Always Ready: Chap. 19 God Must Sovereignly Grant Understanding

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Okay, we've now concluded the first three sections of the book,

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Always Ready. Section four is the conditions necessary for apologetic success.

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In this section, we get somewhat of a reprieve. We've been hitting the theology and epistemology very heavy over the last several weeks, and so it's a little bit of a reprieve because this is more, how can

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I put it, more practical and just showing what is necessary for the success of our apologetic.

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And it should be somewhat of a shorter lesson as well. Chapter 19 is what we're looking at tonight.

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God must sovereignly grant understanding. What a novel statement, right?

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Okay, he opens the chapter with these words. He says, if the

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Christian is to have success in defending the faith, he must be prepared to call into question the competence of the unbeliever's thinking.

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That's politically correct. Okay. Why would

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Bonson open this chapter with these words? Go ahead, Maria.

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Because the Bible asserts that those who don't acknowledge God are fools. Yeah, and pretty close there.

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Even if the believer does not have the impressive credentials of educated scholarship possessed by the non -believer, okay.

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This is, I love the fact that he included this sentence in here because a lot of people, a lot of Christians don't want to engage in apologetics because they don't think they're educated enough or they know enough.

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But notice, and you're going to see this thread run through this chapter.

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Even if the believer does not have the impressive credentials of educated scholarship possessed by the unbeliever, he is able to do this.

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That's a biblical concept. Notice what he's talking about. Every believer.

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He's not talking about the eldership or a separate class of apologists. He's talking about the believer.

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Under what circumstances do we see the Apostle Paul making a statement very similar to that, having to do with something else, not apologetic, not defending the faith?

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You're talking about when he gave his book about it? The whole book dedicated to this very topic?

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It was called Competent to Counsel. What does

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Paul say in Romans 9? He tells the Romans that, I know that you too are able to confront one another in love.

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Talking about counseling, biblical counseling. I don't want you to get the impression that, again, that apologist is a separate class of people.

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Now, are there people who are experts in Christian apologetics? Yes, there are.

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We thank God for those people. But don't ever think that you're not competent to counsel.

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What is necessary for you? Competent to counsel. Competent to defend the faith. What is necessary to competently contend for the faith?

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Salvation in the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and competency in handling the

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Word of God. I mean, there are some Christians who, unfortunately, are coasting for Christ.

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Not a biblical concept. We need to what? Study to show ourselves approved.

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I like what Scott Oliphant says, he says, apologetics is the application of biblical truth to unbelief.

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Yes. Just applying biblical truth to their unbelief and showing them what the Scriptures have to say about it. I like it.

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Notice how he continues. The so -called educated experts, in quotations, criticized our

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Lord with respect to his educational credentials. Remember in John chapter 7, who is this man who's teaching like this?

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And how did Jesus respond? He responded by challenging their competency.

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How many times did we see Jesus doing exactly that? You do err not knowing the

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Scripture or the power of God. So it's not a question of, don't ever be intimidated by the credentials of the person that you come up against.

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There is one set of circumstances where you could get yourself into trouble. And that is if you try to argue on his level.

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If you're arguing on a presuppositional level, you don't have to worry about that because you will be the one who is on the attack.

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You will be the aggressor, so to speak. Okay? All right. Because they refused to follow the will of God, they were in no position to judge his teaching.

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Okay? The Christian being indwelt by the Holy Spirit and dwelling in Christ's Word, there you have it.

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The Holy Spirit, Christ's Word. If you have that, you have what you need to defend the faith.

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John 8, 31 -32. Knowing the truth.

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All things pertaining to life are granted through a knowledge of God. That's where Peter says it.

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Everything that you need to know about life and godliness is contained in the more sure

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Word of God. We've looked at that already, how the Scriptures are more sure than even eyewitness testimony.

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That's what Peter says. Talking about his own eyewitness testimony. Oops, I'm sorry.

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All things pertaining to life and godliness are granted through a knowledge of God, and thus those who refuse to acknowledge

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God and the truth about him will be led into futility and error in all fields of thought.

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Notice, in all fields of thought, not just the Scriptures or biblical history, but in all fields of thought, their unrighteousness blinds them, and accordingly, the enlightened

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Christian can challenge the opponent's reasoning. This is what we see, especially when you see an accomplished apologist.

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He's not going, he's not putting forth his own credentials. He's always challenging the presuppositions of the other person.

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Even Christianity's cultured and educated despisers, I like the way he puts that, cultured and educated despisers, can be presented in an effective apologetic by any believer.

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I will disqualify that, if you know the Word of God. One of my favorite verses is

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Acts 4 .13, it says when they saw the courage of Peter and John, and perceived that these were ignorant, ordinary men, they were astonished because they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

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And that is the message of Scripture. And here we see 1

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Corinthians 1 .27, God chose the foolish things of this world that he might put to shame them that are wise.

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Apologetic success begins with this confidence. You've got to have that confidence.

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And we are told to boldly go, not where no man has gone before, but boldly go where many men have gone before us.

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We have, remember, we have that great cloud of witnesses cheering us on in the race. Such confidence, however, must be followed by a properly guided method.

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The only method that can, you can rely on absolutely in order to accomplish this purpose is the presuppositional methodology.

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And we'll see, as we go through the Scriptures, especially when we get to the end, what is it that you're going to do next week in my absence?

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I'm going to do how this works out practically, and I'm going to go through an online back and forth that I had with an atheist.

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Okay. That's going to be next week. I'm not going to be here next week, so he's going to pick up on that. Then at the end of the book, there is another apologetic that Bonson uses.

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So you'll get some, plenty of practical application. In particular, the apologist must refrain from appealing to the autonomous principles of secular thought.

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It can be so easy to get sucked into this when you're involved in an argumentation with a nonbeliever of jumping into his reasoning for a while.

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Remember, what is the only exception? When is it permissible or biblical to presume his argumentation?

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You want to show where it leads, so it leads to falseness. Yeah. You want to show the futility of his thinking when carried out to its logical conclusion.

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All right. Then it's okay to do that, but guidedly and guardedly.

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All right. In his attempt to bring understanding to the unbeliever, for the unbeliever's method, standard, and starting point are inherently contrary to the saving understanding at which the apologist aims.

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As we're going to see as we go through this, what is the ultimate aim of apologetics?

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To win souls. Yeah. Because you can't win the argument unless what?

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His heart has changed, and his mind is cleared. He's no longer walking in the futility of his mind, okay?

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But for that to happen, what has happened? He has been regenerated, and that's why this whole chapter is perfectly placed in the book.

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Listen to me like I'm giving instructions or commending Bonson, but yeah.

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So the unbeliever's method, standard, and starting point are inherently contrary to that of saving understanding at which the apologist aims.

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That's what we want. We want to see them come to a saving understanding of the word of God.

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Autonomy and understanding, that's from the non -believer's position, are mutually exclusive.

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You can't have autonomy and a biblical understanding at the same time. It's impossible.

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Apologetic success will be precluded if the believer rests his case on unbelieving presuppositions or the attitude of autonomy.

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I don't think I have to comment on that. We've been going through that week after week. Since these are the source of the unbeliever's lack of understanding, a fortiori, they cannot provide the path to understanding.

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All right, I broke my promise. I wasn't going to use any fancy words tonight. Everybody know what a fortiori means?

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What's that? A priori starts at the beginning, all right? A fortiori means from the position of strength.

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If you're going, it's an argumentation phrase. So, in other words, what is our fortiori method of apologetics?

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What do we lean on? What is the position of strength? The word of God, okay?

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What does the non -believer say is his fortiori? His own understanding.

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So, you can see the delusion right there, okay?

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The entire human race is dead in trespasses and sin. Wow, I guess

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Bonson was a Calvinist, wasn't he? The entire race is dead in his trespasses and sin, falling short of the glory of God.

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As a result, no one seeks after God or has understanding. It's amazing how apologists,

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Christian apologists today, will be solid Calvinists and then still use the other argumentation when we know that nothing good can come from the depraved brain, nothing good please in God, but still they try.

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Sin has led the unbeliever to exalt his own imaginations, all right? And that's right from Scripture.

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And to ignore the revelation of God. And it's amazing, even people who would be professed

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Christians, not necessarily true believers, but professed Christians, who will say they believe the word of God, this still applies to them when you push them to their logical conclusion, okay?

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And thereby, the unbeliever's reason is always deflected into futile, erroneous, and unrighteous conclusions.

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In his heart, notice in the heart, out of which the issues of life,

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Proverbs 3, guards your heart. Why? Because from it flow the springs of life.

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The foolish unbeliever says that there is no God. And even if he doesn't articulate that with his mouth, he's saying it in his heart.

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And thus, he has no knowledge or understanding. Neither knowledge nor understanding.

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The man with whom the apologist argues, then, lacks understanding, and his reasoning is unprofitable.

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I hope this is giving you some sort of hope, you know, as you see it, that the person that you're going to come across in your daily life is, if you understand the word of God, if you know it, he's no match for you.

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I don't care if, you know, if he's got 10 PhDs.

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If he's not a professed believer, if he doesn't acknowledge the authority of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, he's no match for the believer.

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You just have to believe that, and enact it with that confidence. In his mind, he is a child of wrath.

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His mind is at enmity with God. And he's unable to do

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God's will. That's Romans 8, 7.

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The mindset on the flesh is hostile to God. It doesn't obey

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God. It's not even able to do so. It is the sinner's intellectual assumptions, and operation, and competence, which are on trial in the apologetic encounter.

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Not the revelation of Christ. That's why we say, don't ever give up the position of strength.

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Don't ever back off the fact that the Scripture said it. It's true. Okay? And that's why you always have to put back and show that.

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What are you standing on? You're standing on the authority of God's word. A fortiori.

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Use that. Use it in a sentence by tomorrow afternoon. The rebel thinker walks according to his own thoughts, and is thus locked into the foolishness which proceeds from his heart.

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I always used to use my brother -in -law who was an avowed atheist. Grew up Roman Catholic, but then became an atheist.

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And this guy, you always hear preachers talking about when you're going to evangelize or do apologetics.

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My stubborn brother -in -law. I had one. All right. And so I had a lot of experience in doing it.

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And every time I'd get him, all right, just change the argument. Change the starting point.

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Don't let him get away with that, by the way. Since he departs from the faith, he unavoidably speaks falsehood and teaches demonic lies.

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That's exactly what the Apostle Paul says. Teaching as precepts of men, the doctrines of demons.

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Now, Bonson throws a little aside in here. These are harsh and unpopular words to modern ears. Yeah, they are.

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You start talking like this, and you're not going to, you know, you're going to have to go back to Dale Carnegie and win friends and influence people.

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Because people are not going to, people do not accept this type of argumentation, you know, graciously.

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Because contemporary apologists so often share the autonomy of secular thought, they're unwilling to indict its root foolishness.

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In other words, they have a vested interest in what they're saying. So trying to back them off it, it's not going to be easy.

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But it takes persistent, loving, bold, and compassionate argumentation.

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The thoroughgoing defectiveness, notice where he puts that, thoroughgoing defectiveness, and unrighteousness of non -Christian epistemology is overlooked by many in an attempt to gain a hearing and to show that compromise between intellectual self -sufficiency and soteriology depend on God is possible.

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What do we say to that? It's compromising, and you're going to lose your position.

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Don't ever, for the sake of, quote, intellectual acceptability or educational acceptability, yield on your positions of the authority of Scripture and of God's Word alone.

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However, it is impossible to evade the Bible's stringent indictment of unbelieving thought and its exposure of the unbeliever's foolishness.

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If you stick with it, it will always do that. The Word of God will lead you to indict unbelieving thought and expose the foolishness of the unbeliever's heart.

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The principal antithesis between Christian epistemology and apostate epistemology must be underscored.

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Over and over again, he comes back to the same point. Do not yield, underscore it, highlight it, put five exclamation points behind it.

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Sorry for English majors, I know that's a no -no, but do it anyway. In contrast to the man whose thoughts are vain, that's the non -believer, stands the man who is instructed out of God's law.

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No matter who it is that you're standing against, no matter how many degrees, credentials, how many universities they've taught in, you stand instructed in God's law and in contrast to the man whose thinking is vain, pure vanity.

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The Christian rejoices that he operates not according to fleshly wisdom but in diametric contrast.

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Diametric contrast, that leaves no wiggle room according to God's grace. I wanted to highlight that,

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I don't know why I didn't. Notice what the contrast, and this is the first time he's really brought in that concept, according to God's grace.

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You need God's grace in your apologetic methodology.

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What kind of apologetic, if it is not to share the autonomy of the unbelieving thought, can be successful in bringing the unbeliever to an understanding of the truth?

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What kind of apologetic can be successful? The answer is like faithful preaching and faithful defense of the gospel must be rooted in the word and the spirit.

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God can only be known by a voluntary revelation by the son and the spirit of God. Together they deal with man's ethical hostility to God's revelation and enable him to have a saving knowledge of his creator.

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Notice how he's putting it in here now. Right back to giving the gospel.

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It's so important. The understanding which the unbeliever lacks can only be provided when his mind has been opened and he has been convicted by the spirit of truth.

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In other words, what must be saved? The spirit continually witnesses to Christ conducting his case before the world as Christ's legal representative for the defense.

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He is our advocate. If you have the Holy Spirit as your advocate, how can you lose?

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That is the success of our apologetic depends on the work of the Holy Spirit. That's the whole purpose of this chapter.

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You know, in 1 Corinthians 1, it says, in the wisdom of God, man does not know God through wisdom, right?

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And the things of the spirit are spiritually discerned. The man in the flesh cannot know them. That's why when

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Jesus says, Peter, who do you say I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

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He says, blessed are you, Son of the Lord your God, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

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So it's the difference between information and revelage. So it's not,

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God's given everybody enough evidence to know him. Do we in our feeble minds think we're going to give them more evidence than God's given them to convince them?

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If God can't convince them, how can we? We just have to bear witness to what the scripture says and let the

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Holy Spirit do the work. And I think it's real important that we don't do it arrogantly because we sat in the same position.

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And these people, if we love people, we're going to want them to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved by God.

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So it's very important that we do this gently and with respect. Yes, absolutely. Ponson could have said it better himself.

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Moreover, only if the unbeliever comes to abide in Christ's word, can he have God and know the truth.

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Only if he abides in Christ's word. So again, we come back to apologetics.

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It's just another side of the coin of evangelism. Until he gains the mind of Christ, he's completely unable to know spiritual things.

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We all know that. I'm not going to get into that. Having the mind of Christ requires humility.

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No one can come to Christ with a proud heart. And thus, renunciation of self -sufficiency in order to obey the truth.

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One can only come to a knowledge of him who is truth when the son gains him understanding which is lacking.

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Here it comes back. I mean, here, Ponson is just saying it in such clear language.

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Don't, you can't divorce apologetics from your evangelism. And he closes with this paragraph.

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Therefore, the apologist is called upon to give a faithful witness to the truth rather than to attempt to approve on the

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Lord's wisdom by autonomous arguments. Being confident of his ability to challenge apostate thought, the believer must reason not according to the principles of secular thought but on the presupposed truth of God's word and looking to the power of his spirit to bring conviction, conversion, and understanding.

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A successful apologetic being given according to Christ's word and spirit is a function of the grace of God, not human cleverness and wisdom.