Is God Speaking?

The following program is recorded content created by Truth Network. Steve Noble Show.com.

And now here's your host, Steve Noble. He's there. Everybody knows he exists. That's why when people start to tell, oh, my atheist friend, I'm like, you actually don't have an atheist friend. You have a friend, but your friend is not an atheist because I believe God's word and God's word said that he's made it plain to everybody so that everybody's without an excuse, which means everybody knows he exists.

How they choose to deal with that is up to them and how they express their belief or disbelief, whatever the case may be, is up to them. So you have that general revelation, right? You look into the microscope or you look into the telescope, you look at the beautiful starry sky, you look at the birth of a child, you stare into microbiology or just a fire.

I don't know why we all get mesmerized when we stare into fires, but I think there's something there because fire is obviously a powerful symbol within the words of Scripture. But you have general revelation. Okay, so God's made it plain that he exists.

Everybody sees it. And then there's special revelation. And to get to special revelation, you've got to get to God's word.

And so we will work on these two things today, and we generally think of it as general revelation before I'm a believer, special revelation after I'm a believer. But how does God reveal himself to you? If you are in a very conservative circle, Southern Baptist or whatnot, when it comes to the things of the Spirit, you get a little chill up the back of your spine and that gets a little wacky.

You think it's going to go south. And if you're Pentecostal, more charismatic, you're wondering what's wrong with the people on the other side of this aisle. And so the question today is God's revelation to the believer. How does he reveal himself to us and how do we benefit from that?

You've got to understand what's going on so that you can lean into these things. And we're going to unpack this today with our good friend, Dr. Gary Weir, who's back in the house, executive vice president for academic affairs and a fellow Big Ten grad. Gary, how are you? Good to see you. I'm doing great. Good to see you, Steve.

All right. So let me let me before we dive in here, because I want to ask how this got on your radar screen, just give us a general update. And it may probably seems like a long time ago at this point with the end of the semester. But there's a lot going on at Bob Jones University during the summer, starting actually coming up next week with the EDU Camp. So let us know what's going on there, because this is an awesome opportunity I want people to know about. We'll have to talk more about it in the future, especially next spring before the summer rolls around, because these are incredible opportunities, especially for teenagers.

Absolutely. So, you know, there's a tendency to think that colleges are kind of sleepy places during the summer in a way that is true. But we've got a ton of construction going on here, like like most other campuses.

But what we're really excited about is what is starting next week. And that is our EDU Camp program, which is a camp program for teenagers. I think we're all familiar with the with the church camp model where, you know, some are a youth group or teens would go off to camp.

This is somewhat like that, but it really has the focus on on learning and, of course, learning from a biblical worldview. But our faculty lead these EDU camps and and they're really connected to the programs that we have here. So we have a we have an EDU camp on entrepreneurship. We have an EDU camp in culinary arts.

We have EDU camps in media and business and ministry, biblical worldview. So there's a strong educational component and the students that come benefit from that. They also have an opportunity to learn more about themselves. And most importantly, they have an opportunity to learn more about their their gods or our faculty lead these. And many of our students are come alongside and serve as counselors. So it's a great program, four weeks long, four sets of camps through a month long process. And that all gets underway on Monday.

Yeah, it's super cool. I love that idea, because like you mentioned, Gary, most of us think in terms of the summer camp and youth group at whatever age our children happen to be or grandchildren. But this kind of takes the spiritual buildup and discipleship of a regular summer camp experience for a youth group. But then adds in the educational side, because when we finish college, most of us are not going to seminary. Most of us are not going into full time ministry. Ninety nine percent of us are going to go out into the world.

So how do you incorporate a biblical worldview and a gospel centric mind into like the culinary arts or media or business entrepreneurship? I love that. It's such a great idea and excited that you guys are doing that. And is that something that's booked up already or if people are interested, is there still any spots? Do you know? You go to our website, bju.edu and search on on edge camp.

That'd probably be the simplest. OK, if there are a lot of the camps are full, but there are still some openings. Of course, I'm going to say they're very reasonably priced.

Of course, I don't know the exact price, but there's great value in them. And not only do the kids learn a lot, but they have a blast going through. Yeah, that's awesome. So it's cool to hear about bju.edu and just search for edge camp, E.D.U. C.A.M.P.

edge camp. OK, something lives in every hue. A great title for a piece. Gary, where did that come from and why God's revelation to the believer? Yeah, well, the title actually comes from the hymn. Of course, my my mind's going to go totally blank here. Love with everlasting love.

Yeah. And just a couple of lines from one stanza. Something lives in every hue. Christless eyes have never seen.

And you're like many. In fact, in my adult Sunday school class, I'm going through a series right now in Romans one. And really, the focus I have there is our world is going crazy.

Our culture here in the United States is going crazy. You would think, well, you can't it can't be explained. Well, if you look at Romans Chapter one, it actually can be explained. God has revealed himself plainly and human sinfulness suppresses that. And when human sinfulness suppresses that you get what we get in our culture. So there's a lot of focus on what it is like for the unbelieving world to reject God's revelation. And there's appropriate focus there. But what about the focus of God's revelation for the believer?

How do we as believers respond to and engage with and interact with God's revelation? So that was that was really the thought process I went through in in in writing this blog piece and having the opportunity to chat a bit with you today about. Yeah. And it's and it's one of those things that I think most of us will spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about how crazy and messed up the culture is. It's easy to turn the White House spotlight of judgment outward and call that out. That's easy. The danger there is it tends to breed self-respect. It certainly didn't self. Let's see. I'm now I'm having a. Righteousness, self-righteousness.

Thank you very much. It breeds self-righteousness. But in this case, what about God's revelation to us on the inside of the body of Christ? So we're going to jump into Psalm 19. We're going to talk about that and bounce off of a great book by Francis Schaeffer. He is there and he is not silent. So something for you to think about as we move forward. Are you hearing from God?

And what do you do with that? This is Steve Noble with Dr. Gary Weir on Theology Thursday. We'll be right back. Welcome back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show, Theology Thursday. A little reminder, I'll be back tomorrow, God willing, next week.

I'll be out all week. Monday is a show that I did a few years ago, Monday being July 4th, really about the expanded true story behind the Declaration of Independence. There's a lot more to that than most people know.

I wrote a 50 page paper on it, research paper on it for my master's degree. That kind of the confluence of a biblical worldview on the Declaration of Independence, which is fascinating. So I kind of unpack that. That's the show that's going to play on Monday, Tuesday through Friday.

I'll be out. But next Thursday is a theology Thursday that I just did earlier today. Prerecorded it with Alan Benson talking about a more theological driven response to what just happened with Roe versus Wade.

As we look at that from a moral victory, a judicial victory, a social victory, a governmental or political victory. But how do we look at it through a biblical lens outside of those things, which are all good? But what about the gospel itself and in this little pause, the strange area that we're in between that getting turned over and whatever's coming next around the country?

Some great gospel opportunities. So that will be next Thursday on Theology Thursday. And we have a special guest host coming in next week.

So there's a few other things going on. But I'll be out all next week. And God willing, I'll be back a week from Monday. But we're talking to Dr. Gary Weir today, of course, general revelation in the world, special revelation in the word. And how does that affect us on Theology Thursday?

He's the executive vice president for academic affairs at Bob Jones University. And you really want to spend our time in Psalm 19, which is an amazing psalm here, because the question is, how does this kind of work for us as believers? So how do we use Psalm 19 to answer that question, Gary? Well, I think obviously the psalm begins with general revelation. You know, David begins by saying the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. And I think the word of God is so special to us as believers. And it should be that sometimes we overlook God's revelation through his creation. You know, that that verse, the first verse of that psalm really and what I wrote in the blog piece that that word declares has even an idea of inscribing or counting. So it's almost like God is keeping score, helping us to keep score of his glory by what he has set in the heavens for us to see. And even beyond what we can see, he declares his power and his glory to us. And then even going further, you know, the created order actually teaches us some things if we will take the time to meditate on that, if we will take the time to take our earbuds out and take our eyes away from our screens and meditate on even the sun, because David uses the example of the sun in this psalm. And when you think about the sun and its all encompassing light that it gives to the earth during the day, there's a lesson in there even about God's sovereignty. God is sovereign over everything, just like the sun rules the day. So there are lessons in just the way God created the world for us as as believers. Well, that's an interesting notion in terms of keeping score.

You referenced kind of a baseball example in here, because I want to, if you would, unpack that for us a little bit, because I don't know. I think we tend to look at God's creation most of the time as a tapestry. My wife and I were recently out in Asheville, North Carolina.

We went to the Biltmore and they have some of the most amazing tapestries there. And you see them from a little bit of a distance and you don't really pay a whole lot of attention to all the intricate details. And so general revelation, oh, it's a beautiful day. That's a beautiful sunset.

Oh, look at the mountains. And then we're done. But what do you mean by keeping score? And you did use this, like I mentioned, this baseball analogy. I think that's helpful to kind of unpack that a little. Yeah, I'm a you know, maybe I'm old fashioned in the sense that I'm a bit of a baseball nut. I mean, it is, after all, the best sport.

After all, period. But we don't need to get into all that. But you think of like in today's world, you don't just have a home run. Every aspect of that home run has to be described like how far it went. You know, the newest stat is the exit velocity.

You know, it left the bat at one hundred and five miles per hour. All of that. When we when we take time to meditate on God's creation. And I am certainly no scientist. But when we when we meditate just on the one aspect of his creation and Christ did that himself in his ministry, he asked us to consider to think about the birds of the air, the flowers of the field. And in doing that, it will take the time to meditate and think about God's creation. And as believers, we can understand spiritual truths like in that particular case, that God, because he cares for those smaller parts of his creation, he certainly cares for those of us who bear his image.

Well, I love that idea of kind of digging deeper and getting more details there. Like, for example, I mean, at this point in human knowledge, astronomers will say there's about seventy sextillion stars. That's the guess right now. Seventy sextillion is a seventy with twenty one zeros after it. That's seventy sextillion. Some portion of those stars have planets, yada, yada.

You can go down the road. But when you when you kind of consider that and go into the details, when you start breaking that down, that's totally amazing just to the type of the type of glory, the level of glory and understanding the power and the intelligence and the beauty and the creativity of God. But also in Psalm 19, in this one part, day after day, they pour after speech, night after night, they communicate knowledge.

Well, what kind of knowledge do these things communicate to us? Again, just the power and awesomeness of our God. But if you extend this and I look at Psalm eight is as being quite parallel to Psalm 19. And David begins that song by being curious, by pondering, saying, when I consider the sun, moon and the stars, which you have created.

And that is to me, it is really interesting how that song moves to the creation band date. In other words, I think the strong implication there is, as you study God's creation, you're actually doing that in such a way that you fulfill our responsibility as his image bearers to rule this earth under his authority. So God gave us wheat. But he didn't give us bread. Right. You know, he gives us what is it? What steel?

Steel is made out of iron ore and carbon. Yeah. All right. We got to figure that out. It's in God's created order. And as we do that, we gain knowledge that we can apply to life. I mean, even the site, the 24 hour cycle of a day. I mean, for me, this is so obvious that I think we overlook the significance that we need rest.

Yeah. God ordained that in the created order, the 24 hour cycle. You got to get some rest, even if you're a college student.

Those all nighters aren't going to work all the time. If we pay attention to God's created order and study it, his general revelation, there is knowledge for us as believers to apply through daily life. Yeah, it's so great. And in the blog post, you mentioned Christ as well, bringing up the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and how God, not a bird falls, that the sparrow falls, that God doesn't know it. And the knowledge there is God's intricate knowledge and care for even the things that seem small and meaningless. Do you think God doesn't care about my, well, he doesn't care about the poison sumac that's all over my body right now. Except he does. If he knows about the lilies of the field and the birds in the air, I'm pretty sure he's concerned about Steve Noble's itchiness all over his body.

Absolutely. We have a great God who reveals himself not just through his word, but even, I mean, this world is, it's cursed. We know that from the fall. Creation is groaning. But yet we still see this in God. Can we even imagine what the new creation is going to be like?

That's awesome. So we're going to turn from that general revelation. We're going to talk about specific or special revelation. When we come back, we'll go to verses seven to eleven and Psalm 19 talking about God's written revelation, his special revelation. This is Steve Noble with Dr. Gary Weir, executive vice president for academic affairs at Bob Jones University.

We'll be right back. Welcome back at Steve Noble, the Steve Noble Show Theology Thursday with our friends at BJU Seminary and Bob Jones University reading from Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour out speech. Night after night, they communicate knowledge.

And so we've been talking through that. It's called general revelation. If you go hang out with some seminarians, they'll call that general revelation.

And then you get to something more specific, special revelation. You get to verse seven. The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad. The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. So then you start looking at that going, OK, the instruction of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord and the command of the Lord. Do I need to find a burning bush? Gary, do I need to find some some rock tablet somewhere?

How can I acquire these things? Because these are definitely treasures to be desired, to say the least. Absolutely. I mean, it's it's right there before us in his word. The 66 books and the canon of God's word that that's what we're talking about there.

And it is mining those treasures. God's law, his revealed will. You know, so many people ask, well, what's God's will for my life? We just start with what he has revealed in his word that we need to obey. That's God's law, his testimony, the truth that we actually get from him, his precepts, his command, and it speak to the precision and authority of what he's given to us.

He's given us the morality that he is our creator, has designed us to live by and given that to us with with authority. And then our reverential response, the awe that we have for God's word, his judgments, his decisions that he's given to us about what really matters in life. It's in the Bible. That's where we find it.

Yeah. Those are just those are just beautiful descriptions that the Psalmist is using to describe what we have in God's word. Well, I think for most of us, truth be told, this should be somewhat convicting because when you start looking at all this stuff, the instruction of the Lord and its value, OK? The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. I'm like, OK, yeah, I'm two for two there.

I'm up with those. The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad. Yeah, especially in these days, I would like that. The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. The fear of the Lord is pure and during forever, the ordinance of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous. So he said to go, this sounds like a pretty good list to me, Gary. And I want to sign up for all this. But it isn't it's amazing that when the scripture is so obvious and poetically and beautifully so that a lot of us struggle to go to that source, that we're not regularly in the word of God.

We know we got it. That's, you know, I'm I'm supposed to be reading my Bible every day. I'm supposed to be praying every day. But and God, I mean, how many more things can he throw on the table to make it this succulent display that you're like, yeah, I got to have some of that? Because when I go to the grocery store, I don't have that problem. That's right.

And because, I mean, we do live in a in a in a society and a culture where just information is just readily available for us. And who is it? The CEO of Netflix, when he was asked, you know, who's your competition? He said, sleep. Oh, man. Wow. You know, so the idea is I just constantly want to have somebody's somebody's attention.

Yeah. And the only thing I really compete with is when somebody is asleep. So, you know, it's I think of Proverbs two in that respect with likening the pursuit of wisdom to pursuing a hidden treasure. When you pursue a hidden treasure, it takes some effort.

You know, you got to you got to take the time to dig, you got to take the time to really pursue it. And it's so easy to let so many other things get in the way. And that's the reality that that all of us face. You know, sometimes people think, you know, they they may feel a little bit guilty that they don't always have the desire to read God's word.

Sure. But actually, I think there's another way of looking at it. If you're regenerated, the fact that you have any desire to read God's word is God's grace in our hearts, because in our natural condition, we have no desire for that. Whatever.

Who cares? It's an old book. Exactly. But God, through that work of regeneration, gives us that desire to pursue him, not just wisdom. Of course, wisdom is important, but actually to pursue God through his word. Yeah.

Personally, individually and in a deep and meaningful way, I often say it's it's it's amazing that we settle for so much less than what God wants to give us. Right. And the prescriptions are there. These descriptions are there like this one. And, you know, as you go, as you go, this is something is there a money back guarantee?

Yes. You will always get God's word never comes back void. He's always going to bless you.

You'll always feel that blessing and you'll feel closer to him when you stay in the word. And sometimes you have to just switch it up a little bit, Gary. I mean, people go, hey, I read the ESV. I read the New Living Standard. I read that. I throw in the message every once in a while.

But I'm careful. The New King James or the King James, because it's so beautifully written and to do things like that right now. What's been a blessing to me since the beginning of the year. I'm going through the New Testament in a year right now. But my son, our oldest son, Hayden, who lives in San Francisco, gave me a study Bible. But all the notes of the study Bible are all from church fathers.

So these are all from the 300s, 400s, 500s and 600s. And it's besides convicting because we're just not that smart anymore and we don't write like they do. It's just amazing to see the consistency of these learned men's understanding of God's word in 400 A.D. And in me today in 2022, I'm like, hey, we're on the same page after what?

Sixteen hundred years. I mean, but I think is it OK to kind of come at scripture like that and maybe take a different angle, a different approach? Absolutely. And just what you said, we take so much for granted in terms of, you know, how the early church father studied and engage with God's word and the lasting legacy we even have. That's a cool study.

I've never heard of one specifically like that. But for me personally, you know, I have come to learn over the last several years that even simple things like first designations, we are so rational in our thinking sometimes we have not recovered from the enlightenment. And just the way those you know, we we tend to look at a verse in isolation rather than a broader context. So I love reading from a Bible that does have it doesn't have any first designation. It's just in paragraph four. And even something that simple allows you to interact with God's word a little bit differently.

Yeah, there's something that came out a few years ago and I got I picked up a set for myself. It's called Biblio Theca. And that's what it's the it's the Old Testament, the New Testament, it's Psalms and Proverbs. And it's all done without any designations like that. You don't see verse numbers, none of that stuff. And then it's laid out in a way and they actually designed the the font for maximum readability. So it's really a comfortable thing to read. But because it's different, it draws me. It draws me when I started reading it, it drew me in differently.

And that was just like a different facet on the on the diamond. This is something I wanted to bring up when I read in the Bible. It's sweeter than honey.

I'm like, who cares? You know, it's not like I'm a big honey person, right? It's honey checks, honey nut Cheerios, whatever. But you brought this up in the blog today in God of All Things, Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World by Andrew Wilson.

Go through that description of honey, because this is really much deeper than I thought was possible looking at honey itself. It's that's a just a little quick aside of that book. That book is just a real blessing and cool book, God of All Things, Rediscovering the Sacred in Everyday World, where he takes just these everyday things as as they're in scripture and what they teach us about God and teach us about his word.

So he I mean, he gets really practical. He talks about breakfast and he talks about all the breakfast foods that are new. And, you know, the early church fathers would not relate to pop tarts and things like that. But what they will relate to is honey. You know, honey just exists. And what I quoted from his book, honey is astonishing.

It lasts through the centuries, not just metaphorically, but literally, it never goes out of date. Honey is unprocessed, unlike so much of our food today in our world. Virtually everything we eat is treated, sterilized, cooked, pasteurized and then combined with other things to make it more palatable. But honey is almost unique and having no need for additives, flavorings or preservatives. It is luxuriously sweet and delicious without even trying.

That's such a great paragraph. And Andrew Wilson talks about how in scripture, honey most commonly refers to one of three things. It refers to God's land or deliverance, the land flowing with milk and honey. It refers to God's gifts or favor. Think of manna.

Manna had that taste of honey in it. And then, of course, it refers to God's word as well. So that's what David is telling us. We understand that, you know, the desiring wealth and desiring gold. But desiring honey, that's one that typically goes over our head. But when you again, when you just meditate, what God has put in his created order, that's what God's word is to the believer. It's that sweet honey that needs no preservatives, needs no artificial sweetening.

It is pure as pure can be. Yeah, it's so good. I just jumped on and found a link for it that I just put up on Facebook Live. God of all things, rediscovering the sacred in an everyday world by Andrew Wilson. That's such a great idea. Here's just part of the description.

We're about to hit the break. Jesus used things like a lily, sparrow and sheep to teach about the kingdom of God. And in the Old Testament, God repeatedly describes himself and his saving work in relation to physical things such as a rock, a horn or an eagle.

So God, the God of all things in the ordinary. I'm going to get that one. That just sounds awesome.

And the chapters are like four or five pages. Wow. It's an awesome book. That's so cool.

So I just put the link up for everybody. God of all things, rediscovering the sacred in an everyday world. We're going to finish up with Dr. Gary Weir when we come back right after this.

Welcome back. It's Steve Noble. The Steve Noble Show Theology Thursday as it is each week with our friends at Bob Jones Seminary and BJU Seminary and Bob Jones University.

And by the way, we mentioned this at the beginning of the show, that there might be a few spots left in the edge of camp. So if you want to go check that out, that's a combination of biblical summer camp that we're all used to. But education, whether it be culinary arts or media or business or entrepreneurship. I've never heard of anybody doing this other than Bob Jones University. So make sure you check that out. BJU.edu. And then the seminary, if you're going down that road or feeling called in that direction or know somebody that is, you can always check out the seminary. Seminary. BJU.edu. One of the seminaries that's growing. There's other seminaries in this country that are selling land and selling buildings and not doing well.

But BJU Seminary is just continuing to grow, which is awesome. So a lot of things going on there. Walking through this concept today of the revelation of God with Dr. Gary Weir at the university.

Something lives in every hue. God's revelation to the believer. We talked about Romans one, that God's made it plain. OK, there's all these obvious signs that God exists. Then we jumped over to Psalm 19, the first six verses talking about God's general revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God, things of that nature. So there's general revelation, which is available to everybody.

But special revelation when you get to verses seven through 11 now starts to talk about God's written revelation, which is his word, which really Paul talked about this, that spiritual truths are spiritually discerned. So I specifically remember Gary as an unbeliever when I would pick up the Bible because I was supposed to or whatever as a youngster. To me, it was like gobbledygook.

I was like this. None of this stuff makes any sense to me. But once I got saved at the late age of 28 and I started to read, I'm like, oh, because I had the aid of the Holy Spirit. So we are talking about that as well. But David ends Psalm 19 with a prayer, which is interesting and seeking God's mercy. So how do we kind of tie this all together with mercy that we need to receive? Yeah, we think about God's revelation as believers in terms of the general revelation, his creation, what he's put in our conscience and even how he's providentially steers history. Then we think of his special revelation, the word that he's revealed to us.

But we also know with our New Testament eyes that God has ultimately or supremely revealed himself through the person of Christ. And it's just it's amazing to me personally, anyway, how Psalm 19 ends, where this is not a an explicit or pure messianic prophecy. But I hear in David's words and anticipation of the Messiah. I mean, even the last verse, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable.

And I say acceptable. You have the language of sacrifice there. David is acknowledging in the two previous verses when he's asking God to protect him from known and unknown sins. He's acknowledging his need of God and specifically of God's mercy. Well, where was God's mercy ultimately displayed or revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ? Even while we were yet sinners, God demonstrated his love to us with Christ dying on the cross for us.

So so I thought I love the way this all ends. And maybe I don't think I'm stretching it, but I see an anticipation and picture of God's ultimate revelation in the person of Jesus Christ. And we as Christians in Christ simply need to receive, certainly not earn, but receive the mercy that God has for us. It's always to kind of consider and remember that all of the scriptures really point to Christ. They point to that pivotal moment. The second you can open up and get to the end of the Old Testament, beginning of the New Testament, stick a cross in there. And the Old Testament, they're looking forward to the promise.

And for us, we get to look back. But then you have to engage that. And what does that mean in my life? One of the things about mercy, Gary, is I tend to I think that a lot of us probably assume that the mercy aspect of our salvation or our walk with Christ kind of occurred at our moment of salvation, that we don't really think of it necessarily as kind of an ongoing situation. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. I think of what is at the end of Psalm one where the psalmist says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, chase after me all the days of my life. God's loyal love.

Is chasing us all the days of our lives. Romans Chapter two. It's it's not God's wrath, it's God's goodness that leads us to repentance, to turn to him, to turn away from ourselves and turn to him. So, yeah, mercy certainly has been displayed to us. God has granted that to us even before the day of our salvation.

And we're still we're still walking in that mercy, aren't we? I mean, I got we have grace, of course, and a lot of people like to use the acronym God's riches at Christ's expense, getting things you don't deserve and mercy, not getting what you do deserve. And it seems to me that when I look at myself and you're bringing up David and obviously David and Psalm 19, I go to Psalm 51 a lot and David talking about my sin is ever before me. That's not a works based righteousness struggle there. That's just the reality of the Christian life that the minute your sin stops bugging you, you're in trouble. And and when someone people say, man, I'm really struggling with something, I always start by saying praise the Lord, because if you weren't struggling, that's a problem.

If you're just whatever. OK, that that's that's actually a sign that perhaps you are not they don't have a regenerated heart. But with mercy, how does that kind of show up? How do we incorporate that into our our daily lives now, Gary, in terms of receiving not just what did happen before, but on an ongoing fashion, God's mercy? I just go back full circle, even to the beginning of the song and what the scriptures say about God's mercies being new every day in the 24 hour cycle. You know, you you end one day, you move to the next. It's a new start.

It's a fresh start. And that is receiving God's mercy in our lives. And it's a recognition that, you know, we are unclean.

There is nothing that we can do to merit favor favor with God. But just that that recognition that God in his mercy pities us who are in misery because we are because of our sin and just just claiming that day by day. Even what you were saying about the struggle with sin.

That's why we long for heaven, because we long to be past this daily struggle we all face. Yeah. Yeah. With sin. Yeah. God's mercy is new every day, every day. Yeah.

And that's something that I think that's kind of going back to revisiting our salvation and all the component parts of our salvation, because it's not unlike, you know, anniversaries, wedding anniversaries. First one's a big deal. Second one's a big deal. Number seven.

Whatever. 12, 13. I get to 20 because the culture says that's a big deal. 25 are going to Hawaii.

30, whatever you go on. But you kind of get over you kind of get over that, especially if you were saved as a young kid. Yes.

You kind of get over your salvation and and mercy and grace and those component parts tend to be something that. Yeah, that that that was awesome as opposed to going. It still is awesome. Yeah. And it's ongoing. Yeah. John John three, the beginning of that chapter, we always go to John three, 16. Of course, that's a that's a marvelous verse. But the beginning of that chapter of the new birth, this is a miracle. Yeah.

Yeah. It is a miracle that you are regenerated. You experience a new birth. And of course, when Christ was telling that to Nicodemus, Nicodemus was like, how could that even happen?

I'm an old man. That's right. Yeah, it's such a powerful point. And even till to this day, with respect to God's mercy, I'm always like the fact that he uses any of us to do anything.

Is always shocking to me and and just remembering and trying to grapple with as much as possible. Gary, the the weight of my sin. Because I think oftentimes because we're we're hindered by the fact that we're fallen human beings. And we go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've had some sin issues here and there, but it's not as bad as X, Y and Z.

Not really understanding the gulf that separated us. And I think that's one of Satan's greatest tactics is in temptation. Say, go ahead and do that or go ahead and think that no big deal. And then you do it.

He's like, I can't believe you just did that. I thought you claimed to be one of God's children. Yeah, man. So claiming God's mercy is is so important.

And the fact that he uses us like you were just talking about, because that's not our way. It's like, I don't know about you, but for me, it's like, yeah, I'm the only one that I can trust to get this done. Yeah. Yeah.

Somebody else is going to blow it. Right. Of course. But that's not the way God works.

Yeah. And I think with respect to the gospel, something we all need to remember when it comes to mercy is for in the American context, kind of the Protestant work ethic. You know, if you require mercy, that means you're guilty of something and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, in America, in our culture, especially our work ethic, we don't really like to think that there's something there's nothing I can do about it. Powerlessness? No, I'm not. I'm an American. I'm not powerlessness. I'm just going to work. And if it's not working, I work harder or I work a different way, but I'm still going to work. And we don't like to surrender. We don't like to give up. And mercy just puts a giant spotlight on all of that, which is why I think in the American context, the gospel in that way can be a real challenge. It was for me because it required me to admit I needed mercy. Right.

There's nothing I can do. Which is totally un-American, isn't it? Or am I reading too much into that? No, I think you're spot on with that. It's a huge part of our culture, that band. Well, Manifest Destiny, you know, just go claim it.

Go do it. Right. The West is, I'm telling a U.S. history teacher that. Right. Oh, man. Yeah, God. I mean, I pull up some paintings of Manifest Destiny for my students when we get to that in the 1800s.

And I'm like, this is literally what they thought. God has given us from sea to shining sea. He's given us this whole thing from the East Coast to the West Coast. It is our destiny.

It's manifest from God himself. So it's ours to take. They're like, well, what about that two and a half million people out there that don't exactly look like you? Well, forget it. It's ours to take.

We just roll them. You know, Manifest Destiny, you got to be very careful with that because you make it sound like you deserve it and you don't. Which is why we need mercy. Dr. Gary, we're always great to have you on. Thank you so much for leading us down this road for general revelation and special revelation and all the things that we can gain from that. As believers, it's always great to have you on. Well, thanks for having me back. It's always a joy to chat with you, Steve.

You're welcome. And enjoy your glamping. Will do. I'm sure you will. This is Steve Noble on The Steve Noble Show. God willing, I'll be back with you guys tomorrow. And like my dad always used to say, ever forward. Another program powered by the Truth Network.