Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Using the Baptist Confession in Apologetics

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - Using the Baptist Confession in Apologetics · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, So we're talking about the confession and using the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: confession in apologetics.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And before we can talk about using the confession and apologetics,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: we have to talk about what we mean when we
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: say apologetics. That's where this will all begin to make sense. First,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: defining apologetics, listen to this definition by Cornelius van Til.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Van Til says apologetics is the vindication of the Christian
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: philosophy of life against the various forms of the non Christian.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Philosophy of life.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We say that again, apologetics is the vindication of the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Christian philosophy of life against the various forms of the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: non Christian philosophy of life. And I want you to
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: think about this definition because against when we think about apologetics,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: this is not the way we think about it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: We don't think about it in terms of worldview.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: We think about it in terms of facts and pieces
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of information, right, but not in terms of the vindication
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of the.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Christian philosophy of life.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: And especially the last part of the definition, the vindication
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of the Christian philosophy of life against the various forms
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of the non Christian philosophy of life. Van Taiale argues
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: that there's only two worldviews. There's only two philosophies of life.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: There's the Christian philosophy of life and everything else, or
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the right philosophy of life and the wrong philosophy of life.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Christian philosophy of life is the right philosophy of life.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Every other philosophy of life is some version of the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: wrong philosophy of life because it's not the Christian philosophy
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of life. What this does is it changes our entire
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: approach to apologetics, because now what we're doing is we're
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: not trying to say say I need to know everything
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: about your religion so that I can answer all of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: your issues. No, no, no, I just need to know the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Christian philosophy of life and listen to you and find
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: out where you're wrong according.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: To the Christian philosophy of life, and.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Then correct you with the Christian philosophy of life. This
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is a very different approach to apologetics. And when we
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: understand a politics this way, it begins to make more
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: sense that we would employ the confession in this way.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: We'll give you another definition. There's a definition that I use.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Apologetics in a simplest form is merely knowing what you believe,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: why you believe it and being able to communicate that
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to others effectively. Knowing what you believe, why you believe it,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and being able to communicate that to others effectively. I
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: derived that from Titus one nine first p. Three fifteen
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Jude three. Okay, quite simply knowing what you believe, knowing
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: why you believe what you believe, and being able to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: communicate that to others effectively. Again, this is very different
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: than the way we normally think about apologetics. We normally
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: think about apologetics is me knowing everything about what you believe.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I'm arguing, as van til Is, from a presuppositional perspective
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: on apologetics. You have your presuppositions. I have my presuppositions.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Mine are biblical, therefore their right. Yours are not biblical,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: therefore they're wrong. So I don't need to know everything
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: about your religion. I don't need to know everything about
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: your worldview. I just need to know the Christian worldview
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and listen to you so that I can tell where
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: you're off compared to the Christian worldview. Okay, And in
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: terms of my response to you, I merely need to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: know what I believe, why I believe it, and be
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: able to commune gate that to you effectively. This comes
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: down to our view of apologetics. Wow. We normally view
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: apologetics this way. Apologetics is for elite Christians. It's for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: elite Christians, special forces Christians, Christians with unique intellect and abilities.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: We believe that apologetics requires knowledge of science, philosophy, logic, debate, etc.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: If you're going to be an apologist, then.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: You have to have these various skills and bodies of knowledge.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: We also believe that apologetics requires knowledge of world religions
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: and cults and various heresies.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You have to be reversed in these things to apologetics.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And we believe that.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Apologetics requires an edge of confidence or even arrogance. This
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: is why teenage boys love apologetics, right, because they're arrogant
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and think they know everything, and apologetics is a way
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: for them to do that and still consider themselves being
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: godly even though they're just being arrogant jerks and know
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: it all.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Teenage boys love apologetics not because they love God, not
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: because they love truth, but because they think they know
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: everything and they like to argue right. And in this
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: view of apologetics, that becomes very attractive.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: By the same token, there are a lot of Christians
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: who don't want to participate in apologetics because they believe
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: that this is what it means to do apologetics. So
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: if you don't have this kind of disposition, you think, well,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: apologetics is not for me. All of these things are wrong.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Apologetics is not for elite Christians. Apologetics does not require
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: knowledge of science, philosophy, logic, debate, etc. You don't have
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to know these things to do apologetics. Apologetics is not
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: required in death knowledge of world religions or heresies, and
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: apologetics does not require that edge of confidence and slash
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: arrogance in order to be engaged in I think this
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is clear when we look at the biblical case for apologetics.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I want you to look at a couple of things
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: first before we get to the nitty gritty of defining this.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: From particular biblical texts.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I want you to see, for example, in Eus Exodus,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: chapter nine and verse sixteen, we read but for this
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: purpose I have raised you up to show you my power,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: We see a lot of times when people go to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: people have a hard time with Exodus. Did Pharaoh harden
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: his heart or did God harden Pharaoh's heart. Sometimes it
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: says God hardened his heart, sometimes it says he hardened.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: His heart, and just says his heart was hardened. Was
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: what happened?
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I have to be able to figure out which one
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: was it. No, you really don't have to be able
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to figure it out. Not when you understand the purpose
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of the entire encounter. God says that the purpose of
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the plagues and the purpose of the exodus was apologetics.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Listen to it again, verse chapter nine, verse sixteen.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: But for this purpose, I have raised you up to
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: show you my power, so that my name may be
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: proclaimed in all the earth.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: That's why God was.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Not trying to convince Pharaoh of anything. God was not
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: surprised by Pharaoh's response. Pharaoh belonged to God, and God
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: used Pharaoh for the purpose of apologetics to demonstrate that
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: there is a true world view and there is a
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: false one. Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: world and head of the most powerful nation in the world,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and God demonstrated that his religion, his God's his worldview,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and all of that were absolutely wrong. There is one
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: true and living God, and it's not Pharaoh. Okay, next example,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: we can first Samuel chapter seventeen. Goliath, Goliath, what was
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: this about? Look at verse forty six. This day the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Lord will deliver you into my hands. We just lost it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: We just lost the gin set, didn't we. This day
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: will strike you down and cut off your head. And
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: does that mean this is gone to the camera's gone
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: to the camera's good or some better? Okay, it's gonna say,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: well maybe now we can change ours. Okay, all right,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and I will strike you down and cut off your head.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And I will give the dead bodies of the hosts
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of the Philistines this day to the birds of the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: air and to the wild beast of the earth. Why
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that all the earth may know that there is a
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, For
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: into my hands. There was an apologetic purpose. But notice
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: that this apologetic purpose worked in two directions. One so
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that the Philistines would know that God is God, but secondly,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: so that Israel would know that God is God. Right,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: all right, Look at Isaiah thirty seven to twenty. So, now, o, Lord,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: our God, save us from his hand, that all all
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: are the Lord. Save us, so that everybody will know
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that you alone are the Lord. So understand that God
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: is using all of these things in order to demonstrate
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the superiority of the biblical worldview over and against the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: various forms of the non biblical world view. What about
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: apologetics and pastoral ministry, because again, oftentimes we think, well,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: apologetics is for elite Christians, and apologetics is only for
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: elite pastors. Right, only if you have that gift, or
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: as some would say, only if you have that anointing. Right,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I don't do apologetics as I don't have that anointing.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: There are other brothers out there who have that anointing
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: for apologetics. I don't have that anointing for apologetics. There's
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: no such thing. It is a basic requirement of eldership
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that you be an effective apologist. It is not a
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: special requirement for certain elders, certain pastors who have certain gifts.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Look again, we talked about this last night. Titus one nine,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Remember Titus one six through nine is the basic requirements
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: for eldership right right. This is not extraordinary requirements. This
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: is not some elders. This is every elder. Everyone who
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: will serve as an elder must meet this requirement.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: so that he may be able to give instruction in
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it. That's apologetics.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It is the basic requirement of every elder to engage
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: in apologetic And what is apologetics?
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Here?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Does it say that he has to know everyone else's religion?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Dodays you have to know everyone no, no sound doctrine,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: exhort in sound doctrine, and rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine. Again,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: how are we defining apologetics? Know what you believe, why
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: you believe it, and be able to communicate that effectively
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to others. We can already begin to see a case
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: here for using the confession in this process, right, because again,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: The confession is a summary of that trustworthy word as taught, right,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: so that he may be able to exhort or instruct
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: in sound doctrine.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: What is our confession.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: It is a summary of sound doctrine, and rebuke those
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: who contradict it. What is it? It is that summary
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of sound doctrine. So you can see already where the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: confession is playing a part here one Peter three point fifteen.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: This is where we get the word apologetics from. Okay,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Apologetics is actually a transliteration of a Greek word. You
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: understand the difference between a translation and a transliteration. So, uh,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the word diakonos means it's a it's a servant, right,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: So if you translate the word diakonos, you translate it
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and it becomes servant. If you transliterate it, you don't
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: translate it, right, You just use it in your language
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and it becomes the word deacon. The problem with transliteration
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: is transliteration doesn't tell you anything about what a word means.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: So when you transliterate it and you basically take a
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Greek word and turn it into an English word, you
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: still haven't defined it, right, So diakonos becomes deacon, but
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that still doesn't tell you what the word means.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Does that Does that make sense?
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Same thing with apologetics.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: The Greek word is apologia apologia comes and.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: It's transliterated, and we say.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Apologetics, But that does not define the word for us.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: It just takes a Greek word and says it as
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: an English word. Okay, right, Like you know my name Bachem,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: it's German. Right, So just because you take my German
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: name and you say it in English, you still don't
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: know what that means in German. Right. Transliteration is different
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: than translation. Right, you don't know that in German it
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: actually means awesome conqueror Actually it doesn't.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: I just made that up, But so one Peter three fifteen.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as Holy,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: always being being prepared to make a defense to anyone
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: who asks you for a reason for the hope that
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: That word make a defense, That that phrase, make a defense,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: a reasoned response. That's the translation of the word apologia. Okay,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: is it is a reasoned response. But I want you
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: to notice something here. The very word apologetics comes from
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: one Peter three fifteen. We think apologetics means knowing everything
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: about what that person believes, so that I can answer
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: everything about what that person believes. But the very word
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: comes from a verse that says, what in your hearts,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: honor Christ the Lord as Holy, always being prepared to
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: make a defense to anyone who asks you the reason
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: for the hope that is in you. That's why I say,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: know what you believe, you know why you believe it,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: so that you can give this reasoned response.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Apologetics is not about knowing what other people believe. And
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: again there's so many people who refuse to engage in
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: apologetics because they think, well, I don't have that anointing,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and I don't know everything about everything, Therefore I can't
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: be an apologist.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: By the way.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: First, in Titus one nine, we made the argument that
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: apologetics is not for certain pastors, but it's for all, right,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: not for certain elders, but for all elders. Right now,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: guess what one Peter Chapter three, verse fifteen and its
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: context is speaking to every believer. So apologetics not for
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: special pastors, special elders, is for every pastor, every elder.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: By the way, it's also for.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Every believer, not believers with a special anointing.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Right Jude Jude one and two.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Jude are servant of Jesus, Christ's brother of James to
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: those who are called beloved of God the Father, kept
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ. Now, Jude's going to tell us in
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: verse three to contend earnestly for the faith.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Right that was once we're all handed down to the saints.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: He's going to tell us to engage in apologetics, to
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: engage in defense of the faith.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: But to whom is Jude speaking to those who are called.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Amen right, beloved in God the Father, Amen, and kept
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ. By the way, this is a trinitarian pronouncement.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: It's a trinitarian pronouncement. So the last one is kept
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ right right before that, beloved in God
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the Father.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: So we have the Son, we have the Father. Guess
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: who calls the spirit?
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Called by the Spirit beloved in the Father and kept
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: for the Son. This is a trinitarian pronouncement. In other words,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: this command that we're about to see in Jude three
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: is for all of those whom the Triune God calls,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: loves and keeps for himself, which would be every Christian.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: No one gets out of apologetics.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, again, what does Jude say in verse three right
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: while he's making every effort to write to you about
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: our common salvation. He had to write to you and
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: urge us what to contend earnestly for the faith, which
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was once we're all handed.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Down to the saints.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Is that every piece of information in the scriptures? Or
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: have we once again been pointed to a summary of doctrine?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Obviously he's pointing to a summary.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: Of doctrine, which for us would be our confession, which
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: would be a summary of doctrine. Okay, all right, we'll
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: move beyond this. Defining expository apologetics.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: That's the phrase that I use for the process that
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I try to employ and teach in apologetics.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Expository apologetics.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: This is not about preparing yourself to defeat Christopher Hitchens
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: in a formal debate, right, That's not what we're talking
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: about here. The goal here is to be able to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: answer anyone who asks you why you believe what you believe, and,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: by the way, that's incredibly freeing.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Expository apologetics has three basic characteristics.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: First, it has to be biblical.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Has to be biblical, right, Pository apologetics has to be biblical.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: It's an exposition of scripture.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Secondly, it has to be simple, easy to remember, easy
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: to use, right, and Thirdly, it has to be conversational.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: We have to be able to do this in a natural,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: engaging way, all right with people that we encounter. The
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: reason that we can do this is because of the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: limited and limiting nature of the Gospel. What do I
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: mean by that? Two things? One, The cannon is closed? Amen, Wow,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: let me try that again. The cannon is closed maybe? Okay,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: all right, just want to make sure I'm in the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: right meeting here. Okay, the cannon is closed. We're not
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: getting new revelation. We're not getting new scripture. Okay, this
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: is what we're talking about this week, confessionalism and cessationism. Right,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: We're not getting new revelation. Canon is closed. So that's
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: point number one. Point number two. Because the canon is
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: closed and there's no new revelation, that means there's a
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: limited body of knowledge that I'm responsible for, and that
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: limited body of knowledge is summarized for us. Where in
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: our confession are you? Are you putting the pieces together? Okay?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Many passages talk about not adding or taking away from
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the Word of God. We could look at Deuteronomy four two,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Judonomy twelve thirty two, Proverbs chapter thirty, verse six, Hebrews
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: one one and two Revelation twenty two eighteen. We do
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: not add to and we do not take away from
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: his word. The canon is closed. There's no new revelation. Therefore,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Number one, there's a limited number of things that we believe.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: There's a limited number of things that we believe right.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Number two, there's a limited number of objections that can
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: be raised, a limited number of legitimate objections that can
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: be raised. I was at an event in an Oregon
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: in the US at Oregon State University. I love being
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: on university campuses, especially in places like that. You guys
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: ever heard the term the Bible Belt, But I ever
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: heard that term the Bible Belt. It's that part of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the United States, mainly around the southern part of the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: United States, where the largest number and percentage of Christians
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: and Christian churches.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Are right all across the South.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Outside of the Bible Belt, you find that there are
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: are not nearly as many Christians.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: And the further way you get.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: From the Bible Belt, that's less likely you are to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: find Christians. Way up in Oregon, way up in the Northwest,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: you don't find a lot of Christians there. You find
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of people who will identify themselves as pagans
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: or druids or wickans or just whatever, right, you know,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: all these things that you hear about.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: But don't believe they really exist. No, they really do.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: And so we're on campus and I'm doing a presentation
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: on the authority of the Bible, the historicity of the Bible.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I do it about a forty five minute presentation and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: then I open up for questions. And I don't know,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's you know, more than one hundred students
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: who've gathered into this small area where we're doing this.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I'm doing this presentation and for the next thirty to
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: forty five minutes, they ask questions and I answer the questions.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: One would say, well, you know, I'm a pagan and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I believe this, or I'm a druid, or I'm a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: wickan or you know, I'm be high or I'm this
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: or I'm that, you know, And so they would ask
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: questions and then I was answered the questions. For you know,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: thirty forty f five minutes we were done. Well, there's
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a campus ministry group that invited me there. And so
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: after it was over, you know, we're riding. We're going
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: to sort of debrief, have a bite to eat, and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: these students, they're just sitting in the car, they're just
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: shaking their head.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: They're like, what, I just can't believe that, can't believe
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: that you would just open up for questions in thirty
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: forty five minutes, you would just answer everybody's questions.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Ah, how big must your brain be? And so I
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: just simply made these points. First, there's a limited number
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of things that we believe, right, I don't believe everything
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: in the world when it comes to my faith. There's
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: a limited number of things that we believe. There's also,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: because of that, a limited number of objections that people
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: can raise.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Because of that.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: That means that there's a limitted number of objections that
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: we have to be prepared to respond to.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: And we have a source, the scriptures and our confession. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: a debate.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Is a debate, I mean, that's it's an entirely different animal, right,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Having a debate is much more limited and in depth.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Usually, a debate.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Is about a very specific topic, a very specific subject,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: and the goal of the debate is to get the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: best and most honest presentation of two views of one
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: particular thing out there, and two representatives of it. Right
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to get that out there in a public format debates
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: can be very very helpful, but.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: We're not called to do that generally speaking.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Right, This is something that some people do, But it
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: goes back to our brother's question. When you are that
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: person and when James White was here for example, Right,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: when you are James White, and when you have made
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: your life and your entire ministry about some of these things,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: you're going to have opportunities, based on what you've written
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and other things, to engage in these formal debates. And
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: he's I don't know if you've ever seen one of
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: James White's formal debates, but it's usually something that's very specific,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: So they're drilling down deep on something very specific. It
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: is about having an honest discourse and exchange about this
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: very specific thing.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: When that's done well and it's done right, it's incredibly helpful.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: But again it's not what we're all called to, you know,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: any more than a political debate.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I need to be politically informed, But do I have
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: to be informed enough to engage in a formal political debate.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: No, I don't have to be able to do that.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: But there's some people who need to do that.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: If they're going to ask me to vote for him, right, yes, sir, right.
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: So in Titus one, verse nine, it speaks about you
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: can go to confredict sound option, yes now and uh.
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: And in a lot of African contexts, appeasements that you
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: need the order of the day, and it's usually very
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: hard to challenge people to a CONSI how would you.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Suggest, going pop, Yeah, the question is about kind of
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: in an African context, not just the African context, but
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of contexts in the world that
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: are less confrontational than others. Right, there are a lot
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: of cultures that tend to be less confrontational than others.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: And rather than saying, well, you just need to get
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: over it and learn how to become confrontational, I would
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: argue that you need to learn how to obey scripture
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: within your cultural context in a way that allows you
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: to do so. So, you know, one of the things
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: for me that's really hard is like as an American,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: like I said you and I said yesterday, you know,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: one of the things that I've learned that I'm not
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: an African. I am not I've always not liked the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: term African American in the first place, right.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: But anyway, it's a whole nother discussion.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: But you know, I am not an African, and this
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: is one of the ways where I'm very much not
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: an African because confrontation is just absolutely not a problem
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: for me. It's just not just for me. I just
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: rather let's just get it out there. We're done, right, great,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: But one of the things that I've had to learn
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: how to do is not be so confrontational here, right,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: because I want to understand and respect the way that
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: people resolve conflict in this context, right, not to avoid
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: conflict altogether.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: That would be unbiblical.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: If I'm told to contend and I'm told to confront,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and I say, well, people here don't like contention and confrontation,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: therefore I'm not going to do it, well, I'm in
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: sin because I'm disobeying.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: The word right. So what I need to do is
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: become a student.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Of my surroundings in my environment and be able to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: do it in a way that is whensome and effective.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Notice the text says do so with gentleness and respect. Well,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: that means understanding your audience, understanding your environment, understanding when
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: you need to push and when you need to not
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: push so much understanding when you need to make a
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: direct statement and when you need to ask leading questions
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: as opposed to making direct statements.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: There's ways to do this, you know, and effective apologetics
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: is about understanding how we use those ways in those
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: methods so that we can simultaneously obey the clear command
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: of scripture right and at the same time be winsome.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And I don't always succeed at that, you know. Yeah,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I don't always succeed at that. I'll give you a
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: prime example, like here, I've learned that if somebody is
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: getting onto you, if a superior is getting onto you,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: you don't look at them.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Right. You're here, you're getting onto me, you don't look right.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I had somebody doing some work for me and
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: it was horrible. Right, this is our first year here
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: and I'm getting onto them about this and they're not
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: looking at me. Well, where I come from, not looking
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: at me, what I'm getting onto you is disrespectful. So
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there going look at me when I'm talking
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: to you. In other words, I'm saying respect me and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: going I'm trying to respect you.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: You see.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: That's one of those things where it's not a right
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: versus a wrong. You understand in both instances. It's I'm
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: trying to show respect. So it's incumbent upon us to
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: understand things like that and not just to insist on
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: what we're comfortable with being.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: The answer is that yes, yeah, So.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I just want to take us like slightly to the side.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of issues happening in the church
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: There's always a lot of issues happening in the church.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: You're having read church history, Yeah, not a lot of
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: issues happening right now. There's a lot of issues always.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, for example, I died to come into the form
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: of the oldness, yeah, and so.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Should and and all that stuff that is happening.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: So they are basically that you kept.
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: And and within the church that people say, what's saying
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: we uh, you know what doing upologetics against the other kept?
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: So uh So I wanted to know, like, how would
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: you would you define that there's there's uphologitics.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Within the Christian Church? And yeah, and how would you.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Was I mean that people who feel like, well, yeah,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: strictly speaking, the question is about apologetics within the church
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: when there are church is in and their issues inside
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: the church and brothers are disagree then technically it's called polemics, right,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: what it's on the inside, it's called polemics. There are
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: disagreements within, you know, and we need to engage in
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: those disagreements within that. That is a huge and very
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: important part of the history of the church. I'm talking
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: about our confessions, you know, and in many ways our
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: confessions are the results of polemics, right, the people who
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: are arguing for infant baptism versus the people who are
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: arguing for believers baptism. When I was saying you're not
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: a brother, we're just saying on this issue, you're not
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: reading the spiritual correctly, right, and so you know, we
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: can still be brothers and we're disagreeing as brothers apologetics.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: It's different. We're dealing with people on the outside. Yeah, yess.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Well, this is not about up.
• 34:34
  Speaker 7: It's like it's uh experience from the previous one of
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: the presentations or you're preaky.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: About young poet, think you good light or statue from organition. Yeah,
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: so it goes through disciples. You would would it be?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Then wise you is a goal with instead of hinder,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: you get Bible to them out the.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Bible on your putati help them go right.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And the question is about new believers, you know,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: do we just hand them a Bible or do we
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: hand them a Bible in a confession? And I would
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: say Bible, confession and a catechism. Right, that's the step
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: that we're missing, is we're missing this step of catechises.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: People need to be categorized and we need to get
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: back to that. It is a vital, vital tool, you know.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it's wise to do that because
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: we give them a framework, we give them a foundation,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: you know, because it's the same thing right when you
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: go on to a job, when you go into the military. Right,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: you walk into the military, they don't say welcome, raise
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: your right hand, take your oath, excellent, here's your uniform,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: here's your weapon pointed in that direction. No, we go welcome,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: raise your right hand, take your of great. Now you
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: belong to me, and you're going to basic training, right,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna you're gonna earn more and more trust
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and more and more responsibility. But we're gonna give you
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: this basic stuff first, right, rather than here jump into
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the deep end.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Alright, mm alright, this is just a general question Uh,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: when you've got the the sense of oppovitic signs you've
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: mentioned one.
• 36:37
  Speaker 7: Basically that's four when uh s speaking to the Jews
• 36:41
  Speaker 7: w the sit in style, yep, when speaking to the
• 36:44
  Speaker 7: UH gentiles in style. But uh, what I've seen and
• 36:47
  Speaker 7: as this is just a general that goes on when
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: we preach the gospel.
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: For example, if you say Jesus is Lord to someone
• 36:56
  Speaker 8: who's never heard about you, and you also say that
• 36:59
  Speaker 8: you know, just accept Jesus and so on and so forth,
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: do you think they should should change the.
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: Way we present They both built to people with no idea.
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: I don't no, I've never I know no evil, but
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: then we know we are seen as somebody fruit.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: What the question here is about when we're preaching right
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: and and when?
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: What?
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: When?
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: What Paul is doing in Act seventeen, he's got different
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: audiences and so he's making different kinds of presentations. And
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: should we do that? Absolutely, it's biblical to do that.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: That's what Paul did, So that's what we should do.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: We should understand our audience, you know, when when you
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: we teach preaching, you know, one of the most important
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: parts of teaching preaching is audience analysis. Who's your audience, right,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: you want to make sure that what you're doing is
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: appropriate for your audience. We're preaching two people, right, and
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: so yeah, audience analysis is incredibly important. The different phrases
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: that we use, it's incredibly important. It's something that I've
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: had to learn, right preaching here over the last four years.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I've had to grow in that, grow in my understanding of,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: you know, what types of things to use, what types
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: of things to avoid, ways to communicate more more effectively
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: to a pro audience. And so, yeah, we we have
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: to do that because people are people, you know, They're
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: not just widgets on an assembly line. People are people
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: and we have to treat them like people. And in
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the broad sense that means the kind of audience analysis
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: that Paul was doing here, and on a personal sense,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: it means the kind of analysis where we engage people
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: in meaningful one on one conversations.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: Right, all right, I must right, thank you, don't as
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: we're seeing him. Number seven