Athanasius contra-moondom should inspire every pastor to stand your ground meekly and humbly and courageously wherever biblical truth is at stake.

But, you're sure you get this word, you should out rejoice all of your adversaries.

If something is worth fighting for, it's worth being happy about. It's worth rejoicing over. The joy is essential in the battle.

Hi, I'm your host, Dan Krover. Is it possible to stand your ground without losing your joy?

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper shows how Athanasius, though battered by heresy and banishment, never let his courage outrun his delight in Christ.

This message was originally delivered at the 2005 Bethlehem Conference for pastors.

What I want to do is draw out lessons from this.

This is the part that I enjoy most.

There isn't a lot of interesting detail to read about in Athanasia.

I told you one interesting story.

There are many of those.

But what is powerful are the implications of his life

and the implications of the dispute compared to our day. And that's where I want to go now.

I have seven of these. Seven lessons to learn, number one. Defending and explaining doctrine is for the sake of the gospel, the gospel of Christ's glory and our everlasting joy.

I changed the title from what was in the original brochure.

I got that title because I didn't know I was going to run into this phrase.

He wrote in one of his letters,

Wherefore, considering that this struggle is for our all,

let us also make earnest care and aim to guard what we have received.

And that phrase, contending for our all, gripped me.

There was no fight here for ecclesiastical power going on. There was no fight here, in his case anyway, for theological triumph.

This was a deeply religious crisis involving the reality of revelation and redemption.

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