Apologetics #2 Sunday

Foreign I was like yeah all right well we're going to go ahead and get going with our session we've got a few people that are still down in the kitchen and appreciate you guys being here and making time for what we are calling covenantal apologetics that's an archaic term it's now more modernly reformed to as presuppositional apologetics and if you have not received any of these forms that are right here Deborah do you mind helping Dr Phillips distribute some of those and these are just some little tri-folds and some guides as Adam said he would like for you guys to be able to take something and feel equipped and remember that stuff rather than having you know things that you got to write down and kind of remember and so the way this afternoon is going to go is that we're going to spend some time saying prepare our hearts for what Adam has to say Adam is part of the Missouri Baptist apologetics Network and so the Missouri Baptist convention has said hey this is a guy that is really great for equipping in this particular area of apologetics and we're excited to have him with us and look forward to his ministry and I'm excited to see some children some young adults here some teenagers and of course his so many of our senior adults who are so faithful and attending and what I would like to do is maybe spend a moment in prayer and then we are going to dive in and Austin you're going to be leading Us in two or three songs something like that too there we go and then we're going to dive in so let's let's go to the Lord in prayer and so God we do thank you just for this day that you've given to us we thank you for your mercy and your kindness and for a great morning of just fellowshipping with the Saints

Having an encounter with you this morning God where you just so clearly clearly spoke to my heart and I pray that you would help us each and every one of us to feel equipped to go and share the Gospel and Lord is Dr Phillips shared that story putting pebbles in people's shoes Lord help us to do that and Lord we do ask that you would continue to work in US bless Adam today as he comes and he brings and teaches us the strategy of presuppositional or covenantal apologetics help us God to love and serve you all the days of our lives with our whole mind with our whole heart with all our bodies we love you Lord in Jesus precious name amen well let's take some time and sing together lift up our praises to our Lord and Savior if you have a Hymnal near you we're going to be singing hymn number 338 How firm a foundation ye Saints of the Lord How firm our foundation ye Saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word what more can he say than to you he hath said to you forever if he fled foreign fear not I am with thee Oh Be not dismayed for I am thy God I will still give the aid I'll strengthen the help thee and cause thee to stand upheld by my gracious omnipotent and when through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie my grace all sufficient shall be thy apply the flame shall not hurt Thee I only design thy draws to consume and thy gold to refine the soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not I will not desert to its foes that Soul though all hell should end ever to shake I'll never know never know never forsake take that soul that Soul though all hell should Endeavor to shake I'll never know never

No never forsake and now I invite you to join me in the singing his Mercy is more if it will pull up on my screen what I love about this song is we're simply singing about the hope that we have in Jesus Christ though our sins are so great his Mercy is more praise the Lord his Mercy is more stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is more foreign [Music] our sins they are many his Mercy is more praise the Lord his Mercy is more [Music] stronger than Darkness new every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is for what patience would wait as we constantly roam what father so tender is calling us home he welcomes the weakest the vile is the boar our sins they are many his Mercy is more praise the Lord his Mercy is more stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is [Music] what Riches of kindness he lavished on us his blood was the payment his life was the cost we stood neither debt we could never avoid our sins they are many his Mercy is more praise the Lord his Mercy is more [Music] stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is for praise the Lord his Mercy is more stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is more you can be seated good afternoon First Baptist Church of Camdenton I think I've you know what I forgot something

Well you guys are waiting for me to hit the stage those can stay you guys can turn in your Bibles to you II Peter chapter one I want to start out with that but you guys as you turn to that you guys also have gotten the brochure and the ten tenants sheet as well haven't you I'll be going through those 10 tenants so that's what I want you to be able to take home and memorize understand because that will help you in the apologetic but as we turn to Second Peter first chapter no you probably talked a lot about first Peter this morning with Rob Phillips but you know he wrote another letter and it's just as consistent with everything but we'll get to that in just a second because I'm sort of rushing I know I've already been introduced and I just want to make sure just to make sure that you guys know who I am why I'm here is because there's a mutual friend of Cody and I his name is David Van bever and Dave and I do a podcast called the tag you're it podcast and we've been doing that for five years and so in Anaheim I was I got the privilege to go out to Anaheim and then Dave was like hey my buddy Cody's over there get hooked up with him talked about apologetics and he's like hey I want to do something like that and so I have the awesome privilege and I thank you guys for having me come up and speak about something that I am very I love to talk about apologetics I love talking about defending the faith and ultimately I love talking about everything that we have in Christ so we're centered on everything that we have in Jesus Christ and that is big so I just said something that there's a lot of content in but because of the grace of Christ I am a husband of 16 years a father of two their names tires and I Barber so

Like I'm not a Seminary Student I'm just a barber I get to talk to people all the time and be able to use apologetics every day it's really awesome to be able to do that it does end up in conversations where in front of everybody I have to give them a hug stranger I don't care if we get heated up we hug I love them right so that's that's what I love about it about apologetics is I can talk to people but yeah I've been a part of the Missouri Baptist apologetics Network since 2017 and that was the same time that we started the podcast together being something that the something on the network that wasn't I guess an area that hadn't been hit yet so we were kind of finding a niche in the network and so I'm thinking thankful for Rob for his continued continued support and trying to just make sure we have an apologetics emphasis in Missouri when it comes to that and that there's resources so you guys just realized how much God has given us and all the information but also what he'll hold us accountable for at the same time but we do have it so let's get the passion let's do apologetics so but with that said my podcast called the transcendental argument for God the tag you're it podcast and so it's an acronym that's what it means and whenever you talk about the transcendental argument for God what we're saying is that without God you can't prove anything so it's a it's a go for the jugular apologetic it's really awesome and you're going man that sounds like it's going to take me a lot of time to study it's gonna it's you know if it's so big right if you're going to go for the jugular it seems like you need a lot no you just need the Gospel okay that's what I'm here to give you that and so I'm here today to answer the question what is covenantal apologetics and so again it's this transcendental

Argument that brings me here and so I want to exhort you today and this is why I wanted you to open up to Second Peter so let's look at chapter one verses three through five and this is what Peter the person that has given us God's word and command to do apologetics says his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness by these he has given us very great and precious promises so that through them you may share in the divine nature escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness goodness with knowledge knowledge with self-control self-control with endurance and endurance with godliness and you can continue to go on there but we got to look at this we can look at this the very beginning of this his divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness this is the truth no matter what you think of it this is the truth might have a hard time with it but again Psalm 42 why are you downcast O my soul I will praise God no matter what I feel I know I praise God anyway so this is true we have the power granted to us and all things that pertain to life and godliness and this is only given through what it does it say it says through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence and this is all which he has granted to us in his precious and very great promises which is the provision for what escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire and then therefore you work those virtues and everything after that so as you probably discussed already and I hope that this has been like an event that's been going around the church and you guys have been excited about this apologetics weekend so you've already talked about this morning I'm sure Rob you brought it first Peter 3 15 right these guys didn't go without that verse she had to talk about that verse when you talk about apologetics so you've talked that we have already we have we have to always be ready to give a reason to fence for the hope that lies within us then we should have an apologetic if this is true about what Peter says then we should have an apologetic that is what then is defending the Gospel with the Gospel and so this is the heart of First Peter 3 15. What is the hope that lies within us it is the Gospel so they're going to be asking us questions about this Gospel why are you so cheerful and suffering why you know whatever the question is being the Great Commission apologist that these people were so we have this hope within us because Jesus is the way the truth and the life is John 14 6 he says of himself and then in Colossians Paul says this he says that in Christ Our hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge just like the Proverbs State and the and the psalmist state that the wisdom the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight so this is the same message through and through so I want to export you guys today that God is graciously and certainly given his people all they need the knowledge the tools to proclaim the message of Jesus and therefore every reason to stand in defense of the hope that he has given and continues to give so that we can demonstrate to the Fallen World you know those who are in Rebellion against the one and only trying God that they know that they live in the reality that God created and continues to sustain

And to do so with gentleness and respect so because of that we go on to the Fallen World and we do as second Corinthians 10 5 States we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ to then as u3 says to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints and this Gospel as we go on up into the world that Paul States in First Corinthians 1 he says that the word of the cross the Gospel rights the word of the Cross is what it's he says it is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved is the power of God for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the Discerning I will thwart and then he comes out and says where where is the one who is wise where is the Scribe where is the debater of this age has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world for since the in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom it pleased God through the Folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and wisdom of for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men so it's foolish it's Folly but the wisdom of the wise man against this God thwarts with this Gospel so now I know you guys talked about that I came to talk about presuppositional apologetics and yes I have but there is a wonderful expositional issue whenever we get down to it that is a new championed term change into covenantal apologetics and we'll get here we'll get there through doing a definition here but I want to make sure that you guys have a definition of what presuppositional apologetics is and a little bit of

History here so this definition I'm going to give you is from a guy named Greg bonson and he was a wonderful awesome Theologian and debater he utilized the presuppositional approach and if you look on YouTube you can look just look up the great debate Greg bonson Gordon Stein hands down just destroyed atheism it was wonderful hope but the thing is that was a image Bearer so you know we don't want to say we destroyed a person hopefully he goes home and you threw the rock in the shoe the Holy Spirit takes takes over him and he becomes a Believer and on fire for Jesus right that's what we really want but she watched that he was a student of a guy named Cornelius van till I like wearing shirts that look like this is not me I have had people think that this shirt was me when I was wearing it before this is a guy named Cornelius fantil and he's the he's like the propagator he's the one that went through history theology on just looking at the Sweep of apologetics over time and so he's hidden up on some differences some things that aren't really that are going on that are not really scriptural and so he's the one that sort of propagated this presuppositional approach he didn't even come up with a name it was an outside person it's like okay you're dealing with presuppositions okay it's present positional apologetics and he never denied it so it kind of stuck but then you know you have the students Greg bonson being one of them his students were kind of like his organizer so according to me and Cornelius van till get along when I read them because he's just everywhere so I'm a very extreme of conscious in the sky and so his students are the ones that are kind of organizing it so it's this Greg bonson that gives us a wonderful definition of what

Presuppositional apologetics is and if you want to write it down quickly or get this in your head presuppositional apologetics is an approach to the defense of the faith that recognizes that all people think on the basis of foundational commitments and assumptions and foundational commitments and assumptions is the definition of presupposition so we all have these these things that we have in our heads already we're taking them for granted and we have these and these presuppositions they then affect how they interpret the facts so we have an ah priority commitment we have something we're taking for granted that we bring to the facts so again a fact is not just a fact in and of itself a fact is interpreted yes yeah I know this is a lot of information so yeah so it's an approach to the defense of the faith that recognizes that all people think on the basis of foundational commitments and assumptions and that is the definition of presupposition two more yeah because I still have a lot more definition to go here but yeah it's an approach to the defense of the faith that recognizes that all people think on the basis of foundational commitments and assumptions so they all think on presuppositions you have these things that you take for granted that then you utilize to interpret what is a fact and what is evidence for your world view which is another word we need to know because the world view is a set of these little presuppositions and they come together and form this system and so we all think in a systematic way and so it recognizes this and then argues for the faith on the basis of the Triune God's revelation of himself and Scripture and in all creation demonstrating that no other presupposition provides support for

Really here's another big word preconditions of intelligibility but those are knowledge logic science and ethics you can't make sense of anything without God his Revelation it's yes we've got a pencil up where are you at and get the mush out of your mouth where am I at and get the mush oh I am not reading through that is a brochure that is a succinct covenantal apologetic what we believe so I'm not reading that but that is just some extra information all right I will do my best to articulate better so thank you for that yeah and yeah yes allow me just to kind of go through here we'll get it we'll get it we'll get it and so like yeah this is a very academic thing these are academic guys but you will end up we'll get there and then I'm going to have a q a at the end I'm going to try to get this thing done to where we have time to have some q a as well so thank you for that as well so but basically again we're saying that everybody has this world view they're taking it for granted and we're going to have a world view too as Christians because we believe what God Said is true about his world about who we are about what unbelief and belief is we have these things and so we say to the world you can't make sense without God's revelation you can't make sense without God and His existence and so in essence we don't make man judge over God but we keep God judge over man and so we'll get to a summarized understanding here of what pre suppositional apologetics is and so you can just simply say it's a principled practice of apologetics that submits to and is Faithfully consistent with the authority of God and what he has revealed in the Scriptures exposing the foolish rejection of the truth of reality so that's another

Little succinct way to be able to Define presuppositional apologetics and so getting to the name covenantal here the Rebrand is recognizing this that all people think this way and they interpret the evidence and facts based on assumptions we have to also reject relativism all right so yes we can we can sit there and like well this is my world view versus your world view there is no standard to be able to judge between mine and you and we just close our mouths go off and that's that you know it's Anarchy right we just we're doing our own thing because we can't live like that so we have to reject relativism but it's because no system except the one built on God's revelation can make sense of everything that's why the term covenantal comes in because this specific presupposition being that the only true trying God has revealed himself covenantally in creation so he says let there be light he uses his word there's there's a blessings and cursings in creation there's a covenant just like you're married there's a covenant there's rules and so we have this covenantal relationship his word is a part of that Covenant so he's revealed himself in this way fully so in the person of Jesus and in the Scriptures which are covenantal historical documents how he's related through his people throughout time and they were written by men who were led by the Holy Spirit which is ten at one on your sheets there if you want to get your ten tenant sheets out those will be helpful during my talk to kind of read along while I'm talking but it's because of that we utilize the term covenantal apologetics so it's a specific presupposition that without you can't prove you can't live and move and have your being as Paul would say so again we got to understand that the facts of everything are determined by

The Triune God through the word made flesh that existed with God right John first or as John 1 says that the word that became flesh was the word that was with God for all eternity and he made everything that was all right so he gets to determine what the facts of reality are he made it and so therefore as another former student of van till and his name this guy is named Scott Oliphant and I have a book of his this is where I'm getting a lot of my instruction from is a book called covenantal apologetics and this is where he argues what I'm arguing today but this book is really awesome handiwork it gets a little bit technical but it's not as technical as a lot of other stuff I've read but covenantal apologetics principles and practice and defense of our faith he states that every fact and experience is what it is by virtue of the covenantal all-controlling plan and purpose of God which is tenant 10 on your sheet foreign so as a as tenant one does state says the faith that we are defending must begin with and necessarily include the trying God Father Son and Holy Spirit who has condescended he has come down and he speaks to us to create and redeem so we have to deal with that's why the switch and terminology so therefore covenantal apologetics is truly consistent with covenant theology which then is consistent with the Biblical teaching of the Scriptures again covenantal apologetics that's why and so this is articulated if you look into the Westminster in 1689 London Baptist confessions this is this is a historical articulated and chapter 7.1 if you combine both of those it says that the distance between God and creature is so great and so if you look at the front of my brochure there's the two o's in covenantal apologetics and you've got a

Big circle up here and you got a little circle down here and you've got a line between them that's not there just for some fun artwork that's actually something that corneus mantil would use as a teaching tool but the distance between God and creatures so great you have God and he has and we have us right and how are we going to know him he has to come down and that's the line on there is that covenantal revealing of himself in his word and in creation so they're so great that even though reasonable creatures do owe obesity unto him as their creator yet they could never one have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward or have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part which he hath been pleased to express by way of Covenant and so again that's why the whole covenantal apologetics thing we're not relativists we can't do that and we have to make a positive case and we can and so that's whenever we'll get into the 10 tenants here because we have to talk theology now so there's William Lane Craig out there he's an evidentialist apologist and he's we've had this debate before and he has talked about how he's doing apologetics not theology unfortunately everything is theological and we have to keep our theology theology within our apologetics so we're doing like they're distinct things we can make the distinction but again theology is the big circle that apologetics is in so you know he's trying to make a distinction that we're not doing theology when we're doing apologetics yes we are and so we have to deal with some theological matters and so these are the ten tenets that are contained in the book that I have that are very helpful to remember because it's going to give you Biblical theology it's going

To give you some systematic ideas to where you can go and read the Scriptures but we need to know the story of man and how God has told it because he's the all-knowing one he's the one that's created and so let's get into some theological matters to proceed on our understanding of what this is but I want to ask you guys do all people know that God exists you can just yell yes no maybe so all people know that God exists that's the majority of the room I get a little bit of like and it's okay it's okay I'm not here to condemn or anything this is a learning experience and I had to I used to believe that not all men knew and we had to give information but I'm standing here different today because of the Scriptures but yeah do all people know that God exists is a major question and it seems like it might be a silly question for me to ask but this is a crucial one because it is a major dividing line in the realm of apologetics and especially in our Great Commission efforts because it deals with what we believe about the people we want to speak the Gospel to what is man what does man know secondly I want to ask is God's word the authoritative truth about all things you believe that and it's believe it or not so somebody goes I don't believe it's the truth is it still the truth it's still the truth right well we are all hopefully most of us are southern Baptists in the room and the Baptist faith and message states that the holy Scriptures are the Supreme standard by which all human conduct creates religions opinions should be tried right so it's saying all human conduct has become the authority of Scripture so is this something we believe right so then if we go to tenant 2 here 10-2 is a yes therefore if you

Said yes to the first question you are correct all men know that God exists and if you said no then we need to be corrected we need to stand humbly corrected not by my word but by the word of God and in Romans 1 18 through 20 it says Paul says 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 and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse right everybody knows God and we're not just talking just a little G God but the just God that exists who renders the verdict and apologetus and you talked about that this morning the polygia right is the word defense they stand unapologetus without defense they will not be able to be as atheist Bertrand Russell said not enough evidence if he meets them he's going to have no excuse because he does know so not only are they suppressing the truth about what they know it goes on to say in verses 24 and 28 that because of this truth suppression God gave them up to the left to the in the lust of their hearts to impurity to dishonoring their bodies amongst themselves and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done God is actively judging people and their suppression of the truth that they know so this isn't just some passive thing God just allowing no he is actively doing this thus we see what is the real problem to deal with an apologetics we deal with

People who are rebellious truth suppressors as such were some of you we need to make sure we keep that one in there where did you come from what were you doing all right so we can't look down on them but we are dealing with rebellious truth suppressors and they all know by what why do they know because they are created if God shows himself and all of creation if man is created he's showing himself in them and this is because all man is being Imago day 10 at 4. They're made in the image of gods for they are created Sons and Daughters of Adam themselves as it says of the Gentiles in Romans 2 14 even though they do not have the law they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts they know God they know his law they're suppressing the truth about it and therefore all are ten at five they are everybody is covenantally obligated to God it's not that we kicked our he kicked us out of the garden he doesn't want to do anything though we are still connected to God we are still in a covenant connection as Covenant Breakers but we still live in his Covenant creation we are still his Covenant so what is the difference then if not knowledge if knowledge is not the difference between the believer and the unbeliever what is the difference between the unbeliever and believer and so we go on to tenet six there is a covenantal distinction between the believer and unbeliever either you are still related to God as a covenant breaker in Adam our first father or you are renewed in Christ covenantly in Christ to God because in First Corinthians 15 21-22 it says for as by Man Came Death by a man

Has come also the resurrection of the Dead for as an Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive therefore we are not dealing with a lack of knowledge to speak information too we are dealing with the foolish imaginations of men striving against the only true trying God like our first parents whom is fully revealed in Jesus the Savior and judge of the world that the whole world that must hear us proclaiming the kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus for Paul says earlier in Romans 1 16 and 17. That the that the Gospel is the power of Salvation right so this is why as a psalmist asserts the fool says in his heart there is no God he's foolish he knows this is Psalm 14 1 and 53 1 and then whenever we think about theists like other other they recognize it has to be a God it could be Allah it could be idea story but they recognize a God well according to Isaiah 44 there is only one God and all others are blind deaf and dumb amounting to nothing and are the shame of their deluded Craftsmen so then if it's a not a knowledge thing it's an ethical thing that we're dealing with what is the how of the difference how does one go from an atom to In Christ is it this information are we just going to win souls because we're awesome and smart and we have all this information no tenant three is the difference that the Holy Spirit along with the message of Jesus the full truth of God's revelation that changes one from n Adam to In Christ for it is only the preached Gospel our Great Commission effort that is a means again too as what Paul says that the Gospel is the power for salvation for everyone who believes so we have to rest on that so we've been through a lot of tenants real quick and I know this is a lot of

Information and I hope this is helping you I know it's it's a lot it hit me like a Mac trick when I was studying this stuff too and hopefully this gets more conversations going hopefully you know if there's something more specific you'd like to talk about in the future I'd love to continue to come up and talk and have q a times and all that stuff I love class I love covenantal apologetics that much I'll come up here all day but anyway we have three remaining tenants but I want to get from we still are what we believe but we're going to start leaning into that practice a little bit of what covenantal apologetics is whenever you get into the street whenever you're I'm standing behind the chair but we need to get to ten at seven and when we get to ten at seven it's the rule of no neutrality and so when we think about what we believe the Orthodoxy here if we if it's because of the covenantal distinction you know the Imago day in man is what unites us but it's all in sin if we're an atom and we can all be redeemed in Christ so it's a covenantal distinction because of the Imago day and then we think about all that has been revealed about what creation is what man is what's happened in history if we take all that there is then an absolute antithesis there is an absolute opposition to anything that is Christian theism or not Christian theism they're always going to be at odds there's nothing neutral in the middle so to get into that you know just think about you know Paul told us and warned us to not get into worldly philosophies and just think about who was around at the time of Paul Plato Aristotle Zeno all that philosophy that we still utilize today he's telling us not to do that and so covenantal apologetics does

Oppose it goes against the grain absolutely of all worldly philosophies but of most importance it gets and this is to the church okay the popular methodology it goes against of classical apologetics or sometimes What's called the evidentialist approach so whenever we're talking about classical apologetics and or evidentialism you might be familiar with Thomas aquinas's five ways the Kalam cosmological argument or the argument from design you might think about all those sort of evidential arguments and to think about a definition of classical apologetics I've had a show with a guy named Dr Richard Howe he's the professor emeritus at Southeastern Seminary we've debated because we are opposing each other in a apologetical methodology but you can go on the tag your podcast and watch that and see why there's Opera opposition and how we still remain Brothers in the end that's the big deal but we do go against these things and here's I'm going to let give you a definition of classical apologetics from Dr Richard Howe he says that these sort of arguments presuppose a commitment to the viability of natural theology so nature what nature says so there are truths about God that we are capable of knowing without Revelation by just reason reason alone and so the foundation of class of the classical evidentialist approach is that before you can give evidence for the Christian faith you've got to demonstrate the existence of God due to the Christians appeal to the miraculous so we can't appeal to miraculous we have to get there so we do it would do this in application it would be starting with in a philosophical way with the opposing side and their starting point sort of reverse engineer that to where you can posit a God

So they're they're going to say God you composite God here but you have to just go a God and then move forward from that point and you know here's a little bit of a I'll give you an example to kind of drive this home so we think about the irreducible complexity of the eye so we're talking to an evolutionist we're going the I could have not evolved there's too many parts and you can't you have to have so many things at the same time things depend on things you can't create the eye from evolution so you say you give an evidential design argument and then okay maybe you get the guy okay I'll listen further it's like okay well then you have to pause it oh God okay so there had to be a guy to create this right and but it's it's it's as it's got a God as an alternative so which one which God then well you're a Christian right so this Christian God well you have to believe the Bible so now I have to make a Biblical authenticity argument so you have to keep on going and going and then because of what empiricism is which is the claim this is what evidentialists do is they have empirical evidence right well the empiricist claim is that all knowledge is gained through experience but can you make that claim if you don't have all knowledge so it ends up that's what happened in the in the enlightenment is these empirical dudes end up being skeptical and why do you think we're in a post-modern world today because the enlightenment failed because they suspended everything took got out of the mix we're trying to transcend up to God and now we're just in relativism because everything was suspended so we end up in empirical skepticism God becomes one of many Alternatives and so

We can call this a rescuing device and human observation becomes the Arbiter of the truth of the matter and so the opposing side still keeps their rescuing devices you keep your rescuing device and again relativism so the problem here is that this methodology presupposes that mankind has no innate knowledge of God and that man can rightly read the book of nature to reason to him transcend upward so then salvation would come through the acquiescence of information and then accepting the Gospel on man's terms so then the implication being that man gets to be the judge over God's existence and his works so who's the judge here is God this is supposed to be the judge or a man and is there actually a neutral place to stand so here if you have understood you'll see that classical apologetics seems accepts the same philosophical starting point as worldly philosophers that man is good and capable through reason to transcend upward but this is not the testimony of Scripture for it says for the mind in Romans 8 7-8 says for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot this is an ability word it cannot submit to God and its law those who are in the flesh cannot please God so man's reasoning no matter what one autobiographically says about themselves is not neutral your reasoning is not neutral their reasoning is not neutral and so whenever you think about that how are we going to come together you know you're finite yes but what else are you're ethically opposed to God in any bit of his truth so therefore we need to get into the Proverbs we get an awesome approach and this is an awesome

Never would have thought but I'm glad people sent you know that God sent people into my life to show me this but in Proverbs 26 4-5 listen to this answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him yourself answer a fool according to his father he lest he be wise in his own eyes and remember Solomon asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him and people sought him for his wisdom he's this is this is wisdom and this is going to lead us to our what I'm going to call our Rules of Engagement with covenantal apologetics but for the sake of contrast let's go back through this apologetic the covenantal approach is committed to from the outset the authority of Scripture that it's the ultimate authority to which all truth claims should be judged so the foundation of the approach is that God has revealed himself in a clear way that everyone knows of his existence and nature and like again nature screams this right and so we do agree that natural we call it natural Revelation and not that we're not reading theology it's coming into us it's Revelation from nature then you have special Revelation through the Scriptures through the prophets and through Jesus so we agree on the nature thing it does scream but we do have to recognize that special Revelation tells us that man is suppressing the truth so why give evidence for what they already know and let them to be the judge over it when they're already judging it as false because they hate God so therefore in the application of covenantal or presuppositional apologetics one appeals to what the other knows deep down inside their soul their heart we want the heart we don't want just the brain we want the soul right so we appeal to what they know deep down because they're made in the image of God though it's marred and what

They're suppressing all right and so we get into 10 and 8 here and this is where we live and move as apologists because of the Imago day and that all mankind and excusably knows God then we think think about what is the suppression of the truth is and it says intimidate suppression of the truth like the depravity of sin is total but not absolute thus every unbelieving Position will necessarily have within it ideas Concepts Notions and the like that it has taken and wrenched from its true Christian context again we can go to Romans 2. They act as a law to themselves they know and what they do is good can only make sense in God's world and so if you go back to the Proverbs 12 10 it talks about how though the righteous one takes care of their animal but even the kindness of the wicked is cruelty they're being kind to an animal why is the righteous person you're righteous taking care of an animal why is the wicked person doing the same thing that the righteous person does to an animal still cruelty because they're doing it in Rebellion to God so but then again it's not absolute it's it's total depravity but not absolute depravity because they're going to need something to save them they're going to like they're going to like certain things you know they're going to say Don't Shoot Me why because they're image bearers they know they're valuable they know it's wrong and so they take these good things and they steal them from God and so this is what they what Greg bonson says he calls it borrowed Capital they borrow Christian Capital to prop up their unbelief or a Cornelius van till he says like he was on a train once saw a girl sitting in his father's lap or in her father's lap and slapped him in the face

So they're sitting on God's lap to be able to reach his face and slap him they wouldn't be able to reach him if they weren't sitting in his lap so this is where we do live and move and we have our apologetic if you will and it's because of being a the Imago day and the total yet not absolute depravity that we go and proceed with our Great Commission efforts and this is what I really want to do because I love I wrote a little chapter called evangelism therefore apologetics but let's combine Matthew 28 and or in a first Peter 3 15 here sanctifying Jesus who has all authority in heaven and on Earth in our hearts discipling and baptizing the nations in the name of the Triune God teaching them to observe all that Christ taught and always being ready to give a reason to fence for the hope that lies within us this is where we live this is what we do this is our calling so therefore we get to persuade this is the tenant nine therefore we persuade as ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ because the true covenantal knowledge in of God in man together with God's Universal Mercy allows for persuasion because he's called us to go he's made us a means so we can persuade but the Holy Spirit is the one that does the work so we persuade we be faithful that's all we have to do we don't have to beat people up and get them into our churches forcefully they will come God's promised it and we just stay on that so therefore we should not challenge their arguments as they are we must storm the foundations on which they think they stand to make their unbelieving case we've got to go for the Gusto on it we don't just sit there and they just let them random off rattle off whatever they hate about God

We go why do you why do you even why does that even matter you know you got to get to know it so again going back to our Rules of Engagement the way that we're going to do this is we're not going to answer the fool according to their following be like them again I gave that sort of idea with the irreducible complexity it made you positive God so giving that example is think about this it gives you a bare theism and a barotheism should rattle us because this is idolatry and we should be not teaching anybody and leading them into idolatry what if one person accepted that there's a God concept because of your apologetic but would not meet you on the offensive authenticity of the Bible you just made a deist and then relativism post-modernism and then sometimes you know you do this apologetic and you work so hard and nobody is believing you and they all hate you then you become exhausted and then you just turn into a fittest somebody is just making Faith claims and assertions and this is you know like a like Pascal's wager I don't know if you've heard that one but it's like you know if I'm right then we lose nothing right but if or if you're so I guess if you're talking to the unbeliever if you're right then we lose nothing we just die but if I'm right you lose everything that's just a faith assertion that's not really giving them the Gospel either that's that's putting chance as the God of the system there's chance back of everything so that means anything's possible if you're talking to an unbeliever what do you think they're going to do with that argument oh you're giving me a chance okay I'm not going to believe I'll just have fun in my life that I know and see right now

And so if we assume reason as a neutral point of contact and not the Imago day as the objectively true point we have lost from the outset do you get that whenever we argue the unbeliever and we argue on their terms we lose from the very beginning and we don't even know it until the end if we don't listen to the Scripture and we don't do what Scripture says and so there's this idea of what's called the quicksand quotient and I understand that's another big thing that's in this book covenantal apologetics but it's the fact that we just sang a song How firm a foundation right we have the foundation and so we need to stand on that Foundation now you got an unbeliever so like say here's the unbeliever here's where he's standing here's you're standing on your Bible you're standing Faithfully on it but the unbeliever gives you an argument it's like well you can't you can't use your Bible so then you have to come off over here to his foundation you're now you're standing on his foundation is he standing on anything of Truth so there's quicksand underneath you and you're gonna get sucked in so what we need to do is we need to stand on our foundations expose that they don't have any using the word of God using our Authority because they're using their and the thing is they'll say I don't have authority it's like whenever Eve bowed down to Satan in the garden even though she thought she became autonomous in that moment like I'm making the judge I'm being the judge over the rightness or wrongness of eating this fruit she actually submitted to the authority of Satan and then his defiled in her thinking not that she's thinking she just came up with it herself now she's under Authority

And so you can't get away from Authority and so you just need to tell them no you have your Authority I have my authority why do I have what so now it's unequal scales whenever we step off our authority to argue and so there's some tools in this sort of way that we do things we again argue by the impossibility of the contrary God exists and you have to just deal with it and so I've had to ask a guy okay prove logic without using logic because he's saying you have this God thing you know you're just using what you want to prove and I'm like well without it I can't know I can't walk I can't live I can't do anything I can't make sense of and so he's like well that's begging the question that's a circular argument and I'm like okay now prove logic without using logic he says I can't so then what he ends up doing is he ends up indirectly going well we need to have a conversation so we need the logic so that we can actually talk and I'm like I understand that's not direct proof what in your world view of evolution makes sense of immaterial realities and so why is it even necessary to have conversation if I'm just a meat bag trying to survive and my survival is actually arbitrary I just woke up and this I happen stance like why is my like why is survival the standard for why we do things again it's arbitrary and if you're going to be arbitrary you're not being reasonable and so we need we need to think about this impossibility the contrary it's the objective thing you can mention it in conversation but you don't have to but it's the objective truth and so what you do is you need to what's called pushing the antithesis all right so what you want to do is you want to get there what does their world view you need to keep them in evolutionary world view without borrowing from you need to go like

Where are you getting that you're getting that from my world view so what you do is you keep them in their world view and you push them to their logical conclusions so what you're doing is you're getting in their car but they're not driving so you're going to drive their car and be like I'm going to show you where you're going to end up and then what you end up doing is then you bring them into your car so you still need to make a positive case you don't just destroy people you need to make a positive case because what is the deal with apologetics are we just trying to hammer people down with information and make them feel bad and twist their arm into heaven no we want to love people we want their hearts so we need to build them up in the Gospel and that's only if you get them in your car and take them to church basically but yeah so what we need to do is we need to push this antithesis we need to get them to The Logical conclusion of their world view and we need to reduce their worldview to the absurdity it is and then we need to answer for the hope they again get in our car and then what we need to really do is let the results be to God we need to hit our pillow at night when somebody still doesn't believe us because it's not our work and so whenever we get into Academia a lot we want people to go like I told that guy the truth I spent three hours on a stage with that guy and that guy still didn't believe and then we'd be we no we need to stop being ourselves up we are not the Holy Spirit right and so we just want Jesus to say welcome my good and faithful servant and we just need to be faithful right so we don't need to beat people up with this information because they're going to come God has people that he is saving yes we're the means but we do not get to be

The measure our ideas of what success looks like for the size of our churches that's not no God will send and we just need to be faithful in the stations that God has put us and so that's sort of the demo of how you should think about these are our conversations the thing is you should never ever let man be judged over God and this is what me personally studying apologetics I had to go that's what I am doing whenever I do this I'm letting this person judge the existence of God no he exists no matter what and it was just really awesome whenever I started getting into the study going oh there is an approach that I can be faithful because what they're asking what the world's asking us to do is to be unfaithful so they can go haha you're Unfaithful why can't I be unfaithful and then again they're making us the standard of you know again we have to go look at Jesus look at God and so again it comes down to First Peter 2. One three through four here his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who has called us through or called us by his own glory and goodness by these he has given us a very great and precious promises so that through them you may share in the divine nature escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire so ultimately Covenant told apologetics is preaching the Gospel answering the Gospel and using the Gospel and you know and it's to be in a relationship with God while you're in a relationship with God and so that sort of concludes my talk on apologetics I don't know how much more time we have Cody because I would like to provide we have about 27 minutes before supper you know what that's a lot of time I want to pray

How about how about we do some q a yeah can I pray and then yeah just make sure I want to pray real quick I'm feeling led to do that but yeah I'm glad I did not take up all the time for to get rid of q a but let me just close this in prayer before the Q a but father thank you so much again just for your word thank you for revealing yourself to us and just thank you for the continued faith that you keep us in Jesus you said that the father draws and that nothing can just take us out of your hand and that's a beautiful thing that we know that you will not see your people to not persevere to the end and so we can know and rest in those promises that you've given us and that when it comes down to defending the faith that we do not have to bow down to the world we don't have to feel shame when we're ridiculed we know that you suffered ultimately whenever you're within say with in the wilderness with Satan that you used God's word your father's word against him and he left and so father just give us a boldness to go and approach people that hate you that whenever we talk to them eventually it'll get there but also help us to love them and see them as the image bearers they are and treat them as we would want to be treated we would want to know the Gospel we would want to know what salvation is and father that we would be able to be in those situations to be able to be agents of you and ambassadors of you and be bold and not succumbing to what the world's wisdom wants us to look like but that we will continue to be in your wisdom underneath your word underneath your authority to go and make disciples of the Nations and so I asked this for the First Baptist Camdenton that this church just becomes a light a shining light that sticks to your word and is unrelentless in its stance as it speaks the truth to a dark world that your light would just shine

More and more in this area and that again your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven and we ask this in your precious name Jesus amen