Classic Friday Stop Defending The Bible (Part 1) - [1 Corinthians 1:17 ff]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

The Goal of Evangelism Is the Glory of God

I know many of you love to preach the gospel to your friends and neighbors and our wonderful evangelists. Some like Robert Muto, if I�m in a hurry, I don�t know if I want to hang out with him because he�ll always stop for the waitress or his friends or people that he works with to give them the gospel.

I know you love to preach the gospel here at Bethlehem Bible Church. What happens though when you�re preaching the gospel to your friend or family member or somebody at work and they say, �Well, wait a second, you�re preaching the Bible to me and the Bible�s got a lot of mistakes.

What do you say when someone says, �Well, you know what, man wrote the Bible, discounting the Bible and its truths. Maybe your friend says, �Yeah, but there�s a lot of inconsistencies in the Bible, there�s a lot of errors in.

The Bible.

I can�t really trust it. You have no authority over me. What do you say? Are you back on your heels in defense or on your toes in offense? What do you do? Charles Spurgeon once wrote about the Bible and he said this, I think you�ll find it encouraging, �Brethren, the word of the Lord can stand alone without the propping which many are giving it.

The word of God can take care of itself and will do so if we preach it and cease defending it. See you that lion, they�ve caged him for his preservation, shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes.

See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears. These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. Spurgeon, oh fools and slow of heart, �Open that door.

Let the Lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.

Yes, without attempting to apologize even for the severer truths of revelation. Seven times a day do we praise the Lord for giving us his judgments so righteous and so sure. Today, my purpose for you in this sermon today is for you to stop defending the Bible.

Everything in you is going to want to defend the Bible and I want you to do something instead of defending the Bible, I want you to proclaim it. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31, does it not, �Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, including evangelism, you are to do to the glory of God.

There's a glorifying way to do evangelism. And so while I'm very proud of you as a pastor, that you regularly reach out and you pray for your loved ones and you try to evangelize your friends and to do those things for your workers, I want you to do it in a way that honors the Lord.

So much so that some of us think, �Well, you know what? I think the goal in evangelism is the salvation of that person. Did you know that's not the ultimate goal in evangelism? Do you say, �Well, in evangelism, my goal is to look good.

I don't want to look stupid. I don't want to look anti-intellectual. I don't want to look like I'm some kind of ignoramus or some kind of troglodyte living.

In a cave.

I want to look good. Did you know that the ultimate goal in evangelism is the glory.

Of God?

So we want to talk about that today in terms of how we deal with unbelievers and do we defend the Bible or do we proclaim the Bible? And of course, as Christians, we'd like to honor the Lord in our evangelism, would we not?

When we think about what the Lord Jesus did for us, God is just and He will render to every person, including you, including me, what their due is. What their due, every sinner will get exactly what they've earned and deserved.

And God does not forget in terms of His justice, He does not delay in His justice, but He does provide a Savior who He will justly punish in our place. And if He would do that for us, if God would forgive us our sins, the Bible says, �I will remember your sins no more.

Remember the sins, a few sins you committed even in the last week or month and we have our conscience against us and we have shame. God says, �I don't remember any of those sins because my son has perfectly kept the law.

He's merited righteousness for you. He's done right and you get that freely and all the sins that you've committed, Jesus pays for. So He justly says, �I don't remember them at all. If a God did that for you, wouldn't you want to evangelize properly?

Wouldn't you want to say, �You know, I want to obey God and do the things that He wants me to do His way. So that's what we want to talk about today, is since you have a mediator and a friend in the Lord Jesus, can you think of anybody who's loved you on this earth or will love you more than Jesus?

And since He's loved you to the extent that He gave His life for you and He's been raised for you, don't you want to do everything to please Him out of gratitude? Even evangelism can be done to the glory of God.

So today, let me give you some reasons why you should stop defending the Bible. Since God has given you faith in Christ Jesus and He has assuaged the wrath because of His Son, you respond with evangelistic fervor, but I don't want you to defend the Bible any longer.

The Bible Does Not Defend Itself

Reason number one, and by the way, we will be in Nahum soon enough, it is our practice here at the church, verse by verse, through books of the Bible, there will be some exposition, especially in the center here of our message today, a main passage that we'll park in, but to get there, we're going to have a few short points of discussion.

Number one reason, not because it's the most important, but just it's because my number one reason, number one, to stop defending the Bible, because we're going to work to a climax, is that the Bible never defends itself.

I don't want you to defend the Bible any longer. I know you kind of want to, that's what I want to do, but the Bible doesn't defend itself. Listen to some of these introductions to books of the Bible that just proclaim, no defense, no, oh, apology, not on our heels.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. God said, let there be light and there was light.

God saw that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness. Genesis one, an exclamation, a proclamation, a heralding. How about John chapter one? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him, Jesus was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Or how about Hebrews one? Turn to Hebrews one, if you will, and you can see another proclamation, a declaration, no defense, no apology, no stuttering to try to say, well, you know, it's written a long time ago when you have manuscript evidence and all this stuff.

No, it's just a proclamation. Could there be a more Christ extolling, more wonderful declaration with not a hint, not an ounce, not a smidgen of the leaven of I'm ashamed of what I'm going to say. I have to defend the Bible.

Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed Jesus, the heir of all things, through whom Jesus also through whom also he Jesus created the world.

He Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. And he Jesus is the exact imprint of God's nature. And he Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power and the pinnacle of the work of Jesus on earth.

And he Jesus, after making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Don't you see it?

When you look at the Bible, there's not a defense. It's a proclamation. The first reason you should stop defending the Bible is the Bible does not defend itself. Are there any other reasons? Yes. Number two, you're never told to defend the Bible.

The Hope of Christianity Is Outside of Us

Stop defending the Bible because you have no command to defend it. There's no example to defend it. So don't defend it any longer. That's easy. We could probably just close in prayer here, right? You're never told to defend the Bible.

I know what you're saying. What about that verse in first Peter chapter three? Let's go there. Let's go to first Peter chapter three. Aren't we supposed to make a defense to anyone who asks for the hope that's in us?

Well, let's find out first Peter chapter three. What I'm after in this sermon today is for you to talk about the Lord Jesus more than you're going to try to talk about carbon dating, manuscript evidence, archaeological digs, and your changed life.

We have an object of the faith and it's the Lord Jesus. And you're going to talk about the law certainly to drive them to the Lord Jesus and talk about the invisible attributes of the visible attributes of the world that judge them so they need.

A savior.

But I want you to talk more about Jesus than you do about carbon dating and fossil records. First Peter is written to some dear saints that are suffering and he extols the work of God in their life in chapter one.

And he says here in first Peter three, 13 to 16, now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled.

And here's our verse to consider. But in your hearts, honor Christ as Lord, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you. For what? For a reason for the hope that is in you.

Pastor Mike, see there it is. I'm going to try to talk about this a little bit and defend it a little bit and here's what God has done for me. I'd ask you the question, what's the reason for the hope that's in you?

If I ask you the question, why is Christianity true? What would you say to me? You know what most evangelicals will say? Ninety-five percent of evangelicals if they're not taught, here's what they'll say.

Why is Christianity true? The man asks, the person responds, what? With what? Well that's often said but they usually say, and by the way only kids are supposed to answer rhetorical questions, okay? That's for the younger people.

Most people, when you say, why is Christianity true, they'll respond with, because I'm a.

Changed person.

I'm different.

I used to have these affections, now I have these affections. I used to live for sin and now I want to live for righteousness. I used to have no real conscience and now I want to please the Lord. And by the way, I love regeneration.

I love new life. I love new creation. I love everything about a transformed, sanctified life. But that's not the reason for the hope that's in you because the reason for the hope within you is outside of you.

A real man, I know he's more than a man, but a real man, Jesus, walked on sand. He walked on literal water. He lived the perfect life under the law of God and he literally died on a cross and was raised from the dead and ascended.

The hope within you isn't a changed life because, dear friends, you can watch Oprah and have a life change. Mormons have a changed life. Changed life does not mean anything. I'm glad if it's a changed life because God's transforming you, but that's not the reason for the hope that's in you.

The hope that's in you is because you're believing someone outside of you, the Lord Jesus. And we do this with gentleness and respect and having a good conscience. Don't defend the Bible. The Bible never defends itself.

Don't defend the Bible because you're never told to defend the Bible. Number three, you shouldn't defend the Bible because you can't prove the Bible to be true with anything less than the Bible. You can't prove the Bible to be true with anything less than the Bible.

Can you use logic to prove the Bible, rational thinking to prove the Bible? And by the way, this is meant to be an encouragement, dear congregation, and here's how it's going to be an encouragement. What if you meet somebody smarter than you and you want to evangelize them?

What if you meet a rocket scientist? What if you meet some kind of nuclear scientist? What if you meet somebody from Harvard and you say, well, they've got like double my IQ and I don't know about all this stuff and I don't know about all the background.

I don't know about philosophies and ideologies and postmodernism and what Socrates said and Plato and philosophies of the world. I just know that there was a real God man and he lived and he died and he was raised and I don't know, am I a match for them?

Well, if you're going to defend all these things, you're going to get proverbially smoked is what you're going to get. But can I say that? But I have, you have a message that everyone needs. And by the way, the word of God is powerful, is it not?

Jeremiah 23, it's like a what a hammer. It's powerful to do its work.

You say, well, you know what?

I could prove the Bible to somebody if I could do some miracles.

Miracles will change people.

Let's go to Luke chapter 16 and listen to the master preacher of all time, Jesus, the prince of preachers. You can't prove the Bible to be true with anything less than the Bible. So don't. This is all driving to stop wasting time defending the Bible and proclaim it.

If you want to answer a question, fine, but I'm going to get back on track to the person and work of Christ Jesus, to the law of God that reflects his holiness right away. I only have so much time with people.

I'm not going to defend the Bible. You can't prove the Bible with miracles. So why settle for anything less? Scripture is even greater than miracles. Listen to Luke 16, verse 19. You know the passage, but the punchline drives this home that scriptures are adequate and sufficient and we don't have to defend them.

I mean, was there ever a teacher like Jesus? Luke 16, 19. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously.

Every day.

At his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. Poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried and in Hades being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. He called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.

I'm in anguish in this flame. Abraham said, verse 25, child, remember that you in your lifetime received good things and Lazarus in manner and like manner, bad things. Now he's comforted here. You're in anguish.

And besides all this, between us and you is a great chasm that has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us. And he said, then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers.

He said he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment. Are you ready, congregation? But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. They have the Bible. Let them hear them. No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they'll repent.

If there's a miracle, a resurrection, they'll repent then. Not the Bible, but the resurrection. A miracle will do it.

Verse 31.

He said to him, listen, dear congregation, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, the Bible, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

Did you hear that?

Remember what happened with Lazarus? The real Lazarus in Luke chapter 11, Jesus heals Lazarus, Lazarus come forth. What did the Jews try to do in chapter 12? We got to kill Lazarus. It wasn't, oh, Lazarus has been raised from the dead.

Oh, it's all true. The word of God is powerful and we're to preach it. Maybe my two most favorite illustrations of the power of God's word, no defensive apologetics, just a proclamation of the free grace of God.

Two illustrations, you'll love them. First one was by a man named, as the account of a man named Luke Short, and I won't give you the long account of Luke Short. I'll give you the short account of Luke Short.

John Flavel is preaching in Dartmouth, England, England. You probably know John Flavel. He's a wonderful Puritan writer and he's preaching and there's a 15 year old Hellion named Luke Short listening to the sermon.

The sermon was a powerful sermon about judgment and hell, and it was from first Corinthians 1622. Here's how Corinthians is ending. Not grace and peace to you. Here's how first Corinthians ends with this sting of the scorpion tail.

If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be damned. Let him be accursed. Let him be anathema. Well, in a little while, this young man moved overseas to the new land and he moved to a place called New England.

Ever heard of it?

He moved to New England, was a farmer, and one day when he was 100 years old, 85 years later after he heard that sermon, still unregenerate, he thought about that sermon.

He's 100.

He knows he's going to die one day and probably sooner than later, he's 100. And he kept thinking about if a man does not love the Lord Jesus, he's damned. If a man does not love the Lord Jesus, he's damned.

He's thinking. The Spirit of God is applying the verse 85 years later. And God saved Luke Short at 100 years old. His gravestone three years later reads, he lies a babe in grace, aged three years, converted for three years, who died according to nature, 103.

The power of God's Word applied by the Spirit 85 years later. When we preach the gospel, people don't automatically go, well, I'm sure glad for that. I'm going to repent right now. I mean, it probably happens occasionally.

The power of God's Word. My other example is from a bicyclist. I don't know why I like bicyclists, but there's a man named George Cutting and he was a bicyclist and he loved to run, he'd ride his bicycle around these little towns in England a long time ago and he was riding his bicycle through Norfolk, England.

Little town, little hamlet. And he thought, you know what, I'm just going to start shouting out Bible verses. So he shouted out, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That felt so good, I'm just going to do it again.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Well, six months later, he returns to the hamlet, gets off his bike and he goes door to door to evangelize. Here's his approach. He knocks on the door.

They say, hello. Here was his tact.

Are you saved?

That's the Bob Muto tact. That's the New England, like just, okay.

The direct approach.

And the lady goes, yes, I am saved. About six years ago, and S. Lewis Johnson records it this way, six months ago, I was in great distress. I pled with God to help me. And even while I was calling upon him, I heard a voice cry out, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

I was startled, she said. I wondered if I had heard it right, so I prayed to the Lord again. And I heard it, and I trusted Christ. I wonder the glories of heaven will be, of course, the adoration of the Lord Jesus on.

The throne.

But part of it will be the testimonies of how many people were saved by the power of God through frail instruments. It's the power of God's word. It's not miracles. And now this is what I want to get to today.

Preach Christ Crucified, Not Apologetics

If you'll take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, everything else was.

An introduction.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, the fourth reason you should stop defending the Bible is that your divine mandate is to give unbelievers what they don't want. Your mandate from God as a redeemed Christian, saved by the blood of the Lamb, recognizing by the grace of God that it was the Lamb of God, and you were beholding the Lamb of God who takes away even your sin.

Your mandate is to give unbelievers what they don't want. Paul writes to the Corinthians, and sometimes we forget chapter 1, and who God was and what he did. It says in verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 1, so you're not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus.

That's how powerful Jesus's redemption is for sinners, even Corinthians, even us. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our.

Lord.

Dear Corinthians, Jesus has blessed you. You were guilty, he's given you grace, here's how I want you to respond with obedience out of gratitude because of the love that you have in Christ Jesus. Verse 18, and following, the divine mandate to give unbelievers what they don't want.

Think offense, not defense. Verse 18, for the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. The word of the cross, he's using theological shorthand, the cross, the doctrine of redemption, the doctrine of in my place condemned he stood, the doctrine of I've earned a penalty and Jesus takes my penalty as a substitute.

Penalty substitution, that's what the word of the cross is. The doctrine of the cross and everything that goes with it. What does the text say? The word of the cross is folly or the Greek word is, where we get our English word, moronic, stupid, foolish, to those who are perishing.

We have a different view of it, we think it's the power of God, but let's focus on that.

First part of the verse.

They think it's folly, to those who are perishing, unbelievers, those in Adam the first, they think it is outlandish. They think it's, they think it's weird, they think it's bizarre. I mean think about it, you see somebody up on a cross, that's the messiah, you look at somebody on a cross and you go, he can't save himself, how can he save me?

You look on the cross and you go, that's not where messiahs are supposed to be, they're supposed to be overtaking the Roman government, they're supposed to be on a throne with the crown. You look at the cross and you go, wait a second, I thought that was for incorrigible criminals, I thought that was for the scum and the low life.

You mean to tell me, here's your salvation, unbelievers, you know what they do? It's crazy, that's weird, but we're far removed from that because we've come to love the cross, we come to think, oh, the cross, that's where my savior purchased me and paid for my sins.

But the unbeliever looks at it and goes, do you think there's power in that? Do you think there's any kind of efficacy, do you think it does anything? It doesn't do anything, it's gruesome. Criminals go up there, slaves go up there, rebels go up there, messiahs?

By the way, if this is all true, messiah is perfect, he doesn't sin, but he's on the cross, he's dying for somebody else's sins, you mean to tell me I'm a sinner? You mean to tell me I deserve that unmitigated wrath of God?

No, no, no, not me, I'm a good person, I do good things. Could there be anything more outlandish and stupid than some guy on a cross? You don't talk about it in polite society. If I had my four kids and they were all little, we were walking through Jerusalem and outside of the walls of Jerusalem was a crucified person, I'd say, you cannot look.

Cicero said the very word cross should not be removed only from the person's thoughts, but from his eyes and his ears. I mean, at least if Jesus was a martyr, I might respect him, but a substitute? That's their thinking.

Bill Hybels, the seeker-sensitive church, Willow Creek, was trying to figure out, well, how do we get unbelievers in the church to be comfortable? He was asked by Bill, Bill Hybels was asked by Peter Jennings on television.

Jennings, the reporter, do you think that it was important for you to have one cross in the church? Because they didn't. Hybels, we're very serious about what Christ did on the cross, but to capture the essence of Christianity in a single symbol is a little dangerous, we feel.

And more than dangerous, it's stupid. It's moronic. It's twisted.

It's bizarre.

I mean, we can't even stomach executions. We can't even study stomach capital punishment. I've looked up some capital punishment to just give you an idea what the unbeliever must be thinking. This is all driving you toward, wait a second.

I have to do what the Bible says, because what's the response of the unbeliever going to be? He's going to think it's, it's what? But I'm going to tell him anyway. Ling Chi is described as slow slicing.

It's called the lingering death or the death of a thousand cuts. It was practiced from 980 to 1905 to torture people and execute them. What if, and this is to show you what the, what the unbeliever's mind is like, because we love the cross.

But remember they're thinking this is some form of torture and execution. It's like, wait a second. I've sinned a lot. And therefore Jesus is going to come down. He never sinned, but he's going to undergo Ling Chi for me, the death of a thousand cuts.

And all I have to do is believe in this tortured mangled bit of flesh. And I get to go to heaven.

Really?

That's what you're trying to tell me. If they've trained elephants to take their foot and put it on the skull of a criminal, if that criminal is not a very bad criminal, the pachyderm has been taught to crush the skull immediately.

But if the person's a real rascal, then the pachyderm knows how to slowly crush the head. So the unbeliever, the cross is just as weird to them as if it was, okay, Jesus, he's the eternal son of God. He comes down.

He has humanity. He lives a perfect life that we were supposed to live, but didn't. And then he's going to have an elephant put his crushing foot on his head, on Jesus' head. And by the way, that's salvation.

And if you just trust in Jesus who gets crushed in this criminal execution, you get to go to heaven. And what would you say? I hope you'd say, that's weird. And when unbelievers look at the cross, it is no different.

You mean to tell me that a naked Messiah who can't save himself somehow means I'm so sinful. I have to look at that and go wonderful. The unbeliever says, what's the text say? They think it's foolishness.

Is God ever on trial? Verse 19, it is written. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever. I will set aside. I will, I will doing evangelism God's way. Verse 20, what did the professional experts think of the cross?

Let's get a reporter from MSNBC, CNN. And I don't know who's the conservative ones now. Newsmax, what would they say? I wonder if we went to Texas and there was going to be a lethal injection or an electrocution of a murderer.

And you have people can sit in the audience. If you're a loved one, you've lost your life to one of these criminals. You could sit and watch them be executed. And some other people there, there's a doctor there.

And there's a reporter there. What will they write down? Answer? Verse 20, where's the wise man? I wonder what he would say. I wonder what the magi would say. That's what they're talking about here. The magicians of the East, the people that understood wisdom more than anything else.

They're looking at man dying on a cross. And they're like, well, let's take some notes on that. What would he say? Where's the scribe? What would the spiritually blind Jewish man who is a perfect. Studier of God's law, the Bible.

What would he record when he watched that? Here's this man, the ground doesn't even want to have his feet touch the ground because you put him up on a pole because this person doesn't even deserve to touch the ground.

What would he say? What about the other professional, the debater? People that love to talk and figure out every angle, human attempts and intellectually what's going on. And God says, hey, where are they?

Where's the male wise man? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made sovereignly foolish the wisdom of this world? You know, the answer to that question, how does he make foolish the wisdom of the world?

Verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. Not through debaters, not through wisdom. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached.

No debating, no defending, no making apologies, no being in New York City when asked the question, what about this? I'm too afraid to answer the question because then I won't look good with the intelligentsia and the academic people and the media.

And so I'll hedge on what the Bible says. None of that through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. It's going to have to be God who rescues people.

Through his preach word.

Don't convince people of the truth. Tell them the truth. Well, what about evil? And what's the conundrum of evil? And we have theodicy and we've got to figure that out. If you want to give a short answer, fine, but get back on track.

So I don't buy any of this pastor. Verse 22, for indeed, Jews ask for signs. What do Jews want? Miracles, signs and wonders. What do Greeks want? They're searching, they're pining away for wisdom. OK, so I'm going to do some miracles.