the month of December here together, I wanted to start a new series. Lord willing, we'll get all the way through it, but I wanted to start a series discussing how to defend the faith. When trying to choose what to preach on, whenever I come here, I'll go back over your sermon audio page to see what has been covered over recent months and years. I promise I haven't seen every sermon, seeing as there's quite a few on there, and that's definitely a blessing. But I did skim through them, and I saw where Brother Harold had gone through some series detailing different denominations and religions and the differences between them. And so for the purposes of this series, I'm going to kind of steer away from that since that's already been done. And what I want to focus on is to develop a theology behind how do we defend the faith, to look at biblical examples where the Apostle Paul, for example, defends the faith. And to discuss how do we apply this in the cultural realm, in the political realm, how do we apply this against some of the great oppositions that we are facing today in the form of the social justice movement, in the form of secular humanism, the idea that man is the ultimate determiner of what is true. And so we're going to hopefully get through all of that over the next few weeks. But first of all, why go through a series like this? Why even take the time as Christians to learn how to defend the faith? Well, first of all, of course, we are explicitly commanded to do so in the Scriptures. Just as a couple of examples, you have 1 Peter 3.15, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense. To anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. The entire context of 1 Peter is dealing with suffering and persecution and Christians who are going through trials in a difficult time. But however, we see here the command to always be prepared to give this defense. This means that we must be grounded in the Christian faith, ready to testify to the lost world, to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another passage, which I think is also very clear, is found in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 through 6, where Paul and his companions are defending his ministry. And we see it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. So you notice the war-like language here, that Paul says his goal is to literally destroy every single argument raised against the knowledge of God. I think it is to say that that covers the spectrum of false beliefs that we see in the world, that our goal is to give a biblical response to those. And so we are to defend the faith by wielding the sword of scripture to destroy those false religions and those false belief systems. Let me ask you a more practical question to illustrate the importance of what we see in terms of the command to defend the faith. This will probably resonate with those of you who have grandkids a little bit more. For those of you who are younger and do not have grandkids like myself, try to steer with this train of thought. But my question is, what kind of a world, what do you want to pass on to your great, great, great grandkids? What do you want them to inherit? How will you and I live today, defend the faith today against the giant supposing biblical Christianity to pass on the faith to the next generation. Listen, we face some absolutely crazy and insane challenges here in our day. There are aspects of this which are not new. The concept of humanity being prideful, trying to elevate its position and reject the ways of God, that's nothing new. You can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden at the fall and you can see that. But we also live in some aspects that are new. No Christian generation has ever had the sort of technology that is in the world today. They didn't have to develop arguments against gender reassignment surgeries, which by the way, the idea you can even change your gender is a lie. But generations before us, they didn't have the technology in the world for them to even have a concept of developing an argument against such an idea. Nor did they have the technology to cause the rate of ideas to be so high and so fast in the world today. You can watch the news cycle and it changes from day to day to day. The technology, the speed of the world is absolutely amazing. But here is the point, the faithful heritage that we need to pass on is not only to our biological families, to future Christian generations around the world. A heritage of those who did not buy into the insanity. who did not buy into the lies and whatever came about, a heritage that was faithful to Christ and faithful to his word. A heritage that not only saw the lies of the day and didn't believe them, but a heritage that also fought against the lies of the day by exposing them with the standard of God's word and calling lost sinners to come to Christ and to repent and to find salvation in him. Bad worldviews, They have disastrous consequences, not just for families, not just for individuals, but even for nations. It's a terrible, horrifying reality to watch a government base itself in the lies of a false worldview. Imagine, for example, the future children of America in generations in the future living under what is known as a social credit system. In a social credit system, technology is used to determine who can do things such as buying, such as selling or traveling on the basis of your social behavior. And that social behavior then determines your social credit score. which will determine your ability to live and to function in society. Under such a system, the government uses artificial intelligence to not only monitor its citizens, but also to coerce, to manipulate their behavior. And because the citizens, almost exclusively, under such a system would use technology for basically everything, the state is able to track all of the personal data that they have. Not only that, but because of facial recognition systems and cameras everywhere, they can also determine where you go to forbidden activities, which would be church. They can tell whenever you are walking in the opposite direction of a crowd, which will alert the police. But the police, you see, under such a system, they don't actually have to show up at your door in order to punish you. All they have to do is to notice that you've been engaged in what they deem as inappropriate behavior, either in some sort of physical location or online. And they keep track of your social credit score. It gets downgraded. If you do something socially positive, like listening to the propaganda session, I mean the speech of the leader, then you are given a bonus in your score. But you see the issue is, is that if you have a low credit score, you're restricted from doing things. You're restricted from flying, for example. You're restricted from going to certain restaurants. You very well actually may lose your job if you have a low social credit score. Not only will you lose your job, but you also have difficulty finding another job. And in this completely technological-based society, you and your family can be completely removed from any access whatsoever to the internet, which would be crippling in such a system. Because the government controls the technology, not only can it make your individual life miserable, it can actually go back and rewrite the history books. It can take Christian concepts such as liberty, such as freedom, and make them incredibly difficult to find. They can even take translations of the Bible. and edit out the parts that they don't like and insert new things that they want the people to believe. Sounds like an absolutely horrifying future, doesn't it? But it's actually the reality for people living in communist China today. But that's the system that they live under. I'm sure you share my sentiment whenever I say that is not the world that I want to pass on to my kids or to my grandkids or to my great grandkids. There are serious consequences for abandoning a biblical worldview. There are serious consequences when Christians will not defend biblical Christianity in the public square, declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why we do this. We do this for the glory of God. And we do it because we love others and we don't want to see them ensnared by the lies of false system, but to be freed from their sin in Christ. The reason this impacts the government so much is that if you reject the God of the scripture, you're left with man seeing himself as the ultimate authority. And from a strictly human perspective, the government is seen as the most powerful institution among men. Therefore, whenever the checks of a creator are out of the equation in the worldview, the government tries to take over the role of God. In response to this, the early church declared that Jesus Christ is Lord, not Caesar. Therefore, we must preach the true gospel. It is our duty to defend the entirety of the word of God. Therefore, whenever I talk about defending the faith, I don't just mean defending the doctrine of the resurrection or the doctrine of the atonement and so forth. Christian defenders of the faith, known as apologists, have often limited their work exclusively almost to those realms. And let's be clear, those realms need to be defended. It is imperative that we engage in sharing the truth and in refuting false arguments. But I mean something even more than that whenever I talk about defending the faith. I mean defending biblical Christianity across the board, a biblical view of the family, a biblical view of the government, a biblical view of everything. providing a robustly deep biblical Christian faith. That is the heritage that we want to pass on. Because Jesus Christ is the Lord with complete authority on heaven and on earth, according to Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Therefore, we are to honor him as the king in everything that we do, seeking to be faithful for the glory of his name. But how do we start to do that? It sounds like a daunting task, and I'm not going to pretend over the next few weeks to be able to unpack everything that there is on this subject. But I think that we can start to lay a foundation here. So open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. What we're going to do tonight is to lay down a foundation, the basic points of what it means to defend the faith. And if we're going to do that well, we have to understand a few essential truths, starting with the source of truth, wisdom, and knowledge themselves. So let's read Colossians 2, verses 1 through 10. starting here in verse one. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you of plausible arguments, For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. One of the great emphasis of the book of Colossians is the source of wisdom and knowledge. Paul places a primary target in this letter upon rejecting, showing the foolishness of the so-called wisdom of the world in contrast to the true wisdom of God. And Paul, he opens and he gives thanks for this church in chapter one. He praises them because of their faithfulness. But the reality is that this church has issues going on, and that pertains to our discussion here tonight. So I want you to jump down and let's read verses 16 through 23, where we see Paul outlining some of the false religion that he deals with in this epistle. Colossians 2, 16 through 23. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together, Through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. If of Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity of the body, but they have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So notice that Paul references worthless religion here. Self-made religion promoted by men who are claiming to have visions from God. They're claiming to have received revelation from God. This religion is marked by its promotion of legalism. It is marked by its promotion, not of the worship of the true living God, but of the worship of angels. And so Paul here, he writes to address these issues. In our text, in verses 1 through 10, what does Paul point the Colossians to? He points them to Christ. He points them to the truth of Christ. The truth of Christ over against the falsehood of this religion. And immediately, this is probably going to seem like an obvious point, but I want you to notice the opposing nature of these two. What is the source of knowledge for the believer? Well, if you look at verse three, it says, all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. And where is the source of knowledge for this false religion? Fake claims of revelation by puffed up men who are puffed up by their own sensuous minds, according to verse 18. These are opposed to one another. And before we dive into the concept about our foundation for truth more, I want to point out how strenuously Paul deals with these two as absolutely enemies of one another. He doesn't seek to somehow analyze this false religion and take what it says and add it to the claims of Christianity. No, he treats this religion like it's an enemy. He treats it like he needs to fight it because he does. It is a system that has raised itself up against the true knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle Paul is opposing it. And when we are engaged in defending the faith, when we are engaged in apologetics, that is a basic component of what we need to understand. You know, I hear people all the time, they'll say something like, we need to go learn from the socialists. Or they'll say, we need to go learn from the neo-Marxists. Or we need to go learn from the evolutionists. And my reaction is usually something of a blank stare. followed by a little bit of shock with a resounding question of why would we do that? Undoubtedly, to be clear, unbelievers, they know things by the common grace of God. You would much rather have an unbelieving but skilled heart surgeon perform open heart surgery than you would me. At least I would hope that that would be the case. But recognizing that fact, is much different than me saying, let's go to that unbelieving heart surgeon and let's learn from his religious beliefs, let's learn from his worldview and apply that to Christianity. That would be the exact opposite of what the Apostle Paul is doing here in this text. Paul does what? He provides the truth of Christianity and he discusses the errors within the system that he is opposing here. Fundamentally then, we as a Christian, we gain knowledge about the truth through Jesus Christ, and we oppose false religions like Paul is doing here. It is through the Lord that we know the truth. If you look at verses 1 through 2 of this text, we're not going to say a whole lot about them, but I want you to notice that Paul says that He wants the saints whom he has not seen to be encouraged. He wants them to reach assurance of understanding of the knowledge of Christ. And then in verse three, he talks about our source of truth, our foundation as believers. He says about Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now, some commentators, who I very deeply respect, who are very faithful men in many, many ways and who are fighting the good fight, They want to limit the reference to wisdom and knowledge here in this passage to dealing exclusively with things of salvation, of sanctification of our growth in Christ, and of glorification, our future eternity with the Lord. And while I respect those men, I fundamentally disagree with their interpretation of this passage. Why? Because there's no limitation here. Paul doesn't explicitly point out, I'm only talking about salvation. No, he says all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. And I think that actually is very cohesive of what we see in the book of Proverbs, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. And the book of Proverbs covers more than just things pertaining to salvation. It's talking about a comprehensive understanding of wisdom there. But does that really make sense? I mean, do you really need the Christian biblical worldview to provide the foundation to know for everything? Do you need it? I mean, do you need it to know that two plus two equals four? Cornelius Bantill, he said this. He said, the Bible is thought of as authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything. We do not mean that it speaks of football games, of Adams, etc. He continues on, and he says, We do not mean, of course, that one must go to the Bible rather than to the laboratory if one wishes to study the anatomy of the snake. But if one goes only to the laboratory and not also to the Bible, one will not have a full or even true interpretation of the snake. And so, Van Til is getting at the idea that the scripture itself is foundational for everything. And so, therefore, as Christians, we say that our source of truth, our source of wisdom, our source of knowledge is Christ, who has revealed himself in the scripture, making it our ultimate authority, our ultimate foundation. Now, I want to give you two quick examples here. as practical illustrations to demonstrate what Vantil is saying. And the first one is a math professor from Brooklyn College. This math professor is named Laurie Rubel. And among other things, she got quite a bit of media controversy and attention for saying this. She says, the idea that math or data is culturally neutral or in any way objective is a myth. So if you believe in objective math, if you believe that two plus two equals four, then according to this teacher, you believe a myth. Not only that, she goes further. She says that if you believe that two plus two equals four, such ideas as that reek of white supremacist patriarchy. That might sound shocking, it is shocking, but this is a real professor teaching at a real college who garnered major media attention over this nonsense. Another example is the Oregon Department of Education. They released a mathematics project to supposedly assist in, quote, removing white supremacy from the classroom. What they ended up doing is they defended a document that says that if you focus on getting the right answer in a mathematics equation, then you are participating in the practice of white supremacy. Other instances that this document lists of so-called white supremacy are expecting students to show their work or address mistakes as they occur. Now, why all this talk about white supremacy? Well, we'll have to cover that in the part of our series on social justice for that one. But what I want you to see here is that it is actually true that you need the Christian worldview to provide the foundation for such basic statements as 2 plus 2 equals 4. You see, an atheist can recognize that. An atheist can recognize, hey, yes, 2 plus 2 equals 4, but they don't have a firm foundation to anchor that reality in. We do. Triune God of the universe. We can know truth because He reveals it. It is objective because that is His truth. It is constant because He is upholding the universe itself. Therefore, all truth, including the laws of logic, the laws of mathematics, are rooted in God. Therefore, if you want to have a firm foundation for mathematics, you're going to have to come to biblical Christianity for it. And so since all truth is found in Christ, how are we to know truth? Well, we know that he has revealed himself generally in the universe. and specifically in the scripture. Romans 1, 18 through 23, it describes the revelation of God generally in creation. Before we read that text, I know we've covered a lot of ground. Do we have any questions here before we turn to Romans 1 here real quick? Does anybody want to argue that my calculator is wrong when it says 2 plus 2 equals 4? All right, Romans 1, 18 through 23. 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. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Now what I want you to notice here, this is a description in large part that you have about the general revelation that we have in creation. But this text never says that that revelation is sufficient to save. It never says that that revelation is sufficient for you to know the commands of God. General revelation condemns the sinner because they do not worship God as the creator. They do not worship the God that they know exists. The creation testifies. It gives glory to the creator, but it does not preach the gospel for salvation. We can learn much through nature. We can learn much through creation, but we need the foundation of special revelation. We need the foundation of the Bible. That is where God has revealed himself. It is a special revelation that we may know him, that we may know how he has called us to live, that we may understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, what happens whenever it comes to defending the faith? We're sitting here saying, we believe all of this because of the text, because scripture is our ultimate authority, because God has revealed himself here. What happens whenever you go down into the lost world and you're defending the faith? Someone else comes along, And they say, well, I believe what I do based upon my ultimate authority. They might not word it exactly that way, but that is the root of their thinking. Everybody has an ultimate authority. Everybody has an ultimate standard, even if that's just their own mind, just their own opinions. But just like the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2 here shows how our standard as believers is Christ. Whereas the followers of this false religion had dreams as their standard, so also we need to expose the false standards of those who are practicing other belief systems. What are some common false standards that we see in the world today? You have the Quran, right? You have the Book of Mormon. You also come to the issue of our culture where humanity is seen as the ultimate authority. Some say they just want to follow the science, where modern scientific discoveries are seen as the ultimate standard, which changes based on Dr. Fauci's every press conference. But what then is the task of defending the faith? We must proclaim the truthfulness of the scripture, of the Christian worldview, before which men must bow, and we must demonstrate the irrationality of all other views. Listen to Proverbs 26, 4 through 5. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Hold on a second, that sounds a little bit confusing here. Did Solomon have a little bit too much wine at the palace whenever he wrote this particular proverb? Well, I think that we all know that's not the case here. At first he says not to answer the fool according to his folly, lest you be like him. In other words, don't agree with him. Don't act like he's correct. Don't answer him like you agree with his foundational commitments, because you don't, because they're unbiblical. They're wrong. It doesn't matter what it is. If they're not based upon scripture, they are wrong. However, verse five says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he think he is wise. Now that point means we must show the unbeliever the folly of their beliefs. We must take them to their conclusion. How do we do that? Well, if you get anything at all out of this series, remember this, and you'll be able to deal with 90% of the unbelievers that you come across who have objections to the faith. In order to be a skilled Christian defender of the faith, we must become like two-year-olds. We must ask the question, why? Why do you believe that? Based on what standard do you believe that? By what authority do you believe that? Suppose you run across someone who says that they believe that murdering babies in the womb is completely fine, right? You're out in the park with your family and you come across this person who is avidly pro-abortion and they want to talk about it. You know what you should ask them next after they say they're pro-abortion? Why do you believe that? By what standard are you basing your opinions on? What are they gonna do? Well, they're probably gonna say something along the lines of, Well, I believe in abortion because I believe a woman should have the right to choose. Well, why do you believe that? Based on what standard do you believe that? If that's the case, then should she be able to choose to kill her five-year-old? Should she be able to choose to kill her 10-year-old? Should a 60-year-old mom who is dealing with a 40-year-old son who has special needs, who is providing care for that son, should she be able to murder him at any point in his life that she desires? The conversation is over in terms of them being able to give a rational response. Because what have you just done? You've exposed the inconsistency of their ultimate standard, the inconsistency of their worldview. Because they can't give a legitimate answer, they can't give a consistent answer because they're not rooted in biblical authority. And so what we're doing is we're pointing out the arbitrary nature of their standard. The fact that their beliefs do not hold up under any scrutiny whatsoever. But what do we do then? What do we show them? We don't just say, here's their rationality of your position. We say, here's the truthfulness of biblical Christianity. Here's the gospel. Here's Jesus Christ. Repent. Place faith in him. Come to the truth of the scripture. That is what we do. We do both at the same time. Because the Bible itself is inspired by God. It is the only consistent foundation. for our beliefs. Every other worldview will be reduced to absurdity. Biblical Christianity is not because it is grounded in God himself. Which brings me to another point that we need to consider, which is the nature of the unbeliever and their beliefs, which will go a long ways in determining how we view defending the faith. But before we dive into that, are there any questions so far? Clear as mud? All right. Now, what I want you to notice in Colossians 2 is that in various verses, we get the Apostle Paul's opinion about this false religion that he's facing. We get to see what he thinks about this religion that has been raised up against the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so let's work through a few of these verses, starting with verse 4. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. It's all the unbeliever has to offer, plausible arguments. The Greek language here is primarily emphasizing enticing words. In other words, the nature of those seeking to attack Christianity is to use powerful speech as their weapon. They don't have truth as a weapon. And so what they're going to do is they're going to use emotional lines of argumentation that seem very appealing at first glance, at quick glance. But as you dig down deeper, you find out that they're not appealing at all. But they will swipe away many, many individuals in the attempt to make that emotional argument. What does that mean? That means we have to be grounded in the truth. We have to be ready. We have to know that we're going to face, in many points, an emotional line of argumentation. And we keep our cool, and we keep pressing the truth for the biblical viewpoint. But needless to say, this is not a compliment by the Apostle Paul about the false religion. Look at verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit. according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. The argument of this religion was steeped in human tradition. Oftentimes, you can spot a false belief like that by the emphasis upon human tradition. For example, if you're in a conversation with someone who claims that they believe the scripture, but they have a false belief, whatever that false belief may be, You can notice it by their lack of an ability to stay within a text of scripture. Reformed believers have no problem going to Romans chapter 8. We have no problem going to Romans chapter 8, working through it step by step, and just letting the text say what it says. But if you want to see something interesting, watch an Arminian go through Romans chapter 8. Watch an Arminian go through Romans chapter 9. Will they stay in the text? Nope, they won't. They can't. They can't just work through the text and exposit the passage. Why? Because their view has human tradition. It's the same thing with other more dangerous beliefs, we would say, such as Roman Catholicism. If you get into the cults who do not believe in the Trinity, you'll see that emphasis upon tradition as well, where they cannot just walk through a text. And instead of all of that, we must be grounded in the text of Scripture. If you're walking through a passage of Scripture, you should be able to understand it within its context without having to impose your own opinions. If we can't do that, it's our opinions that need to change the proper interpretation of the Scripture. What we see again is a low view of these arguments given by the Apostle Paul. He says this religion is nothing ultimately but being based in human tradition. Now go down to verse 18. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. We've already discussed the part about visions and being puffed up, but I want you to notice that Paul specifically says that these people are puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. Paul just called them irrational. If they're without reason, he's saying that this is an irrational belief. Other translations would say that it is a vain belief. This is all according to the fleshly, according to the sensuous mind. These unbelievers, they are lost in the darkness of their sin. They have no rationality in terms of their worldview and belief system. That is because they do not have the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's their belief system that is irrational. This is described further in Ephesians 4, verses 18 through 19. where Paul describes the unbelieving Gentiles. He says, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. This is how unbelievers are described consistently in the Bible. It's how we once were before Christ saved us. And this is the reality of what we will face as Christians seeking to defend the faith. What will change the heart of the unbeliever, it is the gospel message, the power of God working through the gospel. Therefore, we must also always, there we go, make the preaching of the gospel central to our defense of the faith, because it is how God saves lost sinners. Now look at verse 23 with me for a final description of the false religion being described here. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, where they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Now this verse is completely full of rich truth for us to consider around defending the faith. But first of all, notice how Paul says that these views have an appearance of wisdom. The idea here is that the asceticism, the concept of you self-inflicting yourself to a dangerous extent, being promoted by this false religion, the idea is that, well, it sounds like it might be good. And Paul says, yep, sounds like, but it only sounds like, because it's not actually good in the end. This false religion has these concepts as to how you're going to deny yourself in this self-inflicting fashion. And Paul basically says, that's just a poisonous idea wrapped in fancy gift wrapping, that concept would apply to many of the aspects, many of the battles that we're facing today as biblical Christians. That's all these things are. They're just ideas that are wrapped up in fancy gift wrapping, but are poisonous on the inside. They try to sound good, but they aren't. Paul says this is self-made religion. It's not divine. It's made by human beings. There is no divine authority behind these religions. Every other religion other than Biblical Christianity has no authority from God. It is purely an invention from man. And so what we have seen here is the unbelieving thought, it is opposed to God, it is built on human tradition, it is built on false claims of revelation, it does not possess divine authority, it is without reason, And it is promoted by those who are darkened in their sin and in their understanding because they are spiritually dead. But that's the scriptural view of false religions made by man. It is the view described by those beliefs that human beings hold who are lost in their sin. Now, does that mean that whenever we're defending the faith, we just go up to an unbeliever and we tell them they're a nutcase? No, we do not. We're called to give the defense with gentleness and with respect. We once held those views. The difference between us and them is not that we're more intelligent. It's the grace of God acting in our lives. It's that he has saved us. And so we want to be firm on the truth. We want to be unyielding in our defense of the faith, unyielding in our proclamation of the scripture. But we also want to give this defense out of hearts full of humility, realizing that we were once lost sinners. and we are debtors to the grace of God. And so we have this attitude of humility, but we must also see the reality of how the scripture describes these false beliefs, the reality of how it describes the unbeliever. It means that there must be no gimmicks in our defense of the faith. We don't go around trying to make Christianity tasteful to unbelievers. We don't go around trying to curry favor with them by pretending like we actually agree with them whenever we really don't because we see the nature of the unbeliever. We see the nature of their belief system because the Word of God has spoken. We understand our job is to expose the irrationality of those views and to give them the complete teaching of the scripture, to give them the gospel. It is the truth of the Bible by the power of God that will bring salvation. There are many questions here about the nature of the unbeliefs that unbelievers hold. All right, I want to cover a third foundation here for apologetics from this text, and it is that a biblical defense of the faith holds the sufficiency of Scripture into Christ as Lord. Read verses 6 through 10 here with me again. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, Just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority." Notice the entire theme. You and I are called to walk in Christ. That we are rooted in Christ. We are grounded in Christ. We are established in him. We are built up in him. If you're missing the message here, the idea is we are completely dependent upon Christ for everything. We are completely grounded in him. And the problem with holding to a false religion is you're not holding on to Christ. There is no God there. There is no gospel. There is no Lord who can save you. There is no Lord of glory. The problem with holding to a false religion is you reject the Lord, you reject the truth. But this reality that we are to walk in Christ, it covers all of our life. In other words, we are to bring him honor and glory and everything, and that includes how we defend the faith. I read 1 Peter 3.15 earlier, and as you notice the very first part, it says, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy. A biblical defense of the faith is committed and it is built upon the Lordship of Christ and the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God. Why? Because he is the head of all rule and authority, as Colossians 2.10 says. He is the Lord who we are called to honor. In other words, how you and I go out and defend the faith, it must be biblical. You see, some Christians, and they are brothers in many cases, but they have a bad theology around apologetics, around the fitting of faith. They go out and they say things like, well, I think God probably exists, or it's more likely that God exists than not. Well, you can't show an example in the New Testament of the apostles doing that. You can't show an example of Jesus Christ doing that. You can't show an example of the early church doing that. Why? Because we know with certainty that Priun God exists. And we know with certainty that Jesus Christ is Lord. And as such, we undertake defending the faith with unbelievers from that position. With certainty regarding Christ. Not with pride, but with confidence in the Lord. Not only in the Lord, but also in the scripture itself. We're Christians. We uphold Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is our authority. It is sufficient, without a doubt, I believe it is sufficient, not only to teach us how to grow in Christ, but also how to defend the faith itself. So we must be distinctly biblical in our defense of the faith. What does it actually look like? What does it look like as an example for someone to go out and to defend the faith and to engage in believers? Well, I think it's pretty safe to say the Apostle Paul was a very biblical Christian. And so we're going to be taking a look next week at Acts 17. Depending on how long-winded I am will dictate how if we get to any other passages or not. But Lord willing, we will at least get through Acts 17 and see Paul's interaction with unbelievers in that account. Are there any questions here before we wrap up here tonight? All right, well I'll add this too, if anybody wants any further resources on this issue, I do have documents and stuff, resources that would be great for yourself, kids, grandkids, books you can buy from various Christian apologists who are very faithful, free resources that you can do. If you want that, just get with me, I'll print it out for you or email it to you, whatever you would like as far as that goes. Lord willing, I'll be back with you next week, barring any major health issues or anything like that. Brother Ron, I'll turn it over to you for the prayer time.