All right, so this will be our conclusion on our study of apologetics. And we've been going over it for the last few months. And so what I want to do is just kind of step back and review our foundational verses, which is 1 Peter 3.15. And this gives us our basis for why we study apologetics and what apologetics is. So 1 Peter 3.15, So that tells us what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to do it. So we're supposed to be ready at all times to give you defense for our faith, but do it in such a way that it is with gentleness and reverence. Our second instructional verse for apologetics is Jude 3, and it says, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints. So we're to contend earnestly for our faith. And what does that mean to contend earnestly? What do you think? Diligently, well-studied, have the correct answers, and to be prepared, well-prepared. So as we studied, we went back and we looked at a lot of different world and life views through our study, and we talked a lot about that. We realized that in today's world, we're dealing with a society that has no truth. Truth is relative. Moral relativism has taken over. And I don't know if it was Brant or Paul, it might have been last week, I think you were talking about moral relativism. Somebody was. But that's what we're dealing with today in our society, is the fact that people don't have any sense of belief. There is no moral foundation. So as we go out and we contend earnestly for our faith, what are we dealing with? We're dealing with a lot of different worldviews. We're dealing with people that disagree vehemently with us. We are dealing with people who just have no concept of what truth is. So our job is that much harder, I think, today because of this moral relativism that has taken over society. And we talked a lot about all these different worldviews and life views. And I was going to say, anybody that wants the outline that I've used through this, I can email it to you. I printed one off, and it's 61 pages long through all the lessons. But I can email it to you in a PDF format if you'd like just to have all the background information that we've used in this. So anyway, today, we don't have any belief in any kind of objective truth. society has gotten to that point where we just, you know, what's true for you is true for you, but not for me, and it's all relative. So we have to deal with that. So my little Latin saying here for apologetics is cogito ergo credo, which is, I think, Therefore, I believe so that's kind of how I look at apologetics is it's a little maybe on the intellectual side, but you don't have to be an intellectual to be a good apologist. You just have to be ready to study and contend earnestly, like the verse says. But what we have is we have a lot of people who don't even think anymore. And therefore, if you don't think, how are you ever going to come to any sense of belief or anything like that? So that's kind of what I found that to be rather I don't know, humorous is the right word, but it's kind of a good saying, is that I think, therefore I believe. Because if you think about our faith, God, creation, how can you not believe? And therefore, you know, as you think, it will lead you to believe. So, I was just, we were talking yesterday morning at breakfast, what, you know, the sun is way south coming in through our one window in the office. And then, you know, in the summertime, the sun is coming in to the kitchen window to the north. And how can you not believe when you look at creation and the astounding beauty of it along with just the fact that we have seasons and you know the earth tilts and this is all supposedly created by or not created but just happened and so you know the whole thing I think if you think about creation How can you not believe that there's a creator? Basically, everybody believes something. Whether you believe in Christ, God, or you believe in atheism, you believe in something. Everybody believes in something. What I've got down here is not thinking about what you believe is irresponsible. I think we have a responsibility to think about why we believe what we believe, how we believe, and as a result of that, we learn more about it. And so, as I've said here, once a society loses that objective base, that it has a solid foundation in truth, what happens? Anything goes, doesn't it? And all of a sudden, you know, you got anarchy, you have People running around with absolutely no beliefs. They don't have any idea of what is right and wrong. And so, you know, when we have that loss of that objective base, a moral foundation, a moral compass, so to speak, we don't have any direction to point us in the right direction. So society has basically reached that point in many ways. I remember when I was on the school board one time, we were having a discussion about what's right and wrong. And this particular administrator in the school was saying, well, you know, there is no right and wrong. I said, I sincerely disagree with you. And there is right and there is wrong. He said, no, no, there isn't. I said, all right, so I can just come in and bust in your house, take what I want, and that's okay. Well, no, that's against the law. I said, so there, there is right and wrong. And, you know, it's just how we, I guess, look at it, but there are definite objective rights and wrongs that we have to live with in society. But as we move away from something with an objective base, It just appears that more and more goes. So Colossians 4, 5, and 6 is, be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. So as we deal with people outside the church, in our circle of people we work with, people we know, what are we supposed to do? Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace. It's sometimes hard for me not to be judgmental, but I try and exhibit the grace seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. So again, what does this require us to do? Study, and be informed, and know the word, and be ready to share the gospel. Our root word of the word apologetics is a Greek word apologia, which means an answer given in reply. And so it's a rational response against objections that people bring up about Christianity. And as we go out and we talk to people, there are a lot of people that have objections to Christianity, aren't there? But as we become apologists and study, what can we do? ready with a rational response to those that have any objections. And so what I thought we could do a little bit, we talked a little bit about this earlier on in a session, but I wanted to kind of spend a little time contrasting apologetics with evangelism. And evangelism is what I think most of us think about when we think about going out and sharing Christ with people. That's evangelism. And so we need to be equipped both for apologetics and for evangelism. So we're going to just talk a little bit about evangelism, and contrast the two between apologetics and evangelism. So, apologetics, what we've been talking about, is defense of the faith. So, we're defending our faith. When we're an apologist, it's a defense of the faith. And so we're taking a defensive position. And apologetics addresses everything from the existence of God to the reliability of the Old and New Testaments. So it's what I would call a meta-narrative, and it's more the entire Bible. Genesis to Revelation, and the existence of God, and the purpose of Christ, and as Brant and Paul teach us, we look to see Christ in every aspect of scripture. And so that's really what we're doing as an apologist. We're defending. So I bring it, I'm not a big sports guy, but I think of, in terms of sports, you got defense and offense. And apologetics is the defense. And I have always told Tim when he was playing basketball, you can't win basketball if you don't have a good defense. You have to have defense. Got to have an offense too, but you can't win if you don't have a good defense. So contrasting that, we've got evangelism. And so evangelism takes the other side of the field, and an evangelist is playing offense. Not offensive. I always like to make sure we understand the difference between playing offense and being offensive. Evangelists is commanded for us as believers. It says in Acts 1.8, you shall be witnesses unto me unto the uttermost parts of the earth. So as evangelists, what are we doing? We're witnessing to people. We're sharing the gospel of Christ. But we're playing offense. We're taking it. to them. And we're playing on that side of the field as an evangelist. And evangelism has one specific message, all right? That's sharing the gospel. And that's, as an evangelist, as we have an evangelistic outreach, that is our job as an evangelist, is to do what? Simply share the gospel of Jesus Christ. So one source defined evangelism as the act of sharing the Christian gospel with the intention of persuading others to believe and convert. That sounds a little weird, but when we stop and think about it, what is our purpose to evangelize? It is to what? share the Christian gospel. And what's our intent when we're sharing that gospel? Our intent is to persuade others to believe. And now, do we save people? No. God saves them. But what's our responsibility? Our responsibility is what? To share the gospel. And so, to believe. So James and Montgomery Boyce, There's a couple paragraphs in his book, Foundations of the Christian Faith, that I thought I would read and kind of talks a little bit about evangelism. And so he says, how can one propose to take a message which is so obviously unpalatable to the natural man or woman and have any hope of moving him or her to accept it unless God is able to take rebellious sinners and turn them in spite of their own inclinations to faith in Jesus? If God cannot do that, how can any sane human being hope in himself to do it? So basically what James Montgomery Boyce is saying, if God can't do it, we sure can't do it because he's all-powerful. And so he would have to be either oblivious to the problem or be ridiculously self-confident. But if God is sovereign in this as in all other matters, if God calls whom he wills and calls effectively, Then we can be bold in evangelism, knowing that God by grace may use us as channels of his blessing. Indeed, we can know that he will use us, for it is by human testimony that he is determined to bring others to him." So that's our responsibility, to bring the gospel of Christ to an unbelieving world. Then he's got another paragraph here that Finally, the doctrine of election has this benefit also. It encourages us in evangelism. It is often thought to do the opposite. If God is going to save certain individuals, then he will save them. And there's no point in having anything to do with it. But it does not work that way. And that's one of the arguments that I've always heard against the doctrine of election. Well, if God's going to save them anyway, why do we even have to go out and evangelize? But what? God's commanded us to go out and share the gospel, hasn't he? So he continues. But it does not work that way. God's election does not exclude the use of means through which he calls, and the Bible explicitly tells us that the proclamation of the gospel by believers is that means. Moreover, it is only this that gives us hope of success as we proclaim the gospel. If the heart of a sinner is as hard and as opposed to God in his ways as the Bible declares it to be, And if God does not elect the individual, then what hope could we possibly have in witnessing? If God cannot call effectively, then certainly we cannot. But if He is doing such a work in the world, then we can go boldly, knowing that all whom God has determined to save will come to Him. We do not know who they are. The only way we know the elect is through their response to the gospel and their living of the Christian life which follows that call. But we can call them boldly knowing that those who are called by God will surely come. So, we don't know who the elect are. But how are we to know if we don't go out and share the gospel? And so it's our responsibility as evangelists to do this. So we're contrasting evangelism with apologetics, but we have a responsibility to do what? Both. To be ready to defend our faith, as well as being ready to share the gospel. So, is there a method to evangelism? Secrets of effective evangelism were to be faithful followers of Christ. Can't be a very good evangelist if we don't have sound faith in what we believe. Rooted in the power of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We carry the message, just like James Montgomery Boyce said, and we teach here. We carry the message, but God does the saving. As individuals, as humans, we can't lead anybody to Christ, but what can we do? We can share the gospel and leave it up to God to save the person. All right, so I don't know if anybody's familiar with the whole evangelism explosion thing, been through that training. I'm not a big fan of it because it kind of gets it all down to just a system, but it's probably effective in some ways. But I do think they define the nature of the gospel presentation very effectively. And so introduction, there's three parts of it. And introduction to the gospel, introduction to yourself, speak to people where they are at with a mutual topic conversation. So you get to know somebody, you're able to introduce the gospel to them with a mutual topic of conversation. Maybe it's the weather or whatever, but you can lead that into a conversation about the gospel message. And then share the gospel. So we've introduced ourselves, we've introduced the topic, then we share the gospel. It opens a person's eyes to their current spiritual state. They're lost in sin, but there is a way through Christ for redemption and forgiveness. So we need to share that. We need to let people know that there is a way that they can be redeemed and be forgiven. And then a commitment. A person may either commit their life to Christ or may not. Again, that's not up to us. It's up to us to share the gospel. God does the work. finally realized that, it took a huge burden off my shoulders, because it was like, you know, I haven't led anybody to Christ this week, or I haven't, you know, done the work of an evangelist by, you know, bringing the horse to the water tank and forcing him to drink. And, you know, in so many, I don't want to criticize Baptist circles, but in so many more, I guess, we won't go down that direction, but in so many churches, the pastor is like, you need to lead people to Christ, you need to get them saved, you need to bring them, bring them. Well, again, that's not our job. God does that. And like I say, that was such a relief to me when it's like, okay, I can share the gospel. I can talk about it. I can show people through my life what it's like to live for Christ. But, you know, it just took that pressure off to lead people and make them saved, because there's nothing we can do to do that. That's totally up to God. So when I finally came to that realization, it was like, oh, what a relief. It's not up to me to save people. It's up to God. So, you know, and how do we evangelize then? Be aware of people and the situation around you. An opportunity to share the gospel may just present itself. You might be sitting on an airplane with somebody next to you and strike up a conversation, goes back to that introduction, and then you might have an opportunity to share the gospel through that. Might be, you know, run into somebody at the grocery store, somebody at work. All these opportunities avail themselves of giving us an opportunity to share the gospel. And people are influenced by those they have a relationship with. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, relationship evangelism is the only way to do it. But a lot of times, what it takes, especially today, people are much more careful, much more skeptical about getting to know people. But if you develop a relationship with somebody, it's a lot easier to share the gospel after you've had an opportunity to become their friend or have some kind of relationship with them. And as evangelists, remember that we are doing what? We're playing offense, all right? We're going after the goal. We're sharing the gospel. We are preparing their heart for God's work with them. But not being offensive, all right? So that's what I, you know, how many times have we run into people that are offensive about sharing Christ? And, you know, they're in your face. And I call them Bible thumpers. But, you know, they hit you over the head with a Bible. And, you know, that's effective in some means. And it depends on the relationship you have with that person. Some people, you've got to hit them over the head with a two by four. All right, other people, a more gentle approach, but don't be offensive. Keep in mind that it is our responsibility to share the gospel, not save it. I guess I've kind of beat that horse to death, haven't I? It's our responsibility to share the gospel. We don't do the saving. Continue in the training. How do we become good evangelists? How do we become good apologists? to attend church, Bible study, prayer. Training never stops. We're never done. And when you stop and think about all that the Bible contains, knowledge, and everything that deals with life, we can never stop learning. And I think too many times we reach a point in life where it's like, eh, I have nothing more to learn. And not true. There is always opportunity. to learn more about scripture, to know more about Christ's life, how to live a Christian life. So again, attending worship service, Bible study, through prayer. I think a lot of times we do not give enough credit to the power of prayer in our lives. And when we have somebody that we want to share the gospel with, evangelize, or defend our faith, We should really be praying a lot about that. So just remember, training never stops. So we'll kind of transition back to apologetics. And so I just wanted to contrast the difference between evangelism and apologetics as we conclude here. So be prepared at all times to offer defense of your faith. along with our foundational scriptures, and we need to understand that, again, people today just do not have any sense of right and wrong, and we live in a relative moral environment. We need to be ready to counter the relativism that exists. The only way we can do that is through the gospel and being ready to defend our faith. So how do we do this? That's one of the things that's always like, okay, we talk about it, but then how do we do it? How do we become an apologist? Along with our study, along with attending church, regular prayer, and Bible reading, you know, how do we do apologetics? And so, as I was going through this, it was like, okay, how would I do it? And doing a little bit of additional study, ask questions. Why do you believe that way? You'll run into people that will say, well, you know, I don't believe what you believe. And well, what do you believe? You know, why do you believe that? And do you have any foundational objective truth to your belief and have a conversation and ask questions. How did you come to that conclusion? A lot of people, as we talked in other lessons, are talking about the scientific method. Well, we believe in science. Well, why do you believe in science? What objective truth do you have in science that leads you to believe this? So it's a much more Again, it's asking questions, it's making people tell you why they believe what they believe, and then we have the opportunity as believers to counter that. argument and with the truth of scripture and so be prepared to expose inconsistencies in people's thoughts and because a lot of times they'll come out with something and then you'll go a little further in a conversation and they'll be they'll contradict themselves, or they'll be just inconsistent in the way they're presenting what they're thinking. And it's like, so we have to be what? Sharp enough to be able to pick that up and say, oh, you know, well, just a couple of minutes ago, you said this. Now you're saying this. Isn't that inconsistent? And so what do we have to be able to do? listen, right? I mean, when we're talking to people, how many times do we just kind of, you know, you sit there and your eyes kind of start glazing over and you're just kind of like, you know, I really don't need to hear this, whatever, and you kind of tune out. But if we're good listeners, I think we're ready to then pick up on the inconsistencies that people may have. And so some of the thoughts today are all truth is relative. And we can show them how that's an inconsistent thought. And there's no absolute truth. So we just really need to be, again, well-prepared and know how to argue with people. And when I say argue, I don't mean shouting at each other, but when I think of being in court, a lot of times you'll have, again, the defense and you've got the offense, the prosecutor and the defense. And I don't know how many of you have ever spent a lot of time in court, but it's amazing how sometimes the truth can be interpreted differently, depending on whether it's your prosecutor or defense. And so it's a little bit like that. It's a little bit like going to court and being able to present your case effectively as the defense. How do we become our effective apologist? Keep informed on the issues of the day. When we listen to the news, when we are communicating with people, you know, know what the issues are. And, you know, when we look at what's going on in the news today, You know, can we effectively discuss that with somebody and take it from a scriptural perspective? And then also, you know, keep informed on issues within the church. How many times have you had a conversation with somebody and it's like, well, the church says this? Well, knowing what is going on in the, I guess when I say church, not just our church, church, our congregation here, but the church in general, because there's a lot of issues that the church in general doesn't agree with scripture on. And I think we need to be informed about where the church is coming from. And, you know, there's a lot of churches today that do not have a strong foundation in scripture. You're dealing with issues of same-sex marriage, things like that. They don't see anything wrong with it, and so we need to be able to do what? We need to be able to share the truth that, no, this is the objective truth about the issues that we're facing in society today. Bible study and prayer, obviously can't stress that enough. Develop a heart for the defense of the faith. Some people are phenomenal evangelists. They can go out and they can share the gospel. I think of whether or not we necessarily agree with all of the doctrine of an individual like Billy Graham, but what? He was a phenomenal evangelist, wasn't he? I mean, he shared the gospel with literally hundreds of thousands of people. And, you know, and others are more on the apologist side, be ready to defend your faith. And so recognize your gifts, use them. And like I say here, apologetics may be more teaching than preaching. And that's kind of the way I look at it is we're, Preaching is, you know, sharing the gospel, and it's also apologetics. But when we start thinking about defending our faith, we're really what? We're doing more teaching than we are preaching. And so Francis Schaeffer said, love is the final apologetic. So we have to do everything with what? Love, right? And so that's really where we're coming from if we go back to our Our scripture verses were to do what? If we look at doing it with gentleness and reverence, love. And again, it's not beating that person over the head with a two by four. It's sharing our knowledge, defending our faith, sharing our faith with gentleness, reverence, and love. So I've got a list of some further resources that I use quite a bit as I've done the study, and the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics has got a lot of information on it, and it's really got a I don't know, just all kinds of publications. You can download them, things like that. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry is another really good website for apologetics research. Of course, Ligonier has a lot of information on it, on both evangelism and apologetics. White Horse Inn. Is I can't think of the guy's name right now, but he's out in California Michael Horton and also has a lot of good stuff on his website and to get a Idea I guess on some of the different approaches to apologetics. We talked about that. There's like four different approaches to apologetics, but if you want to get a study of presuppositional apologetics, which we talked a little bit is more on the circular reasoning side of things. I'm not a big proponent of Cornelius Van Til, but his book, The Defense of the Faith, is a good I guess, study in apologetics. And then to gain an understanding of atheists, because, well, we're dealing with a lot of atheistic thought within our society today. R.C.' 's got a good book out, it's called, If There Is a God, Why Are There Atheists? And it's a little bit heady, like some of the stuff R.C. writes, but I think it's a really good way to stimulate our thinking about why are there atheists? Why doesn't everybody believe? When we look at general revelation, the creation around us, how can you not believe? But we have been so indoctrinated in our society with anti-God that I think that people today really don't have any understanding of their need for the gospel. So that's a great book to read. So with that, that pretty much concludes our study on apologetics and I've had a good time doing it. But again, study. I think, as I said before, you don't have to be an intellectual giant or anything else to get a good study of apologetics. I find it to be kind of fun. Again, playing defense is really important. So be prepared. With that, we'll conclude.