Practical Apologetics (part 1) - [1 Peter 3:15]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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A loving and gracious Father, we thank you, Lord, for this morning. Help us,

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Lord, as we open your word to hear from you, to apply your words in our lives, to be transformed by it, and to be salt and light in this world.

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In Christ's name we pray, amen. Yes, I'm doing something wrong.

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No. Oh, I have this. Not all of it was my breathlessness then.

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So today's, actually, we're going to do a mini -series, three weeks in practical apologetics.

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So if I hear a collective sigh of, oh, not again, hopefully it's a little different than what we've been doing.

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I've done Sunday school, IBS, evening services, and it's like, can we be done with apologetics already?

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We will cover some old material, because I know there are some new folks here who may not know some of the things

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I've taught before, what we teach here at BBC. But more importantly, it's not a theoretical class.

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It's going to be primarily practical. And the goal is to help you or equip you to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

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So as you meet unbelievers, as people talk with you, ask you questions, hopefully these three weeks will help you be prepared in your mind, in your heart, in terms of how you can honor

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God and give them an answer from the scriptures. But let me begin by asking a question.

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So if I, and show of hands, please, so you can raise your hands. If I asked, how many of you right now are prepared to come up here and maybe discuss apologetics or discuss the subject of apologetics with the church, you know, answering questions from the church, how many of you will feel comfortable doing that?

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Good, I see a few hands. And that's good. You know, I want people to say, okay, I'm comfortable with this idea, even though maybe scary.

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Now, let me change the question a little bit more. Instead of discussing with a group of friendly

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Christians, I hope, this morning, you're not going to come up here and you're going to be talking with an unbeliever, maybe an atheist who comes and says,

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I don't believe in God. So you now have to talk to an unbeliever rather than just discuss with Christians. How many of you will feel comfortable doing that?

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I actually see more hands. Okay. So you're more scared of the believers than the unbelievers.

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That's okay. Now, you know, let's say you're on national television and you're not just talking to any unbeliever.

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You're talking to, I don't know, Christopher Hitchens or someone. Well, it's kind of hard to talk to him now, but you know, when he was here and when he was in his prime, um, you know, he was an unbeliever.

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His brother is a believer, but he would just, he had a skill with words and he could easily just tie you up, throw you down.

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He didn't need a lot of effort to do that, but you know, you're still called. How many of you would feel comfortable doing that on national television?

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I see one, two. Okay, good. My goal in this three week series is kind of to help look at apologetics a little differently.

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So we, this whole fear thing that comes, I mean, I, I'll be the first,

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I've done a PhD in apologetics, but the first time someone comes and talks to me, my heart just goes, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

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My brain just goes blank. And then I'm like, okay, calm down, see what you can do.

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And not, it doesn't always end well, but confession, um, so, um, but how are we called by God to respond to unbelievers?

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And that's basically the theoretical thrust that will come along. And from the practical side, uh,

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I'm going to, I have a few examples of what kind of questions you might get, but rather than then use those as a primer,

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I'd prefer if you engage with, I mean, summertime, you meet with a lot of people.

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Some of them are unbelievers. Some of them ask you questions or, you know, as you give them the gospel, there are more things that come up.

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If there are questions that you actually receive and you're thinking, okay, here's how I'm normally responding.

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Maybe I should, I do differently, or I don't know what to do with this type of question. I'd like us to bring those questions up and then engage with them.

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So we look at it and say, you know, what's a biblical model, a biblical worldview.

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I'm going to use that a lot from pastor Bowman. Actually, I'm standing here instead, so I better be allied with this teaching.

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Worldview is such a powerful, powerful concept when we realize we're not just dealing with one issue, but with the system of thought, the way in which the whole thing comes together.

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So hopefully we'll deal with those questions and answer them. And you'll get some, not just a biblical awareness of what apologetics ought to be, but a lot of confidence knowing that you're not just doing it on the basis of your intellect, on the basis of the data that you have.

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In fact, I printed out some of the material that I might use here. The reason I printed it out is, although I've studied all these for many years,

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I can't remember 95 % of them. And that's a fact. I'm very poor with memory.

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I remember only those things that I keep rereading all the time. And the one thing I keep rereading all the time is this, not that, because I need to make sure that the gospel is what is first and foremost in my mind.

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So I don't have all this data in my head like some of the apologists do.

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So let me now ask a second question. I kind of gave part of the answer away. But the second question is, when you think of apologetics, which of these two terms comes first into your mind?

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Philosophy, theology, which word comes into your mind? Let me look for a show of hands again.

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Philosophy. How many of you think of philosophy when I say apologetics? I know

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I'm at BBC when I ask this question and I get this answer. How many of you think theology when I say this?

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Excellent. Now, philosophy is what we would call a handmaiden of theology.

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The right way up would be theology gives you the foundation upon which you can use sound thinking, sound reasoning principles from which to build upon.

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But if you think, you know, I need to be R .C. Sproul, well, some of you know he's not just a theologian, but also a philosopher.

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Or I need to be, you know, I don't know, William Lane Craig. You know, I have a Ph .D.

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in physics and math and everything else to answer an unbeliever. Then most of us are not qualified.

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So we're going to look at how theology should undergird our thinking. And it is not just I need education in philosophy before I can do apologetics.

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Sadly, most of the contemporary apologetics tend to emphasize the philosophical aspect that we tend to get intimidated by it.

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Oh, I'm not a philosopher. Who can I, who am I to talk to an atheist or a Muslim?

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So with that, let's just turn to the text. And this is the one text we're going to be looking at for the next three weeks. For these three weeks, including today.

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Let's first read at 315, which is the, which I would call the central text on apologetics. But it's, we have a few other texts too.

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We might get to them later in our time together. Uh, first Peter three 15, but I want to read from verse 13 to 17.

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Actually, if someone can read that out loud, first Peter chapter three, 13 to 17.

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Who can read that? Thanks, Tom. 13 to 17.

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Thank you. Um, I'm not going to spend too much time, but I want to just give you the context and then we'll get into the practice practice.

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So if you look at first Peter, first Peter is the written to believers who are suffering persecution.

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How do you respond to it? So you can see this thing begins and ends with suffering. Here's what happens to us when trials come your way.

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Um, how are due to respond, act, do what is right, do what is good, you know?

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So you don't get in trouble because you did something bad and then you are receiving the consequence for it.

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So irrespective of what the trial is, make sure Peter saying, you know, that you do what is right.

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So was 13 and 14, uh, suffer for righteousness sake. You're blessed, which is, you know, it's actually, uh,

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James one, uh, first Peter one, um, Paul talks about it.

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It's always there. It's when you are counted all joy, when you. Into various trials.

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And because there is a purpose in these things. And when you do what is pleasing to God, it is actually joyful. We don't run away from them.

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We need to be thankful for them. So again, I'm applying this specifically in the context of apologetics.

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So when you run into trial, people revile you abuse you for the sake of the gospel, make sure it is because you're doing what is right and not because you threw a stone at verbally or otherwise.

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Um, so you want to make sure that, and, and I think, you know, we, sometimes we talk about the proclamation of the gospel and the living of the gospel.

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And, you know, there are some who are so afraid of proclaiming that they think living is all there is to it. And on the other hand, we can go to the other extreme of saying,

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I just say the truth, I mean, the gospel saves, right? Not my life. So I can do whatever I want.

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And that's, I think a wrong dichotomy. The gospel needs to, um, permeate our lives.

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That is actually demonstrable, but in this particular case of suffering, and especially in the context of apologetics, let's make sure that our lives, our words, our actions, our thinking, everything reflects, uh, the righteousness of Christ rather than we do something wrong and receive the consequence.

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Now we're 15 is the main one. And, uh, there it says honor Christ, the Lord is holy. And I think that's a key text because the whole purpose of apologetics, actually, let me ask a question here.

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Can somebody tell me, okay. And I give the answers before the question, this is just not going well. Uh, but anyway, pretend you didn't hear what

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I said the last minute, but what do you think is the purpose of apologetics the way you, oh, well, let me, how, what do people normally think the purpose of apologetics is?

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Okay. So the Bible comes under attack and so you defend it. Charlie gives those great answers.

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And actually there's a, there's a component to that, that we normally don't think of there is a, um, role for apologetic for believers.

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In fact, Luther, uh, emphasize this whole thing where we give reasons and those reasons make a lot of sense to believers.

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So if, if you have a young believer who doesn't understand, uh, creation, he's seeing evolution all the time.

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And when you understand what creation really is from the Bible, when you understand how without a foundation evolution really is, it actually bolsters the faith of this young person to say, okay, you know, everybody in my school may believe in evolution, but there are good reasons for the faith that I have in Christ.

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It's not that I just believe in some empty, uh, walkers, uh, thought I it's like,

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I, I'm like this chicken that just has this, uh, idea that I think is true, but I cannot justify it.

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You want to know that apologetics has that inward focus as well for the body. It actually helps us a lot.

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Uh, but the focus for us, this three weeks will be primarily outward. And our goal is that we don't anger, uh, sinfully.

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I think, you know, the, uh, there can be angry responses, but as long as we are doing what is right, I think that is, that is fine.

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Thank you. Uh, any other reasons for apologetics? Excellent.

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Contender honestly for the faith now, um, again, within the church context of heresies coming in or within, whereas the world tries to come into the church.

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And I think one issue, maybe we'll deal with this a few times as this whole, um, homosexual marriage and how it's not just going to be an issue in the world, but it's going to try to, um, come into the church to say, you know, what does the church stand for and is that violating certain laws?

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And so, you know, how do we contend for the faith about Christ, about the things that Christ, um, uh, declares to be true and how do we do this in a winsome way?

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So we're going to find all those things coming together. But, uh, when I think of apologetics, I think of the person who

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I'm meeting, right? So the person I'm meeting with has a disagreement. It could be mild.

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It's like, you know, I don't know much about Christianity or it could be very strong and say, you know, I hate

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Christianity. How dare you believe in this Christ who says X, Y, and Z. And our response is to give a reason for the hope that is in us.

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You know, here is why I believe in Christ. Here is who the Christ is that I worship. Now, when we do this, if, if justice with the evangelism, if I'm thinking my goal is, uh, this person getting saved, which is a good goal, but if that's the primary goal, then

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I think I'm going to be up for a lot of trouble because a, I can't save that person. B, they can't save themselves.

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It is God who must save that person. So when we do evangelism, we say we want to be faithful to God in proclaiming the gospel.

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So we want to find ways to be honoring Christ, um, with, with the desire that they would get saved, but that does not our primary goal.

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So if I'm faithfully proclaiming it, then I honor Christ and that's what God is looking for in evangelism.

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And likewise, in apologetics, if we look at honoring Christ, the

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Lord as holy in our heart, if, if I say, okay, I, here is this guy who's just attacked me.

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I'm going to get back at him with the greatest arguments that this guy is just going to get steamrolled. Of course

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I can do that, but that misses the point completely. It's not about me defending myself against the attack that has come, but rather, uh, giving a reason, uh, the word, uh, defense is what is apologia.

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You know, it is to give a, um, vindication. It is to give reasons that are cogent that explain why you hold to what you hold, but the crux of all of this is not just the great argument that you give.

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But rather than you do it with a Godward focus to honor Christ and to exalt him in the exchange that happens.

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So, um, so the first and foremost aspect of apologetics that you want to remember is we want to honor

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Christ the Lord as holy the exchange. If some third party person is supposed to look at it should say this

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Christian. Communicated, you know, maybe he wasn't the, he didn't have all of this in his head, you know, he probably just had a little bit of data, but he tried to communicate it, not like that, um, in a way that would be honoring to God, uh, in, in the words and the actions that, that came about.

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And of course we want to try to give good reasons, you know, uh, and we will get to that in a minute.

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The second part of it is in the end of verse 15, do it with gentleness and respect, and that is a command there because, um, those of you who engaged with, uh, unbelievers in a more hostile context can see, you know, we're not glorified, we are still being sanctified.

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So as someone attacks what we hold dear, it's easy for the flesh to just rise up. I mean,

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I know I used to think I'm pretty even keeled when I'm dealing with strangers, you know,

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I can, I can hold my, I have self -control fruit of the spirit, you know, anger is one of those things

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I can deal with when I'm dealing with, um, strangers for the sake of the gospel, but it is, it's easy to get riled up and, uh, when you're, especially when you get heated and they attack you attack, what you attack

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Christ, it's, um, gentleness and respect are one of the two of those things that go out the door. So, uh, so when we look at, so when we look at the other person, this is one of the commands as part of apologetics is we need to be intentional.

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If I'm starting to get on gentle and disrespectful, then, you know, maybe the time has kind of come to step back and then take a deep breath and then maybe do more before you come back and engage with this person, because we want to be respectful and gentle as we honor the

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Lord and we, uh, engage with this other person. So with that, let me stop because I think

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I've been talking too much. Uh, let me show you this tool. My daughter just built this morning.

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Some of you can't probably see the signs on it. Um, so if you ask questions, um, from, uh, that you really have, my goal here is not just to give you all these answers.

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My goal rather is to help us, not just specifically you, but us as a body think through what is the biblical way to engage with those types of questions.

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And more importantly, with people who raise those types of questions and what would be a godly model, a biblical model with which we can respond, give them a biblical worldview and address the concerns that they have.

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And you're going to see how the gospel comes in this. But if you don't ask me any questions, then

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I'm going to put on this silly looking hat and pretend that I'm an unbeliever. And then you will have to give me answers for the questions

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I have. So we'll then turn the tables around and figure out how such an engagement will go.

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And then of course, I'll take that off and then we'll deal with what went wrong and what went right and what the biblical way to answer is.

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So let me stop here. Um, and let me see if anybody has any questions that you recently received or, um, that are troubling.

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Let's maybe pick them up and then we will use them practically to get into the theory of apologetics.

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So anybody have any questions that you may be recently faced from unbelievers?

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Okay. We got two. I've got father, son, son is differing to father and let's go first and then we'll come next year.

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Yes. Excellent.

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So here's a person who knows something about the Bible that Jesus explicitly, is there a red letter word of Jesus in the

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Bible that Jesus said, I did not, you know, this is a sin. Is there, do we do?

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Okay. Charlie knows. Does anybody, everybody else here know that Jesus didn't say in red letters that homosexuality is not a sin.

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Okay. And, and, and that's part of the thing. You know, there are things here that I may not know. Someone comes and tells me,

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Jesus never said, I was like, I'm sure Jesus said somewhere. I just don't know where it is. It's like, I don't know where it is.

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That's okay. But, but the answer is true. There is no explicit, uh, identification of homosexuality by Jesus.

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That is recorded for us in the scriptures. Steve Nelson. Excellent.

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So go ahead, Charlie. Excellent. Thank you. So Matthew 10,

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Matthew 11 and okay. Um, yeah.

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And many of you know, the context of where Jesus was talking about this passage of comparing

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Sodom and Gomorrah and also, uh, Steve Nelson. So I think, you know, let's take those two examples first.

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So, uh, the, what you probably should be thinking about is in those two examples, these two men gave, uh, scriptures that we probably knew about already, but we didn't always connect with this specific question that we were, we normally get, you know, here's an issue on homosexuality.

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It's like, okay, I did a Google search in my, or, you know, what a word search in my Bible thing and homosexuality, that letter didn't come together.

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I don't know if you can do that search, but, uh, uh, but, but the thing is that our context in which Jesus talked about marriage, he talked about the

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God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, of course, you know, they'll, you'll probably get another question on Sodom and Gomorrah next, but at least you need to know your word well enough in order to be able to explain what is happening.

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So let's say you didn't know anything. You come into this and you say, okay, what, you know, I don't know what you just asked me.

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Let me go and read the Bible and I'll get back to you. You know, that'd be a fair enough answer. Don't try to make up things because I don't think that a lot of Christ, but when you do know the scriptures, here is a good way to help the person look at the scripture in a, in a more wholesome way than just that one narrow thing that he asked.

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And you can say, okay, he didn't explicitly use the term homosexuality, but here is what he talked about marriage. And the assumption underlying marriage was it was always between one man and a one woman.

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And so even though it was in the context of, um, divorce that this, uh, words were spoken, the implication is it is, it is talking primarily about man and woman.

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So, you know, it's not a direct response, but it is an indirect, um, um, application of what

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Jesus said to this particular area. And I think what Charlie said is actually even more stronger in the sense, you know, here is what

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Jesus actually used that, um, specific condemnation of Christ, of, of God against this nation that was given up to homosexuality or homosexual abuse.

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And, uh, and then it's not like Jesus never talked about it, but let's say these are the only two things that Jesus said, uh, would that be sufficient?

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You think? No, no, let me, let me back up a bit. Uh, part of the thing that, uh, first Peter three 15 says is, um, make, be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that you have.

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So, you know, the, the fundamental hope is the gospel and that gospel touches all parts of our life.

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It's not that my, the hope that I have is that, you know, homosexuality is a sin. You know, that's not the core belief that holds me up.

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It is that Jesus is Lord. I'm a sinner desperately need. He has redeemed me. He is the savior of the world.

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That's what the core is. That's the hope he's coming back and he, this person needs to hear, but hear about this, but this trust in Christ touches all areas of my life.

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So if I was a, uh, former homosexual, then I, that area of my life is touched by Christ and it is changed by Christ and therefore it is impacted.

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And, and so I'm not going to let go of this issue as a non -issue. It is something that God cares about.

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And I need to be able to give a reason that makes sense rather than just say, okay, be warm, be, be fed and figure it out yourself.

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Um, yes, Russ. Excellent. In fact, Jesus talks about, you know, not one jot or tittle, you know, he doesn't nullify the old

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Testament at all. And it's not just the oldest. We also have new Testament scriptures talking about, like I said, 66 books.

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So, um, part of the question here is to understand who is talking to you.

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You know, you could have someone, I mean, many of the people I talk to, they would just Google this and there's plenty of websites that'll give you five different things to talk to Christians when they talk to you about, so they may not even know that Jesus never said, they just said they've never read the

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Bible, but they may say, this is what it is. Or you could have someone who's a Bible scholar who gave up the faith and then said, you know,

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I'm, I know everything about the scriptures and this is where I'm coming from. So depending on where they are coming from, you'll need to be able to, uh, try to respond to them in terms of where their need is.

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And I'm going to make the, uh, comment that the need is not primarily or solely, um, that of the mind, because our goal, you know, for believers,

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Romans 12, one and two, part of the, um, sanctification that we have, the way our lives is is transformed is by the renewing of our mind.

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As we think God's word and God's truth after him, that impacts the way we live.

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Our life changes as the spirit of God changes and transforms us. And, uh, the role of the mind is important for the unbeliever as well.

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They need to understand the gospel before they can submit to it, but it is not purely an issue of ignorance or lack of knowledge that we deal with, but rather like Romans one would say, you know, there is a willful suppression of the truth in the unbeliever.

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That's what all of us did before the Lord changed us. So our goal is not merely or solely that of the mind, but also that of the heart.

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Um, the question is, you know, the most unbelievers come about it as, okay,

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I put this on the dock and it fails the test. And what they don't realize is they are the ones on the dock before God, and they have already failed the test and they need to, um, come to a point of trusting in God, not just mentally acknowledging

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God. And so we need to remember while we are talking to these people, that irrespective of whether this is a person who just, you know, got this off of Google or whether this is a scholar who is hardened in his opinion and has all the more answers about the

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Bible than you, there is an issue of both the mind as well as the heart that you're dealing with. And the primary goal is that, uh, you would, um, recognize it as not just the

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Bible on the dock. In fact, the Bible is never on the dock. Uh, as far as we are concerned, the Bible is the authority upon which we stand.

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We have nothing else on the basis of which to judge the word. The word is what informs us, transforms us, and we act on the basis of the word.

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And we'll cover that a little bit more later. So when, when it comes to this question, so the first step is if you knew what

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Jesus did say, be fair and answer to them because, you know, sometimes the sidestepping, that question doesn't help, you know, a, not that if you didn't know the answer, you can just say,

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I don't know the answer, but I know something else and here's what you need to know, but, um, once you get past that, you want to get to this.

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I think I liked what Russ said, the 66 books of the Bible. Now, uh, if something is not in red letter, is that, um, mean that God is okay with it because what they normally imply, what is it that they're thinking when they say,

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Jesus did not say this, Steven, you actually, that's good. You kind of gone a little further than, and I, and I want to come to it.

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Charlie, do you want to add something quick? Yeah. Okay. That's very important. Yes.

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Christie. Yes. Excellent. In fact, we will, we'll go back in reverse order here because one of the things that's assumed here is, you know, if Jesus said it, it's important, but everything else doesn't matter.

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And what you, what Christine just said is we are bringing a biblical theology into the conversation when we say, you know, this is what

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God says and you may not agree with it, but you need to know it and whether it is in Leviticus or whether it is in Romans one, it's all of God.

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And so, you know, after you talk about what they specifically asked, you want your, what you're doing here is you're giving them the gospel by showing them something that they didn't actually know.

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So you may not be the greatest philosopher to talk about, you know, the logical inconsistencies and all that they're doing, but you know, your word enough to say, you know, exactly what

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Christian said, this is God's word. And it has been said. Yes. I don't think all of you heard that, but I'm not repeating that was very funny.

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Uh, my wife said when we found out pastor

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Bob was free, he should be up here. What are you doing out there? I don't know how many of you heard that.

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Uh, uh, can you, can you say that, uh, the Bible is the anvil that has worn out many hammers and it will, it'll wear out the hammers of this age to excellent.

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Thank you. Um, yes, Bob. I love it. Too many hands.

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Just, just hold on because I think we need to talk about what was just said. Uh, please don't forget the thought.

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Yes. Excellent. Uh, thank you so much. I, I want to take a few moments before we keep moving on.

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Um, I love it, Bob. You know, I have some thoughts, but I cannot always string them nicely.

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Like when like Bob and Charlie, you know, you just guys have that we should do a side by side.

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Uh, for those of you who don't know, Bob and I went to school together and learned a lot. Every time

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I think of Hebrew, I think of you and I get, I get nervous, sweat first, and then

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I think, but, uh, but if you just think about what Bob just said, it was just excellent, you know, argument from silence, that is actually a logical flaw in their argument that they're making.

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You know, if Jesus didn't say something, then it has to be okay. That's an example

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Bob just gave about, you know, child molestation or anything else can help that person say, Oh, you know what

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I'm thinking incorrectly, you know, just period, you know, forget about this particular issue about what

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Bible says, I'm just thinking wrong. In fact, when we talk about, um, methods and apologetics, uh,

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I'm going to give these names next week, maybe we'll spend more time on this. There's one we call classical, which, uh, which has looks at the logic and the laws of reason and says, you know, here is how we can deal with the person to help them understand.

30:38

And I think Bob, you also concluded with that. I really liked it where throw the question back at them and help them think through what they just said.

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And unless it's a scholar who's already thought and committed and just entrenched, most people will say, well, you know what?

30:51

I didn't kind of make sense. I don't like what he concluded, but I know that what I'm saying, it's not cogent.

30:57

Um, and then there is another group of evidential, which, you know, so if, if they say, well, Jesus, did

31:02

Jesus really say, this is what Jesus said recorded. We can say, well, there's pretty lot of good facts and data that I can give you that help you say that, you know, every red letter, as well as all the 66 books are in, you know, are, um, indeed given to us by God and preserved carefully and things like that.

31:21

And then we have this, what I would call reformed apologetics where, you know, I think, um, pastor

31:27

Bob kind of came at it from that angle and to say, you know, here is the word and I'm going to be presenting it and using that to, um, um, let that and will wear out that hammer.

31:40

And so, you know, use that to come out and confront the person and let them bear the responsibility of dealing with this issue.

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And then there is another aspect of fideism, which is, and I think Bob, you touched on that too, which is the goal here is that they would trust in God.

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And it is really the heart issue that we drive at rather than, um, merely the mind issue.

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Now, I don't want to put them in opposition to each other because all of these are important in an, in an, in an engagement.

32:08

One person may, each of you may be skilled in one over the other.

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The other person may gravitate or respond well to one over the other. And my only thesis would be that the, as part of the reformed understanding that it, it undergirds your thinking so that you come from a position of faith, um, rather than, you know, um, going, well, we'll, we'll talk about this more next week.

32:33

So I think, you know, both of those were great answers. And I think Bob, you kind of put them in a very cogent way for us so that we can think of, okay, here is the goal.

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And I think we, if you do what Bob says, you can actually achieve what pastor Bob, actually both of you,

32:49

I just, I think there must be something about Bob and the name I should change my name.

32:58

No, I don't look like Bob. Uh, uh, but pastor

33:04

Bob said, you know, don't, um, he began by saying, don't get, uh, riled up or excited about just convincing or making that person agree with you, because if that's our goal, you know, it's,

33:17

I forget how you said it. No, not that part.

33:29

Excellent. Uh, and I think, yeah, amen.

33:36

Yeah. And I think, you know, and this is not just true for unbelievers, even for believers, you know, let's say we have a theological disagreement or even a life disagreement, um, you know, if, if I'm just looking to somehow convince the other person and, you know, you're not leaving until, you know, repentant, you know, say your penance, whatever, you know, that, that's the wrong attitude because this is a person accountable to God.

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And so is the unbeliever. And, uh, we want to be, um, recognizing that we are here to help that person like pebble in the shoe.

34:08

There's a famous apologist who uses that a lot. And I can't remember his name. I wish one of the, the

34:15

Stancliffs were here. He keeps quoting that guy all the time. Mark. Excellent. Actually, let's, let's just take that for a minute.

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And then, um, I said another elder here is nine 45, the closing time because of the new service.

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10. Oh, okay. All right. Oh, wait. Okay. We'll, we'll take a few, maybe five more minutes and close.

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But, um, so when I talked about worldview, our worldview, like I said, you know, it begins with the gospel and it touches all these areas of our life.

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And our goal, Mark said, that's so right. And we heard this elsewhere as well is for the person to come to the right saving knowledge of the

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Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. We want him exalted. So you meet someone who brings the same question and you know that this is, let's say you don't actually even have an answer to the question.

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I can say, you know, I don't have an answer, but there is something I need to talk to you about. And because I remember someone once asked me at that time,

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I didn't realize it, but I knew something was, you know, sometimes the spider sense goes back and you're like, okay, there's more to this than what is being asked.

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And, uh, you, you want to say, okay, maybe this is not the main issue.

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I've, there's been several people where I've told them, you know, maybe we'll agree, you know, I, I disagree with you on this, but there is something more fundamental, you know, it doesn't matter.

35:37

So a response could be. Chris, the Bible doesn't say, you know, it's just for homosexuality that people go to hell.

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You know, what is sin? Sin is not just keeping, you know, or failing to keep just the list of issues.

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It is about your heart and where you stand before God. This is what God says about sin.

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It's not sins that we commit, and then you can somewhat stop committing them and you go to heaven. It's about, you know,

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I, I come and it's always easier to deflect it and say, you know, here, here's who I was. You know, I was not a homosexual, but you know, for whether it was sinning or murdering or anything in between, it is an offense against God.

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No man. And then you can get into Romans three. No, no one is able to do this. It's not just this community or you or anybody else.

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It is about our desperate need for God. Forget this. Is that any other area is every other area in your life?

36:28

Perfect. And you know, the, and the goal there becomes transformative.

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You know, you start looking at the gospel, Charlie, maybe we'll just take that one thing from you. Did you want to add? And, and it depends on who you're talking to, right?

36:50

So, you know, there are some, like, you know, I have some people at work where, and until I get laid off,

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I hope I'll be able to keep speaking with them. Uh, and so, you know, and some of those conversations go this way.

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I may have all the answers, but I can not get to open my mouth because I've just like, so the thing that you do is like, you know, try not to show, you know, sometimes you get provoked and I get provoked easily sometimes.

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And, uh, it's like, take a deep breath, you know, smile, and then put in one word or two that you can knowing that, you know, there is, there is more times that I'm going to meet with this person.

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And so, you know, some people, you can have that theological drawn out, but you know, and one of the things that the mind does is when it's trapped against a corner, it will find ways to get around it.

37:36

So with unbelievers, if you give answer one, there'll be another one, there'll be another one, there'll be another, and that's basically going to be the trend.

37:42

And this is not just unbelievers. This is true of all of us. If there is an area that we hold very dear and that gets comes under attack and I'm not allowed to escape, then, you know, what about this?

37:53

What about that? That's what normally comes from the flesh for the believer and from the depraved heart for the unbeliever.

37:59

So yeah, actually that's, that's excellent because, you know, part of it is there are others listening and that all often happens when you're not in a, just a private conversation and, um, and the end of the day, just going back to first Peter three is you present the gospel in a godly way.

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You don't get angry. You are gentle. The actions that you do and whether it is the person that you're speaking to or someone else was observing, um, they may say, okay, this guy is suffering for his belief, but he is not reviling in return.

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Or, you know, he is not just, um, he is doing his best to help this person.

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And, uh, and the thing is, like pastor Bob says, we are there, even the most hardened of sinners, you know, we don't know how the

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Holy spirit works and changes our responsibilities to be faithful to God in terms of not compromising the truth, uh, and to be gentle and respectful to one another that, uh, we will not be the offense, but rather the gospel alone is.

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So, um, we'll, we'll wind up for today here, and then next week we'll look at some of the methods and then, uh, please bring these questions.

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I think we just got through one question, but it was, it was good. I hope, um, uh, you found this helpful.

39:16

If you want, you can actually send some of those, uh, email them to me too. And so I can maybe compile them and bring them next week.

39:22

Is there any other questions or comments before we close? Yes, Tom. Uh, no, that's for next week.

39:33

Uh, I actually, these are not handouts. These are actually my notes. Yeah, I was not kidding.

39:39

I, uh, I said, uh, I don't know a lot of these, but if someone were to ask me a reason for the hope that is in me,

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I hope even if I don't have it here, I'd be faithful to God. So, and I, that's what I want to communicate to you is we don't have to be afraid of not knowing all the answers and I'm thanking you so much because I didn't have to wear this today.

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All right. Uh, let's pray. A loving and gracious father. We thank you Lord for saving us

40:07

Lord. Now each of us here were once rebellious, closed in our minds, willful in our own thinking, and yet Lord, you graciously chose to save us and Lord, um, not only have you saved us, but you've made each of us here as ambassadors for you that, uh, we have everything that we need in the word to respond to those who, uh, ask for questions or question your word, help us a lot to be faithful to you and to be loving to those we meet in Christ's name.