Defending the Faith in a Hostile World | Voddie Baucham

so i want us to look at um a couple of a couple of passages here um if you have your bibles with you open them to ephesians 6. ephesians 6. and i when we talk about defending the faith a lot of times people get upset about defending the faith we get upset we don't like the idea of apologetics we don't like the idea of you know us claiming to be right and um assuming that other people um are wrong and so on and so forth so there there's there's that idea we have a problem with that but then we also have a problem and probably more of a problem with the idea of engaging um forcefully in a disagreement over ideology because of what i like to call the the 11th commandment the 11th commandment is thou shalt be nice and we don't believe the other ten right and so there are christians who if they see you engaging forcefully on an issue let's say abortion for example you're engaged in a debate about abortion and let's say that in your advocacy of a pro-life position um you you you are less than kind there are christians especially millennials and i'm not trying to pick on millennials but you know who you are they're especially millennials they are more offended by you being less than kind in a debate about abortion than they are about babies being slaughtered in the womb and ironically they will be less than kind toward you about being less than kind on the issue of abortion and will feel completely justified in their attack on you because you violated the 11th commandment which is far more grievous than violating the sixth do you see that it's crazy how this happens and then another way that this manifests itself is you know um abortion homosexuality whatever what you often see is people will come at you you're engaging on these issues and they'll say the reason that we have all these problems is because of people like you because if we were more loving oh oh okay so the problem is not sodomy the problem is us being less than loving on the issue of sodomy so we've got these two issues number one from an ideological philosophical perspective we don't like the concept of apologetics and then two from a dispositional perspective just our disposition is that we just we don't want to engage in in these battles in fact we don't even like the word battle we don't like war language we're christians we should not be engaging in battles with people we should be loving people and so i want to look at two passages of scripture one ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 10. finally be strong in the lord and then the strength of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places so metaphor number one wrestling hand-to-hand combat that's metaphor number one okay and again it's not me i don't write the mail i just deliver it okay so that's metaphor number one wrestling hand-to-hand combat we do not wrestle against flesh and blood verse 13 therefore take on the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and for as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances taking up the shield of faith which with which you can quench extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints um by the way this metaphor is not a metaphor for wrestling this is a metaphor for combat this metaphor is the uniform of a roman soldier centurion all the way down to the sword so if you don't like combat language you got a problem with god next passage in fact there's a third one i want to add here go to jude don't ask what chapter go to jude it reads jude a servant of jesus christ and brother of james to those who are called beloved in god the father and kept for jesus christ by the way that's three references to the same group of people called beloved and god the father kept for jesus christ that's christians it's all of us may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you don't miss that all christians and then he says may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you because one of the things that people think about apologetics and about this war language is that it stands in opposition to things like mercy peace and love that we're supposed to be defined by right and so verse two he says may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you verse three beloved although i was very eager to write to you about our common salvation i found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints now epago nizomai i i don't think we need to be running around throwing greek terms everywhere but that one just just loves saying it it literally means to wrestle to engage in hand-to-hand combat so verse two he wants mercy peace and love to be multiplied to you and in verse 3 he wants you to go hand to hand in combat which means that there is no contradiction between being a loving christian and engaging in the combat of apologetics now second corinthians chapter 10. and let's begin in verse one we usually like to go to verse four but verse four is in the middle of a paragraph we gotta go to verse one to really put this in its proper context and we see some really some amazing nuances here with the apostle paul i paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of christ now don't miss that he's there's play on words there's plays on words here i entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of christ we got meekness and gentleness i who am humble when face to face with you but bold toward you when i'm away by the way that's an accusation made against paul that he's responding to oh you don't talk big like that when you're present but when you get the pen in your hand and you write letters all of a sudden you're bold right so he refers to the meekness and gentleness of christ and then he says i who am humble when face to face with you but bold toward you when i'm away that's sarcasm i beg of you that when i am present i may not have to show boldness with such confidence as i count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh that's a threat are you catching this now verse 3 for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh there we go again with war language so personal hand-to-hand combat language now in fairness when he's talking about this wrestling he's really talking probably about greco-roman wrestling maybe making a reference to the espion games right he's not he's he's using that metaphor but here and also in ephesians chapter 6 there is no doubt but he's talking about combat he's talking about combat and i believe that we i'm not going to say must engage in combat over these issues because i believe we are engaged in combat over these issues there is a war being waged and it is a war being waged against us a war being waged against the gospel so how how do we how do we do this one though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh i think here and in this passage if you look back at ephesians paul says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood against rulers authorities cosmic powers and here paul says though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh we're not at war with people amen somebody we're not at war with people i'm not at war with with with robin d'angelo or ibram kindy i'm not at war with with christians who have adopted their ideology i'm not at war with those people i'm at war with those ideas that stand in opposition to the truth of the gospel and i think that's the that's the important thing and think about how slick satan is on this so god commands us to engage in this combat right we see it in jude we see it in ephesians we see it in ii corinthians there's no doubt but that god calls us to engage in this combat but the adversary has sneaked in and has been so slick that he has made christians have an aversion to the very combat that we're called to engage in god calls us to do something and the enemy has caused us to think that that thing we're called to do is actually evil do you see that that's sinister and that's where we are that's where we are and part of the way that he's done that is to remove this reality that we are not at war with the flesh we are not at war with people we walk in the flesh but we are not waging war according to the flesh and that's something that we need to keep in mind not only in the sense of you know fighting against that aversion that we have but we also need to keep it in mind on the other side because there's a ditch on both sides of the road on the one side of the road there's the person who doesn't keep this in mind and and they're they're loathed to engage in the combat of apologetics and on the other hand there's a person that doesn't keep this in mind and they love engaging in the combat of apologetics but they make it personal they're mean nasty obnoxious right the gospel is offensive enough it doesn't need your help amen somebody for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh we need to keep this in mind keeping this in mind by the way means that it will keep us on our knees keeping this in mind means that we will be forever mindful of the fact that we're not calling upon our own abilities but we're calling upon god himself we're not waging war according to the flesh this has nothing to do with with with you being intelligent enough or sophisticated enough or aggressive enough or it has nothing to do with that we're not waging war according to the flesh four for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds so first in order for us to gauge in this battle we have to understand that it's a spiritual battle and secondly in order to engage in this battle we have to understand the power of our weaponry the weapons of our warfare not of the flesh but have divine the power to destroy strongholds number one their power is divine and not human in origin amen it's god's power but secondly because they are divine they have the power to destroy strongholds this word strongholds can also be understood as as fortresses or castles this is an amazing use of terminology here and we kind of miss it we've got to miss it because of where we're situated in history but put this in its historical context paul is saying that our weapons are of divine power and they have the power to destroy strongholds now paul is living during a time where if someone is in a fortress or a stronghold the only way that you can defeat them is through siege warfare in other words you would have to encamp around their fortress around their city around their wall and you would have to build siege works literally you'd have to have engineers in the field and it could take you you know days weeks depending on the size of your siege works and the size of the fortress that you are attacking to just to build your siege works and then as you engage your siege works it may take you weeks or months in order to break through or you'd have to starve them out and hope they didn't have sources of food and water and hope that they would want to run out of resources before you would run out of resources it could take years to siege a fortress and paul says our weapons are so mighty that they can do in an instant what it takes man weeks months or years to accomplish there wasn't a weapon known to man that could do what paul just said now you and i you know we can be seduced into not understanding this text because we you know we got bunker busting bombs you know moabs mother of all bombs right we got stuff we got nuclear weapons that can wipe out a city like that right and so here's our temptation our temptation is to say paul is referring to a weapon that is more like our nuclear bombs no that's not paul's point paul's point is no matter how powerful in the human natural realm your weapons are i'm talking about something exponentially more powerful than anything your puny human mind can imagine whether all you know is siege works or whether you know nuclear weapons what i'm talking about is more than that because our warfare is in a completely different realm and saints think that's good news why is it good news i get letters i get emails all the time from people who are flat out discouraged they've had to leave their christian organization they've had to leave the ministry that they were working for they've had to leave their church i get emails from people who've been asked to leave their church because their church is bringing in d'angelo's white fragility and and and kindies how to be an anti-racist and some of these other things and these people are coming in and saying no no no no no we can't do this these things are antithetical to you they're being asked to leave their church because they're not willing to check their privilege there are a lot of people who are discouraged there are major conservative seminaries and similar leaders of seminaries leaders of ministries leaders of christian organizations who are espousing the ideologies of critical theory and critical race theory and intersectionality all over the place and it's easy to be discouraged right now because of the divisions that we see it's also easy to be discouraged because you know for for me what i find heartbreaking is there are real issues there's real sin is there racism of course there is is there injustice of course there is and you know one of the major problems i see is that as we go down this road of this social justice mentality we're going down a road that christians can't go down very long and it's distracting us from things that are very real that need to be addressed and cannot be addressed properly from that worldview so it's easy to be discouraged but remember we walk in the flesh but we're not waging war according to the flesh that's number one you're looking at what you see that's not the whole battle number two the weapons of our warfare are more powerful than anything we could possibly possibly comprehend they're enough and and i've had people say things like you know is this going to you know ruin the church is this going to do no no no the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church certainly robin deangelo and ibramex kindy can't so no now mind you what we're seeing is catastrophic it has been and it will be but it won't defeat god's church so as we engage recognize the power and significance of our weaponry so what do we do there's two things that we do we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of god and two we take every thought captive to obey christ being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete so here are the two things that we do number one destroy every argument and lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of god we have to go to war against these ideologies we have to we have to identify them and we have to identify the danger that they pose and we have to dismantle them now not all of us do this in the same way or to the same degree or from the same position or whatever and one of the things that i've been talking to people about recently is you know what's interesting uh a lot of people when you start talking about critical theory critical race theory and intersectionality and and all this you know sort of stuff cultural marxism whatever they say oh you're just trying to shut down the conversation about race um and there's a whole lot that i can say about that but um let me just say i've been talking about these things for over a decade this is not my response to george floyd i've been warning about critical theory and cultural marxism since 2004 5 6. in fact people have often thought i was you know a little overreacting if you will and over emphasizing these issues so i'm not talking about critical theory critical race theory and intersectionality because i'm uncomfortable in conversations about race try again i have zero discomfort in conversations about race none none at all been preaching about race since forever in fact been arguing that race as we talk about it is an unbiblical ideology because the bible knows nothing of race the way we talk about it biblically speaking there is one race you could argue that there are two the race of the first adam and the race of the last adam but but but you know physically there's one race and we are all the race of adam amen somebody there are multiple ethnicities but there's one race are our ethnicities important you better believe they are you better believe they are because it's what god did and it's how god can you please turn that light off sir at this so this can you thank you thank you um it's it's it's it's what god did and and it's part of this beautiful tapestry that god is putting together it's part of the beauty of god's creation amen so it's wonderful it's part of your story and how god used your story to bring you to christ and how he it's wonderful so yes absolutely these things are important but critical theory critical race theory intersectionality these things are satanic and they're antithetical to biblical truth and so we have to come against these arguments we simply must destroy these arguments not people but these arguments and then the last thing is the second one is we take every thought captive to obey christ we take every thought captive to obey christ folks this is about developing a biblical worldview this is about us as christians learning to think biblically about everything part of the problem part of the problem that we're having is that as christians many of us have not thought biblically about race and ethnicity and so we don't have a well-developed theology in this area so now along comes this well-developed theology and yes it is a theology it absolutely is a theology it's a well-developed theology from critical theory and from critical race theory and intersectionality and here we are we know that there are things that are wrong that need to be made right but we don't have a well-developed theology and we don't really think well about these things and now all of a sudden here comes this well-developed theology and we don't have an alternative to it and we don't have an answer for it so some people are beginning to adopt it we have to take every thought captive thoughts about sexuality we have to take those thoughts captive instead of just parroting ideas from the culture and falling prey to every wind of doctrine that comes our way we have to take every thought captive this is how we wage this war this is how we engage on these topics recognize that we are in the midst of a battle that we are under attack that we are under siege recognize that this battle is a spiritual one we're not at war with people this is a spiritual war recognize that the weapons that we have this gospel that we preach this bible that we have in our possession this absolute truth from the one true and living god that is ours these things most surely believed among us these things are more powerful than any weapon we can comprehend and they are enough they are sufficient the bible is sufficient i do not need sociologists and psychologists to complete me in my thinking about humanity i don't go to sociology text and psychology text and political science text and then bring them as a lens through which i view the bible no i take the bible and i use it as the lens through which i critique those texts there's one leading voice in all this movement was interviewed on a radio program a while back and he was making the statement he's talking about you know broad reading and i'm i'm all for broad reading amen all for broad reading i mean i read all kind of stuff right but he was making the argument talking about reading sociology and political science and reading the social sciences and these other things and and he made this argument he made this statement that without sociology and the social sciences the bible doesn't make sense leading evangelical voice no the weapons of our warfare they're mighty for tearing down and destroying strongholds fortresses and they're sufficient they're sufficient so what do we do we use them in that two-pronged effort to destroy arguments lofty opinions and again even as we do that i mean we keep peter's words in mind right always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect the way i define apologetics is this knowing what you believe and why you believe it and being able to communicate that to others in a winsome and effective manner so when we destroy arguments that's how we destroy arguments amen and then take every thought captive think through these things develop your own biblical theological understanding in these areas and hold fiercely to biblical truth and this is the way we'll navigate through these waters not all of us have to stand in the same post not all of us have to do the same work but all of us in principle have to be about this same business and so often times you know people say i'll get this from people well you know you you talk about all of these ideologies and all these theories and so on and so forth um but but i don't hear you talking about abc xyz fill in the blanks man nobody can talk about everything amen nobody can talk about everything i'm standing on the wall that i was assigned to stand on and for me to go and try to stand on everybody else's wall is for me to not be faithful to my assignment i preach the whole council of god and and and in local church pastorate systematic preaching through books in the bible amen hallelujah praise the lord that has been the hallmark of my ministry but when it comes to a broader public ministry and i'm doing events like this i can't systematically preach through all the counsel of god in a weekend conference but i can stand on the wall to which i've been assigned man my post and defend it to the best of my ability and that's all any of us can do and trust god for the greater results i don't have to know what's going on in every corner of the battle just what's happening on my wall and that's all you can do so be encouraged the weapons that we have are more than enough be encouraged god's not calling you to fix everything everywhere be encouraged there are thousands of prophets who have not bowed the need to bail and be encouraged at the end of the day the bride of christ will be defended she will be protected she will be preserved and she will be restored redeemed and rescued by her savior amen

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Length: 36min 12sec (2172 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021