Transcription
And and and he was, you know, he had he had come to um the locker room. I you can't probably can't believe this, but I played football in college.
And he had come to the locker room to talk to me and he was, you know, this Green Bay Packer fan from Wisconsin and uh whatever. And uh so you know, he realizing that he's got to get more basic, you know um he he does his best Lombardi, you know, when Lombardi like, man, this is football, right? He comes, this is a Bible and that's where we started and we spent three weeks with him just teaching me basic things, me asking questions and him answering those questions. If he couldn't find the answers to the question, he would go and find the answer to the question. Toward the end of our time together, he would take me to find the answers to the questions. So, I like to say I was being trained in apologetics before I was converted.
Right? So, admittedly, this is a this is a more natural thing for me because I did come to the Bible as one saying, "Yeah, I don't believe that. Prove it." And so when I'm preparing to teach, when I'm preparing to preach, I I'm still thinking about that guy, right? Because he's out there and he's saying, "Prove it. I don't believe that." And as a presuppositionalist, I'm I'm not when I say "prove it," right? I I'm not saying I'm going to, you know, get into your worldview and prove it from your worldview. I I'm going to prove from my presuppositions, right? I I'm going to prove that this is what the Bible says, that this is what God says.
And of course, what we've been conditioned to from all the other approaches to apologetics out there is we've been conditioned to that, you know, well, what about the person who says, "I I don't believe the Bible." And the other approaches to apologetics, you know, they basically say, well, you know, if a person doesn't believe the Bible, then what you have to do is you have to go to something else so that you can bring them back to the Bible. Yeah, I'm I'm not doing that. Here's the way I look at it. There are two knights who meet along the way. They're opposing knights from opposing kingdoms. They dismount. One draws his sword and the other looks at him and says, "I do not believe in thine sword." Knight number one has a couple of options. Option number one, he can re-sheathe his sword and begin to wax scientific and philosophical about the danger of his sword and why his opponent ought to believe in it. I like door number two. Just cut him. Eventually, he will believe or it won't matter. But that's not our approach.
It's amazing how now I we've been fed these approaches to apologetics that basically have us saying, you know, we pull out our Bible, somebody says, "I don't believe in the Bible." So we go, "Okay, I'll put away the Bible." What you here's what you've just said here is the authority and they say, "I don't believe in that authority. I believe that there are authorities that are higher than that one or more important to that one or at least equal to that one." And the minute you close your Bible, you say, "You win." I agree. I agree that there's a higher authority than the Bible or at least authority that's equal to the Bible. I'm saying, "No, I don't agree with that. I don't believe the Bible." Well, good for you. So, what the Bible says, I told you I don't believe in the Bible. Yeah, exactly. And I'm telling you that I don't believe in your presuppositions, but you're not giving up yours, so I'm not giving up mine. What I'm going to do is I'm going to demonstrate that mine are consistent and yours are not. So, what the Bible says, huh? All right. So, let's start. What time am I supposed to finish this session? Interesting. All right. We're good.
So, let's define apologetics first. Cornelinius Vanill writes, "Apologetics is the vindication of the Christian philosophy of life against the various forms of the non-Christian philosophy of life." I love that definition. It's the vindication of the Christian philosophy of life against the various forms of the non-Christian philosophy of life. Everybody else is arguing the same thing. They're just arguing various forms of the same thing. There's the Christian philosophy of life and there's the non-Christian philosophy of life. There's not the Christian philosophy of life or the Christian worldview and then the Buddhist or the Hindu or the Islamic or the pagan or the atheist. No, they're just there's the Christian and there's the non-Christian. That's the world. There's us and there's them. Amen. That's it. There's one truth and everything else is falsehood. And this is about the vindication of the truth against the various forms of the not true. That's apologetics.
Let me give you this working definition. Apologetics is merely knowing what we believe, why we believe it, and being able to communicate that to others effectively. Knowing what we believe, knowing why we believe it, and being able to communicate that to others effectively. That that's it. That that's apologetics, plain and simple. Um, you know, when we look at the very text from which we get the word apologetics there in 1 Peter 3:15, that that word apologia, that it means a a reasoned response, right? "Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you." Okay? Know what you believe. Know why you believe it. Right? And then we're to give that answer in a particular way. Gentleness and reverence, right? So, we're to be able to communicate it effectively. If I don't know what I believe, I can't answer. If I don't know why I believe, my answer will be insufficient. "What do you believe?" "Well, I believe this." "Why do you believe that?" "Well, just cuz." That's not apologetics, right? And we there is a way we have to answer. It has to be winsome and it has to be effective. And all of these things are important in apologetics. Know what you believe. Know why you believe it and be able to communicate that in a winsome and effective way. If any one of those things is missing, then you're not doing apologetics and you're doing a disservice to our Lord. Amen. God forbid we don't know what we believe. But there's enough of that going around, right? God forbid that we don't know why we believe it. There's way too much of that going around. God forbid that we know what we believe and why we believe it, but don't care enough to prepare ourselves to communicate it in a winsome and effective manner. All of those are important.
Our view of apologetics and this is where the problem comes in. We believe number one that apologetics is for elite Christians. We believe apologetics is for elite Christians. The elite of the elite. The Green Beret, Navy Seal, Marine Force Recon, Delta Force Christian, right? You got to be all of that. That apologetics is for those people. And the rest of us just sit in awe as they march by. "Here come the apologists," right? We do. We believe that they're like another class of Christians. We believe that apologetics requires knowledge of science, philosophy, logic, debate, history, and everything else that you can imagine. Right? And whatever it is that you have, you believe apologetics requires the stuff that you don't. And we don't engage. Why? Well, I'm not an elite Christian and I don't have all of the knowledge of all of these things that apologetics requires. And after all, I mean, when you hear people talk about apologetics, you know, you just go away going, "Wow, that guy's brilliant. He knows everything. I could never do that." Thirdly, we believe that apologetics requires knowledge of world religions, cults, and heresies. All world religions, all cults, and all heresies. If you don't know all that stuff, then you can't do apologetics. Finally, we believe that apologetics requires an edge of confidence, even arrogance. Don't look at me like that. You know, it's true. We believe, you know, apologetics, we think that you got to be a little, you know, a little a little little just a little arrogant. Just a little just a little to be an apologist, right? This is why teenage boys love apologetics. They They do. They just, you know, want to be an apologist. Really? I believe you. Cuz all you do is argue with your parents all the time, right? Everybody's wrong and you're right. You've learned 15 facts and you think you're the smartest dude in the whole world. Now you want to go do apologetics. Go home. You put these things together and this is why most Christians either feel like they can't or or they don't want to engage in apologetics. Who wants who wants to be that guy, right?
And there are a lot of Christians who who really have a problem with apologetics in the current age because in the current age we wrestle with the 11th commandment and the 11th commandment is, "Thou shalt be nice," and we don't believe the other 10. This is why you can say things and I you know, so I I'm not a fan of social media. I use social media as a petri dish. Just kind of put stuff out there, see where people are and how they respond. I don't necessarily want to fix it. I'm just trying to find something out until I put something out there and I watch people respond and and it happens and there it is. And I'm like, boom, there's my point. Just proved it. Everybody else like, "Well, were you just going to let that go?" I'm like, "Yeah, I wanted to prove a point. There it was." And I can't tell you how many times I've said something about a contemporary issue. Um, you I mean, you name it. You talk about, you know, homosexuality, transgender, or this or this, whatever, and you throw the thing out there. And there are the people, there are the 11th commandment Christians who come and every problem that we have in the world is a result of Christians not being nice enough. "We just It just sounds so offensive the way you said that." And I'll bite, but only to prove another point. And here's here's the point that I want to prove. I come back and I say, you know, I just I think it's very interesting. Um, I brought up the people who are engaging in this sin that was so heinous that God destroyed Twin Cities with fire and brimstone. And they're shaking their fists at God and flaunting their sin. And you're more offended by me confronting them than you are by their debauchery. How does that work? And it it's true, folks. That's the age in which we live. The 11th commandment Christian is more offended by you planting your feet, squaring your shoulders, lifting your head high, and saying, "The Bible says that's sin," than they are by the debauchery of our age. They look at the sin and debauchery of our age and they want to come bowing and giflecting and weeping and wailing and apologizing for Christians not being nice enough over the ages and they that that's that's their response. No offense whatsoever. There's nothing in them that wants to get up on their hind legs and say no until you confront sin. And then they're ready to go to battle because that's the only battle worth fighting. Christians not being nice enough. And by the way, not being nice enough that like manliness is not nice enough. Amen. I mean, you stand up and read Romans chapter 1 and you just you're that that wasn't nice. That was God. What are you What are you talking about?
And here's the result. Here's the result. Imagine this scenario. I'm opening my Bible and and I'm going to preach on um adultery. Um, but listen, before I I get to my text, before I get to my sermon, I just want to say that I have dear friends who are adulterers and I I love adulterers and we should all love adulterers. I am not here today, you know, to to to bash adulterers. They are people made in God's image. And and and adultery is that's exactly how y'all would be looking at me if I started my adultery sermon like that, right? Or whatever else. What are you What are you talking about? But every time a pastor gets up and preaches on homosexuality, his sermon dies the death of a thousand qualifications. Cuz you got to start with, "Now listen. I love homosexuals. I believe God calls us to love homosexuals." I don't believe it. What is that about? That's about the 11th commandment Christian. Cuz that pastor could stand up and preach about a thousand other sins with no apology, pound the pulpit and thunder forth the word of God and even be a little mean, a little nasty about it. And nobody will write anything. You get on homosexuality, transgender, right? And I mean, all of a sudden, you you apologized 999 times, but there's one time when you made a statement that you didn't qualify with love and sappiness, and that's what they're going to write you about. So, engaging in apologetics in that context, a lot of people have just figured, why bother? Well, we bother because it matters.
We see apologetics throughout scripture in a number of different forms. In the Old Testament, we see apologetics, but you have to really understand the worldview of the ancient Near East to understand the way apologetics is being done. In the ancient Near East, uh, for example, when even when nations went to war, it wasn't just Assyria going to war with Egypt. It was the Assyrian gods doing battle with the Egyptian gods, and whoever won proved the supremacy of their gods. Amen. Th this is why you defeat a nation and you sack their temple and take off, you know, all of the artifacts, take away all of the artifacts from their temple because symbolically what you're saying is, "Our God just defeated your God." Amen. So in that context, Exodus chapter 9:16, we we look at the plagues and the purpose of the plagues. What the what's the purpose of the plagues? Because what would you think? You would think that Israel is under the boot of Egypt. Therefore, Egypt's gods are all powerful and Israel's gods are weak. Right? Exodus 9:16. "But for this purpose I have raised you up to show my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." That's the purpose of the plagues. You ever wonder? I mean, why why the first nine? Why the first nine, man? You just needed the last one. Amen. Let's just get this over with. Let's just do it. Let's be done with it. But you had the first nine plagues addressing Egypt's worldview and their theology all along the way. But why? If you're just going to wipe them out, why do you need to address their worldview and their theology? Because God wasn't just getting Israel out of Egypt. He was getting Egypt out of Israel. Their worldview had been affected and some apologetics needed to be done. And in case you don't believe me, just look at what happens when they get out. What do they do? They go build a golden calf because there's still a lot of Egypt in the Israelites.
1 Samuel 17:46-47. David goes to battle with Goliath and in many ways, he was doing apologetics. "This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head." How about that for the 11th commandment Christians? Huh? David wasn't nice. Amen. Neither is his descendant who sits on the throne. Jesus not nice. He's coming back with a sword on his thigh, fire in his eyes. He's coming back to wreck some stuff, y'all. He is not coming back lowly Jesus, meek and mild with a lamb across his shoulders. He's coming back as a conquering king and a warrior. "And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into my hands." Folks, notice just like in Egypt, this is not just so that the Philistines could know, but so that the fearful Israelites who for 40 days couldn't find a man among them to go and fight. The Israelites who had chosen a king because he was head and shoulders taller than all the rest of the Israelites. A man who physically would have been a match for Goliath. Saul would have been somewhere along the lines of, I don't know, 6'6". Big dude, especially in that era. And you're going, "Yeah, man, but Goliath, he's like 8 feet tall." Right. Exactly. Let's go to the NBA. Most of the greatest players in the NBA are right there in that slot, right? 6'4" to 6'9". There's bigger dudes, but they get to a certain size and it's hard for them to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. So you give me a Michael Jordan-sized guy with some skills. That's Saul against a big lumbering giant. I'm taking the I'm taking 6'6" over 8 feet all day every day and twice on Sunday. Right? Long as you don't let him grab you. Right? So physically Saul had a tremendous chance, but he didn't volunteer to go fight. So not only did God need to do apologetics with the Philistines, again here, he needs to do apologetics with Israel. Remember what I said earlier? When we preach to our people, we're doing apologetics. Huh?
Isaiah 37:20. "So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord." We could go to the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel, the first half of the book of Daniel is all about apologetics. What happens? God brings Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to defeat his people and take them off into captivity. In the ancient Near East, what that means is Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian gods are superior to Israel and Israel's gods. And over and over and over again in the first half of the book of Daniel, God is saying to Nebuchadnezzar, um, "You defeated my people because I chose that you would do that, but I'm still God." "Let us not eat what they eat." Right? Why? Because God is God. Nope. "We're not going to bow before the statue." Throw them in the fiery furnace. Not only do they not die, they got help in there. Why? Because God is God. Throw Daniel into the lion's den. They don't need him. Why? Because God is God. So over and over and over again in the book of Daniel, we have apologetics. Not just so that Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar can know that they have not defeated the God of Israel, but also so that Israel will know. You're in captivity, but your God is still God. And just like Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 29, he's going to bring you back because he never stopped being God. So, so we see apologetics here in the Old Testament.
Another thing that we need to see is this. Apologetics is not just for the elite Christian. We see apologetics, for example, as a requirement for pastoral ministry. Titus 1:9. "He must hold firm the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it." That's every elder. That's every pastor. That's not elite pastors trained in apologetics. That's anyone who assumes the mantle. Amen. Not only that, 1 Peter 3:15, and we may look at this, we'll look at this more carefully tonight, but in this section, Peter has gone from the general to the more uh specific and now back to the general. And he's talking to all believers here. "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect." That's all believers. All believers are called to know what they believe, why they believe it, and to be ready, willing, and able to communicate that effectively. All believers, all Christians.
Jude, Jude 1 and 2. "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." Now, who's this for? For those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. Um, not only is this a a a sort of rabbinical teaching tool repeating something over and over again, but he repeats three times talking about the same group of people. And also not only is he repeating three times talking about the same group of people, but in this triple, you know, repetition, we we have a Trinitarian formation or formulation. Those who are called, we'll leave that for now. Beloved in God the Father. So we have the Father. Kept for Jesus Christ. We have God the Son. So who who's the one who calls? God the Spirit. Those who are called by the Spirit, loved by the Father, and kept by the Son. This is a triune reference to the Triune God. But to whom is the writer referring? I I don't know. Whom has the Spirit called? The elite of the elite. Whom does the Father love? Uh, just those with special training. Whom does Jesus keep? Folks, this is all of us. Amen. If it's not all of us, then only some of us have assurance. This is all of us. This is all of us.
But to what is he calling us? "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." So to whom is he speaking? All Christians. And to what does he call us? Apologetics. Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. This is also a primary, not a secondary issue. It's a primary, not a secondary issue. Notice that he said, "Although I was very eager to to write to you about our common salvation." Right? Here's an apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who says, "I was eager to write to you about salvation, but instead I'm writing to you who wait a minute." He was going to I was going to write to you about salvation, but there is something of such importance that either I'm not writing to you about our common salvation anymore, which I don't believe that for a minute, or this thing that I'm talking to you about is part and parcel of writing about our common salvation. But regardless of which formulation you take, this is a primary, not a secondary issue. This is a primary issue that rises to the level of our common salvation.
But why? Look at what he says. "For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Why is this of such significance? It's of such significance because there are those who have crept in. There are those who have crept. They're they're in among us. They're in our ranks and having crept in among us, there's two things that they're doing. One, they turn grace into lawlessness. And two, they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. In other words, they're perverting the gospel. They're perverting the gospel. This answers a couple of questions. Number one, it answers why apologetics is primary and not secondary. Amen. And number two, it answers why. We're not necessarily nice. Not necessarily nice, not harsh, not sinful, not even mean. But the text says that we're to agonize greatly. And the root word that he uses here is a word that is associated with wrestling in the arena. We're to fight. We're to go to battle. We're to go to war. This ain't chess. It's not checkers. This is war. That's the illustration that he uses here. He doesn't say that we're, you know, we're to strategize. is where to uh uh uh uh uh uh we're to do what wrestlers do. What warriors do when they go to combat with one another? Do they violate the rules? Are they unethical? No, they're not. They're also not nice. Amen. Excuse me. "I'm going to take you down now." "Oh, please go right ahead." No. Uh-uh. That's not the picture here.
But why? Why? Because you can't be saved by a perverted gospel. That's why we're defending the honor and the name of Christ and the truth of the gospel. That's why we're going to battle here. Because if they're perverting the gospel and people are believing a perverted gospel, then they've believed in vain, as Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 15. Because a perverted gospel won't save. You're not saved by your sincerity. Amen. If if if I give you my my phone number, right? And and I'm like, "Okay, fine. Here here's here's my phone number. Give me a call." Then you say, "Hey, yeah, I got a my buddy wants to call you, too. Can I can I give him your number?" "Yeah, sure." If you give him a number that's one digit off, does his sincerity in dialing matter? Huh? I give you my email address and you're like, you know, I I just found out yesterday I I've been emailing some stuff to my doctor. When I come back to the states, I usually try to go through Houston some time to go and see my doctor. And um, you know, I emailed him some stuff and he said, "Man, I don't have that. I don't have that." And I went and looked on my contacts and I had one two letters just misplaced, right? Just two letters misplaced. And he didn't get my email. That's what this is about. God has not God's not hidden himself. He He He said, "Here I am. This is me. This is how you know me. Here's who I am. Here's where I am. Here's how you find me." And we're proclaiming the gospel and we're saying, "Here's who God is. Here's where God is. Here's how you find him." And there are those out there while we're proclaiming, "Here's who God is. Here's where he is. Here's how you find him." There are people out there saying, "Actually, he's over here." Imagine you you leave here today and after the session is over and you, "Hey man, how you doing? You got your name tag on. What are you doing?" "Yeah, you know, we're at this conference and you know, we're listening to this guy, this um this voodoo voodoo va something voody something." "And they go, 'Wait, Votam?'" "Ah, yeah. That's it. Vot wait. The Votam. It could happen." "And they're like, 'The Votam?'" "Yeah, man. I guess, you know, whatever. You know. Yeah. The Votam really." He said, "Wow, that is awesome. I can't I mean, he's here in Detroit." "Yeah. Sure it's the Vody Bakum?" "I mean, how many can there be? Right. They Yeah. A little short white guy from Mississippi." At this point, you've got two choices. Kind of like the knight, right? At this point, you could go, "Well, that's your interpretation." Or you say, "Nope, you're actually talking about somebody else." That's what we're dealing with here. God has said, "This is who I am." And there are people out there going, "Well, actually," and overwhelmingly the world has chosen to respond, "That's your interpretation." But folks, God is not running for God. He was the only one around when the votes were cast. There's never going to be a recount. He's God. He is who he says he is. And no one has the right to recast him or reinterpret him. And that's why we fight because souls, souls are at stake here. That's our passion. That's our desire. And that's why this is a primary issue that that's why it's something that's not negotiable.
The time that we have left. If that's apologetics, what we do and why we do, then what about expository apologetics? This is not about preparing yourself to defeat Christopher Hitchens in a formal debate, right? I mean, if you know, you want to, more power to you. Um, but those types of things uh don't come around very often and quite honestly tend to have limited impact. That's not what this is about. that this is about you taking seriously your duty and your responsibility as a Christian to know what you believe, why you believe it, and to be able to communicate that to others in a winsome and effective way. And so with expository apologetics, there's three key characteristics. This needs to be biblical. Needs to be simple. It needs to be conversational. Needs to be biblical. Simple and conversational. All right. Um, let me take a stab at this.
The biblical side. The limiting and limited nature of the gospel is what allows us to approach apologetics from a biblical perspective. And when I say the limited and limiting nature of the gospel, I mean, for examp we're we're we're not getting new revelation. I know there's some people who would disagree with that, but you know, I respect their right to be wrong. Um, for the sake of time, I'll just give you these references. Deuteronomy 4:2, Deuteronomy 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Hebrews 1:1 and 2, Revelation 22:18, right? All of these don't add to my word passages. Um, again, we're not getting new revelation. We have God's revelation. The canon is closed. Therefore, there are a limited number of things we believe. That's number one. There's a limited number of things we believe. Number two, there are a limited number of objections that can be raised. Number three, there are a limited number of objections that we need to answer. And number four, our source for those answers is the Bible since the Bible is where they come from. That's the great benefit of this approach to apologetics. It's not you need to know everything about everything. Okay? And and I'm not saying that it's wrong and that it's never profitable, for example, to learn about a particular movement or a particular when when we're doing pastoral ministry especially, there are things that encroach on our territory and it's incumbent upon us to learn about those things so that we can respond very specifically to them. Right? Amen. That's different than saying apologetics equals knowing everything about everything so that you can that that that's different. Okay.
If there's a limited number of objections to the gospel message and those objections have been answered in the scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then the clearest, most appropriate and most powerful responses that we can give to people's objections is the responses that we find in scripture. I am not responsible for defending what I do not believe. I am not responsible for defending what I do not believe. I'm also not responsible for defending heresy and I'm not responsible for defending assumptions or straw man. In other words, you know, somebody says, well, you know, well, why do you Christians believe whatever? If it's not what I believe, I'm not responsible for defending that. Amen. I just kind of go, "Yeah, that I don't believe that." Well, but you know, there's people out there who Yeah, talk to them. I don't believe that. Here's what I believe. It's kind of like when somebody comes to you with a charge against Rome, right? Uh, you Christians and you in the in the Inquisition and I Yeah, I wasn't there. Wasn't me. He wasn't my people, right? And yeah, let's talk about what I believe. Okay. Do do you see this?
I'll end with this. I was in um Oregon. Was at Oregon State University with Darius Corvalis.