WEBVTT 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:12.400 Here's just a pretty straightforward definition of apologetics for you. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.279 Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:22.640 If you have uh not familiar with that word, sometimes you'll think apologetics is apologizing for the Christian faith or something like that. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:30.320 No apologia, it's a defense, it's making an active defense of the Christian faith, defending it. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.200 Evangelism and apologetics are not the same thing. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:39.359 Evangelism is the explanation of the gospel, apologetics is the defense of the integrity of the gospel. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:45.359 Evangelism and apologetics are friends, they're brothers even, but they're not uh twins. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:51.600 Evangelism is offensive, evangelism is taking the gospel into the world, and apologetics is defensive. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:56.479 Apologetics is responding to objections, defending attacks on the gospel. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:02.399 Apologetics are a tool to be used by evangelists, but they're not the goal of evangelism. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:04.239 They're not the point of evangelism. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:12.640 And that's an important distinction because oftentimes in evangelism, you can get sidetracked into winning a stupid argument. 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:29.519 You can get sidetracked into convincing somebody about a political argument or uh, you know, something in the international scene, or convincing somebody about Israel, or the timing of the rapture, or 10,000 other things that aren't the point of evangelism. 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:32.560 Evangelism, remember how we defined it a couple weeks ago. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:36.879 Uh evangelism is the communication of the saving elements of the gospel. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:45.200 You measure the effectiveness of evangelism by the content delivered and the clarity with which it is delivered, uh, not by winning an argument. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:56.159 Apologetics is how you defend attacks on the gospel, but evangelism is the goal to bring the gospel forward so that people hear enough that they can be saved. 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:04.719 In other words, the evangelist wants more than merely winning somebody over in an argument, the evangelist wants the person to come to faith in Christ. 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:07.439 Now, apologetics are useful in evangelism, though. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:10.479 They're useful in evangelism because they are twofold. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:15.439 First of all, they're useful in evangelism because they give you uh confidence in evangelism. 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:23.840 Uh sometimes in evangelism, people will give you uh objections to the gospel, uh, they will they will mock you or ridicule you or ignore you. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:31.599 And apologetics helps give you confidence in the face of that because it reminds you that what you believe is true. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:36.560 Even though people might mock it and reject it, you have truth on your side, so that encourages you. 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:44.960 But apologetics also helps you in evangelism because there are the cases where somebody objects to the gospel and they have a sincere objection. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:49.680 Like their objection is actually what is keeping them from faith in Christ. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:56.800 And so, in that sense, apologetics is useful to overcome objections if they are real sincere objections. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:02.639 But my little disclaimer here is I think that many people's objections are less sincere than they let on. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:12.879 I remember when my friend uh Tommy was sharing the gospel with me, I had all kinds of objections that were just the dumbest objections you've ever heard. 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:16.240 Uh and Tommy made a little list of them. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:23.360 Well, when I eventually came to Faith in Christ, Tommy had his list of objections I had given him, and he had found answers to them. 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:31.360 Like he had talked to his youth pastor, and he had, you know, I don't know, looked up like 101 hard Bible verses or something, and like found like actual answers to my objections. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:38.080 But once I came to Faith in Christ, I didn't even, I wasn't concerned about those things anymore uh at all. 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:44.159 Um So I do think that a uh some people's objections are less sincere than they let on. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:49.599 They're just excuses to justify their own uh sinful disbelief for a while. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:52.159 Anyway, the gist of apologetics is this. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:57.680 If you were to boil apologetics down uh to a nutshell, apologetics is this that God speaks the truth. 00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:01.840 Everyone knows the truth, but nonbelievers pretend that they don't. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:08.479 That's my little snarky definition of apologetics right there in a nutshell that God has spoken what the truth is. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.599 Everyone knows that what God says is true. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:24.319 They know it in their hearts, they know it in their consciences, they know it in their minds, and yet non-believers will often pretend that they don't in order to justify their own sinful lifestyle, their own rejection of the truth. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:33.199 Sometimes it's not even a sinful lifestyle they're after, as much as it is their intellectual pride, they sit in judgment over God, not the other way around. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:41.600 And if they were to grant that the Bible is true or that God does speak the truth, that would be a humbling experience because it would put an authority over the person. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:54.319 And this is described very clearly in the Bible in passages such as Romans 1, where Paul says, you know, what is true about God has been made plain to all people, so that all men everywhere are without excuse. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:00.480 What's been revealed about God from the beginning of time is evident that God is holy, that he is the creator. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.920 You can't get around those basic truths. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.399 There's not confusion about that. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:13.600 The world is here, you're standing on it, and it didn't just poof appear out of nowhere. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:15.360 Everyone knows that. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:28.639 Now people pretend they don't know that, and so they replace the cause of the earth, the source of the earth, with uh, you know, other excuses and science and other gods and false religions, passions, ignorance, whatever. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:38.639 But all of those things they replace it with are certainly less confident and less rational or reasonable than the idea that God created the earth. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:52.160 Probably the going majority opinion in the Western world, anyway, is you know, some form of the Big Bang theory, even if you wouldn't have somebody able to articulate it or explain or even use the concept of the Big Bang anymore. 00:05:52.319 --> 00:06:17.040 That's still probably the going theory in the world that all of the atoms in the world were so condensed into the tiniest point that they exploded and burst and are moving apart with some incredible rate of speed, but some of them conjugate together, uh drawn together through gravity and whatnot, and form into planets and solar systems and you know galaxies and all this stuff, and it's a completely unreasonable explanation. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.399 I think any rational person understands it's unreasonable. 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:22.720 And yet it's all that they have. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:32.720 If they were to grant that the Bible is true, it would imply a moral uh superiority of the word of God over themselves, and it would be a humbling that most people are unwilling to do. 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:40.079 And so Romans 1 goes on, if you're looking at Romans 1, it goes on from saying what's made clear about God is evident to all people. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:42.319 So without excuse, but what do people do with it? 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:51.439 They suppress the truth, they replace the truth with a lie, and it becomes about worshiping creepy, crawly things, right? 00:06:51.759 --> 00:07:02.240 Even in Romans 1, in a world without evolution, even in Romans 1, Paul identifies that they replace the creator with creation, and he specifically goes to reptiles. 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:04.160 They, you know, they worship animals. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:17.920 Um they say, we came from animals, or they make idols of animals, and they elevate animals, and it becomes very odd and certainly not intellectually superior to any form of divine revelation. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:20.480 And the reason they do that, Paul is very clear in Romans 1. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:22.639 Romans 1 is not a politically correct chapter at all. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:26.160 He's very clear the reason they do that is their own sinful lusts. 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:28.879 Intellectual pride, sexual lust. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:38.160 They desire to live a certain life and think a certain way, so they reject what is true about God and replace it with silly things, absurd things. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:41.199 Idols that can't see, they can't hear. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:45.680 As Jeremiah says, they make the idol and then say that the idol made them. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:51.040 It's logically absurd and little better than worshiping an old school statue of an alligator. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:58.399 Now, this is the baseline of apologetics, that people reject God and come at him with different attacks. 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:02.399 And in order to engage with these attacks, you need a couple more points about his apologetics. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:04.560 First, there's just a little statement of fact. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:06.639 All people use circular reasoning. 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.759 How do I know that all people use circular reasoning? 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:13.920 Because all people use circular reasoning. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:15.519 You tracking with me? 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:18.160 Listen, it is a foolproof, airtight argument. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:20.319 There are no weak spots in that argument. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:22.079 It's a full circle. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:34.480 Whenever you make a statement of fact, it depends upon your statement of fact, the validity of that fact depends upon the knowledge you have to verify that fact, to state it as true. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:46.480 If I told you that the Dodgers are terrible, baseball team and squandered their playoff chances by, you know, their pitching choices or whatever, that would be a fair statement based upon my observation of them. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:49.759 I went into the game, I saw their base running catastrophes. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:55.360 I've seen how horrible they can play when they put their minds to playing terrible baseball. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:00.559 So if I were to tell you that, it's based upon my own personal observations of it. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:08.879 And my analysis of Dodgers baseball is only as good as my knowledge of it and my firsthand experience of it is. 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.080 After all, it's something that by definition would have no witnesses at it. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:29.360 There's nobody there. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:49.759 If God exists outside of time, if he has infinite action, infinite light, infinite revelation, and exists outside of time and independent of time, and he makes time and he makes the universe, it is not possible that anybody would have any knowledge of that at all unless God reveals himself. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:52.480 There's no witnesses to creation. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:57.360 And so at that point, you are taking somebody else's word for it. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:05.519 And so your understanding of God as the creator is only as solid as the integrity of the person who reveals that God is the creator. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:06.879 And in this case, that's God. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:13.759 We believe that God is the creator of the universe because he says he is, and he's the only witness to it. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:20.159 God can't lie, and so we receive his word as truth. 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:27.360 Now, of course, this becomes circular reasoning, but there's no logical alternative than circular reasoning. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:35.039 Every person has that kind of circular reasoning when it boils down to the most basic elements of life. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:36.399 Consider the agnostic. 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:41.039 The agnostic says it's not possible to know if God created the heavens and the earth. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:42.159 Well, why not, Mr. 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:43.039 Agnostic? 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:44.799 Why isn't it possible to know? 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.000 Because they have determined that it's not possible to know. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:12:00.159 So any knowledge to the contrary, anyone who says with certainty that God created the heavens and the earth is outside of their worldview because their worldview is contingent on it's not possible to have knowledge that confirms it. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.720 It's very circular reasoning. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.840 I know George Washington was our first president, as I mentioned, because everyone says he was. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:18.960 And it's just established through history, through the veracity of those that saw it and experienced, but in eternal matters, it hinges on having revelation of somebody who is there. 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:26.639 If the Bible isn't true because I don't think it's true, I don't think it's true, that's therefore it's not true. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:33.600 That's the classic line of the agnostic or the atheist, the Bible isn't true because I don't think it's true, I don't think it's true, and that makes it not true. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:35.120 That is also circular reasoning. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:40.480 When you're dealing with eternal matters or matters of creation, you're going to be embracing circular reasoning. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:42.399 Here's another way of saying this. 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:47.759 Absolute statements require absolute knowledge or an appeal to authority. 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:56.320 Absolute statements demand or require absolute knowledge or some kind of appeal to authority, some kind of embracing of circular reasoning. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:12:59.279 Here's another very common example of this. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:05.200 There are those that claim there's no such thing as absolute truth because there's no such thing as absolute knowledge. 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:10.080 And if you think about that for a few seconds, you realize that's a self-defeating claim, don't you? 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:13.200 I reject the concept of absolute truth. 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:15.039 Absolutely. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.360 Well, it's an absolute statement. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:26.799 That would be the declaration of absolute truth. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:32.879 It becomes circular reasoning, and that kind of circular reasoning has a logical contradiction at the core of it. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:42.639 In contrast, the Christian is able to make statements about God because we appeal to an absolute authority who does not contradict himself. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:52.240 So we say we believe that God created the heavens and the earth because God says he created the heavens and the earth, and every word of God is true. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:14:04.159 The scripture backs up what God says by testifying to the truthfulness of God and by describing the world in a way that corresponds to how it really is. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:12.639 So that gives us confidence to believe what the Bible says about the integrity and the truthfulness of God. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:23.360 The Christian can therefore make these kind of absolute statements about God being the creator, God being holy, because we have an absolute authority, namely the Word of God. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:40.799 There are those that say, I reject circular reasoning, and your appeal to the Bible and saying the Bible is true because the Bible says it's true, is circular reasoning, just like I say the blue cookie monster made the universe, and I believe the blue cookie monster is the sovereign creator, my appeal to absolute authority is the same as yours. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.200 I've actually had somebody tell me that. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:50.399 And there's a big difference between the appeal to the blue cookie monster and the appeal to the written word of God. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:54.559 First of all, the blue cookie monster did not say he made the universe. 00:14:55.039 --> 00:15:04.480 Like you can't point to something that was written before the era of Sesame Street that has revelation from the big blue cookie monster. 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:07.039 So you're making something up. 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:17.519 There's a just a massive gulf of difference between the integrity of the Christian witness to the universe and people making something up. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:20.559 And that really is where most of the world is. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:23.919 Most of the world is at the level of making things up. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:32.720 In contrast, Christianity embraces circular reasoning because it is verified by the way the world actually is. 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:36.639 Only Christian circular reasoning aligns with truth. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:40.000 Only Christian reasoning aligns with truth. 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:50.320 Now other religions might make an appeal to some kind of circular reasoning, but it either doesn't correspond to reality or it's self-contradictory. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:54.879 It doesn't have an inherent cohesion to it. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.360 Some people say Christians use circular reasoning. 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:04.320 The Bible is true because God says it's true, God says it's true in the Bible, therefore, that's circular reasoning, I reject it. 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:09.279 But I want you to remember that everyone uses circular reasoning, even the agnostic. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:20.000 And so you're left when it comes to matters outside of human experience, like what happens when you die, or who created the universe, those kind of matters are going to require an appeal to authority. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.279 Somebody who knows what happened, who reveals what happened. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:27.200 And we're dealing with creation, the only one who knows what happens is God. 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:33.120 And so it requires people to make an appeal to a God who reveals Himself. 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:46.559 Now, this is something I I learned from Josh McDowell's More Than a Carpenter book, that as an early believer, young believer, I read it, and it it was so obvious, and it's so obvious now to me, but it blew my mind at the time. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:51.679 I thought that all religions had that kind of logical consistency to it. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:57.200 I thought that, you know, Islam and uh, you know, name a religion. 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:12.000 I thought it had the same kind of logical consistency to it, and Christians had the same kind of book with their own logical consistency to it, and I happen to be a Christian because that's what I believe, and yes, it happened to be true, but as far as the logical inner workings, all the religions have the same kind of logical structure. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:19.759 Yes, I believe Christianity is true, and those other religions are false, but they make the same kind of moral claims and logical claims about the universe as Christianity does. 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:22.880 That's what I that's what I thought when I got when I got saved. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:32.079 But no, when you start learning about other religions, you you realize there's not like a second choice to Christianity. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:50.000 There's not another religion out there that has a logically cohesive worldview, an appeal to authority from God who created the universe, who now reveals himself in time, pointing people back to himself, and that that revelation actually corresponds to the way the world works. 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:53.119 There is not another religion like that at all. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:57.920 The other major world religions are logically contradictory. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:04.799 They maintain things at their core that just aren't true or that don't correspond to reality. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.640 I mean, I could give you examples of this. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:33.200 If you think about how Islam, what Islam hinges on, is that Muhammad went into the cave and he had visions that he was not allowed to write down, that he memorized, that it was downloaded into his mind in a trance, that he spoke them throughout his life, and that he wouldn't let anybody else write them down when he was alive, and then he died, and his followers then instantly wrote them down, and that becomes how the Quran was revealed. 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:34.960 I mean, that's nonsense. 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:37.359 That doesn't make any sense. 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:49.200 You can't memorize the Quran and his lifespan like that from his own talkings and then write it down when he dies, and it was immoral to write it down because it was the words of God, but it stopped being immortal when he died. 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:51.440 It doesn't make any sense. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:54.480 Plus, there's a part about demons living in the upper nose. 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:56.880 That's why you have to, you know, wash out your nose in the morning. 00:18:57.039 --> 00:18:58.960 Demons don't live in your upper nose. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.039 The Trinity is not Mary. 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:05.599 Mary is not, you know, a person in the Trinity, like the Quran teaches. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:14.079 Like there's just basic things about it that are not true and logically contradictory, and not like incidental things. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:15.920 Not like tangential things. 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:24.480 Like some people point to the Bible and say, this person has two names in the Bible, that's a contradiction, or was the robe that Jesus was robed in, was it scarlet or was it purple? 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:25.519 Aha, contradiction. 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:28.880 Like you did Judas hang himself, or did his bowels burst out? 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:43.119 Which one, you know, and you know, when you're familiar with the Bible, you realize those aren't even contradictions, but even if they were, they are so tangential, and they're not, but even if they were, it's not getting to the essence of authority or what the Bible teaches. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:20:07.359 And yet other religions have these intrinsic contradictions that speak to the integrity of them at the core of their message, like the method of revelation in Islam or Mormonism, the story of how Mormonism received, you know, Joseph Smith received the golden plates and how they were translated through the veil, and you know, how the it's just, it doesn't make any sense. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:09.839 And it's not true. 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:12.000 It's not true. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:19.440 And those are little little better than agnosticism or evolution or materialism. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:32.400 Those are other worldviews that have circular reasoning that are not logically coherent and end up falling apart upon even a modicum of curiosity or examination. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:41.759 In contrast, the Christian worldview alone speaks of a God who made the universe and revealed himself. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:45.359 The Christian worldview is not compatible with the deistic worldview. 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:54.319 The deistic worldview being that God made the universe and stepped away and kind of let things unwind, like the clockmaker sets a clock. 00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:56.720 The Christian worldview is not compatible with that. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:02.079 At the heart of the Christian worldview is supernaturalism, that God is engaged with the world through revelation. 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:13.119 The heart of the Christian worldview is the Trinity, that God is a self-revealing God, that he is internally revealing himself father to son and father and son to spirit, and that revelation comes forward into the world. 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:24.319 And so it makes sense then that if God created the world, he immediately reveals himself to the world he created, which he does in the Bible, immediately speaking to Adam and Eve, immediately engaged in a relationship with them. 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:26.720 Sin enters the world and mars that. 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:57.200 God continually reaches into the world with judgment through the flood, for example, and through the Tower of Babel, and through grace, through calling Abraham and offering a sacrifice in the place of Isaac, and directs the whole narrative of the scripture towards the gospel in a logically cohesive and coherent way that contains moral declarations about the world, scientific declarations about the world that are intrinsically true and logically cohesive. 00:21:57.599 --> 00:21:59.759 Christianity alone is like. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:00.640 That. 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:05.200 Now, you don't need to memorize what I just said as a speech. 00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:07.200 I'm telling you that just exactly what I meant earlier. 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:17.680 I hope that encourages you and gives you confidence in evangelism, but also allows you when somebody responds to you by saying you're appealing to the Bible, I don't receive the Bible as an authority. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:21.680 Well, frankly, it doesn't matter if somebody receives the Bible as an authority or not. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.440 It is an authority because it is God's word about how he made the universe. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:33.440 And that's why, if you remember a few weeks ago, I said in evangelism, it is so important to use the scriptures. 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:38.960 When you're sharing the gospel with somebody, that you're drawing what you're communicating from the Bible. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.440 The Bible says that God made the world. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:44.480 The Bible says that God offers Jesus as a Savior. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:48.079 The Bible says you can have your sins forgiven and that you're showing them where. 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:51.519 This is the word of God, and it has a power to it. 00:22:52.640 --> 00:23:00.240 If someone refuses to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, point out to them in the Bible where it says that he is the Messiah. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.519 And that makes the person wrestle with the Word of God. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:10.240 Now, part of apologetics is recognizing that salvation is impossible without a supernatural work on the human heart. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:14.000 This lets us know that we can't argue anyone into belief. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:25.759 You can't give somebody a convincing enough argument to get somebody to be saved, and that's a good thing, because if you argued somebody into salvation, then somebody more intellectually refined than you are could come tomorrow and argue them right back out of it again. 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:29.680 So you never want to be put in a situation where the smartest person wins. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.240 That's not a good, that's not how Christianity advances. 00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:34.640 It doesn't advance to the arguments of the smartest person. 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:39.599 Even the Apostle Paul says, I'm lowering myself, I'm preaching foolishness to people. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:42.319 It's the wisdom of God, but people perceive it as foolishness. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:46.559 That's why the gospel goes forward, not with the PhDs, not with the university professors. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.799 The gospel goes forward with the poor and the uneducated, not because they're naive. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.480 Remember what Romans 1 says? 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:58.000 The gospel goes forward with the poor and the uneducated, not because they're dumb. 00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:58.960 No, no. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:03.359 Because they are too smart to be academic dumb. 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:12.319 They're too smart to believe the lies of evolution, the lies of the some of the lies that define our worldviews, you have to get a PhD in gender studies to believe. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.680 You know, a normal person doesn't believe that kind of nonsense. 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:19.839 You have to be way too educated to fall for lies like that. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.400 And so the gospel goes forward, just as the foolishness of the world. 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:25.119 It goes forward. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:29.440 The world calls it foolishness, but it is indeed the wisdom of God. 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:33.839 That's why evangelism, the more simple evangelism is the better. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:38.319 When you're evangelizing, you're just trying to convey the content of the gospel to people. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:41.759 But one more point on this that I hope is helpful to you. 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.359 As you're evangelizing, remember the unbelief is a moral issue. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.279 The unbelief is a moral issue. 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:51.680 A person who refuses to believe the gospel, that is a moral issue on them. 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:52.400 That is sin. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:55.920 It's sin not to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.400 It is sin to refuse to believe the written and revealed word of God. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:04.240 It's not a sin of ignorance. 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:06.160 It's a willful act of sin. 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:10.480 The language in Romans 1, they suppress the truth with unrighteousness. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:14.000 It's not an intellectual issue. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:18.880 When somebody says, I would believe if I just saw more evidence, that's just not true. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:19.920 It's not true. 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:23.279 No amount of evidence reasons somebody into heaven. 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:25.920 It's an issue of moral culpability. 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:40.880 And so when some people think of apologetics, they think of evidences, things like dinosaur footprints and human footprints together in a stream bed in Texas, or things like geology that support a worldwide flood, or you know, things like the holes in carbon dating and whatnot, and all those have their place. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:42.079 I'm glad for all those. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:47.519 I'm glad for creation arguments, and I'm glad for dinosaur and people footprints in the same floodplain. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:50.559 When you go to the Grand Canyon, it's hilarious. 00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:51.920 It's actually funny. 00:25:52.079 --> 00:26:01.839 When you're walking around the Grand Canyon to read like the evolutionist arguments, like you have little placards in the ground, you're at 400 million years ago, you're at 500 million years ago, 350 million years ago. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:02.960 It's just comical. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:05.759 Like you can't walk on that without laughing a little bit. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:07.680 This is what the world believes. 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:08.880 It's kind of funny. 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:11.200 Like that little foot was 50 million years right there. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:16.240 And you're looking across the canyon, you're seeing like trees through all the layers of the stuff. 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:19.680 And you're going, I have, I'm not buying the evolutionary argument. 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:23.119 Like it's not passing the six-year-old smell test right here. 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:26.319 I mean, that's true. 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:30.000 That's not going to reason anybody in to heaven. 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:36.480 And so I'm glad for creation science, and I'm glad for people that taught me to laugh at the Grand Canyon and all that. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:37.440 I'm glad for it. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:40.400 But that's a different topic than evangelism. 00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:46.559 And that's because unbelief is a moral issue, so there's a limited usefulness of evidences. 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:50.960 There's a limited usefulness in evidences. 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:58.160 Instead, the evangelist is supposed to call people to faith because God commands them to believe. 00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:02.240 The agnostic is doubting God, and in reality, they're calling God a liar. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:09.119 The person who says, I don't think the Bible is true, is that loggerheads with God because God says his word is truth. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:12.240 Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and life. 00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:22.079 Jesus says man doesn't live on bread alone, but in every word that comes from the mouth of God, Jesus refers to the Bible as God's word and says that it's required for life to believe it. 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:28.799 So the person who says, I don't know if that's true, is being obstinate towards God. 00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:37.839 Not that that means that they should be open to mockery, but it does mean that in evangelism you recognize it is a moral issue, not an intellectual issue. 00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:45.680 And that's why I do think it's important to expose false presuppositions in evangelism, to tell the person to repent of their unbelief. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:52.960 Explain to the agnostic how doubting God is in reality calling him a liar, but to do that in a winsome and non-mocking way. 00:27:53.680 --> 00:28:01.039 The issue with evidences is that by calling someone to come to faith in Jesus based upon evidences, you're treating like the person like they're the judge. 00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:01.680 C.S. 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:15.200 Lewis makes this point wonderfully well in The Abolition of Man that when you appeal to somebody with evidences, you're not challenging them to get out of the judge box, to get out of the jury box and get on the defendant stand. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:20.720 You know, the issue with non-believers is that they're the defendant and they think they're the judge. 00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:23.920 They're sitting and judging what is true in the world. 00:28:24.079 --> 00:28:29.599 They need to get out of that position and get underneath the authority of God and his word. 00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:34.720 That's why an appeal to evidence can have, can backfire on you. 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:45.759 If you're evangelizing and you're overly relying on evidences and carbon dating and you know, dinosaur fossils and whatnot, you're still elevating the person and their ration and their reason and making them the judge. 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:49.839 Like you're, here's all the evidences would you consider and weigh what you find true. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:52.160 Again, there's a little bit of a place for that, obviously. 00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:54.160 It's a person has to come to faith themselves. 00:28:54.319 --> 00:28:56.000 There's there's a little bit of a place for that. 00:28:56.160 --> 00:28:57.039 When you read C.S. 00:28:57.119 --> 00:28:59.200 Lewis' own testimony, he's very aware of that. 00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:03.759 Like it took it took a lot of evidence to get him to come to the place of conversion. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.960 But once he was converted, he realized the limited usefulness of those evidences, didn't he? 00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:21.440 He realized that it's more about having faith in God than it is about being intellectually persuaded because ultimately you need to come out of the judge's box, out of the jury box, and into the defendant's chair. 00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:23.759 It's you who's on trial, not God. 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:34.880 Well, with all that said, let me encourage you in your evangelism to direct people to put their faith in God because the Bible commands them to. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:36.880 Now, what do you do when they refuse to? 00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:39.759 What do you do when they refuse to believe God? 00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:50.319 And here's a little outline for you on how to handle rejection, how to handle the rejection, what to do when the message of the Bible of your evangelism is rejected. 00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:52.640 First of all, I would say don't argue with the person. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:54.400 Don't argue. 00:29:55.279 --> 00:30:02.079 As we read a few weeks ago in Matthew 7, you don't keep casting your pearls before swine, you don't give what is holy to the dogs. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:05.519 When a person rejects the gospel message, you can move on. 00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:08.640 This proverb says, you argue with the fool. 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:11.359 Uh nobody knows the difference. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:15.759 It's the old streetcar, you know, subway analogy in New York City. 00:30:15.839 --> 00:30:22.319 Uh somebody comes up and starts a crazy argument with you, and by the time the argument is over, all the people on the train that were there when it started are gone. 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:24.400 Everybody else thinks you're the crazy person. 00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:25.759 You understand that, right? 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:30.960 When you argue with a non-believer, it's impossible to tell who is the crazy one. 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:32.480 So don't argue. 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.359 Um, you don't argue with a blind man about what you see. 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:37.200 It's kind of a foolish argument. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:40.799 You do tell people to repent, but you don't need to argue with them. 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:42.880 You don't take their rejection personally. 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.000 They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting God. 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:47.200 You remember Samuel? 00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:51.759 Uh when Samuel was so mad, when Israel fired Samuel as the prophet, he was so mad. 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:54.079 And God said, Why are you mad, Samuel? 00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:56.559 It's not you they fired, it's me they fired. 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:03.039 When somebody rejects your evangelism, you understand that it's God they're rejecting, not you. 00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:07.279 Thirdly, continue to pray for their repentance. 00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:09.440 Continue to pray for their repentance. 00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:12.559 Of course, it's important you pray before you evangelize. 00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:17.359 It was on the outline last week, it should be important that you pray after you evangelize. 00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:20.000 The person rejects you, pray for them. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:25.519 You pray for their repentance, and even tell the person, you know, I'll continue to pray for you. 00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:31.359 I've even had somebody tell me, I said, I'll continue to pray for your repentance, and they'll give me another prayer request or two, also. 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:34.720 Like, oh, can you also pray for my job? 00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:36.319 Can you also pray for my grandmother? 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:37.599 I'm like, okay. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:46.720 To be clear, I'm gonna be praying to the God that you're rejecting, that he would hear my prayer and answer you favorably. 00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:47.519 Yes. 00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:49.039 Alright. 00:31:49.440 --> 00:31:50.640 I'll do that. 00:31:51.519 --> 00:31:54.640 Um continue to pray for the repentance. 00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:55.119 And who knows? 00:31:55.200 --> 00:31:56.079 The Lord does answer prayer. 00:31:56.160 --> 00:31:57.119 Prayer is heard. 00:31:57.440 --> 00:31:58.559 God does intervene. 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:02.799 Even when you're rejected, you pray the Lord, and the Lord may intervene in the future. 00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:05.359 And then finally end with a warning. 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:07.119 End with a warning. 00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:10.559 You know, you've made some strong statements against what I showed you from Scripture. 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:14.480 I want you to know that what I showed you is the only way you can be forgiven of your sin. 00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:16.480 Or let me leave you with this thought. 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:18.240 Where will you spend eternity? 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:24.640 So to walk you through just very briefly, a kind of like an overview of this. 00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:32.160 If I'm talking to somebody that just said, you know, they're gonna quit their job and take this other job, I might ask them why are they making that choice? 00:32:32.319 --> 00:32:36.319 Oh, it's better opportunities for my family, what's a better opportunity for your family? 00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:39.119 Oh, it's a better neighborhood, it's it's better this, it's better that. 00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:40.640 I'm gonna listen to their answer. 00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:42.000 And we talked about this last week. 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:44.799 I'm trying to identify what's motivating their thinking. 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:46.319 What's motivating their thinking? 00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:49.599 They say, oh, the most important thing for me is family. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:58.240 All right, that's a great opening for me to say, you know, it's it's really good that you love your family that much. 00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:01.519 I mean, that's that's noble because a lot of people don't love their family that much, right? 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:02.240 A lot of people don't. 00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:04.000 A lot of people live for themselves, not their family. 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:05.759 It's very good you love your family that much. 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:10.960 But the Bible says that something different should be the most important thing in your life. 00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:14.480 Do you mind if I tell you what that is? 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:23.279 And if they allow me to keep going, I say, first of all, you have got to start with God created the universe. 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:24.640 He is the holy creator. 00:33:24.799 --> 00:33:26.000 The scripture says he made it. 00:33:26.079 --> 00:33:30.480 If you go back to Genesis 1:1, there was nothing, and God made the universe by speaking it. 00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:34.160 God, Romans 1 says, is holy, he made all things. 00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:37.680 And I'll walk through that little outline that I gave you a few days ago. 00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:39.920 I'll talk about how God made people. 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:41.279 He made us. 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:45.119 Because he made us, he owns us, and yet people sinned. 00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:47.680 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:49.680 Sin is loving something that isn't God. 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:54.960 Sin is pursuing your own ends and putting yourself before God. 00:33:55.279 --> 00:34:02.559 When you think that you're the most important thing or your family is more important than God is, that's actually sin. 00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:10.480 But fortunately, God has made a way to overcome sin by taking the penalty for sin and placing it on Christ. 00:34:10.639 --> 00:34:16.960 So that Jesus, who is God in human flesh, and I'll explain the third point on that card, who Christ is. 00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:20.320 Getting to the fourth point, how should you respond to this? 00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:35.360 And I'll talk about the only way you can have your sins forgiven is by confessing your sin, repenting from your sin, and putting your faith in God, specifically in Christ who died on the cross and rose from the grave. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:39.519 That is not just adding something to your life, like that's changing your life. 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:50.639 It's saying, I was wrong about how I was living, and now I want to live according to what the Word of God says, which is a massive thing to say, a massive change in your life. 00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:54.960 Do you understand what I'm saying? 00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:59.920 And the person says, yes, I understand, but I reject it. 00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:06.320 No, I don't believe it because the Bible is filled with lies or whatever they say. 00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:13.360 Then I might try to engage with one of those, I might say, could you give me an example of one of those lies? 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:16.320 And usually people aren't good at that part. 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:21.760 You know, oh, it's in there somewhere, it's in the book of Hezekiah, I know it. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:23.920 Um, you know, they don't know. 00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.239 That's not a real objection. 00:35:26.639 --> 00:35:31.679 Um sometimes I might have a real objection, sometimes, and we'll get to a few specific objections in a second. 00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:39.840 And you might engage with one of those two, one or two of those objections, but ultimately you're gonna end by saying, you know, this is a moral issue. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:46.320 You know what the Bible says, and God calls you to believe it, and I'll pray for you. 00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:47.280 I'll pray for you. 00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:51.519 But you know that the Bible says there's no way for salvation apart from Christ. 00:35:51.840 --> 00:35:55.039 And then a final point about this is that time happens. 00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:58.000 You know, time exists, time is a thing. 00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:00.960 So the person says, I don't believe the gospel. 00:36:01.360 --> 00:36:02.000 All right. 00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:04.480 It's not over for you. 00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:06.800 Like for you personally, the evangelists, it's not over. 00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:08.320 You go your separate ways. 00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:15.280 That person will remain your coworker, that family member will remain in your family, and it is amazing how often time happens. 00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:27.760 Trials come into life, cancer comes into life, death comes into life, getting fired comes into life, moving comes into life, stuff happens in life that reopens their heart to the truth. 00:36:28.719 --> 00:36:40.320 So many times people have rejected the gospel only for a year or two later to have something tragic happen in their life and they go back out to the one person that spoke the truth to them. 00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:41.119