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Voddie Baucham - Doing Apologetics in an Anti-Apologetics Age · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Bauckham holds degrees from Houston Baptist University, Southwestern and Southeastern
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  Speaker 2: Baptist Theological Seminaries. He's done post-doctoral studies at Oxford. He
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  Speaker 2: is currently serving as the Dean of the Seminary at
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  Speaker 2: African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. He, his faithful wife, Bridget,
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  Speaker 2: and their seven youngest children of nine made the bold
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  Speaker 2: move from the heart of Texas to the heart of
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  Speaker 2: Africa in in August of 2015. On a personal note,
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  Speaker 2: Vody is also an accomplished martial artist. He has won
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  Speaker 2: numerous tournaments and titles, including winning the 2014 Pan American
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  Speaker 2: Championship in his division. Although when he came by my
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  Speaker 2: office this morning, I had to take him down. Fat
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  Speaker 2: chance of that happening. We're very pleased to have Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Bauckham on campus as our 2016 Spiritual Life Week speaker.
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  Speaker 2: Please join with me in welcoming him here to our
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  Speaker 2: DTS campus.
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  Speaker 1: Well, good morning. It is good to be here with
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  Speaker 1: you this morning. I have looked forward to this for
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  Speaker 1: quite some time. I appreciate you being so kind as
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  Speaker 1: to invite a stranger from the school up the road
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  Speaker 1: to come here and be with you this week. Our
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  Speaker 1: topic this week is, um, is apologetics. And you hear
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  Speaker 1: that and you may think, wait a minute, this is
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  Speaker 1: spiritual life week and you're talking about apologetics and that's
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  Speaker 1: all heady and not spiritual. And well, you don't know
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  Speaker 1: apologetics and you don't know me. Um, I came to
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  Speaker 1: faith later in life. I was born and raised in
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  Speaker 1: my early life in Los Angeles, California, and came of
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  Speaker 1: age during the late 70s, early 80s, at the height
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  Speaker 1: of all the drug wars and crack wars and all
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  Speaker 1: of this other stuff. And I was raised by a
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  Speaker 1: single teenage Buddhist mother. Never heard the gospel until my
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  Speaker 1: first year at university. And so I came to faith
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  Speaker 1: as an outsider and always thought about Christianity differently, always
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  Speaker 1: looked at Christianity differently than those around me who grew
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  Speaker 1: up in church and grew up around Christianity. Some of
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  Speaker 1: you in here may know exactly what I'm talking about.
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  Speaker 1: And so I've always had a bent toward apologetics. I
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  Speaker 1: remember the first time I heard the gospel, a man
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  Speaker 1: by the name of Steve Morgan came into the locker
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  Speaker 1: room to share with me. You probably can't tell, but
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  Speaker 1: I played football when I was in college. And he
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  Speaker 1: started to try to present something to me. I think
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  Speaker 1: it was, I'm not even going to say what it was,
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  Speaker 1: because maybe you use that or whatever. I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to disparage it, because there's nothing against that. But he
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  Speaker 1: used some canned approach to evangelism. And I didn't I
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  Speaker 1: didn't have enough of the intellectual hooks to hang his
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  Speaker 1: thoughts on. Some of the concepts just weren't working for me.
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  Speaker 1: And so he just backed up. And he was from
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  Speaker 1: Wisconsin and was a big Green Bay Packers fan. And
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  Speaker 1: so I should probably call him. My condolences. And he says,
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  Speaker 1: when we talk about it now, he says, I was
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  Speaker 1: just thinking about, you know, that famous moment in Green
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  Speaker 1: Bay history. You know, coach goes, man, this is a football.
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  Speaker 1: And he just picked up his Bible and goes, Odie,
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  Speaker 1: this is a Bible. And for the next two and
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  Speaker 1: a half, three weeks, he came back every day. He
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  Speaker 1: answered my questions because I had questions. And then toward
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  Speaker 1: the end of it, he taught me how to go
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  Speaker 1: find those answers myself. So I always say I was
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  Speaker 1: being trained in apologetics before I was even converted, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And so I came to faith today. in that way.
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  Speaker 1: So I've always thought about my spiritual life through the
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  Speaker 1: lens of apologetics. But I also recognize that apologetics has
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  Speaker 1: sort of fallen out of favor. And I think one
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  Speaker 1: of the reasons is because we've de-spiritualized it. We've turned
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  Speaker 1: apologetics into a sort of subset of philosophy or some such.
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  Speaker 1: And full confession, I come at this as a presuppositionalist,
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  Speaker 1: but Know this. I think there are two main reasons
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  Speaker 1: that today apologetics is falling out of favor. I think
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  Speaker 1: one is sentimentalism, if you will. There is this idea,
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  Speaker 1: there is this feel, especially among the younger generations, that
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  Speaker 1: anything confrontational, you know, that anything that there is an
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  Speaker 1: 11th commandment. The 11th commandment is thou shalt be nice
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  Speaker 1: to And we don't believe the other ten, okay? We
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  Speaker 1: don't believe the other ten. And so anything that's just
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  Speaker 1: not nice, and nice is defined as weak, soft, mealy-mouthed, afraid, cowardly.
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  Speaker 1: You know, that's the way we define niceness in Christianity.
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  Speaker 1: And anything that's sort of confrontational and that would dare
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  Speaker 1: to say that someone is wrong, It's just not acceptable.
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  Speaker 1: This is why pastors stand up today, and when they
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  Speaker 1: preach on a topic that's controversial, their message usually dies
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  Speaker 1: the death of a thousand qualifications. I mean, think about it.
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  Speaker 1: You will not hear a guy stand up, for the
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  Speaker 1: most part, and preach on the issue of homosexuality without
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  Speaker 1: 15 minutes of justification. Now, I love homosexuals. I have
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  Speaker 1: friends who are homosexuals. I am not here to say,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Just say what the book says. Yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: people will be offended and letters will come in. And
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  Speaker 1: here's what those letters will say, essentially. I'm more offended
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  Speaker 1: by the fact that you confronted that sin than I
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  Speaker 1: am that that sin offends God. This is where we
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  Speaker 1: live today, especially in younger generations. And so the idea is,
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  Speaker 1: of apologetics, the idea of confrontation, the idea of I'm right,
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  Speaker 1: you're wrong. That just doesn't sit well with us. And
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  Speaker 1: then the second reason, I think, is mysticism, quite frankly.
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  Speaker 1: It's mysticism and anti-intellectualism. The United Negro College Fund has
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  Speaker 1: a motto, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
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  Speaker 1: Modern American Christianity has a different take on that. We
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  Speaker 1: just believe a mind is a terrible thing. We talk
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  Speaker 1: about head knowledge as though it's a disease that needs
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  Speaker 1: to be cured. Right? And so this idea of being
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  Speaker 1: a creedal or confessional, this idea of having structure around
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  Speaker 1: our faith, some of you guys, when you came here,
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  Speaker 1: you were warned. Don't let them ruin you. True. Don't
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  Speaker 1: let them ruin you. You go there and everything becomes
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  Speaker 1: so systematized and so formalized and you lose your fire.
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  Speaker 1: Because everybody knows if you really want to love God,
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  Speaker 1: you've got to be ignorant. And so in this mysticism,
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  Speaker 1: we really don't have the categories necessary to to do apologetics.
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  Speaker 1: And my faith is all about my experience. It's all
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  Speaker 1: about what I feel. It's all about what I know
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  Speaker 1: on the inside. We're more like Mormons, to be honest.
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  Speaker 1: I bear you witness because of my own burning in
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  Speaker 1: the bosom. These things are true because of my internal
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  Speaker 1: witness to these things. And in this mysticism and this
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  Speaker 1: anti-intellectualism We don't often gauge the rightness or wrongness of
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  Speaker 1: things by the facts that are presented, but instead we
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  Speaker 1: tend to gauge the rightness and wrongness of things based
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  Speaker 1: on the emotions that we experience when they're presented. That
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  Speaker 1: was powerful. That was awesome. Well, did you recognize that
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  Speaker 1: it was heretical? You're so judgmental. Here's how these two
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  Speaker 1: things work together, right? So again, apologetics, we don't like that. Well,
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  Speaker 1: if you have your Bibles, open your Bibles to Jude.
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  Speaker 1: And I want you to see something here in Jude today.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to see that Jude answers many of
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  Speaker 1: the objections that we have to apologetics. And I'll take
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  Speaker 1: them in turn. The first objection that we have to
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  Speaker 1: apologetics is, you know, we object on the grounds that
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  Speaker 1: we believe apologetics is for special forces Christians. right? It's
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  Speaker 1: for Navy SEAL, Green Beret, Marine Force Recon. It's Delta
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  Speaker 1: Force Christians. Those are the people who do apologetics. People
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  Speaker 1: who are well-versed in philosophy and in debate and, you know,
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  Speaker 1: all these sorts of things and, you know, world religions
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  Speaker 1: and this, that, and the other. And if we're honest...
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  Speaker 1: People who are just, you know, jerks. Can we just
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and tell the truth and shame the devil?
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  Speaker 1: We believe that, right? That you have to have kind
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  Speaker 1: of a little bit of an arrogant, nasty edge to
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  Speaker 1: you to even like apologetics. This is what we believe.
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  Speaker 1: It's not for everybody. Well, Jude addresses that objection first. Jude,
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  Speaker 1: a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to
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  Speaker 1: those who are called. Beloved in God the Father and
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  Speaker 1: kept for Jesus Christ. Now, here in verse 3, he's
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  Speaker 1: going to basically say to these individuals, I'm writing to
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  Speaker 1: encourage you to contend for the faith. So he's writing
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  Speaker 1: to encourage them to do apologetics. But notice to whom
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  Speaker 1: he's writing. Notice this Trinitarian address called... Beloved in God
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  Speaker 1: the Father, kept for Jesus Christ. You might as well
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and say, called by the Spirit, beloved by
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  Speaker 1: the Father, and kept by the Son or for the Son.
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  Speaker 1: And then notice that followed by that sort of Trinitarian identification,
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  Speaker 1: there is this Trinitarian greeting. May mercy, peace, and love
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  Speaker 1: be multiplied to you. Now, Again, if we believe that apologetics,
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  Speaker 1: which is what we're being called to here in verse 3,
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  Speaker 1: is only for special forces Christians, then we would also
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  Speaker 1: have to agree that only special forces Christians are called
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  Speaker 1: by the Spirit, beloved by the Father, and kept for
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  Speaker 1: the Son. But we know that's not right. So we
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  Speaker 1: would have to then agree that we're wrong to think
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  Speaker 1: that this is a calling just for special forces Christians. Well, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but maybe so. Maybe in that text, but certainly not
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  Speaker 1: in other texts. Certainly not, you know, in the seminal
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  Speaker 1: texts about apologetics. Certainly not if you get to 1
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  Speaker 1: Peter 3. I mean, that's where we get the word
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  Speaker 1: apologetics from, right? That apologia that he talks about there
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  Speaker 1: in 3.15, right? But If you look in 315, 1
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  Speaker 1: Peter 315, but in your hearts, well, who's the your?
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  Speaker 1: Go back to 14. But even if you should suffer,
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  Speaker 1: who's suffering? Verse 13, now who is there to harm
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  Speaker 1: you if you should prove zealous for what is good?
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  Speaker 1: So these people are proving zealous for what is good.
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  Speaker 1: Let's back up some more. Let's back up to the
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  Speaker 1: top of this section here and look at verse 8. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: all of you, or if this was the Texas version,
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  Speaker 1: all y'all. In other words, when Peter is addressing this
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  Speaker 1: issue of apologetics, he's addressing everyone. Every believer is called
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  Speaker 1: to be an apologist. This is not for certain select individuals.
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  Speaker 1: And I believe our understanding of apologetics being shaped in
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  Speaker 1: the way that it is currently and presented in the
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  Speaker 1: way that it is currently taken out of and away
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  Speaker 1: from ordinary spiritual life and turned into this sort of
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  Speaker 1: specialization is one of the reasons that we think of
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  Speaker 1: it in this way. But the Bible doesn't present apologetics
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  Speaker 1: to us in that way. It is part of the
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  Speaker 1: life of every believer. This is for you. This is
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  Speaker 1: for me. Well, I can't do that. Certainly you can.
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  Speaker 1: Certainly you can. We'll take some time and look at
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  Speaker 1: Peter's definition there, but let me just sort of give
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  Speaker 1: you a preview. I believe if you boil down Peter's
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  Speaker 1: definition in his text, it's knowing what you believe, why
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  Speaker 1: you believe it, and being able to communicate that effectively
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  Speaker 1: to others. That's apologetics. Know what you believe. Know why
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  Speaker 1: you believe it. And be able to communicate that effectively
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  Speaker 1: to others. You do that, you're doing apologetics. Yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: I don't know all the world religions. You don't have to.
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  Speaker 1: You don't believe them. Amen. I don't need to know that.
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  Speaker 1: I need to know what I believe. And when someone
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  Speaker 1: asks me for the reason for the hope that is
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  Speaker 1: in me, I need to be able to give them
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  Speaker 1: the reason for the hope that is in me. Here's
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  Speaker 1: what I believe. Here's why I believe it. And to
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  Speaker 1: be able to communicate that in a winsome and effective way. See,
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  Speaker 1: when you understand apologetics by that definition, we no longer
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  Speaker 1: have this tendency to believe that you have to have
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  Speaker 1: this laundry list of specializations and expertise in order to
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  Speaker 1: engage in the practice. Amen? This is for everyone, for
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  Speaker 1: every Christian. Well, there's another objection. We alluded to it earlier.
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  Speaker 1: And this other objection is, well, it's just not very Christ-like.
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  Speaker 1: It's just not very loving. And as Christians, we're supposed
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  Speaker 1: to be loving. And we're not supposed to condemn. After all,
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  Speaker 1: we're followers of Jesus. The sweet, kind, gentle man with
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  Speaker 1: hair like a shampoo bottle. It's not like we follow
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  Speaker 1: someone who would call people whitewashed sepulchers or a brood
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  Speaker 1: of vipers or someone who would turn over tables in
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  Speaker 1: the temple and run people out with a whip. What
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  Speaker 1: do you think this is? We follow the guy who
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  Speaker 1: walks around with a lamb on his shoulders. and a
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  Speaker 1: slightly effeminate look in his face. And so it's not loving. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: To those who are called, again, by the Spirit, and
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  Speaker 1: beloved in God the Father, kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace,
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  Speaker 1: and love be multiplied to you. So, again... This is
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  Speaker 1: what he wants multiplied to us, this sort of triune
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  Speaker 1: benefit that we get from being in the triune God.
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  Speaker 1: Then in verse 3, he says, Beloved, although I was
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  Speaker 1: very eager to write to you about our common salvation,
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  Speaker 1: I found it necessary to write appealing to you to
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  Speaker 1: contend for the faith that was once for all delivered
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  Speaker 1: to the saints. Some of your translations say contend earnestly, apagonizomai.
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  Speaker 1: This might be my favorite word in the whole Greek Bible.
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  Speaker 1: You've got to grit your teeth when you say epagonizama.
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  Speaker 1: You just agonize greatly. There's a picture here of hand-to-hand combat.
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  Speaker 1: There's a picture here of wrestling. I would say it's
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  Speaker 1: a picture of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but I'm biased. And so
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  Speaker 1: that's the word picture that's used here, of striving, of contending,
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  Speaker 1: and contending earnestly for the faith. Well, we've got a
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  Speaker 1: slight problem. If we believe on the one hand that
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  Speaker 1: this contending is not loving and not Christian, how do
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  Speaker 1: we explain, on the other hand, that this verse is
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  Speaker 1: juxtaposed with verse 2? The apostle says, on the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: that he wants mercy, peace, and love to be multiplied
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  Speaker 1: to us, and on the other hand, he says, agonize greatly, contend.
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  Speaker 1: So if you can't have love and contention, Why does
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  Speaker 1: the apostle give us love juxtaposed with contention? Somebody's wrong,
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  Speaker 1: and it's not Jude. I think our problem goes all
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  Speaker 1: the way back up to verse 1. See, our problem
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  Speaker 1: is that when we think about love, we think about
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  Speaker 1: love from a horizontal perspective. Ultimately, we define love between
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  Speaker 1: me and you as me never doing anything to offend you.
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  Speaker 1: Me never doing anything to upset you. And so this
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  Speaker 1: horizontal view of love has the other as its ultimate object.
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  Speaker 1: And I would argue that there is reason, not only
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  Speaker 1: in this text, but in the Bible as a whole,
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  Speaker 1: to reject that understanding of love. Love has to be
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  Speaker 1: understood vertically before it can be understood horizontally. God is love.
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  Speaker 1: So I can't look at another person and define my
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  Speaker 1: love relationship with that person based upon how I make
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  Speaker 1: that person feel. It has to be vertical. I can't
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  Speaker 1: even understand what love is until I go vertical. And
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  Speaker 1: this is why that triune greeting is so important. Called, again,
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  Speaker 1: by the Spirit, beloved in God the Father, and kept
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  Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ. It is God's triunity that basically communicates
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  Speaker 1: to us what love is. This is the problem that
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  Speaker 1: the Unitarian religions have. This is why it's so hard
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  Speaker 1: for the Unitarian religions to wrap their minds around a
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  Speaker 1: concept like God actually being love. Because from a Unitarian perspective,
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  Speaker 1: if you do not have a triune God, and there
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  Speaker 1: was a time when the world wasn't, and this triune
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  Speaker 1: God then made the world, this Unitarian God can't be loving.
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  Speaker 1: Because there was no one or nothing for this God
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  Speaker 1: to love. So either... creation came into being and this
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  Speaker 1: god had to add love to his attributes because it
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have been there before or this god is not
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  Speaker 1: a god of love but if there is a triune
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  Speaker 1: god who has existed for eternity as one god in
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  Speaker 1: three persons the son eternally begotten of the father The
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  Speaker 1: spirit eternally proceeding from the father and the son. This
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  Speaker 1: one God in three persons in eternal unity and harmony
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  Speaker 1: within himself. This God manifesting love within himself long before
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  Speaker 1: you and I were ever here. Then creation doesn't add
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  Speaker 1: love to a God who was lacking it. Creation merely
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  Speaker 1: expands the expression of the love of this God who
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  Speaker 1: has always loved. So we look to God to define love.
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  Speaker 1: And we look to God in order to define how
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  Speaker 1: it is that we love one another. Jesus gives these
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  Speaker 1: two great commandments. Don't you love it? They come to
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  Speaker 1: Jesus and they're trying to trap him. You know, Jesus
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  Speaker 1: was the greatest commandment in the law. Some schools of thought,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's actually, it's the first one. It's the
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  Speaker 1: first commandment. That's the Fountainhead for all the other commandments.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them would argue that it was actually the
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  Speaker 1: fifth commandment, that it was the bridge between the two
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  Speaker 1: tables of the law. You go from vertical to horizontal
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  Speaker 1: with the fifth. Some would argue that it's the tenth
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  Speaker 1: because ultimately coveting is where all of your other sin
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  Speaker 1: comes from. So Jesus, which one is it? Which school
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  Speaker 1: of thought will you line up with Jesus? And so typically,
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  Speaker 1: here's what he does. Well, The greatest commandment is to
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  Speaker 1: love the Lord your God with all your heart, all
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  Speaker 1: your soul, and all your mind. In other words, one
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  Speaker 1: through four. The second is like it. Love your neighbor
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  Speaker 1: as yourself. That's five through ten. So Jesus, what's the
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  Speaker 1: greatest commandment? I'm going to have to say one through four,
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  Speaker 1: followed closely by five through ten. There's an amazing apologetic
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  Speaker 1: opportunity in the world right now. You're hearing about it
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  Speaker 1: some over here, but where we live over in the
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  Speaker 1: other hemisphere, it's all day, every day. There are these
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  Speaker 1: refugees who are pouring out of the Middle East. What
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  Speaker 1: are we going to do with these refugees in the
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  Speaker 1: Middle East? Listen, regardless of what your opinion is on
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  Speaker 1: how we should respond, please don't miss the apologetic opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: I love when people bring this up because usually what
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  Speaker 1: they're doing is they're arguing from the second table of
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  Speaker 1: the law. Love your neighbor as yourself. And most of
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  Speaker 1: these people reject the first table of the law. Well,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you can't uphold the second table of the law without
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the first. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind,
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  Speaker 1: and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. So when
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: people are saying, we need to respond to this tragedy
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: with obedience to the second table of the law, I say,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: let's talk about the first. Because you can't talk about
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the second without talking about the first. So before we
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: talk about you and your moralistic holding to the second
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: table of the law, apart from the finished work of Christ,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: let's talk about you not holding to the first table
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of the law and what that means about your soul
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  Speaker 1: and its destiny. We start vertical. We start vertical. And
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: if we start vertical, and if that love of God
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is confronted
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: with a horizontal relationship that demands for its own comfort,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: that I negate or neglect my vertical responsibility, it cannot
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: be done. It cannot be done. I will always offend
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: you horizontally. If the vertical demands it, because true love
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: can do nothing else. So if you are not in
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: right relationship vertically with God, and I'm trying to appease
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  Speaker 1: you horizontally and not confront you with the wrongness of
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: your vertical relationship with God, I'm actually not loving you
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  Speaker 1: at all. I'm guilty of two things. Number one, I'm
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  Speaker 1: guilty of idolatry because I'm putting whatever benefit I get
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  Speaker 1: from my relationship with you above that of my relationship
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  Speaker 1: with God. Amen. I will offend God in order to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: not offend you, which means you are the object of
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: my worship. And then secondly, I'm actually using you because
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: whatever that benefit that I'm drawing horizontally is, It's more
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: important to me than your soul. And I will watch
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: you bust hell wide open if that's what it takes
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  Speaker 1: from me to not do anything, to compromise whatever benefit
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: it is that I am gaining from you horizontally. Folks,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: that's not love. That's not love. Third objection. The third
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: objection is that, you know, apologetics is not primary. And
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: in fact, you know, those apologists, they always major on
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: minors anyway. It's not primary. We're about the gospel. Beloved,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: although I was very eager to write to you about
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: our common salvation, can we just all go ahead here
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: at DTS this morning and say that's primary? Amen, somebody.
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  Speaker 1: I found it necessary to write appealing to you to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: contend for the faith that was once for all delivered
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: to the saints. So an apostle under the inspiration of
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit sits down to write about our common
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: salvation and he turns the corner and writes about apologetics.
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  Speaker 1: Did he neglect writing about salvation or did he merely
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: address a subset of that very issue? I'm arguing for
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  Speaker 1: the latter. It is primary. But how is it primary?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Let's go into that next verse. I'll come back and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: then we'll wrap this up. For certain people have crept
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  Speaker 1: in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation. Ooh,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: now we got condemnation. Ungodly people, now we got name calling.
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  Speaker 1: Who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality And
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. There's the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: fourth objection. And I'll deal with the third and fourth together.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: The fourth objection is, you know, you're about all that stuff.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I'm about souls. I'm about seeing people come to faith
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ. First of all, this comes from that
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: misunderstanding of apologetics that we talked about earlier. That apologetics
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: is just about philosophical debates about secondary and tertiary issues.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: That's wrong. If we understand apologetics properly, apologetics is all
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: about the gospels. This is what I believe and why
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I believe it. And when the gospel is being perverted
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and misrepresented, there are two possible responses. Number one, because
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of my horizontal relationship with you being the priority, I
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: allow you to pervert the gospel, putting your own soul
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: in jeopardy and the soul of everyone who hears your
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: perversion of the gospel. Or if my vertical relationship is primary,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: And you are perverting the gospel. I confront and condemn
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the perversion of the gospel because of my passion for souls.
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  Speaker 1: This is not another issue. This is the issue. This
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  Speaker 1: is about the gospel. The gospel is front and center here.
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  Speaker 1: This is about my passion for souls. But in our
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: passion for souls, we recognize that like Paul, we're not
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  Speaker 1: ashamed of the gospel because it and it alone is
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the power of God unto salvation. So when the gospel
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: is being misrepresented and perverted, the one who has a
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: vertical passion for God and God's name and reputation will
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: not allow that to go unchallenged, first of all, because
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of the vertical love for God. I love my wife.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: You sit around and talk bad about my wife. We
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: have issues. I love my God. If you are lying
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  Speaker 1: on God, if you are saying that he is something
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  Speaker 1: that he's not, or that he's done something that he didn't,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: my vertical relationship with God demands that I confront that.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: And My horizontal relationship with others demands it because my
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: desire is for them to hear and know the truth
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: of the gospel. Notice the two areas here. One, they're
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality. Again,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I would say that they're dealing with the heart of
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the gospel there, perverting the grace of God into sensuality.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: And two, deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: All of the cults have to do this. You have
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: to make Jesus something that he's not, someone that he's not.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So ultimately, we're talking about the person and work of Christ.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And that's where we've got to get back to. We've
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: got to get back to the person and work of Christ.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: All of that other stuff is great. It's wonderful. It's interesting.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: If you want to talk about all of that, sure,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: we can talk about all of that. But eventually, the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: conversation has to come back around to the person and
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: work of Christ, who he is and what he's done.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Notice that I did not say who he is to
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: me and what he's done for me. No, no, no, no.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: That's not what people need. They can have that if
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: it's gravy. But first they need to know who he is, period,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: full stop. And then they need to know what he's done, period,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: full stop. If you know who he is and you
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: know what he's done, period, full stop, then we have
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: time for a conversation about my own personal experience of it.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: We can get to that. But the last thing you
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: need is just my personal experience of whatever. You need
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: to know who Christ is and what Christ has done.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: This is what we aim at. This is what we
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: aim at. Because of our vertical passion, which feeds our
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: horizontal passion. This is apologetics. Can we have philosophical discussions
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: about creation and the existence of God? Sure, if you
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: want to. Go for it. But if I can convince
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: someone that it's possible that the world was made and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't just an accident, what have I gained? You can
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: believe that and go to hell. What matters to me
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: is that they know of the person and work of
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. So I'm not saying we neglect that discussion,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: but I'm saying when we enter that discussion, if we
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: have this as our focus, that discussion must ultimately lead
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: us to the discussion of the person and work of Christ.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Because nothing matters more. This is what my soul needs.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: This is what my soul loves. This is what my
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: soul desires. And so this is what I defend. This
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: is what I proclaim. So as we make this connection
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: between this issue and that whole idea of the spiritual life,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: know this. Your spiritual life was never intended to be
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: lived in isolation. Not in isolation from the rest of
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the body of Christ and not in isolation from a lost, hurting,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and dying world. And when your spiritual life comes in
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: contact with this lost, hurting, and dying world, guess what's
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: going to happen? They're going to want to know the
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: reason for the hope That is in you. Give it
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: to them. Let's pray. Gracious God, our Heavenly Father, we
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: thank you and praise you for your goodness and your
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: mercy and your kindness and your love. We praise you
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: for who you are and for what you've done. We
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: are grateful to you for that. Grant by your grace
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: that our lives might be shaped by that and that
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: our lives might be given to that. Open our eyes
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: so that we can see this lost, hurting, and dying
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: world around us and grant us grace and faith to
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: believe and live like we possess that which they need most.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And Lord, may we give it away to the end
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: that Christ might have the fullness of the reward for
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: which he died. This is our prayer, and we ask
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: it in Jesus' name. Amen.