Take your Bibles. Open up first with me this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We're going to start there, verses 1 through 5. And we are now, we've actually just got this lesson and one more and we'll be finished with this series on expository apologetics. This morning we're covering material from chapter 8, which Vodibacham titled the expository apologetic waltz. And we're going to look at what he terms the apologetic dance, how we engage in apologetic conversations. But we're starting and we're understanding the need here when Paul writes to Timothy. He says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you be sobered in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. And the key here as we are preaching the word in season and out of season, More than just elders and pastors, this is for all of us, just like in Romans 10, how can they hear without a preacher and how can a preacher preach without being sent? We have all been sent by the Great Commission to go and to preach the truth of the Word of God and preaching there, not standing behind a pulpit and proclaiming an expository message, but proclaiming the truth of God's Word to those who need to hear it. And the question is, who needs to hear it? Everybody. We talked about it last week from Jeremiah, there are those that you will try to talk about the things of the Lord and too often the response is, oh, I go to church, I know this. Well, if you go to church and you know this, you should be excited to talk about it because this should dominate our thinking and our daily living. In the preach the word here, the key, the phrase that Voti focuses on is to do this, to reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and teaching. So we're going to look at how to engage in apologetic conversations and the attitude behind apologetic conversations. At times, we hear people say things that do need to be replied to. Now, we have to be careful because, honestly, there are too many people today who just like to argue. And they just like to be contrary to be contrary. And you can take a position and they'll take another position just to fight with you. And this usually happens on Farcebook, right there online. People post a post and the post is offensive and so they want you to take the post down and they want to argue about the post and all the knives come out and it all becomes a personal attack. I don't know if you've noticed, by the way, so much of our dialogue in the world today is no longer rational or logical. It's emotional and it's personal. If I disagree with you, I'm going to attack you. Not your position, not your thinking, not your worldview, But you, because if I disagree with you, that means there's a personality flaw. Something is wrong with you. You're a racist, a bigot, you're discriminatory. Something is wrong. And so I have to attack you to try to justify my position. So we need to be careful as we do seek to engage people in conversations. What I appreciate about what Vody does in this chapter is he's talking about just normal everyday conversations. When was the last time you just had a conversation with a stranger? He talks about it. He's talked about it. He flies all over the place. You can sit next to somebody on an airplane for hours and not say a word. You can sit next to people. And that's where is everybody? Everybody's not conversating anymore. Everybody's staring into their phones and not engaged. Nothing's changed. Used to, they just read the paper, stuck their face in a book. Nothing's changed. Sometimes it is uncomfortable to have conversations with people who you don't know. But then again, I say that and people who think that have never ridden in close proximity to our evangelist, James. He can engage anybody in a conversation. I've watched it happen and listened to him witness to an Uber driver and I got convicted. He can engage anybody in a conversation. And that's what this is about. We do need to know what to say. We need to know when to say it. We need to be careful not to be quarrelsome or argumentative. But he says we need to realize that we don't always have to be at war for the truth. We don't always have to be looking for something to confront in our conversations. There are some who are always combative, and those who are always at war are the least effective in defending the truth, because it's all just conflict and criticism. We do need to be walking in the truth if we're going to defend the truth. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 verse 25, therefore laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor for we are members of one another. We need to be talking about things that are true and we do need to defend the truth because there is such a thing as truth. Now the difficulty in doing that today in this postmodern post-Christian nation that we live in is that everybody has their own truth. Well that's why we have to appeal to a source outside of ourselves. It's not my truth, it's the truth. It's the truth of the Word of God, and that's the truth that we need to be ready to defend. Paul writes in Romans 2, starting in verse 17, but if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God, and know his will and approve the things that are essential being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law through your transgression of the law, do you dishonor God? If we are going to be a corrector and a teacher and an instructor, we have to be walking in the truth and submitting to it ourselves. In other words, don't do as I say, do as I do. We need to be able to preach and back the preaching up with the confidence of a life that's lived in obedience to the word. Now, if you wait until you're doing that perfectly, you will never have an apologetic conversation. We're not perfect, but you know that we can work our failings into those conversations as a demonstration of the reality of the truth of the word of God and a reality of the fact that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we need to know when to fight and when not to fight. 2 Timothy 2, 14 and 15, Paul writes to Timothy, reminding them of these things, solemnly charging them in the presence of God, not to dispute about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers, but be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. We need to not argue about things that don't matter. So much of what people argue about honestly doesn't matter. But we do need to know the truth and accurately handle the truth. We need to be diligent about that. And we need to know how to fight. Votibacham says we need to learn how to fight with gentleness. That sounds contradictory, doesn't it? Fight with gentleness? Yes. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who revile you and who abuse you. Our response is to love our enemies. Even if they don't know they're our enemies. 2 Timothy 2 later in the chapter, in verse 24, Paul says, The Lord's slave must not be quarrelsome, always looking for a fight, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may give them repentance leading to the full knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. In this apologetic conversation, who is it that does the work? It's not us and our ability to convince or to persuade. It's the Holy Spirit. It is God who gives repentance and brings people to the knowledge of the truth so that they can come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil. What we are doing is simply sharing and defending the truth, the truth of God's Word, and that's what God will use then to open blind eyes and to open deaf ears so that people can hear the truth and accept it. Engaging in apologetic conversations requires the willing participation of both parties. It doesn't need to be an argument. It needs to be a conversation. We have lost the art of conversation in our nation. What is a conversation? Conversation is two people talking and being mutually nice to one another as we talk, even if we disagree. Now, it's amazing that you can find people who are on complete opposite ends of political issues or even theological issues, and they can be friends. Shocking, isn't it? I know. We're all supposed to be enemies in at war. No. By the way, if we all believed the same thing, completely 100%, honestly, that would be boring. We don't need all of you if you all agree with me. Now, there are things we're going to agree on, things we need to disagree on, and we need to learn how to engage in conversations about those things. We need to ask people and engage them in meaningful conversations, but don't force it. Don't try to trick people into a conversation about Jesus. We need to show a genuine interest in others. And when you do that, most people will talk to you. If you've got time to kill, if you're waiting for something and you just engage people and ask them questions about themselves, their family, their kids, their job, they'll talk to you and they'll share things. Remember too, Vody says, this is apologetics, not evangelism. And that's critical because as we've been talking about apologetics, it's always with the goal of getting to the gospel. We have to realize that engaging in apologetics is not itself evangelism. It opens the door to evangelism. The goal is to get to the gospel. At some point in that conversation, somebody's going to make a truth claim, something that they believe to be true. And that's where the apologetic conversation needs to begin. Statements of perceived fact reveal presuppositions and help us understand the worldview of the person we're talking with. Worldview is critical. We need to understand what a biblical worldview is. And as I've taught through the different worldviews, we need to be able to engage someone and by their responses and in discussions, try to identify the worldview they're coming from. What is the worldview? That is the grid through which they see life that gives them the perspective that they have and the opinions that they have. When you realize that worldview is that important, you realize it's not just that people have decided to be contrary to you. They truly believe what they are saying. And the job of the apologist is to demonstrate that beliefs can be beliefs in the truth, or they can be false beliefs. And the danger is the danger of a false belief. Because if we believe a false belief is truth, that affects our perspective, our thinking, our emotions, the way we live, the decisions that we make. Because if we think something is true, that will be proven in the way we talk and the way we act. The pastor who mentored me gave the example Two examples of this, one from Dr. Gillum. He would teach that if you are out in the woods and you think you hear a bear coming after you, you will run just as fast as if the bear is there or not. Because you believe there's a bear, you're going to act like there's a bear. Now, you know the trick to surviving a bear in the woods, right? Shoot the person next to you in the foot. That's all it takes. You don't have to shoot the bear. One shot. That's it. Just slow somebody down. But if you think a bear is there, you're going to run like a bear is there. Spurgeon gave the example this way. Spurgeon said if somebody knocks on your door in the middle of the night and tells you that your house is on fire and you thank them for the warning and then shut the door, go back down the hall and get back in bed and cover up, you don't believe your house is on fire. Because if you did, you would immediately leap into action to get everybody in the house out of the house. What you believe affects how you behave. If that belief is rooted in untruth, then that's the root we need to be attacking in our apologetics. To expose the false belief that leads to that irrational, illogical train of thought. Doing that is not evangelism. but it opens the door for evangelism. Because if we can get people to see, through the Spirit working, through the Word, that their belief is in something that's not true, then you'll see a change in the way they think. And that's the goal. See, statements of perceived fact reveal presuppositions and help us understand the worldview of the person we're talking with. What do they really believe? Now, the steps to do this, the first step is we begin addressing their truth claim. by showing them that the worldview they are basing their belief on is inconsistent. We have to gently and lovingly and patiently work to expose the error in their thinking. We do this, by the way, by first summarizing their position. If they state something that they believe is true, restate it to them. And you can ask it this way, to be sure I'm understanding what you're saying, you are saying, and repeat to them what they said. Now, we teach this in marital counseling, because one of two things will happen. Either they will say, yes, that's what I said, or if you're married, your wife will say, no, that's not what I said. And she will repeat what she said, and you will repeat it back. It's, no, that's not what I said. You see, men and women speak a different language, and we need to learn to communicate, to translate. And doing that is you tell me what you believe, and I will repeat to you what I heard you say, so that I can affirm, first, that I'm listening, And secondly, that I understand, that I know what it is that you are saying. Now, when we do that, we do start to be sure we want to understand what they're saying so that then we can move toward trying to make corrections. We also have to remember that we are arguing from a foundation of truth. If we're doing this like we should be doing it, we're doing this from the foundation of the word of God. If they are not, then there will be holes in their logic. Because the only source of infallible truth on this planet is the Word of God. That is our foundation. So we need to listen carefully. That means don't interrupt. Let them talk. Let them explain. Ask questions. Summarize what they've said to show that you understand. Let people talk and eventually the inconsistency will become obvious. Don't be dismissive and disrespectful. If somebody tells you something that you know is not true, sea levels are rising and we're all going to be underwater in two years. That was said 30 years ago. Well, when they say that, don't go, be respectful. Now, here's the truth. You don't have to show it on your face while you're thinking it in your head. You can roll your eyes without rolling your eyes. You know how to do that. But don't be dismissive or disrespectful. Pay attention. Value them as a person created in the image of God because your purpose is not to beat them in an argument. Your purpose is to win them over with the truth. We are to love our enemies. And many times people we talk to wouldn't even consider that we are enemies. They don't see it that way, but we need to love them. Regardless, Bodhi Bakken talks about here active listening. Don't listen to answer, listen to understand. If you ever had a conversation and the whole time the other person is talking you're just thinking about what you're going to reply. No, if you do that you're not going to hear what they're saying. Don't listen to answer, listen to understand and then give feedback. Now there are two movie lines that I use in counseling to introduce this kind of thinking and the one If you've seen one of the movies, it's a Jackie Chan movie and at this point in time, I don't remember, there have been several movies with him. He's from China and he's a police officer and he's here in the United States and they're working on a case together and so the guy that he's teamed with and he are talking and at one point in the conversation they both look at each other and say, do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? When you're coming from different cultures, from different backgrounds, you can say something and not mean what the other person thinks you're saying. So we need to strive to understand. The second is from my dad's favorite movie of all time. And you'll know the movie when I give you the line. What we have here is a failure to communicate. That's it. We have a failure to communicate. We have to start the conversation assuming, presupposing, that we are going to have difficulty communicating. Why? Because we're coming from two different foundations of truth. Because we're coming from two different worldviews. So then, when we do respond to their claims with a correction, we have to be understanding and gentle. They may get defensive. Don't get defensive back. Don't make it personal. They may perceive us as not being nice, and we need to be sure that we're not doing it because we like confronting people. I don't know many people who like confrontation. I do know a few, though, that will go out of their way to confront other people about all sorts of things. Now, people who like confrontation, divisive people, the Bible says, shun them and avoid them. Just be careful. Don't fall for it. We don't need to love confrontation to be confrontational, and we can be confrontational and be loving and gentle while we do it. If they are offended by the truth, let them be offended by the truth, not the way we present the truth. Ephesians 6, 18 through 20, Paul writes, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the spirit, and to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, so that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. We need to be able to speak the gospel and the truth of the word of God with gentleness and with boldness. And you could be bold and gentle at the same time. And notice where the words come from. He says, pray that the words would be given to me. Coming from the Holy Spirit. So we need to remember, we're not claiming that we are better than those we are correcting. In a conversation, both sides have things to say and should be considered and considerate. Our assignment is to be faithful. And that's all. We don't have to win the argument. We just have to sow the seed of the Word of God. Sow seeds of the truth. The best thing in the world, and I like it, James phrases it this way, I want to put a rock in their shoes so that when they walk off, they can walk, but something's just bothering them a little bit. To put something there, to sow a seed that leads to doubts about their own thinking, their own processing, their own perspective. If they're thinking about it, that's the goal. And fourth, this is just the first step in the process. We want the conversation to continue. So the second step, show them where they're counterfeiting the truth. Reveal it, expose it, use the Word of God as it's supposed to be used to reveal the counterfeit and to shine the light on the truth. Show them the truth of scripture that applies to the conversation. Our source of authority is always the Word of God, not our opinions or our thoughts on the matter. This is where we have to rely on having a biblical worldview. and what he's covered in the previous chapters, a grasp on creeds, confessions, catechisms, and the moral law in order to discover the source of their false belief and to expose it. Show people where their false belief comes from by showing them the truth that's been twisted to get them to where they are in their thinking. The third step is show them what the real thing looks like. Shine the light of truth on the conversation. Remember, They probably hate the actual truth. So they will probably react. Be ready for that. Remember that it's not our job to convince somebody of the truth. But that's not difficult for the Holy Spirit to do. He is the spirit of truth. We need to be able to explain why the Christian worldview is better. Voti, in the quote here, he says, it is rooted in a timeless, perfect, external source. If you've ever watched John MacArthur, when he used to go on Larry King, or whenever he would be interviewed on the news, he was so great to do this. They would ask him what he would think, and he would tell you, I'm not here to tell you what I think. I'm not here to tell you what our church thinks. I'm here to tell you what God thinks. And how do we know that? From what he's revealed to us in his written word. He would always say, and you see, he would have liberals and Catholics and others on the other side of the table, and they would hate that he took it to the word of God. We gotta go to tradition, we gotta go to opinion, we gotta go to rationale. No! What does God say? That's the truth. Take it back to the truth. Why do we have to do that? First off, we have to do that because it is the truth. Secondly, people are flawed. We can't use ourselves as a source for truth. If I'm relying on convincing you that I'm right, because I believe I'm right, and I don't have any external source for rightness, then it's just my opinion. It's just my perspective. We need to be able to explain why worldview matters. Most people don't even know what a worldview is and they don't realize they have one. So we need to teach people how they view the world and how they need to view the world. And that is where we start to get to the gospel, because the reason behind reason and the truth behind the truth, the reason worldview matters, Three things, Vody says. First, God is real. Second, God is righteous. And third, judgment is coming. I would only change that one thing. I would say judgment is here. It's here on our nation. But in this regard, everyone will stand before God and give an account. And if God is real and if God is righteous, we have a problem because we are not righteous. And we're going to have to stand before him and give an account to him. for our lives. That's why we need a righteousness that is outside of ourselves, the imputed righteousness of Christ. That then opens the door for the gospel. Next week we're going to finish this series. We're going to cover chapter 9, preaching and teaching like an expository apologist. I sent out in the notes, if you go and click on the notes, a link for a sermon that Voti preached. that is an expository sermon on apologetics. And if you can listen to that at some time in this week, that will get you ready for the final lesson next week in this series. And then I do want to ask you to be praying for me because I'm trying to figure out where to go next. And I think where I'm going to go next is to do a series on the covenants of God with a discussion of Covenant Theology, Baptist Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, Progressive Dispensationalism, Covenantalism, all those kinds of things, all those big words that everybody throws out. Let's look at what God's Word actually says. And then, just because I really want to start a war, we're going to go back and finish Systematic Theology. You know, there was one thing we didn't cover in Systematic Theology, and it was the last things. So we didn't do the last thing in Systematic, which means we will finish the year, Lord willing, discussing the second coming of Christ. Hallelujah. And here's what I'm going to set the stage. Here's what we can agree. Jesus is coming back. His return is imminent. It will be physical. It will be visible. That's what we agree on. All the rest of it, John MacArthur says, just be a pan-millennialist. It'll all pan out in the end. We'll discuss all of the different views. We'll critique the views. I might even tell you my view. But we'll stop with this. Jesus is coming back. And before he comes, remember today, he is still ruling and reigning. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for your word, for the truth. And we thank you for giving us your spirit first so that we can even understand the truth so that our minds can be illuminated to see the truth, to believe it and to act on it. to have that truth mold us in the way that we think, the way we react, the way we feel. I do pray that as we engage in conversations with people, that you would give us a heart to be apologists and to be evangelists. Father, we know that every one of us is a theologian. We all believe something. As we discuss that truth, how we thank you that what we believe is rooted in your word, your unchanging, perfect word. I pray that you would continue to grow us up in it so that we might see as we ought to see and speak as we ought to speak. And we give you the glory in all of these things because this is your work in us and not our work for you. We thank you for your grace in Jesus name. Amen.