Masculine Apologetics - Voddie Baucham // STRONGHOLD 2021

this is vody bakum's second talk from the stronghold conference put on by trinity reformed church his talk is titled masculine apologetics if you want to make sure you don't miss out on any of these talks as they come out each month go to strongholdconference.com and sign up for the free newsletter if you do you'll get the links sent straight to your inbox and be the first to know about stronghold 2022 so make sure you go to strongholdconference.com and sign up for the free newsletter thanks just to um sort of elaborate on that the idea is not you know hey we'd love to have the best seller let's let's do this uh the reason that the publisher sent that out is because um of a couple of things one um this book has done better in pre-sales than anything that they've ever published before and this is rigonory salem uh publishers so they've published some pretty significant books but they've never had pre-sales like we've had with this book that's number one number two they've never seen a book blocked before like this book when we put things up on twitter and facebook and things like that about pre-ordering the book and and warnings come up and so the book is actually being yeah so so anyway we were doing this because it's a way to kind of get around the obstacles um that are being that are being set up and by the way it's not because of anything that you know that twitter or facebook or any of these other groups have seen in the book it's before they've seen anything they just but they know me and they know the subject matter and apparently that's enough so that's why we're we're doing this it's not it's not just you know trying to be pretentious and trying to you know uh yeah whatever so that that's that's why we're doing this i i just i wish we didn't have to do this i wish it wasn't the case um that that these kind of things were going on but they are and these things are going on because we're at war and i say that and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable because we don't like war language remember i told you you know there there is there is an eleventh commandment thou shalt be nice and we don't believe the other ten but we absolutely believe that one thou shalt be nice and thou shalt be nice usually means thou shalt be non-masculine right because if anything is bold and masculine forthright forceful in any way shape form or fashion it's deemed unacceptable and and and we're at war and that's what i want to talk about in this last session this idea of the the the war that we're a part of the battle that we are part of the war that is raging in the marketplace of ideas and i use that term and i keep saying war and i'm doing that intentionally because part of the war is a war against the idea of being at war we don't like war language we think we think war language is unchristian it's inappropriate for christians to talk about warring and fighting that's just just not it's just not christ-like we're we're servants of the most high god and we're disciples of jesus who's you know lowly jesus meek and mild and and and so the idea that we would talk about you know being at war and having a war in the marketplace of ideas um that's just something that's it's sub-christian if you will so i want to look at a few passages of scripture i'm going to read a couple of them with minimal comment and then get to my texts for this session but i want to read a couple of other texts before i get there second corinthians chapter 10. ii corinthians chapter 10. really verses three through five but i want to start there in verse one because it's priceless when you started verse 1 if you don't start at verse 1 here you're missing some juicy stuff some stuff that we also don't like i paul myself and treat you by the meekness and gentleness of christ this is so it's just it's masterful how he refers here to the meekness and gentleness of christ i whom humble when face to face with you but bold toward you when i am away by the way that's an accusation against paul that's a slight against him that he's a coward face to face but he's bold his pen is bold verse two i beg 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 so at the end of verse one we get sarcasm and verse two we get a threat two things that people would say are just not christian so somehow i guess you can be apostolic and not christian but wait there's more verse 3 for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of god and take every thought captive to obey christ we're waging war we're destroying and we're taking captives hey i don't write the mail i just deliver it right that's in the bible and that's not the only place that it's in the bible ephesians chapter 6. beginning at verse 10. finally be strong in the lord and in 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 against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fasted on the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation of the sword of the spirit which is the word of god praying at all times in the spirit with all prayers and supplications to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and so we have another war metaphor here we have two metaphors we have one the idea of wrestling which is personal hand-to-hand combat and then we have the the the uniform of the roman centurion of the roman soldier that's the armor that's referred to here he's a man of war and so as christians we dress like a man of war because there is a war afoot and again this makes us uncomfortable we think that it's somehow less than christian we also think that it's somehow a contradiction of christian principles and and and and christian character because christian character is not like this christian character is not confrontational it's not war like well turn to jude don't ask what chapter [Music] jude beginning in verse 1 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 as christians now verse 2 may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you now that is how we would define christianity and those who don't like war language like that language instead amen right may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you that's who we are that's who we're supposed to be a people of mercy and peace and love and not a people of war and combat this contradicts the idea of us being a people of war and combat except it doesn't verse three beloved although i was very eager to write to you about our common salvation i found it necessary to write to you appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints the word that he uses there is epigonizobai i love that word you and you you hear you hear agony right agonized greatly agony struggle specifically this is a word picture and the word picture is a picture of hand-to-hand combat so right after it's not only the same person who wrote verse two may mercy peace and love be multiplied to you but the same person writing in the same book not only is it the same person writing in the same book but it's the very next verse there is no contradiction between this call of ours to mercy and peace and love and this call of ours to combat to war not when understood rightly and so that brings us to our text turn with me if you will to first peter chapter 3. first peter chapter 3. this how do we engage in this war there is no question but that we are called to engage in this war we're called to engage in this combat we're called to to to go to battle in the marketplace of ideas we're called to engage an adversary an adversary who is engaging us now it's clear in these other passages that we've read by the way that we're not at war with people amen it's a metaphor he's using a metaphor and and paul makes it clear in second corinthians 10 even though we walk in the flesh we're not waging war according to the flesh make no mistake about it there is a war raging and then in ephesians chapter six he he talks more clearly about the fact that we're we're we're battling these spiritual forces in heavenly places there is a real battle there is a real war and we're engaged in it but we're not at war with people and and that's that's where we get off the rails that's where it becomes problematic that that's where we're not behaving like our lord and master jesus christ when we're at war with individuals as opposed to ideas and arguments as opposed to taking thoughts captive you see when this becomes personal and there is personal animosity between me and other individuals see that's when i've missed the mark that's what's not christian that's what sub christian if you will but not the idea that i would speak against error and expose falsehood we're commanded to expose those falsehoods are we not in fact this is part of my duty as a believer and as a person who would serve in the office of an elder titus 1 9 talking about the qualifications of an elder must must hold fast to the trustworthy word as taught right so that he may exhort in sound doctrine and what refute those who contradict it that's my job it's my duty to refute those who contradict sound doctrine to go to war over doctrine that's my duty it's my duty to call error error not to battle individuals but to go to battle in the marketplace of ideas so here in second peter chapter three we have really the [Music] unarguably the most popular apologetics verse in the bible and i say that we even if you want to argue that there's a more popular apologetics verse you would lose because the word apologetics comes from this passage of scripture so you can't even you can't even use the word unless you go to first peter chapter three first peter chapter 3 and verse 15 but in your hearts honor christ the lord is holy always being prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and respect that defense there is apologia that's the word that's used and we apologetics is a transliteration of that word sometimes we translate words from greek to english sometimes we don't bother we just transliterate them right deacon for example is a transliteration diaconos deacon right apologetics apologia apologetics we transliterate that word okay so this is the text from which we derive our very word apologetics and apologetics is essentially the warfare in which we engage in the marketplace of ideas but there's a way that we do it and it's different than we might think i always get nervous when young men come up to me and because i i write and teach in the area area of apologetics and um my first the first book that i ever published was a cultural apologetics book the last book that i published was an uh cultural apologetics book this book that's coming um is really applied cultural apologetics um that's just that's the that's the thing that i do and so young men will often come to me and they'll say you know i just you know i just really want to do apologetics and i'm just wondering you know you know what you know where should i go what should i read what should i study and it just always makes me nervous it does it makes me nervous number one i i mean i think we're i don't think i mean the bible is pretty clear that all christians are responsible to engage in apologetics amen all christians are responsible to engage in apologetics and that jude passage makes it very clear so i'm not against i'm not against young men being in apologetics but the reason i get nervous is because most young men especially teenage young men most teenagers who want to go into apologetics are jerks who think they're smarter than everybody love the sound of their own voice enjoy destroying other people in arguments and think apologetics is an excuse for them to do it as a christian you can't say amen you ought to say ouch there's people out there going that's our son and so what i like to do is come to this text because i think this is essential and again remember we're talking about masculinity and i talked about masculinity being appropriate for the context and now if we don't have a balanced and biblical understanding of masculinity we go off half cocked and and we have a a caricature of of masculinity like the the our picture of masculinity looks like the terminator right that that's that's the picture that we have in our mind masculinity is the terminator so a christian engaging in apologetics is a terminator bring me your ridiculous ideas lay them down and i will destroy them right here and right now if they're new to me and i haven't heard about them just wait i'll be back but i want us to see this text i want us to see it in its context so we're going to take a few moments here just to sort of look at the context kind of like we did last night with the arguments against uh male headship i want us to see this in its context here now if you look at ii peter chapter 3 and verse 15 it's obvious that that comes in the middle of a paragraph a paragraph that starts there in verse 13. but even verse 13 is part of a broader idea you'd have to back up really to verse eight but then when you back up to verse eight you see finally all of you well if you start something with finally it's kind of a little bit of a clue that that's not the beginning of your argument right it's it's not finally and then you go up to the next paragraph likewise husbands likewise again can't be the beginning of your argument you go to chapter three verse one likewise wives again can't be the beginning of your argument so we go back to the previous paragraph chapter 2 and verse 18 servants be subject to your masters with all respect and it would seem that we've kind of come to the beginning of the section there but obviously or actually we haven't i'm going to argue that really in order to understand this section you gotta back up into chapter two and i'm gonna say we go back to chapter two and verse four and i'll show you why i'm i'm i'm making that argument here in a minute let's go back to chapter 2 and verse 4. i think in one two and three he's kind of finishing up this is it's a summation you know so put away all malice and deceit hypocrisy so it's kind of a summation of what he's talking about before then chapter 2 and verse 4 as you come to him a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of god chosen and precious you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be holy to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable acceptable to god through jesus christ and so here there's this picture of us it's it's a glorious picture and it's multifaceted we have this metaphor here of these living stones right he's a living stone rejected by men but chosen in the sight of god and precious you yourselves like living stones this is who jesus is this living stone you are like living stones and you're being built into a spiritual house god is building something he's building something in you he's building something with you the body of christ is being built up into a people for god's sake to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to god through jesus christ that's who we are he's laying his foundation here that's the beginning of it there is a frame here this is the beginning of the frame the end of the frame is actually found in chapter 4 verse 1. with a sense therefore but we'll get back to that go back to the beginning of the frame here look at verse 6 for it stands in scripture behold i am laying in zion a stone a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame that's key so the honor is for you who believe but for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do so again all of that is built on that same metaphor of christ as a living stone and the stone that the builder reject builders rejected and of us being like living stones and us being built up into a spiritual house and here this whole idea of you know behold in zion there's this cornerstone that is precious this is a language that's referring to the temple and the real temple christ that real temple and then spiritually us being built up into that temple for god and then we come to verse nine but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light once you were not a people but now you are god's people once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy and then here beloved i urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul there's that language again keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify god on the day of visitation there it is so how do we do this verse 13 be subject for the lord's sake to every human institution there's the general principle and then that paragraph he sort of lays that out verse 18 here's a class of people servants be subject to your masters with all respect again that is a practical application of the principle that we find in the paragraph before verses 13-17 likewise wives be subject to your own husbands so that even if some of them do not obey the word they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives again there's an application of the principle that we find in that paragraph beginning at verse 13 which is built upon the idea of us as this royal priesthood and this royal priesthood in the midst of a culture that makes us peculiar because they are unrighteous but we are righteous and they hate us and they stumble over us just like they stumbled over christ this living stone this chief cornerstone which is the stone that the builders rejected so you and i as we are found in christ and live these holy lives we're being built up into this holy temple and people are stumbling over us as well chapter 3 verse 7 likewise husbands live with your wives in an understanding way and then chapter 3 verse 8 finally all of you so we go from the general to the particular now back to the general finally all of you have unity of mind brotherly love a tender heart a humble mind by the way as i read these things it's it's important some of you out there you know you just love apologetics and you're itching and you're going yeah when are we going to get to the apologetic stuff we already have you can't understand verse 15 without this finally all of you have unity of mind sympathy brotherly love a tender heart a humble mind by the way here's why this is important remember we're talking about masculinity being appropriate masculinity is not just the terminator notice i didn't say masculinity is not the terminator i said it's not just the terminator sometimes it is amen somebody come at my family come at my family sometimes masculinity is the terminator usually not amen by god's grace most of us never have to you know have to do that most of us never have to have that that terminator moment but sometimes sometimes we do my family and i my wife and my seven youngest children we have nine children two of them still here seven still at home for the last five years we've been living in lusaka in zambia and it's been very interesting a little over five years living in the developing world living in a third world country um and and there there are things that are that are that are just that are just just different one day my wife and i were we had to go take care of something and our kids had to go to this music academy that they go to and so somebody was taking them to these music lessons and they were taking our our our bus our van they you know i we called it they called it a bus there you know they're taking out a little mini bus to take the kids and we're taking our vehicle to to go and do this things that we need to do and we leave a few minutes after they do my wife and i were you know we're riding up the road and as we ride up the road we see this big crowd of people and on the side of the road is our vehicle surrounded by this crowd of people and our kids have been in an accident two minutes ahead of us and so i pull over to the side of the road behind this crowd of people and i'm trying to get to the vehicle to determine whether my children are okay and people are not cooperating with me getting to the vehicle for me to see if my children are okay sometimes you smelling what i'm stepping in and it was just one of those moments where the not just the appropriate thing to do but the only thing to do for me as a father was to get people out of my way and away from my children so that i could survey this situation and make sure that my children were okay 99 times out of a hundred i'm in sin if i act like that but not that day and here's the thing my wife who was with me mama bears ferocious but mama bear is not built for moving crowds like i am amen and so we were a wonderful complimentary couple as mama bear is telling people in this primordial from like way down here voice to get out of the way and those who weren't responding to the primordial war cry of mama bear had these hands moving them out of the way that's biblical complementarianism right there but that's not how we do apologetics the problem comes when that's that's all we know of masculinity and i'm saying this is a continuation of that idea of us being at war in the marketplace of ideas and war is a masculine thing amen i don't care how many social experiments we do in our military war is a masculine thing and so here in verse 8 i say all that to say there is no contradiction here finally all of you have unity of mind sympathy brotherly love a tender heart and a humble mind that's masculine too do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary bless for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing that takes masculine restraint for whoever desires to love life and see good days let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit let him turn away from evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers but the face of the lord is against those who do evil who do evil being engaged in battle being engaged in conflict is no excuse for doing evil again living in another part of the world it's interesting to see how people think about america and americans and and most people around the world love america and americans and most people want to be one amen if if i didn't have the magic passport i'd want one amen most people do but there are some people there's some people who just they just hate us they just can't stand us and it's rare but i run into that and one of the things i never forget a conversation that i've had more than once you know somebody will say something about you know the american military and the american military does this the american military does that and you know let somebody in the american military do something that's inappropriate and i don't even remember what the thing was and some american servicemen was in trouble for doing something um in in in about they may not have even been in america maybe the australians recently you know who were in trouble for doing something some kind of war crime and they said the other and somebody from another part of the world who you know you guys always think you're better but you know you're no better than you know these people those people whatever i said you know the difference here's the difference the difference is when our guys act inappropriately they're held accountable because we recognize that even in war there's a right and wrong way to do it that's our worldview and that's what we're seeing here this whole section here this whole paragraph here yes we're engaged in war in the marketplace of ideas but that's no excuse for evil and ungodliness don't make that mistake now our text all of that to get us here verse 13. now who is that or harm you if you prove zealous for what is good that's a call to be bold and courageous and brave who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good i love that text in acts chapter four you know where they're where they will tell them not to you know preach in the name of jesus and and then there's a part of the text it says it it warned them they won them further right they they warned them further what are you gonna do what are you gonna do to these guys by that time in acts chapter four you know stop stop preaching stop preaching in the name of jesus or or we'll put you in jail cool i mean like when y'all put peter in jail and angel got him out well you you stopped preaching the name of jesus who will take all your possessions like bro we already gave away our stuff and shared it among the brethren right what are you going to do stop preaching stop preaching in the name of jesus or will will kill you you you mean like you did him before he was resurrected for me to live is christ to die is gain how can you threaten me that's what this is about who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good i mean honestly what can they do to you that's where our boldness comes from but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake you will be blessed have no fear of them nor be troubled now verse 15 but in your hearts honor christ the lord as holy set apart christ the lord as holy always being prepared to make a defense to give a reasoned response to know what you believe why you believe it to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you and in this next phrase yet do it with gentleness and respect verse 16 is so important having a good conscience so that when you are slandered those who revile your good behavior and christ may be put to shame not if but when this is why we engage the way we do we have to engage we are at war but there's a way that we do it we do it in an honorable and christ-like manner not with fear and trembling we're not afraid to engage in the marketplace of ideas we engage boldly we destroy arguments we destroy lofty opinions raised up against the knowledge of god we take every thought captive to obey christ and yet we're doing it with gentleness and with reverence by the way gentleness is not the same as unmanliness gentleness is not a lack of strength it's not a lack of forcefulness it's not a lack of power it's power under control gentleness is me wrestling with my grandsons i can crush them but i wouldn't gentleness is the god who spoke the world into existence hanging and dying on a tree yes he could have called ten thousand angels but he also could have just said no that's gentleness so we do engage and we do engage boldly and confidently and yet we do it with gentleness and respect there's been a lot of talk recently about what's going on in american politics can i just suggest one thing regardless of what you think about the guy who's on his way out regardless of what you think about mr trump regardless of what you think about his policies regardless of what you think about he did what he did or what he didn't do i i hope you're having conversations with your sons like i'm having with mine because right now i hear the conversations that i'm having with my sons sons this is horrible all what's going on is awful it's embarrassing to see what's going on but here's what i want you to learn here is a man regardless of what else went on around him he destroyed himself because he was undisciplined irresponsible reckless childish and unrighteous and if his character had been different everything else would have been different and i hope if you think that he was a person in that office for such a time as this if you're grateful for the appointments that he made if you're grateful for many of the decisions that he made if you're grateful my prayer for us as christians is that we don't violate this text by taking the position that says because we like the things he did we will not speak out against the aspects of his character that run completely against the grain of what the bible says not just a leader but a man ought to be my god does not ride the backs of donkeys or elephants because lions will kill both of those i serve the lion of the tribe of judah my god does not enter into politics to take sides he enters to take over and the day i can't speak against a person's character because i happen to like some of the things that they did is the day that i'm no longer speaking with a prophetic voice and i should give up my office verse 17 for it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be god's will than for doing evil god forbid that you or i because people are going to come at us god forbid that you are i you know i he's to have this one coach i always remember he's always saying just don't give him a stick to hit you with just don't give him a stick to hit you with if we know that our righteousness in christ is a stumbling block if we know that they're already against us why would we carry ourselves in a way speak in a way or act in a way that's going to give them an excuse why why would we when jesus was hanging on the cross they didn't say well he might not have done this thing but boy all these other aspects of his character no he's hanging on the cross and even the men who are killing him have to say surely this was the son of god these other guys they deserve what we just did not him not him well for the sake of time verse 18 for christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to god being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit but i want to get down here to chapter four these first few verses remember i said this closes the frame since therefore christ suffered in the flesh arm yourselves with the same way of thinking for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of god for the time that is passed uh sorry for the yeah for the time that has passed suffices for doing what the gentiles want to do living in sensuality passions drunkenness orgies drinking parties and lawless idolatry with respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead that though judged in the flesh the way people are they might live in the spirit the way god does that's why i believe the section begins in 2 4 with christ the living stone and us as living stones and in the middle of it we have this picture of us living righteous lives so that when we're maligned it's not because we were unrighteous but in spite of the fact that we were righteous we're called to always be ready to engage in war in the marketplace of ideas to give an answer to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is in us and in doing so destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of god and take every thought captive to obey christ but to do that with gentleness and reverence why because we belong to christ and that's the way he went to war that's the way he defeated his adversary that's the way he won victory over death hell and the grave masculinity appropriately applied to the moment at hand to the need at hand and boldly applied regardless of the costs because the gospel of jesus christ is more valuable to us than even our own lives amen if you want to make sure you don't miss out on any of these talks as they come out each month go to strongholdconference.com and sign up for the free newsletter if you do you'll get the links sent straight to your inbox and be the first to know about stronghold 2022 so make sure you go to strongholdconference.com and sign up for the free newsletter thanks

Channel: Stronghold Conference

Views: 15,389

Keywords: Biblical Masculinity, STRONGHOLD Conference, Voddie Baucham Conference, Voddie Baucham Sermon, Voddie Baucham 2021, Voddie Baucham Manhood, Dr. Voddie Baucham, Pastor Voddie Baucham

Id: SYiHld5mCLg

Length: 50min 5sec (3005 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021