Well, thank you all for joining. It's good to see you and good to see your names for those that are using their cameras. So tonight, we're going to do the first person that we talked about last week. So remember last week, we're doing this because we see that Our world is changing and there's things that probably will come our way. I'm not a prophet, I don't know when, but there's gonna be different attitudes towards believers. There's gonna be persecution probably at some point. So what we wanna do is we wanna look back in history and see how have people dealt with that sort of thing in the past. And we said that their lives aren't gonna be just like ours. Most of them are pastors, but they're gonna have the same internal personal trials that we have, but they're also gonna have them on a bigger stage. So we think, and I believe, that we can learn a lot by looking at the character traits of these men. And so this week, we're going to look at John Cowling. Now, I think that's a name you've probably all heard. You may or may not know all the ways that he influences us even today. And I'm not going to go into all those. There are a lot of good biographies. I've got two that I consulted for this. But the reason I want to talk about him is because he's kind of unique throughout history. If you think about today, we as believers have a hard time acknowledging brilliant person is a believer. I mean, if you think about it, brilliant people, you think, well, now they're probably worldly wise, but they're probably not believers. I mean, good grief. Part of that is our culture because back in 1925, there was the famous Scopes trial. You probably have heard about that. That was in Tennessee and that was where creation versus evolution was being debated, but also it was an actual lawsuit. So in that, the creation side and the evolution side brought their big guns. Now, it turned out that the creation side won the lawsuit, but as you are aware, the media didn't think they should have. And what they did was reframe that whole argument into intelligent science versus semi literate faith. So from that point forward, in our culture, Christians kind of had this baggage of, well, the smart people are scientists, and we're just dumb believers. And we're not exactly sure how to engage with science. And so Part of the reason that that happened, and I'm gonna get to John Calvin, trust me. Part of the reason that happened was the 50 years, well, maybe 75 years before that trial, the church, basically all of the mainline denominations were wrestling internally on things like, are the scriptures really reliable? Can I trust them? And they were wrestling internally with, is man-centered evangelism really the way to go? Do we need to really refocus our efforts and focus on men rather than God? So for 50 years, I mean, they wrestled with this all the way through this time. So as a result of that, basically four things happened. The first is the scientific community was able to make far-reaching claims about the nature of man and the universe with an assumed authority that was not effectively challenged by the church. Because the church was focused inward, all this other stuff was going on, science kind of stepped into the vacuum. So if we look back now from the 21st century, we see the evil one had a two-pronged assault. He said, okay, I'm gonna give science through evolution and all these naturalistic philosophies, I'm gonna start it off down this path. At the same time, I'm gonna create doubt in the Bible and the focus of what church is all about. So these two prongs were happening at the same time. The church leader says, hey, we're gonna dive in on this prong, which is all about the Bible and all that. And meanwhile, science is barreling down the road. So they got to make a lot of claims about man, the nature of the universe, and they didn't really get challenged by the church. Second thing that happened was believers were then not biblically equipped to deal with all this stuff that science was claiming. So in the Scopes trial, there was a lot of talk, but believers didn't still know how to fit that into their worldview, fit it into their faith. So as a result, number three, don't do science because our leadership isn't talking about it. And since they had no way to fit it into their faith, believers kind of became the caricature that the media portrayed them as. I don't know how to do science. I don't know how to integrate that in my worldview. I'm going to ignore it. The media had said scientists are intelligent, believers are semi-literate. They kind of became that caricature. And so finally, number four thing that happened was the secular world, the increasingly secular world, acknowledged the exclusive authority of science to fully and completely define reality. Science then said, OK, we're going to define the nature of man. That's evolution. We're going to define the nature of man's mind. That's psychology. We can totally do that through psychology. We're going to talk about not needing God. We're all atheists. And we're not even going to allow a spiritual realm. It's only materialism. So science made all these gigantic claims. a century ago, basically. We're still reeling from the aftershocks of that. And a lot of Christians, even today, will say, you know, I don't know nothing. I just love Jesus. And that may sound real spiritual, but it's kind of not. It's kind of sticking your head in the sand and not really understanding the world that you live I kind of think Paul would have not had that attitude. Don't you agree? Okay. I actually got to see some heads nod there. I like that. But now think about it. We may even find it a little difficult to name some really brilliant Christians right now. And if you think about it, and I'm talking brilliant, level brilliant. Well, I'll give you some that I believe qualify. There's Dr. Stephen Meyer, and Dr. Bill Dembski, and they're both from the Discovery Institute out in Seattle, I think. And there's Dr. Robert Carter, and Dr. Jonathan Sarplatti from the Creation Ministries in Powder Springs, where Laura were. I think these are top level brains on the planet and they're believers. And I thank God that they are there, that they are actually willing to engage with the scientific community at the highest level. And also talk to regular people like us in terms we can understand. So there are believers that are like that. They're not household names. On the ecclesiastical side, I think of the late Dr. R.C. Sproul and Dr. Albert Moeller, both of whose grasp of theology and history and philosophy and modern culture is astounding to me. I mean, their minds have a clarity that I can only wish for. But for the most part, there's not a lot of geniuses in the Christian world. And that goes along with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 26, where he says, consider your calling brothers, not many of you were wise according to earthly standards. And later he says that God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. So looking back through church history now, several of the early church fathers were very deep thinkers. And they were well-respected in the church. And some of them, even like Augustine, or Augustine, I'm not going to get into that, were respected by the world, too, for their learning and understanding. Not for their beliefs and their Christianity, but for their minds. However, in the Middle Ages, the intellectual pendulum, I'm gonna use some metaphors here, so get ready. The intellectual pendulum had swung and was at the apex of its arc on a totally different curve, and that was mysticism. So in the Middle Ages, people were told, you don't have to worry about God. The church can take care, we can placate God. We can understand his mind. We can even guarantee deliverance from God's wrath if you do all these specific things down in the ultimate detail and give the right amount of money. So there was a lot of just mysticism that was rampant. And when you think about it, You know, that's the way it was. And into that world, there was a need for a fully defined, rational faith. And that was the world that John Calvin was born into. This was 500 years ago. And his life is the testimony to the Lord's use of a sanctified genius intellect. He was truly an amazing person. Now, he was respected by the church and acknowledged by the world to possess great skill and ability in many areas, though you have probably heard things about him where he's portrayed very differently. So the philosopher Voltaire, complained, quote, the famous Calvin, whom we regard as the apostle of Geneva, raised himself up to the rank of Pope of the Protestants. Then historical Will Durant said, quote, we shall always find it hard to love the man Calvin. who darkened the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God in all the long and honored history of nonsense," end quote. That was in a history book, one of the biggest and best-selling history series of all time, really. And in recent years, a televangelist has accused Calvin of, quote, causing untold millions of souls to be damned. So, I don't know what you've heard about him, but even in a lot of Christian universities, he is not really well thought of. He is kind of viewed as this hard, cold, angry man, individual that has no humanity to him. Well, like I said, there are lots of biographies out there, so I'm not gonna try to do everything, but I am gonna give you a little synopsis of his life. But before we do that, think about this. Think about the amount of time that separates us from him. 500 years, he was born, in 1509. Think about the differences in our physical world, okay? So think about the struggle for food. What did that look like 500 years ago? Think about the spread of disease. We think of this coronavirus and think, oh my goodness, back then, the plague could wipe out everybody. And it did in multiple waves throughout Europe. Think about the lack of medicine. At least with the coronavirus, we have some way of addressing it. Think about their lack of running water, their waste disposal systems, or lack of them. Think about their transportation and communication systems. So I want you to get that in your head, because that's the world he lived in. But in spite of all of that, his spiritual life and the battles he faced were very similar to the ones we face. That's what you would expect from the doctrine that Paul gives in Ephesians 6, 12, where he says, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, not against the outward world, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. So all the battles that Calvin faced, he really knew, as we should know, and we should acknowledge, that these are spiritual battles. The people we're facing are not the real enemy. They're dupes, they are. And this is the way he viewed his role and the way he viewed the people that he came in contact with. They're dupes of Satan, The church of Rome was a dupe of Satan. He saw it in terms of a good versus evil battle. So that means that our lives are lived out not against, well, we live them out against our physical world, and he lived his in his physical world, but ultimately, we're fighting the same battles all through the years. They're the same battle. And that's why a Christian, like we talked about last week, can get great profit from a book written by another Christian 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 500 years ago, 4,000 years ago, because they have the same battles. They have the same view of God, they have the same view of man, and those two things don't change and haven't changed through all those years. So that's why we're looking back. We're saying, okay, these people are facing the same battles that we have to face. Outward things are different, but we're facing the same inward battle. Okay, so I'm gonna use two books, and I'll show them to you like I did last week. One of them is The Life of John Calvin by Theodore Beza. You can't copy all that down, I'll send the information out to you. And that was written just after Calvin's death. He, Theodor Beza, worked with Calvin for 16 years and then succeeded him at the pulpit in Geneva. So he really knew the man. He didn't just know of his acts from history, he knew the man. But then there's also another one, But you can see it's a little bitty book. It's readable. Both of these are less than 200 pages. So they're readable, but they're very accessible and God-honoring. That one, that last one is Calvin Alive by, get ready, Emanuel Stickelberger. And I'm not making that up. And that was written in the 1950s, but they're both really readable, but packed with good information. Now, beware of other books. I mean, there are a lot of books written about Calvin, some of them by his enemies, which have kind of colored the way we have known about Calvin. Some by enemies of the Christian faith, which obviously would color things. And then there's some that are just written, I gotta do a PhD thesis. Who can I do it on? I'll do it on John Calvin. Not by believers, but just for the sake of research. So beware the ultimate purposes of those books. These both are very God honoring. I will tell you that. Okay, so here we go. I'm gonna tell you some dates. Please don't try to write them all down. I have this lesson all written out, so if it helps, I can send it out afterwards. John Calvin was born in 1509 in France and died in 1564 at 55 years old. A very short life. As a reference, Martin Luther was born in 1483 and had already entered the monastery when Calvin was born. Here's some other things. I'm just going to throw them out so you kind of place where Calvin is in the historical timeline. 1504, five years before Calvin was born, Michelangelo completed the Statue of David. In 1506, Leonardo da Vinci completed the Mona Lisa. In 1508 through 1512, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Like I said, 1509, Calvin's born. 1517, eight years old is when the Reformation starts, when Luther nails the 95 Theses up. 1537, William Tyndale's partial translation of the Bible is published. 1543, all this is within Calvin's lifetime. Copernicus publishes his theory that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. 1564, Calvin dies, and William Shakespeare is born, and Galileo, Galilei, is born. So that's the world he lived in. All right, so let's talk about his life. Calvin's father influenced him to study law and at 19 years old he was granted his doctorate of law. Yeah, I mean this guy was amazing. He had an incredible memory and was amazingly proficient at law due to his mental capacity. Remember, I talked about a genius. So to me, geniuses are people who have extreme clarity of mind. They make connections. Whatever they take in, they can relate it to something else in there and retain it and know what to do with it. This was basically Calvin. A bitter enemy of Calvin said, Quote, he surpassed all in the perceptive faculty and strength of memory. This is the total enemy. He said, his themes were of marvelous clearness and rare beauty of language. Calvin scarcely had his equal. By the age of 22 now, I think everybody on this call is older than 22 except Sam, are you 22? I'm 23. 23, okay. So everybody's older than 22. So at a mere 22 years of age, John Calvin had his law degree and had thrown himself into all other fields of study, including science, so that He was called by several people the most learned man in Europe at 22. Yikes, okay. So, but we're not intimidated by that, are we? Not at all. So, part of his power, his mental power was born in, but he also had this iron self-discipline. that he used to just enhance his memory and his thinking, so that every morning he would recite everything that he learned the day before. Now, by doing that, I mean, He really hurt his body because of his quest for knowledge and his desire to excel. He hurt his body. He ate very little and he slept less than one third of the night. Because of that, he developed a stomach disease and a general frailty that would last his whole life. And we're going to talk about that. But at this point, he was just a very learned scholar. with a shy, charming disposition, which people loved and respected, but he was not a child of God. He was merely a very smart, likable young man. But as we know, God was beginning a work of reformation in Europe, and young John Calvin was not as well versed in the scriptures as he was in the other fields of study. So that, here's a wake up, he initially defended the Catholic Church with all of his might from what he believed at that time to be the horrendous teachings of Martin Luther. But once he became involved in this spiritual battle, he constantly searched the scriptures with a strong desire to know the truth and found himself becoming more and more convinced that Rome was wrong and Luther was right. Now, the key point I want to make here is that he was willing and he thought it was his duty to investigate what was true. He didn't just assume because he thought, man, I don't like this. He didn't assume that that was wrong. He knew it was his duty to investigate it. So I make this point because it's rare in our day to see them. It is truly rare. What we see is a unwillingness to listen a total willingness to assume and be manipulated by soundbites from the media and peer pressure from social media. So I'm throwing this out as something that I think we should emulate, and it makes me even more happy for the name of our church once again, because that's what the Bereans did. They searched the Bible daily to make sure these things were so. Now, the reason, well, one of the examples, I was gonna pass this over, but I can't. One really good example of this unwillingness to dive in and understand the other side, really the unwillingness to understand what's real and what's just words, was last year, a young Congress person said the following. I'd rather be morally right than factually correct. As if morality was something that was not related to facts, and it just was whatever made you feel superior to facts. So that is totally antithetical to what John Calvin was like. Even in this hugely spiritual issue, he didn't just push it aside, he dove in head first. So now we have to grant that we're not, when we do this diving in, assuming that we're all on board with that and say, yeah, I've got to be more sure of what I believe and what the other person was saying, we're not to follow cleverly invented myths, as Paul said. or become captive to the fundamental principles of the world, but we should try to understand the beliefs of the culture around us so that we can talk intelligently like Paul did at the Areopagus in Athens. It means that you have to be able, you have to be willing to look and listen and confront the competing claims for authority to define reality. That's kind of a heavy duty sentence. But in order to do that, you need facts, you need reality. Now I will tell you, I do this occasionally very deeply by reading books on subjects that I, by authors that I really don't like. But I think it's right to do it so that I understand what my children, what other people in the world are reading and listening to. It's hard. I mean, it makes my head hurt sometimes and I have to put it down and walk away and Kathy knows I walk around the house grumbling and I'll put marks all over the book. One of them I drew in the front title page, I drew a skull and crossbones. So that any of my kids that ever picked that book up after I'm gone and opened it and said, wow, I wonder what dad thought of this book. Yeah, they're going to know. Anyway, but I think we as believers should not be afraid to look at these things with a critical eye, trusting that the Spirit will guide us and enlighten us. And just by an unbeliever diving into Christian things doesn't guarantee they're gonna become a believer. We have to trust the Spirit that the Spirit will enlighten them as well. Okay, from then on, well, I will say this, as Calvin was studying and then becoming aware of his position, the exact date of his conversion isn't known, but I'll give you a quote. He doesn't talk a whole lot about it through all of his writings, but here's one quote. He declared that it was not a gradual process. He says it was, quote, like a flash of light, I realized in what an abyss of errors, in what chaos I was. So the Lord enlightened him immediately and he realized his situation and was terrified of it. From then on, his life shows the submission to God and dedication of his profound intellect to the service of the church. Now, rather than give a lot of details about his life over the next several years, I'm just going to say he was growing and learning. He knew Melanchthon, who was working with Martin Luther, but Calvin never met Luther, which I think is sort of a shame. I kind of wish that had happened. That would have been a, man, I'd love to have been a fly on the wall there. because they were very different personalities, as I think you're gonna see. Luther was larger than life, and Calvin was very, very shy. He was teaching and writing. He was, get ready for this, 26 when he wrote the first version of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. which is the work that is still considered the handbook of the Reformed Church even now. Now it wasn't in its final form back then, but he was 26 when he first started working that. The final thing he was doing was preaching and pastoring. He reluctantly became the leader of a church in France that was constantly persecuted. Its members were tortured and killed and he was constantly in danger of being arrested or put to the stake by the Catholic Church. Now that was just the very beginning of his career. He eventually left France at the age of 27 and headed toward Germany. But this older pastor had heard that he was headed out of France and kind of went and intercepted him and said, no, you shall come to Geneva. And Calvin said, I don't want to. And he said, we want you in Geneva to pastor the church. And Calvin's shyness said, I'm not willing to do that because Geneva is kind of like the center of the Reformation battles right then. And he didn't want to be in the center. But he went. And it was there in Geneva that the Lord used him for most of the rest of his life. The city was divided spiritually between those that followed Rome, those that followed the Reformation, and as we all know, those that hated both of them. the worldlings, the people that said, I don't care, just both of you, Rome and the reformers, stay out of my face. And they were very violent in their demonstrations of their feelings. So in a letter to a minister in Zurich, Calvin wrote this, quote, Since I, with my faithful colleague, Pharrell, who was the man who had grabbed him off the road and brought him to Geneva, since I, with my faithful colleague, Pharrell, assumed the direction of this church, I have faithfully endeavored to find all the means to preserve it. Although the burden which I assumed rested heavily on me, I had never thought about how to get rid of it. I saw myself placed did not dare move from it. Were I to tell you the littlest things of the misfortune, what am I saying, of the adversity which virtually crushed us during the course of one year, you would hardly believe me. I am convinced that not a day passed in which I did not long for death 10 times. That doesn't sound like a really fulfilling ministry, does it? Pastor Jerry's the only one that's smiling right now. He knows what Calvin was going through, and he knows that being called, you don't have the freedom to say, okay, I'm out of here. But after only two years there, he was exiled. The city said, we do not like you. Not only do we not like you, we don't want you to preach here. Not only do we not want you to preach here, we want you to leave. And when he left, he was determined not to go into church affairs any longer. He said, quote, above all, I fear to return to the yoke from which I've been freed. At that time, God's call held me bound. Now I fear I would tempt God were I to assume again such a burden which, as I have discovered, is unbearable for me." But God, that's one of the favorite phrases in the Bible, but God, in this situation, but God showed Calvin a time of spiritual rest when he called him to head the church in Strasbourg in 1538. The city loved him. The theologians there loved him. and they all admired his writings. He was poor, however, and not able to guard his health as he needed to. In August of 1540, when Calvin was 41 years old, still at Strasbourg, he married a widow in his congregation, Idelette de Buren, I think is the way you pronounce her name. She bore him three children that all died shortly after birth. He loved her and described her as quote, the best companion of my life. Now, the church in Geneva didn't prosper after Calvin left. So, and you have to realize that in the church and city government relationships back then, there was a whole lot more linkage than there is in our country. So the city council that had ejected him, exiled him, wanted him back because the church was not prospering. They pleaded with him over and over and over. And I could read you letters of their pleading, which would be very satisfying to me after having my feelings hurt, you know, But Calvin's very gracious going back. No, I'm happy here. This is prospering under my leadership. The city wrote to Strasburg, went behind his back and said, hey, we need him back. This is where it's all happening. You guys are great, but you're kind of the backwaters. We're where it's really happening. So they kind of gave him leave and said, OK, well, Calvin wrote again to Farrell and said, quote, If I had a free choice, I would prefer to do everything else in the world than to do this, but I know that I am not my own master. I offer my heart to the Lord in sacrifice." Now in his commentary on the Psalms, he writes in the introduction, quote, when I returned to the flock from which I had been torn, I did so with sadness, tears, foreboding, and anxiety of heart. God and a few good friends are witnesses of this, and they would like to have spared me this sorrow, for although I would have offered my life for the welfare of the Genevan church, my shyness continued to whisper good reasons into my ear why I should not carry this burden again." At this point, he was 32. sick and shy and tired, going back to Geneva. By doing this, it kind of highlights what was going on with his health. Now, I'm going to have to read this because I don't want to leave anything out, but this is kind of what Calvin's life was like. Because of his overwork and his youth and his little sleep, he was afflicted with a headache concentrated on one side of his head that never left him throughout his life. On some nights, he said he was inhumanly tormented by the headaches. He had maladies of his trachea, and after using his voice too much in the pulpit, would have severe pains in his sides and spit blood. He had, pardon me, unbearable hemorrhoids and an internal abscess that would not heal, causing him to lose blood almost continuously. He had ongoing fevers that sapped his strength and was plagued by gallstones and kidney stones, in addition to stomach cramps and intestinal influenza. Several attacks of pleurisy prepared the way for the tuberculosis And to all this was finally added arthritis. It was no exaggeration when he wrote in a letter, quote, if only my condition were not a constant death struggle, end quote. It's been said that no reformer, not even Luther, was exposed at all times to as much danger as Calvin was. He had to continuously defend himself and the gospel from the attacks of vicious men who were after power and fame and would stop at nothing to destroy him. Now Beza, who was working with him, has said this, quote, little ground is there for wondering that one who was both a most powerful defender of sound doctrine and an example of purity of life should have been bitterly assailed. Meaning, don't be surprised, here was a great defender of the truth and a pious man, he was going to get bloodied by the world. But as the master warned, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you." Besa also says that, I mean, this is astounding, okay? During this strife, Calvin was not idle. As if he had been living in retirement, he wrote most learned commentaries on six of Paul's epistles. and in a most solid treatise refuted what is called the Interim, which had been published to confuse the German churches, and pointed out the true method of renewing the church. Lastly, in a very elegant little treatise, he exposed the falsehood and vanity of what is called judicial astrology, in which not a few seem to put too much faith. So in spite of his physical, situation. In spite of the persecution, he was, God was using him and he was doing everything he knew to do. Over the years, many of the people in Geneva came to hate him. And he could not walk down the street without being mocked. Quote, this is a quote that was heard during that time. Did you know that hell has only two devils and there goes one of them? meaning Calvin, children called him names and many named their dogs after him. When you consider all of this, you become aware of how lonely he must have been. Now, his wife was with him for a time on the second tour of duty in Geneva, but he who was shy by nature, still served the Lord another 24 years in Geneva. But he did so with all the vigor that his week frame had to offer. Now I'm gonna read you a laundry list of what his work was like. In addition to the Sunday worship service, every second week he held services every day of the week. More than 2,000 of these sermons still survive. Besides his preaching, he delivered three lectures a week on theology. His commentaries on nearly every book of the Old and New Testaments are still considered the finest available. His institutes, we have mentioned, are still studied today. And our brother, Earl Blackburn, has written in one of his books, quote, if Luther was the prophet of the Reformation, Calvin was the professor, end quote. So basically Calvin provided the intellectual structure that would undergird the emotional thunderings of Luther down through the ages. But Calvin was also a compassionate pastor. He was visiting the sick, talking with the backslidden. He was also a devoted husband to his wife. He said, quote, she has been a faithful help in all my ministry, excuse me. But after only nine years of marriage, she died, leaving him with two children from her previous marriage. Beza said of Calvin's grief, he was there to observe it, this affliction he bore with a firmness, steadfastness, which made him in this respect also a shining example to the whole church. After her death, he continued constant in his devotion to the church. On Thursdays, he led the elders meeting and on Fridays, the preachers meeting. There was not a day when strangers did not visit him to receive encouragement. His nights were devoted more to writing than to sleep. Now this is amazing. His counsel was sought in secular matters also. He was a member of the executive committee of Geneva for examining physicians. He actively supported efforts for the improvement of public health and even worked for the economic advancement of the city. Later on, during a period of intensely malicious battles, now this is just humbling me down in the dirt. I assume it's doing it to you, but I got to continue because it's true. During that time of intensely malicious battles, it was determined that he preached 286 sermons and gave 186 lectures each year for the several years of that crucial time. He had 17 of his books published in one year alone, and throughout his life wrote over 1,300 letters in reply to requests from everyone from peasants to the King of Poland. So on Christmas Day in 1559, after years of the battles, the city finally asked him to become a citizen of Geneva. And I mean, that's a wonderful thing. He was pleased, but on his way home, you almost hear the music in the background. He was seized with a terrible coughing fit, followed by vomiting blood. Tuberculosis had broken out in his body that was weakened by work and fatigue. He was advised to rest for a month, but would not, and resumed his lecturing within a few days. The next several years were slow death, and on February 6th, 1564, he preached his last sermon. On May 27th, 1564, he died. The mind that had submitted to the discipline of the scriptures and understood them in a way that few had before him was now able to understand fully the religion he articulated so well. The pen that had brought the depth, beauty, and structure of the scriptures to life was laid aside in assurance that the Lord would use his writings as he saw fit. And the voice that had proclaimed the pure gospel through, sorry, so many trials and battles, which had broken down so many strongholds of the evil one, and it encouraged so many feeble saints would never be heard in public again. One of his students wrote these words of him, quote, it is pleased God to show us in the life of a single man of our time how to live and how to die. and Beza ended his biography with the observation that in Calvin, quote, all men may see a most beautiful example of a Christian character, an example which it is as easy to slander as it is difficult to imitate. So that was John Calvin. Now, I think from that synopsis, you can grab several character traits, right? But what I want to do is read one single instance in his life and then see if we can come up with several character traits that he used in meeting that situation. All right. As mentioned earlier, when he came to Geneva the first time, it was embroiled in heated conflict and he was at the center. He was targeted for harm by many in the city, and they made his life miserable for two years. I'm going to quote from Emanuel Stickelberger's book to give an example of what Calvin went through prior to preaching the last Easter Sunday of his residence in Geneva. Quote, all right, this is Saturday night before Easter Sunday. Quote, a restless night descended. The tumult on the streets permitted Calvin no peace. Angry fists hammered against the door of his house. Rocks beat on the shutters. He heard curses and the cry, into the river with the traitor. Musket shots frightened him incessantly. He counted more than 60 musket shots that night. And behold, at the appointed morning hour, he mounted the pulpit of St. Peter's Church. To him, who was the enemy of all kinds of excitement, meek in nature, who had spent a sleepless night, the short walk was bitter as death. Yet, cost what it would, he obeyed God more than man. At Easter, the city must not remain without the gospel. Now, as punishment, on the very next day, the city council determined that Calvin and two others were to be exiled from the city within 24 hours. Calvin replied, quote, if we had served men, we would have been poorly rewarded. But it is well that we have served him who never fails to perform to his servants whatever he has promised. I'm going to ask Pastor Jerry to unmute us and ask you if you can see some character traits that John Calvin had as he faced that one situation and ask you, we're not at the point where we're persecuted that way, but are you Do you have character traits that would enable you to face persecution of any sort?