Sunday Night, July 12, 2020 PM

You guys are calling them to order. Well, as you're finding your way back to your seats, I encourage you to find your way over to 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles chapter 12. We're going to read a few verses out of that Old Testament book.

I don't know if you know this, but in the Tanakh, in the Torah, Nevi 'im, Ketuvim, Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, the scroll of Chronicles is the very last book. It's the one that they end with. And so we'll be in the first half of that scroll, known as 1 Chronicles, or as they say over across the pond, 1 Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 12. And we'll be reading some passages out of there, beginning in verse 22. But let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for gathering us here tonight. I thank you for the fellowship that we have.

And I pray that you would guide our discussion and our look at your word tonight. Ask that we would trust in your son, Jesus Christ, that he has been fully and helpfully, clearly, thoroughly declared to us in this holy word, these holy words that you have breathed out that are perfect for us, and that we would trust what you have to say to us, and apply the truths of your word to our everyday life, and that we would boldly and trustingly follow you as children would their heavenly father, and as sheep would their shepherd.

We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. 1 Chronicles chapter 12, we are hearing about the transition between the kingdom of Saul and the kingdom of David. Ever since God promised to tear the kingdom away from Saul, things have been unstable in the nation.

God, through his prophet Samuel, has anointed a replacement king, King David. And as we heard from 1 Samuel chapter 18, there was unrest between Saul and David. And that unrest was not only personal, but it became political to where there were those who were for Saul and those who were for David.

And then counted among those who were for David were Saul's own firstborn son, Jonathan. And it was a time of political unrest. It was a time in which not only was there a division within the kingdom, but there were invaders from without the kingdom pressing in.

It was a tumultuous time. It was a difficult time. But 1 Chronicles chapter 12 relates that in the middle of the conflict and the chaos and the danger and the uncertainty, we see God at work. We see God at work fulfilling his word concerning his anointed king, David.

So we begin in verses 22 through 23. This is simply an account of all of those who have come to support David and under what conditions they came. 1 Chronicles 12, 22 through 23. For day by day, men came to David to help him until there was a great army like the army of God.

Now, these are the numbers of the divisions equipped for war who came to David at Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord. And then follows a list of the tribes and the men who came from these certain tribes to support David.

And we read of the sons of Issachar, who gathered to recognize the lordship of God's anointed. And we read about the men of Zebulun, who supported David with an undivided heart. And as we read about these things, I think it would be appropriate.

I think it would be appropriate for our own minds and hearts to be activated in loyal courage to confess the royal authority of God's anointed, the son of David, and marshal our resources in unified aim to press the crown rights of Christ into every nook and cranny of our world.

Jesus said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And he said, go therefore and teach me. Teach the nations to keep all that I have commanded. That seems like a pretty clear mandate to let everybody know who's in charge, what he said, and therefore how we are to live.

So 1 Chronicles 12, 32 through 33. Here we read about Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Issachar, men who understood the times. So we have a need for it, isn't it? Men who understood the times with knowledge of what Israel should do, not only understanding what is going on, but understanding then what we ought to do.

And of course, what were they there to do? But to anoint David as king, to recognize his authority. Their chiefs were 200, and all their kinsmen were at their command. Of Zebulun, there were 50 ,000 who went out in the army, who could draw up in battle formation with all kinds of weapons of war, and helped David with an undivided heart.

Now, what was the end result of all these people supporting God's anointed? What was the result of them submitting under his authority? What is the outcome of this wholehearted confession of God's king as king?

Well, we see that in the conclusion of the chapter, verses 38 through 40. All these, being men of war, who could draw up in battle formation, came to Hebron with a perfect heart, meaning whole, not divided.

It might go with a whole heart. They were all agreed on this. To make David king over all Israel, and all the rest also of Israel were of one mind to make David king. They were there with David three days, eating and drinking, for their kinsmen had prepared for them.

Moreover, those who were near to them, even as far as Issachar, and Zebulun, and Naphtali, brought food on donkeys, camels, mules, and on oxen, great quantities of flour cakes, fig cakes, and bunches of raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep.

There was joy indeed in Israel. You see, when the people unite under God's anointed ruler, and with one heart, say, he's the king, and the result is joy. The result is joy. And the sons of Issachar knew the times.

They understood the times. And they knew what they were supposed to do. And that was to make sure that God's anointed was indeed reigning. And their friends, their cousins of Zebulun, were there with undivided heart.

Well, I find this chapter to be convictional, practical, hope-filled. I think the attitude of Issachar, and the loyalty of Zebulun, to be an example for us. And that's why I've titled the study, We're Going to Have the Sons of Issachar.

I think as we submit to the authority of Christ, and press his authoritative claims, with wisdom and unity, onto everything, we will know joy. And I think that as we understand the times, this is not so that we will grow in fear, or grow in hopelessness, that we will not act in any kind of cowardice, or we would not accept any kind of bribe.

But we are to understand the times, so that we may know what to do, to exalt Christ, and see his victory, and know his joy. So we're gonna talk about those things in coming weeks. Now you may have heard some of the following terms.

As of late, the last year, last two years, some of you for the last three or four years, you have been paying attention to these matters. And you may have heard some of the following terms. Social justice, woke, identity politics, privilege, diversity, inclusivity, equity, that's an acronym spelled DI, diversity, inclusivity, equity.

Gender identity, intersectionality, microaggressions, triggered, oppressor, oppressed, whiteness, patriarchy, and you can probably list some other ones. Did I miss one, or several dozen? You can just shout out one I missed.

If you were waiting on it, I didn't say it. Now if you haven't heard the terms, if you haven't heard these terms, you have certainly seen the changes. Things called safe spaces, men winning women's sports, new types of bathrooms, drag queen story hour, Antifa beating up Asians in the name of being against fascism.

Rioters destroying cities. Police, civil leaders, and shame-ridden light-skinned folks kneeling before darker-skinned folks. Sports events promise to become worship services of the new religion. All manner of people are declaring the Fourth of July to be heresy.

Statues everywhere are being torn down. There's even an account of the statue of an elk in Oregon that was just brutally desecrated. Down with elks. Someone asked me, why did they burn an elk? Because it was there.

Now this madness, and it is a madness, this madness is not safely contained outside of the church. Many of the notions I've just described are presently taught and pushed in synthesized forms through Christian media, Christian publications, seminaries, and in the pulpit.

And we'll study some of that in coming lessons. But my goal for these lessons is to equip all of us to take up the word of God, take up the scriptures ourselves, and give an apologetic answer, a defense, a reasoned biblical defense, an apologetic answer and solution to our pagan countrymen, and also give a polemic answer and solution to the paganized Christians whom we know and whom we are concerned about.

So tonight I want to preview an approach. What is our approach in this? It's tonight's introduction. Next week, as the Lord wills, Josiah's gonna be preaching to us from Hebrews 1. It's a good passage to stimulate our faith and reliance upon Christ, preeminent in all things.

The following Sunday evening, July 26, we're gonna start working through a curriculum which I believe you're gonna find clarifying, practical, and hope-filled. That's the aim. And the outline we're gonna use tonight, we're gonna use in coming weeks.

We'll have the same outline every time, but we're gonna be talking about specific terms or specific ideas, and then we're going to approach those matters in a biblical way. And I hope to come out on the other end every night with an understanding of our hope, and as the sons of Isikar, not only to understand the times, but also that we know what to do.

Okay, so that's the goal. So the outline is gonna be the same every time. First of all, we're gonna deal with our convictions, our convictions, as we consider what does the Word of God have to say about any one of these given topics?

And then we're gonna talk about our approach, where we actually apply an apologetic or a polemic, where we walk through how to answer those that we would understand to be in disagreement with the Word of God.

And then finally conclude with our hope, in which we're talking about how is it by following Christ that we will see His victory? So we begin with our convictions. And so tonight, because it's introduction, I want us to begin by thinking about the nature of the fight that is going on and the needs of the fighter.

And to point out that every week, we will be studying a passage or passages of Scripture, which will help us establish our non-negotiable convictions from which to proceed. So the key to understanding issues, the key to understanding issues like social justice or systemic racism or statism, the key to Jezebel in our seminaries and Baal in our pulpits is not found in the papers, it's not found in the news, it's not found in the blogs, it's not found in the posts or the tweets or the academy or in the militia, but it's found in the Bible.

It's found in the Bible. As we submit to Christ's authority manifest in all the Scriptures, we will find His Word to be sufficient for our faith and practice. Let's begin with the nature of the fight.

And for that, let's turn over in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 2 Corinthians 10. I'll be reading verses one through six. 2 Corinthians 10 verses one through six. The non-negotiable starting point for all of this is that we need to understand the times in which we live and then know what to do from the Scriptures, from the Scriptures.

The Scriptures are sufficient for all of our faith and practice. They are wise to lead us to salvation. They are God-breathed, profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

We are not born again by perishable seed, but by imperishable, and that is the Word that was preached to us. And so we have our non-negotiable starting point in the Word of God. Now let's consider the nature of the fight, the nature of the fight.

2 Corinthians 10, one through six. Now I, Paul, myself urge you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold towards you when absent, I ask that when I am present, I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations, and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.

And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. Now, if we are going to adopt this new Christian biker gang name, Sons of Issachar, it is not so that we would puff ourselves up with knowledge.

Understanding what the word of God says about any given matter is important. Having a clear handle on the word of God about any particular issue is important, but it's not merely for a refuge, not merely for a refuge, but also for staging successful raids upon the enemy, for establishing Christ's dominion and accomplishing the destruction of enemy strongholds as we see here in 2 Corinthians.

What are we doing? We are making war, notice, against every notion, every speculation raised up against the knowledge of God. When speculations are raised up against the knowledge of God, we don't say, not my business, right?

Can't get involved. We are to relentlessly take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, which means we are to taser and cuff every thought raging against Christ's authority. And that, of course, begins with our own personal selves.

If we're going to be doing this in our lives, wherever we go, whatever we're reading, whoever we're conversating with, that, of course, must begin with ourselves. The nature of the fight, we see, is there in 2 Corinthians, and the needs of the fighter are listed for us in 1 Peter 3, 13 through 16, which is a very similar passage dealing with the same notions.

So it's 1 Peter 3, 13 through 16. Since the nature of the fight is one in which we are refuting, refusing, destroying, taking down the speculations against the knowledge of God, the fortresses that are the ideas and the teachings and the false systems being promoted by those who are in rebellion to Christ, what then do we need personally?

Well, we need to be zealous and courageous. We should be ready to suffer. Each one of us should personally confess and submit to Christ as Lord. When Christ is supreme as our authority, that is when we are ready to make a defense to anyone about the hope that we have in Christ.

1 Peter 3, 13 through 16. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.

And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. We'll be returning to these two passages as we make our way through this study because we need to be reminded of the nature of the fight and the needs of the fighter.

And there are other passages which can help us with that as well. Convictionally, we must begin with Christ's authority as expressed in his word. And throughout our study, as we establish our convictions according to scripture, we then submit our thinking to the truth and authority of Christ.

I was thinking the other day, I was reflecting on the way in which God has given us his word. How often it is in the cults that there is some flash in the pan for the man, and then he holds forth this incoherent revelation to which all must follow.

How contrasted is the word of God that was written over a 1 ,500-year time period on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 different authors, all cohering in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So it is that as we take up the word of God, we are not reading, as we use the analogy of scripture and look back and forth, we are not reading something that's a flash in the pan, and who knows what it might mean.

1 ,500 years span from Moses writing down what happened at the beginning of time, as he's writing there in Acacia Grove in the shadow of Mount Peor, next to the Jordan River, from the time that he's writing down Genesis to the time that John is writing down the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Isle of Patmos.

1 ,500 years, and we've moved through all of this history from one language to the next, and when we take up the word of God then and we compare it with itself, we have all of the context we need to understand what any given word means, what any given passage means.

We are not left to some dismal, post-modern dystopia where nobody can ever know anything for sure anymore, though I don't know how they would know that for sure. So our approach, and I probably picked this up from someone, and if you discover where it came from, please let me know, because it was just kind of tumbling around in my brain, but our approach, I'm going to use an acrostic, spelling cross, the word cross, C-R-O-S-S, and I find this to be a helpful approach to any one of these matters.

If you are confronted with an article about systemic racism, or you're speaking with somebody about the virtues of transgenderism, and so on and so forth, whatever the issue is, this is a good approach to take.

The C in the acrostic is clarify terms. Clarify terms. You will discover, if you have not already, that the deception, confusion, and unprofitability of many confrontations all stem from one factor. We're all using the same vocabulary, but we have different dictionaries.

And so it is very important that we define terms, clarify terms. Now definitions are high stakes. The highest possible stakes are definitions, which, out of all of the news that I have heard in the last month, the absolute most disturbing news that I have heard is the rate at which the dictionaries are being rewritten.

That is the most disturbing news. Out of everything else that has happened, it's the rate at which the dictionaries are being rewritten. Because definitions are the highest stake. Garden of Eden, exile, and death, eternal life kinds of stake, when we talk about definitions.

Adam and Eve's power grab was one in which they sought to control the definition of good and evil. And that is the reason why God exiled them from the garden. God defines the terms by his own existence and attributes, and he suffers no rival.

And so we have to clarify the terms. When somebody uses a term, we think we might know what it means, but let's not make that assumption. Even when somebody uses a term that comes out of the Bible, and they'll say a term like justice, or gospel, or salvation, or peace, or even if they use the word God, we must not assume that they have the same definition for that vocabulary word that we do.

They may not at all be in agreement with the faith that has been handed down once for all to the saints. We have to clarify terms not only in what somebody else means, but clarify what we believe about these terms.

Have we actually clarified in our own minds what does it mean when the Bible speaks about justice? What does the Bible mean when it talks about peace? We need to clarify these terms for our own hearts, for our own souls, that we'll be able to know what the word of God says, worship God because of how he reveals himself, and engage in profitable discussion with others.

So we have to clarify terms. This does not mean that you're gonna get somebody to agree with you or agree with the Bible about any given term. It's just important to clarify what they mean by it. If you're reading an article, and they keep using a term, you need to see if you can, see if you can understand how they're using that term.

And if they don't provide the definition in the article, you have to go somewhere else and to see if they've defined it in some of their other writings, and so on. You're going to have to, rather than just take these terms at face value, you're gonna have to find out what kind of definitions are being used.

And that will be an important first step. And we're gonna be doing that in our study. We're gonna take the terms, and we'll think about how these things are being defined. After you understand the terms being used, let's say somebody has, using the term whiteness, and they've given the definition for it, it is time then for the second part of the acrostic.

After you've clarified terms, now it's time to run the reductio, as they say. This is essentially presenting the law of God to the sinner, the authority of Christ to the rebel. If any of you have watched Way of the Master with Ray Comfort, he keeps on running into all these people, and they all claim a similar thing.

I'm a good person. And to which Ray Comfort then runs the reductio ad absurdum to see, does that really hold up? And then they end up in absurdity. They claim they're a good person, and then he uses the law of God, the commandments.

He doesn't even go through all 10. And by the time they're done, they've admitted that they're an adulterer, lying, thief, blasphemer, but I'm a good person. And that's called running the reductio, where someone has made a claim, but it doesn't match up with truth, and I'm gonna help you see that, you see?

And in that regard, we're going to be doing something very similar. The prophets did that with idolaters. Christ did it with Pharisees. The apostles did it with false teachers. So it's a biblical approach.

And we are to do so with gentleness, Peter says. The goal is not simply to ridicule. And with reverence. We should not be loose with our words, but fear the Lord, Peter says. So what we are to do is to take the definition offered to us as someone clarifies their terms, to take that definition and see if it holds up to biblical scrutiny.

If it's self-contradictory, it's a lie. If the concept is sinful, is it guilty of partiality? Is it guilty of idolatry? Does it bear false witness against neighbors? Is it a covetous type of concept?

Take the word, the term, whatever the issue is, and see if it holds up according to the scriptures, according to the word of God. So C-R-O. O is for offer Christ. We must, in submission to Christ, offer him as the hope for whatever concern is expressed.

He is the savior of the world. Sociology is not the savior of the world. Science is not the savior of the world. The state is not the savior of the world. Jesus Christ is. Now, so as this person is using their term and pushing their narrative, what is their concern?

Are they concerned about the poor? Are they concerned about personal guilt? Are they concerned about missions and evangelism? Are they concerned about the testimony of the church? Are they concerned about the flourishing of all mankind?

Idolatry abounds where God is not feared. Idolatry abounds where God is not feared. And we are to teach the nations obedience to Christ as Lord and savior. So we are to offer Jesus Christ to them as their hope.

And going through the reductio has already shown their need for Christ. Now, when I say offer Christ, I do not mean at all that we are to morph the concept of Christ into whatever they desire him to be.

That's not at all what we are to do. If we have biblically clarified the terms that we're dealing with, and if we have run the reductio to the glory of God, then we will be offering Christ as he is revealed, not as he is reinvented.

So someone says they're concerned with justice. But once biblically defined, true justice is revealed and accomplished and established in Jesus Christ. And therefore any ungodly vision of justice is broken across the cornerstone of Christ and crushed beneath it.

It may then appear that what they really wanted is not justice at all, but a form of guilt alleviating redistributive statism. At which point you are free to call them to repent of self-righteousness and covetousness, partiality, and accessory to theft.

And find forgiveness and cleansing in the person and work of Jesus Christ and hope in his everlasting reign. So there's offering Christ as their hope. And the two S's is just stick with the scriptures.

Stick with the scriptures. Now, sticking with the scriptures is important, and it is greater than, far, far, far greater than your statistics and your stories. When we're having these conversations with folks as we're trying to clarify terms, what are you saying when you mean this?

Here's what I believe the Bible is saying, and here's why. So we're trying to clarify terms. As we run the reductio to see just really where does your idea end up, as we offer Christ as savior and as Lord, we need to stick with the scriptures.

Stick with the scriptures. Statistics and stories, we have a lot of them. We have a lot of them. But those who, for instance, would be huge fans, say, of critical race theory, they have statistics and stories as well.

And simply swapping a bunch of statistics back and forth, or stories, anecdotes, I know a person who, right? And we throw those back and forth. Everybody has statistics, everybody has stories. This is the same problem with, in debating creation versus evolution, many times the creationist will have all of these, all this data, and they launch their data at the evolutionist, and the evolutionist has all their data, and they launch all their data at the creationist, and then everybody feels like they're validated and the other person is badly interpreting the data.

What we need to do is to get down below the stories and the statistics to find out why that set of statistics and why those stories are so important to them. Why are they so important to you? R .C. Sproul tells the story about Fred, the man who woke up and he was dead.

And he told his wife that he had died, and his children too, and they were greatly alarmed. And he said, here I am, I'm dead. And they couldn't get him to go to work, they couldn't get him to do anything, and so finally they took him to a psychologist who could not convince him otherwise.

He says, you need to go see a doctor. And so he took him to the doctor, and the doctor had an idea, and he said, Fred, do dead men bleed? I mean, their heart's not beating, so do dead men bleed? And Fred said, well, of course they don't bleed, because the heart's not pumping.

He says, do you mind if I prick your finger? I mean, after all, you are dead, so you shouldn't have objection to me pricking your finger. And he said, no, that's fine. And so he pricked Fred's finger, and out comes this blood, he's bleeding.

And then Fred said, oh, what do you know? Dead men do bleed. Because he is starting with his presupposition, what he is already believing and committed to, and then all the other data is only about supporting that.

And so that's why we need to stick with the scriptures. And in fact, your stories and your statistics will be sidelined as just one more proof that systemic injustice, for instance, exists. Hey, look, the system churns out evidence to support its continued oppression.

And in fact, the fact that you use evidence which is thought to disprove the claims of the oppressed actually just confirms how racist and prejudiced and bigoted you are, which is called the CAFTA trap, and we'll get into that later.

So stick with the scriptures. Now, when you do that, they may reject scripture as authoritative, but you should never agree with them. They may say, well, I don't think that the Bible has any authority in this area.

That doesn't mean you agree with them, right? I mean, Jesus Christ has authority in all areas. So finally, after we follow that approach, cross, C-R-O-S-S, we're gonna be talking about our hope each week.

After examining the scriptures to define our convictions, after applying our approach in an apologetic and a polemical manner, we're gonna examine our hope in Christ. What hope do we have now? And what hope do we have in the not yet?

And how can we practically live now to bring about good to Christ's glory? How can we, by God's grace, through Christ's authority in the Spirit's power, advance the kingdom of God? We're gonna talk about that.

What do we do? We don't only have to sit back and say, my oh my, how awful that looks. We are called in the Great Commission to do something, and we're gonna talk about what that looks like as we deal with these issues.

So that's our introduction. Any questions or thoughts before we sing the doxology and close? Okay, a polemic is different from apologetic only in that the polemic looks inward. The apologetic is looking outward.

An apologetic might be, here's the defense of the faith to an atheist or a Buddhist. A polemic is looking inward. Here is a defense to someone at a Southern Baptist seminary teaching liberation theology.

That would be looking inward at the group.

Any other questions? Yes, I think we'll find it very encouraging.

How plainly the scripture speaks, and then I think we'll even be encouraged about how many of the stories of the scriptures can be so handy to our discussions with others to help clarify matters in the sight of God.

So I'm looking forward to our time, and again, we'll begin going through this outline concerning particular hot-button issues the last Sunday evening of July, so in two weeks. So during that time, if you have some questions or concerns that you would really say, I would really like to hear more about this particular topic, this particular debate, then let me know, email me, give me a little note or something, and I'll make sure that it ends up on the agenda for the upcoming sessions.

All right, well, let's close by singing the doxology together.