Session 3 | Voddie Baucham

what I want to do is talk about how we how do we witness in this context how do we how do we address these issues faithfully and again I want to talk about this just like we've done the rest of this I want to talk about it sort of from the standpoint of the worldview and how we address the worldview but I also want us to sort of be wise and understand objections that have come and there are a number of objections that have come I've alluded to some of them already one is the love objection it's the objection that says well the principle ethic the overarching ethic of Christianity is love right because that is the overarching ethic of Christianity love then we have to embrace love in all its forms and these people love each other those people love each other because this is the overarching ethic then we have to we have to embrace it the the problem the hair is that the defining love wrongly right the defining love horizontally the overarching ethic in Christianity is most assuredly love right the greatest commandment love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind all your strength right they want to run to the second table of the law love your neighbor as yourself and that's true but that's the second greatest commandment Jesus was asked there remember the debate that's going on there is what's the greatest commandment and they're thinking you know there's many schools of thought someone argued that the first commandment was the greatest commandment others would argue that it was actually the fifth someone say the tenth you know company is where you know although the your sin comes from so which one is he gonna say which school of thought is he gonna identify with and essentially Jesus says well the greatest commandment I'm gonna have to say is one through four followed closely by five through ten because essentially love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength is a summary of the first table of the law the first four Commandments the vertical Commandments right and then the rest of it the horizontal Commandments flow from the vertical Commandments when it comes to love it's the same love is first understood vertically because God is love he defines what that love is and then we understand as horizontal horizontally we don't do it backwards we don't say here's my horizontal experience an understanding of love therefore this is what God's attitude has to be that's that's backwards okay so that's the love issue there's a second issue it's more a little more sophisticated and this issue there's a book by a guy named Matthew vines it's called God and the gay Christian and in it vines is basically arguing that New Testament authors were ignorant of the idea of sexual orientation when they were writing about homosexuality what they were really addressing was the issue of pederasty now pederasty was in roman culture basically you would have men with sexual relationships with young boys and young boys would be the submissives the men would be the dominance and you know that the attitude was kind of this women are for children but boys are for enjoyment okay and they would say that this is basically what Paul was speaking out against this issue of pederasty but we now know Anna and that people have a sexual orientation in one direction or another and so Paul wouldn't have been talking about that because if your orientation is homosexual and that's just the way God has oriented you then it would make sense that you would have relationships in that direction so and and a loving monogamous homosexual relationship would have been completely acceptable had Paul understood sexual orientation the problem with that of course is that we don't understand sexual orientation it's an assumption but it's a question begging assumption when I say question begging assumption I don't mean the way that we used question begging today oh that begs the question when we really mean it raises the question begging the question is a logical flaw in an argument in a debate begging the question would mean that you're assuming facts that are not in evidence right that's that's a question begging argument and vines and his ilk and you know some of the most influential people of our day argue that everybody knows that sexual orientation is a proven scientific fact except it's not it never has been there is no proof that there's any such thing as a homosexual there are people who practice homosexual sex but there is no proof that there's a such thing as a person who is by definition a homosexual none whatsoever no genetic evidence no biological evidence no scientific evidence whatsoever that there is a biological link to this none zero zip zilch none ever ever ever none did I say none but we talk about it as though it's proven scientific fact and it's absolutely not but guess what we do have we do have two thousand-year-old biblical evidence that people stopped practicing homosexuality first Corinthians and such were some of you so here's the question if there are people who were in this practice and this lifestyle who stopped being in this practice in this lifestyle how do we then argue that there's a such thing as an immutable orientation in that direction well they've changed because that wasn't really their orientation how do you know where is your evidence is there a blood test that you can give people I mean I can say I'm not black I could really I'm not a black person I look like a black person but you can actually test my genes and you could find my ethnic roots right they started handing out you know benefits to people who were almost sexual and I want some of those benefits I am one no you're not prove it prove I'm not dude are you following me and this is important because even Christians are buying in to these assumptions and categorically when we talk about this we talk about it by starting off assuming the rightness of the sexual orientation line of thinking and it's just not true it's just not there and this is so it's so important that we don't do this because there are young people who struggle for real I mean for real that torn apart on the inside because of struggles that they have and desires that they have wrestling with this stuff and in the midst of them wrestling with this stuff here we come going why are you wrestling it's your orientation wait what yeah stop wrestling but but God says it's a sin yeah that's just cuz in the Bible they didn't know about orientation but now we do Oprah said so do you rats what we're doing to young people who are having struggles somebody just showed me you know a news release today a very famous Hollywood star who's saying that there's seven-year-olds transgender how do they know how do they know and again it's one thing for people to be making declarations like this but you know people are having people are people making permanent decisions based on those kind of feelings and it's happening younger and younger all the time and the suicide rate for people who have sexual reassignment surgery is astronomical so this is significant stuff okay but this is the last one that I want to deal with and I want to deal with this is what we're gonna spend our time there the most effective argument that people have had against those of us who want to pursue biblical ethic and real are in regards to human sexuality and who refused to capitulate and accept whatever then you know definitions people want to give us that the most successful argument that people have been using is an argument that goes something like this you are a hypocrite because you eat shrimp because you saying the Bible says all my sexuality is an abomination says the same thing about eating shrimp why do you do the one and condemn the other why the double standard you're a hypocrite and the reason that this argument has been so effective is because most Christians are completely ignorant about the law just ignant about the law okay we just don't get it we and we say some of the most foolish things imaginable about the law and it's not just like you know run-of-the-mill Christian people just a lot of pastors that are completely twisted on this issue of the law you just don't get this issue of the law and I've been in settings I've been in situations before I was preaching at an event this is herb way earlier in my in my ministry there was an event for young people something like that event that we were at and glorietta something and you know there were but at this particular event we were in a covered pavilion but we were still outside and so there were some pastors who were very offended by the fact that they were young men wearing hats in the service and this was actually in Texas because I remember thinking man is Tom Landry country man you know even timely I remember Tom Landry Tom Landry if do you know if he's in the stadium it was open and he put his hat on the stadium was closed he didn't wear his hat right this time dude he was that's just his generation that was their thing and so this was kind of a generational thing and these guys are ready to worship and they you know they were in their hats and and a pastor came up to me and he's telling me about this and he's talking about you know these guys having their heads covered and worship and that they shouldn't be doing that and when I get up I should make an announcement for them to take their hats off and I said brother you realize it if I do that based on the use of that text I'll have to tell them to hand them to the girl next to him so they they could [Music] now if you want me to ask the young man to respect people who have a cultural preference I'll do that but if you want me to make your cultural preference law because you want to abuse the Scriptures that I can't do holy people all these tattoos my imal says you shouldn't be marking your body it does right before it says that you shouldn't cut the edges of your beard confusion over the law that's why when folks come with that right it's like we don't know we still we good but we have a Hopf so Leviticus 18:22 you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it is an abomination because this has been so effective dante's of it we have a golden opportunity a golden opportunity it's one of those things where you know somebody asked me was from Houston I remember who it was asked me if I'd met George Forman you know George Forman Houston guy and you know and you know he'd been here a few times knocking people out over at the MGM or wherever and you know it's kind of like it's kind of like boxers you know if you know if you know that you have an advantage of some kind what do you do you use that advantage right and if you got a guy who really feels like he has an advantage that you know is not let him bring it and right here's when you kind of run into Mike Tyson Theology gotta have some Mike Tyson theology right Mike Tyson was getting ready to fight I think it was Ken Norton jr. or somebody you know and Tyson had just been just running through the heavyweight division but man Ken Norton Jr's this heady boxer in this Olympian and this tactician and you know the guys asking him about you know how are you gonna deal with his strategy and you know he's this tactician and he's that I use I got this game plan and I and Tyson just in a minute a moment of brilliant theological excellence says these words everybody's got a plan till they get hit amen and I have found that on this issue it's like that because they but they really believe because they've run into Christians before where they use this and the Christians are right that they've got it they've got the strategy and the tactics and Dada Dada Dada Dada Dada Dada it's a wonderful opportunity not necessarily to knock people out but it's a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with people who don't want to talk to you about the gospel let me tell you I and I love to just like I try I try to not get giddy like a little schoolgirl when somebody brings this up you know and ahold of it it gets 22 things sometimes I'll bring up the Leviticus 22 you know I mean I'm sorry 1822 I'm just because you know you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it is an abomination cuz then their eyes get big and they're like oh I got you they're like do you eat shrimp too which I usually respond usually when it's wrapped in bacon whoa why do you do that because that's an abomination and why this abomination is okay and that abomination is not okay that's a good question I want to tell you here's how you handle that here's the first thing you do the first thing you do is knock them off their moral high horse because essentially here's what they're saying they're saying you are a hypocrite and I am morally superior to you because you are a hypocrite and you pick and choose what parts of Leviticus that you're going to obey at which point I say okay I'd like to answer your charge can we look at a little bit of Leviticus sure Leviticus 18:22 you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it is an abomination and you say that I'm a hypocrite because I hold to that but not to some other things verse 23 you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it neither shall a woman give herself to an animal to live with it it is a perversion you agree with that and inevitably they say yes I say wait so you're telling me you don't agree with verse 22 but you do agree with verse 23 which means I'm not the only one picking and choosing I mean we could we could go on because there's other verses 19:11 you shall not steal you shall not deal falsely you shall not lie to one another you agreeing with that and inevitably they say yes right I mean we we could go on and on and on in the Book of Leviticus basically here's the point the point is they feel like they have the moral high ground because they've accused you of being a hypocrite because you pick and choose and what you're able to do immediately just with the next verse is show if they also pick and choose now at this point people generally say well no I'm not bigger than choosing because I'm not claiming to believe the Bible you don't have to you don't have to claim to believe the Bible you did not invent your own morality you grew up in a culture that taught you morality and the morality that you were taught is based on the Bible you've decided to accept the parts of morality from the Bible that our culture taught you that you like but to reject reject the parts of morality that our culture taught you based on the Bible that you don't like which means that you might be ignorant of the fact that you're picking and choosing but that does not change the fact that you pick and choose so now we're both hypocrites who pick and choose put one of us is ignorant about it and the other one's not just saying cuz I know why I pick and choose you mind if I explain okay now I get to explain why pick and choose cuz they've accused me of being a hypocrite I've showed them that they're they hypocrite and I'm arguing that I'm not a hypocrite why now I introduced them to something that we need to understand the threefold division of the law the threefold division of the law there are three types of law and the Old Testament there is the moral law the moral law is forever binding for all men in all places in all times and the moral law is some summarized in the Ten Commandments summarizing the Ten Commandments the unchanging moral law of God no matter what no matter where no matter when okay that's the moral law in addition to the moral law you have the civil law the civil law has laws that God gave to Israel so that they might survive as a holy nation in the ancient Near East it's the civil law rules about their civil society civil laws are not binding on us except in principle where they inform the moral law in other words the law about an ox who Gore's somebody and if your ox is gored somebody before you're negligent do we just take that law and write it into our statutes nope but our statutes are negligent homicide are based on that law because the underlying moral principle is unchanging by the way it's a violation of the sixth commandment you shall not commit murder and you've done so by neglect moral law universal timeless civil law specific to Israel in the ancient Near East not applying to us directly but applying to us indirectly to the degree that it points to the moral law there's a third kind of law and that's the ceremonial law the ceremonial law our laws regarding Israel's worship the sacrificial laws for example these are ceremonial laws regarding Israel's worship now person who just called me a hypocrite let me explain something to you as a Christian I understand that the ceremonial laws specifically the laws relating to sacrifices or only there to point to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who would be the once for all sacrifice for sin had there not been the ceremonial law and the sacrifice of those animals and had there not been the ceremonial law and his sacrifice on High Holy Days had there not been the day when you come together on the Day of Atonement and there are two there's two lambs that are offered one is going to be killed for the sins of the nation the other one is going to have a priest lay hands on his head symbolically laying the sins of the people on him and he's going to be sent out into the wilderness as a scapegoat if that doesn't happen for thousands of years then when Jesus comes and is crucified on the same day and you've been told behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world you don't have a context to understand redemption in Christ but watch this person who called me a hypocrite if those things pointed to Christ and his Redemption it would be blasphemy for me to continue to obey the ceremonial laws when they've been fulfilled in Christ which means it's not hypocritical for me to pick and choose I'm commanded to do you follow I have to pick and choose read the book of Hebrews right I have to pick and choose it would be wrong for me to obey ceremonial laws when when they've been fulfilled you're the person at work of Christ ceremonial laws that were designed to separate Israel from the nations around them marking their bodies and cutting the edges of their beards like the pagan nations around them who did those things in their pagan worship in other words God is saying do not commit idolatry now you want to talk about your body being a temple of the Holy Spirit and how we you know do this and any other I mean sure we can we can do that right but that's an entirely different discussion and again not one that's gonna be just absolutely cut and dried on certain issues right but we have to be careful the way we apply the law now I want you to notice something the person came at me because I'm talking about Leviticus 18:22 they got all excited thinking oh I know how to get him and then step number one took him off their moral high horse step number two I explained myself did anybody notice that in step number two I'm just explaining myself to the person who asked me to explain myself but they just got the gospel they just got the sacrificial system and the cross substitution their company they just got to go away I right we're in the gospel now and I didn't force it they wanted to call me a hypocrite they opened the door and in a very natural way in answering their objection and explaining myself I asked you there question but I didn't just answer their question I did what I wanted to all along and that was I got to gospel because that's what the greatest need is I want you to see something look look at something with me go to the New Testament and this is explained really why we're taking while we're taking this tack at all go to Romans Romans chapter 1 romans chapter 1 beginning in verse 16 if you're wondering you know okay we're gonna talk about you know this sexual revolution and all the stuff that's going on how come we're not here talking about you know all of the science of you know transgender and homosexuality and you know all of this and that and these statistics and these laws and these and this is not to dare to do it today today to die cuz cuz that's number one you won't remember all that stuff number two that's not where the battle is Romans chapter one beginning verse 16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith or faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith and then put let him put a finer point on it verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse for although they knew God God does not believe in atheists there's no such thing they know God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged the natural relations for those that are contrary to nature and men likewise give up natural relay with women and were consumed with passion for one another men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error since they did not see fit to acknowledge God God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they are full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness their gossips slanderers haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless though they know the righteous decrees that though they know God's righteous decrees that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them you see the problem is not a lack of information the problem is a lack of righteousness people are not pursuing these sins and these lifestyles and ready they're not doing this because they're uninformed but because they're unrighteous and the cure for unrighteousness is not information it's the gospel so what do we want to do we want to get to the gospel but why do so in a winsome way in a nun threatening way right that's what expository apologetics is all about not the book but the concept it's all about relying on the scriptures and relying on the gospel and not getting bogged down in trying to know every detail and minutiae of you know the sin d'azur so that we can somehow convince people who are never gonna be convinced because here's what I know and here's what you know - what I know is we can talk about the twin study the pheromone study we can talk about all these studies you know and and how there's never been any study to demonstrate a biological connection with homosexuality here's what's not gonna happen the pro homosexual person is not going to say wow I didn't know that I think I'll change my mind because their problem is not a lack of information the problem is a lack of righteousness they are suppressing the truth and their unrighteousness they know God they're made in His image and they know him so we have a tremendous opportunity if we will just take this is just one example and in each of these examples you know hope you recognize that we're responding with what the Scriptures have to teach and getting to the gospel right but in this one in particular number one and I think this is huge it's incredibly helpful mainly because right now this is something that they're confident in right because they've had enough conversations with people who are who Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve right bring it up bring it up and when you bring it up step number one knock them down off their moral high horse they are not morally superior in this step number two educate them explain explain that while you both pick and choose you know why you do and they don't it's step number three get to the gospel in a winsome and non-threatening way now does this guarantee us anything no it doesn't but we don't do this because we're looking for guarantees we do this because that desires to be faithful and we care about the souls of men Amen I don't want to win an argument I want to win the man I remember as a new believer I grew up I didn't grow up around Christians Christianity first time I heard the gospel was my first year in university I was raised in South Los Angeles single teenage Buddhist mother and just did not hear the gospel and I I came to faith and God just opened my eyes and turned my life completely around and I began to grow and learn and I remember one day these guys came by my apartment to talk to me and I was discipled by some teammates of mine I was played football in college they probably can't believe that but I did and I was decided busting some teammates of mine and so there was one guy in Britain Africa now I went to Brent's house and I said Brent these guys came by my house my apartment and I was living off campus at the time and was I said I just something about I mean I was experience really encouraged you know that these guys came by and they had a Bible and they wanted to talk about God and I was really encouraged but after a while it just didn't it didn't seem right I couldn't put my finger on it and Brent said Mormons are hopeless witnesses and I was like I don't know did they have nametags no he said there with the Jehovah's Witnesses okay and he explains a little bit to me and it's just at me in a direction so I just go to the library and you know I just devoured stuff in the library and I was a decent student but I never spent that much time in the library not like when I was getting after this and so the guys came back and when the guys came back I was ready for so the next day I go we'll go to practice and I tell brand like Brent they came back he said really like yeah man I was ready for I'll flip them like a tied-up go it was just it was bread I'm serious man up one side down the other I was so ready I was over you know and he said oh cool he said do you think he'll come back and I was like no they're not coming back to my house and Brent lecture him and he goes it's a pity and he walked away it took me a minute it took me a few minutes right eventually I came up to Brent and I was like man what I didn't handle that right did I and from one college student to another he was a senior I was a sophomore he said you were so concerned about winning the argument that you forgot that we're here to win man so I don't know I don't know what what you were wanting to get out of this but I hope that at the end of this time that we've spent together that you go away from here with a mindset shift number one that you understand this is a worldview issue amen this is a worldview issue and secondly that you understand that this is an ever growing ever-changing issue but it's rooted and grounded in the same stuff and then thirdly that we do need to respond but we need to respond in a winsome and effective way it always gets us to the heart of the matter which in the end is always a matter of the heart

Channel: First Baptist Church of the Lakes

Views: 4,912

Rating: 4.8991594 out of 5

Keywords: 2019 Spring Conference, Voddie Baucham

Id: g2OmAQlA0ko

Length: 41min 55sec (2515 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2019