't have the Spirit of God, who doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God because he can't discern them. So verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. That's a willful action, a suppressing of the truth. For what can be known about God, it can be known. It's plain to them because God has shown it to them. Again, natural revelation. For by His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. So the revelation is sufficient to leave man without excuse. There's nothing wrong with the revelation that God gives, natural revelation. The problem is with man receiving it, the receptors. Because of man's fallenness, what does he do with that truth? What does he do with what he sees and clearly perceives? He suppresses it. He denies it. He turns it on its head and worships the revelation instead of the revelator. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God. Again, hear the willfulness. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged, this willful exchange, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, here's God's judgment, God gave them up to the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God, the truth about God for a lie. and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. So by nature we don't interpret facts rightly. By nature we don't interpret natural evidence and natural revelation rightly, because by default, what do we do? We've already seen this looking at our natural condition, looking at those five pillars. What do we do by nature? We begin with self. We cut off the God part, that first thing. We begin with man. And when we begin with man, we have thrown off the rule and the standard by which to see that we're made in the image of God to worship and serve God, to glorify him forever. But now we've thrown that off, and now what do we live for? We're designed to live for self, to worship self, to satisfy self, to pursue self. What is sin? We redefine sin, get rid of sin. We push blame off on others, right? As long as we're fallen, We begin with ourselves, this man-centeredness, and we ourselves are at the center of all knowledge and all reality. We determine to be the interpreter of all things. We decide what's right, what's wrong. Again, putting God in the dock, we put nature in the dock, all revelation, we put scripture in the dock, and we stand in judgment above it all. This is natural man. This is the center we meet, and so God's truth is designed to do what? Inform the mind humble the mind, and it's only the truth of God that can do that. We can't reach in and change anyone, but we can declare and proclaim the truth, and when the truth is in the hands of the Spirit as a sword of power, what does He do? He discerns, He divides the thoughts and intentions of the heart, Hebrews 4. That's what He does. The Word is living and powerful. It's active. And this gives us confidence in preaching the gospel. It gives every preacher confidence in proclaiming the word. It gives every Bible teacher confidence in teaching the things of God. Because we can't make anything, we can't change anybody. But using this word, this sword of the spirit, this tool, this means, this gospel and truth content, if it goes forth and gets in the spirit's hands, he can use it. And he does use it to change lives. So the proper function of the mind, then, is not to sit in judgment over God or his word. The proper function of the mind is to acknowledge, assent to, and trust in God's revelation. This is what Adam and Eve should have done. Not question, has God really said? Not give in to that line of thinking, but instead declare, yes, he has spoken, and it's not my place to judge what he has said, but to acknowledge it as his word. assent to it is true because it's his word, the one who is truth, and entrust myself to it and follow it. See, all three parts are right there. That's what Eve should have done, that's what Adam should have done. Acknowledge it as the word of God, assent to it is truth because it is God's word, and entrust themselves to the truthfulness of it by obeying it. And that's where, and all three of those went wrong, right? The minute they began down that road of thinking, has God really said? Stand in judgment over God for a moment and see what you think. What do you think? That's the question, right? That's where it all began. Because of our fallenness, that's exactly what we do. We continue to walk in our Adamic nature. We continue to sit in judgment on God's word, on God's ways. We suppress the moral implications of his truth and we worship the creature rather than the creator, beginning with ourselves. So by nature, we are committed to being mentally autonomous. And this is one of the most critical parts of repentance, therefore, is to cast down every vain imagination and lofty thought that has dared to raise itself up against God. Repentance, it begins here, repenting with the way we've been thinking about God, repenting with our judgments on God, our judgments about Christ. This is why Peter, Again, in Luke's summary of the messages, this is why Peter's honing in on, in his preaching of the gospel, he hones right in on Jesus, right? Because given the transgression of his audience, this is where they need to begin. You've got to begin by changing your mind about Jesus, right? And it narrowed, obviously, the truth content down to Jesus of Nazareth, but that's why that is the truth content. And that's also why Peter said, remember, we baptize in the name of Jesus. and you shall be saved because you've got to come under and surrender to that man Jesus whom you crucified because you thought he was a blasphemer, you thought he was evil, you thought he was et cetera. You've got to change your mind about that man and here's where repentance begins. What do you think about Jesus? That was the question. What do you think about Jesus? Let's start there because that's where you have to begin and everything else flows out of that. That's why the gospel is being presented the way it is in those earlier chapters in Jerusalem, So one of the most critical parts of repentance is to cast down our lofty thoughts about God and his word and his revelation, his law, everything, and then throw ourselves at his feet, right? Confessing, I'm ignorant, I don't know, right? I'm unlearned, I'm a child, I'm self-deceived, I don't even know my own heart. And accept and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the prophet of God, right? Exercising that office of prophet, instructing our minds in the things of God that we might be receive the things relative to our salvation. So finally then, number three, as we share the gospel, we're not to encourage people to stop thinking and start believing. Rather, we're to invite them to bring their minds to scripture, to open their minds to God's revelation, and to pray that he might instruct them in the way that they should go. This is why we said last week some of the most helpful things is to send people away with scripture. Go home and read this chapter, go home and read that chapter, and seek the Lord and pray to God as you read, right? And so that they come face to face with the word of God, which in the hands of the Holy Spirit is exactly what is needed to change them. So the content of the gospel assumes that we're going to engage with it using our minds. The content of the gospel assumes that we're going to engage with it using our minds, which means to intellectually, mentally receive it, right? Hear it, welcome it. Go back to Romans 10, but he who is himself that content goes on to demand that we bow before that content as truth. This is the truth. Remember what Paul says in Ephesians 4, the truth as it is in Jesus. He's the subject and the content of that message, that we bow before it as truth and ultimately that we entrust ourselves to it for our peace with God. So again, we have all three, right? Acknowledging it as facts, bowing before it as true facts and entrusting ourselves to it because it is true facts, right? We can work backwards there. How are they to believe? Right? Unless they hear. How are they to hear? Unless someone tells them. Those all three come together here. And so in summary, as Metzger closes this out, he says, thus we must forsake any kind of evangelism that either overly exalts the mind, mere intellectualism, or unduly neglects the mind, subjectivism, emotionalism. Rather, we must proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the minds of our hearers. Proclaim the truth. Proclaim the content of the gospel. Again, this is the helpful thing about those five truth clusters, to keep those truths in mind. That's the message itself. Proclaim those truths to our hearers, and as we do, pray. Pray that God would open their minds to receive what we're declaring, what we're saying. And as God opens their minds to receive the truth of what we're saying, that he would also be pleased to open their hearts to lay hold of it by faith and to receive it and entrust themselves to it. Because the one who begins by opening their ears, excuse me, their minds to receive and hear it, he's also the one who can change their hearts. He's the only one who can. But he's the one who also says he will, right? And that's exactly what he does. in the hearts of his elect. He changes. He opens our ears. And we all know this from our own experience. There was a day, as we said last week, right? There was a day in our lives when one day we heard. One day we finally heard. It finally got through. By the grace of God, we heard it, right? We believed it and entrusted ourselves to it and cast ourselves upon it. So as we think about sharing the gospel then, we need to remember that we're speaking of a person. The content of the gospel is Jesus Christ. We're speaking of a person, not just facts, not just history, but we're speaking of a person who warrants an ear, warrants trust, warrants worship, warrants love, warrants obedience. And that leads then from those first four parts of the gospel to the last, that appeal, right? To believe, to repent, to turn from your former ways and run after Christ and follow and embrace Christ. as he's offered to you in the gospel. That's the gospel message. That's the gospel Peter preached, that's the gospel Paul preached, that's the gospel laid out in scripture, even in the Old Testament. In its types and shadows, turn from your wicked ways and embrace the truth that has been revealed to you, the truth proclaimed to you, because with it comes the Holy Spirit to open the heart and bring Christ home to the heart. So we have a really important reminder then as we think about the gospel coming, and again, there's only three chapters in this section, head, heart, and hand, but as we begin tonight, thinking about how the gospel comes to the head first, because it comes to the ears. It's proclamation. And the person receives it, and with a measure of understanding by the grace of God, then it can go through the other two steps. And remember what we said, how we ended last time. This is where false conversions come in, right? If any one of the parts of our whole person, any one of our faculties, is not fully impacted by the gospel, then we're left unsaved. Right? We're left unchanged. Right? And so we need all three, because all three make up the whole person, and the whole gospel has come to change, transform, save, redeem the whole person. There's no part of us that is not fallen, and therefore there's no part of us that Christ has not set out to redeem, which means there's no part of us that the Holy Spirit isn't set out to change. And summarily, these are the three parts, head, heart, and hand. And so when we share the gospel with people, we've got to keep these things in mind and keep that as a goal in mind, the whole person. So what we're trying to get through. Okay. All right. Any questions or thoughts about that? So you think about how this approaching people with the gospel and with the truth of the gospel concerning Jesus Christ. Any comments? What if we got shut down here? What if we began to share the facts of the gospel and we got shut down? The person doesn't want to hear anything. Is there a plan B? Can you bypass? And you say, well, okay, we'll just forget that part and go to the next. You really can't. Because if you can't, if the person doesn't have an ear for the truth as it is in Jesus, for the truth of Jesus Christ, And what do we have to say? Everything relative to what we seek by God's grace to be brought about in that person's life, salvation, regeneration, change, transformation, it all hinges and hangs upon the truth as it is in Christ, right? Which again, isn't just that third part of the five pillars, but really the truth, all of it, the whole gospel, who God is, who man is, what sin is, and why Christ has come, and bring all that to bear. Just, it's helpful to think about that, right? If a person shuts you down and you can't get out the truth content of the gospel, it's not like you can skip that and say, well, let's just go to the decision part, right? Let me, okay, I won't talk about Jesus, but let me talk about something else, right? If you're not sharing Jesus, you're not sharing the gospel. And again, unless Christ is embraced as he is and as he's offered in the gospel, then there's no ground for assurance. There's no ground for hope. What can we really give the person? They've got to engage with Christ. They've got to bring them face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way to do that is through the gospel, through the content and the message concerning Jesus Christ. And again, that's why, even given the fact that they are summaries that Luke is giving, that's why the gospel being preached by the apostles is so narrow. And when we get to Paul in Acts 13, you'll see his first sermon and every sermon after that, it's the same thing, focusing right in on Jesus Christ. the gospel. You've got to engage people with the gospel. So if it gets shut down at this first point, then we didn't need to go home praying for that person. Pray for an open door. Pray for a softened heart. Right? Go ahead, Chris. I mean, I would submit that if you use the artillery of Scripture, you will, you know, soften the ground. You know, that's the whole goal with the Pacific War. You shoot battleships onto the field to soften so the Marines I think it's highly effective, you know? Missy and I have been talking about this a lot, about just bringing, how we've been able to bring scripture, just, it's almost like, you know, when they tried to arrest Jesus, he said, I am he, and they all fell down. And there's a lot of impact. So I would submit, don't think overly much about the reaction of the person. But it's been highly effective, because I used to be that way. I used to try to, you know, reason, try to anticipate objections. Yeah. And that's why each of those truth clusters, right, Metzger, you can choose whatever you want, but Metzger gave key scripture texts to keep in mind. With each one of those, right, what's a key passage that communicates that truth? Keeping those things in mind helps you keep the scripture forefront in your mind, so that you can share those scriptures. And it is the word of God. The word of God is the power and the sword of the Holy Spirit that he wields with power. So we need to be in prayer. It just goes right back to basking all of our gospel sharing efforts in prayer. Because God has to open hearts. God has to change minds. God has to make a person receptive. And just when we thought there was a closed door, God may yet open it. So being willing to be used of the Lord in every situation, and being willing, right? being willing to be shut down. And not take offense, because it's not we who are offensive, right? We don't want to be the offense. The gospel is offensive enough, right? Let the gospel be the offense, but not us ourselves, either in how we present it, or our impatience, or our anger, or our bitterness afterwards. That's not gonna work well at all, right? We need to continue to show love and kindness and grace, and the Lord may yet open that door. If not for us, then maybe in someone else who approaches them next time. And then they are softer, and there's a receptiveness that we didn't get to receive or to witness, but then toward maybe someone else. So remembering that we're a tool, we're an instrument, God has to do it. But the key is, as we think this through, God's promised to do it, right? In his elect, in his time, he's promised to do it. So we take up the means of sharing the gospel, the means of evangelism, we take them up with boldness, with courage, with confidence. and trusting the Lord with the outcome, whatever that may be. We just yield to him, right? We don't know how we're being used. We might be being used to further harden someone who's going to perish. We might be being used to plant or to water. And then we might also be used to actually bring in the harvest, which would be great. Understanding how all that works, and this is some of those first lessons we did, understanding God's sovereignty in evangelism. and the Holy Spirit's effectiveness, and the Holy Spirit has to do it. That enables us, that strengthens us, that gives us boldness and courage, and it's not on you. You're not trying to save anybody. You're just opening your mouth and sharing Jesus, right? And Lord willing, there's an ear, because if there's an ear, then that's the first step. That's the first step, if someone will at least listen. And if we keep those truths in mind, those five truths, and where we're going, and the goal of the whole person being affected by the whole gospel, and we've got two more sections in this book that'll flesh it out even a little bit more, but as we keep all of these things in mind as we approach people, and this really can be encouraging, if someone only listens, you're thinking, Lord, thank you that they were receptive. Maybe someone else would come along, right? And be able to bring them through that second step of assenting to the truth of what they heard, and then by God's grace, embracing and trusting themselves to the truth, right? So it helps to divide all of this up, to think about this in parts and pieces, Because if we just throw it all in one basket and think about it as a whole, we can get lost and we don't as clearly discern the particulars. Discerning the particulars, I think, brings encouragement and is helpful. All right, well, let's close in prayer. Father, we are grateful once again for another lesson down this road of evangelism and preparing ourselves, Lord, to be evangelists. We desire and we pray. that you might continue to prepare us to be bold and courageous and be willing and ready to speak, to be used of you as an instrument. We pray for divine appointments. We pray, Lord, that you would bring us into situations and circumstances in the lives of people that we might discern an appointment, a meeting, and a meeting of the minds in this regard, Lord, that we might be able to speak to the things that matter most, speak to eternal matters, to speak about the ones who loves us so much and whom we, in turn, love so much, even about Jesus Christ. We desire to invite people to church. We desire to see, oh Lord, your people brought into this fellowship. We desire, first of all, that people would come to know Jesus. And so we ask that you would continue to bless this study. We pray that you'd be with us as we go forth this week, Lord, as we return to another week of labor and all the busyness that occupies us in the given week. We ask, God, that you would be with us. that you would accompany us and go with us, that you would open doors whereby we may serve you well, that you would turn us, Lord, out of the ways of sin and transgression, that you would help us to guard our hearts and to put on the whole armor of God as we go forth, that we might be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm, resting in the full power and the might of Jesus Christ. Thank you for this Lord's Day, for the blessing of the means of grace. Continue to bless your church as we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen.