Dr Greg Bahnsen - Peter's Apologetic: Christian Mind (1 Peter 3:13-17) (Part 1)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Subject sometimes humanly depressing. I'm glad to leave that series and return now to our exposition of the book of First Peter, which we have been into for some months. We return to First Peter. We're in the third chapter this morning. I'd like to take as our text for the morning reading verses 13 to 17. So turn with me in your Bibles to the New Testament, the first epistle of Peter, chapter three. And we begin reading at the 13th verse. Hear now the word of God, and who is he that will harm you if ye be zealous of that which is good. But even if ye should suffer for righteousness sake, blessed are ye and fear not their fear. Neither be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. Yet with meekness and fear having a good conscience, that wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life, Christ. For it is better if the will of God should so will that ye suffer for well doing than for evildoing. And thus far the reading of God's word. It might be well, since we've had some break in our series, for me to try this morning before we get into this text, to summarize, to review the epistle up to this particular point. So turn back in First Peter to chapter one. We'll see if we can't fly through the first couple chapters and remind you of what Peter has been saying. This is a unified piece of work. Peter didn't just from time to time write little aphorisms or nice religious slogans and put them in a shoebox. And then someday, say, you know, it'd be great if I pasted all these together and published a book that isn't the way it happened. You know, that happens. Some very famous people have written books that way. Ludwig Wittgenstein, perhaps the best known philosopher of the 20th century, his best known book, Philosophical Investigations, was put together in exactly that way. Wittgenstein would, from time to time, get some inspiration about an idea or some insight. At least he thought it was an insight to a philosophical problem. He'd jot it down and throw all these scraps of paper in a shoebox in his closet. And later, his students, being diligent to see the work and brilliance of their master, published would paste together all these scraps of paper and then publish this as the Tractatus. Excuse me, not as the Tractatus, but as the investigations by Wittgenstein. Peter didn't write that way. Peter had a theme in mind. Peter had a unified presentation he laid before his people. And I'd like us to pick up that line of thought that Peter has. He begins the Epistle by saying that the great mercy of the triune God has brought us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ to a safe and secure heavenly inheritance. Those are the first five verses in summary. There's a lot of theology there. That's why it took us a few months to get through them. Peter says, because we have that safe and secure heavenly inheritance, we can rejoice despite our present persecution, despite our present suffering, for even Christ first suffered, then entered his glory. That's something which the Old Testament prophets couldn't understand. And this takes us then through verses 6 to 12. Now, since we have this heavenly inheritance, and we should be prepared to suffer before we enter our glory, Peter says, therefore in verse 13, be holy, be obedient people, because you've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Then in verse 22, further, he says, love one another fervently because you've been born again by the ever abiding word of God. And then at the beginning of chapter two, he says, again, in purity grow as newborn babes in the word of God. You have a heavenly inheritance, and for that reason you should be prepared to suffer even as Christ first suffered that enter his glory. For that reason you should be holy and obedient. You should love one another fervently. You should grow in purity as newborn babes, feasting on the word of God. And then at chapter two, verses nine and ten, Peter says, consider yourselves to be the temple of God, being built up on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ, a cornerstone rejected of men. But in God's sight he lacked and precious. Indeed, Peter goes on in verses nine and ten of chapter two to say, you are the new Israel of God. This being the case, verses 11 and 12 says, Be sure that your good conduct will silence the slander of your opponents. For instance in verses 13 to 17, be submissive citizens. For instance in verses 18 to 23, work hard even for your perverse masters, following the example of Christ, who suffered without retaliation, indeed the one who died the shepherd for the sheep. Verses 24 and 25. Likewise, Peter says, you wives, submit to your husbands, and you husbands, honor your wives. Verses 1, 7, 3, and finally Peter says, love each other, don't return evil for evil, but rather seek peace with all men, for the Lord's favor is upon those who suffer for righteousness sake. Those are verses 18 to 14. Now the recurring theme should be obvious to us by now. Peter says, we enjoy tremendous privileges and blessings because of God's gracious work in our lives, and these privileges bring with them a corresponding responsibility, a responsibility to live holy and Christlike lives before men. And the setting in terms of which we get these privileges and bear these responsibilities is one of persecution and slander from an unbelieving world, a slander and persecution that we should be prepared to patiently endure. 3 thoughts jump out at us then if I have to boil it down, I'll even alliterate it for you. The three thoughts that come to mind when you look at 1 Peter the first three chapters are those of privilege, persecution, and purity. Privilege because of the triune mercies of God, persecution the world slanders unbelievers will not understand them, and brings a great deal of distress into their lives and purity, purity of life, so that it's true that when they afflict us, we are suffering for righteousness sake and purity of witness, so that we speak the truth in love, privilege, persecution, and purity. Now Peter picks up those three lines of thought at this particular point in our text and brings them together. So just look at the overall theme of verses 13 to 17 as we continue. And who is he that will harm you if you be zealous of that which is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, blessed are you, and fear not their fear. Neither be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. Yet with meekness and fear having a good conscience that wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ for it is better if the will of God should so will that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing, privilege, persecution, and purity. Peter repeats here the Beatitude of Jesus Christ Himself from the Sermon on the Mount which we find at Matthew the fifth chapter. I trust you all remember these words of our Lord, how He said at the end of the Beatitudes, the very last one, or the climactic beatitude is how happy we are, or how blessed we are to suffer for righteousness sake. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed Are ye when men shall reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake? Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they, the prophets that were before you. Jesus here says you are happy. The word for blessed here means happy. Happy is the man, blessed is the man who gets to suffer. This seems psychologically perverse. Certainly inside out, it's paradoxical. How can somebody be happy and yet be suffering? Well, the key is that you're suffering for righteousness sake. I want to suggest to you that the reason most of us get down when we're persecuted or when things are going wrong is because we know we deserve it or much worse. But Jesus says, you can be happy when you suffer for righteousness sake. Remember, the prophets before you suffered in like manner, and your reward in heaven will be great. It's something to be happy about when men reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely. And so suffering for righteousness sake is a blessing. And this is what Peter repeats for us in this text. He says in verse 14, and even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, blessed are you. You should be happy that this privilege has been given to you. Indeed, as Paul says in the book of Philippians, it's been appointed unto us to fill up the sufferings of Christ. To stand with Christ and to bear the reproach of the world and the hostility of men who do not believe in him is a privilege. And we sin against God, and we are not of the right mind. We do not have the mind of Christ when we groan and complain because we undergo persecution for the sake of doing what is right. Now, when I preach these words, I preach them just as much to myself as I do to you. Because there's hardly a week that goes by in the Christian ministry when I don't stop and say, I don't need this. I don't want this. This isn't what I signed up for when I went into the ministry. In fact, it wasn't long ago that I was driven back to my form of government to look at those vows that I took when I became a minister. When I was ordained to the ministry of Jesus Christ, I said that I was willing to undergo whatsoever persecution may arise to me for the sake of doing what God would have me to do in the ministry. It's a privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ. Now, it's no privilege to suffer for the sake of our own foolishness for the sake of our own impatience or unholy behavior. But it is a great privilege to do what God by principle would have us to do, and then to have those who are not principled, those who are not righteous, and those who are not believers, persecute slander and bring suffering to us on that account. Peter says this. He says, you should be happy when you have to suffer for righteousness sake. It's a blessing to do so. But he says, be sure that this slander and this persecution is suffered for doing well and not for evil behavior. Verses 16 and 17 having a good conscience, a clear conscience, that wherein you are spoken against, you may put to shame those who revile your good manner of life in Christ. For it's better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing. He says, just make sure of this, that the suffering isn't coming because you're departing from God's principles, and but just because of God's principles, you are suffering now. It's in the midst of this exhortation I'm taking a lot of time, more than I ordinarily might, to set this up for you. It's in the midst of this kind of exhortation that Peter lays down the charter verse of Christian apologetics, a verse which I might be inclined to seize upon and go right to it like a homing pigeon about apologetics. But we must understand the setting in life, the exhortation, the context in which Peter says, you must be willing to defend the Christian faith. It's in this particular context that we read verses 14 and 15. Peter says, but don't fear their fear, and don't be troubled, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, being ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. With meekness and fear. Peter says, don't be troubled by the terror of your persecutors. Don't be troubled. And before I go any further, let me tell you that when we are of an agitated mind, when we get perturbed under those circumstances, we are disobeying the word of God. You see, Peter here is not speaking as so many fellow Christians might speak, just a word of encouragement. Oh, don't be upset. Everything's going to be okay. Just, you know, whistle a happy tune and it's all going to go away. No, Peter's not talking like that. He's laying down the law. He says, and don't you fear the terror of your persecutors? That's Right. You're not to be agitated, you're not to be easily troubled of mind. You're not to be emotionally insecure in the face of what the world brings you and the hostility and the challenges that we hear there. It is wrong to have that response, he says, but rather don't fear their fear, but rather be prepared to offer a reasoned defense to those asking about the hope that is within you. A reasoned defense. The word in the Greek is apologia. English transliteration would be the apology. Be prepared to give an apology to those who ask your reason for the hope that is in you. And so the impression is sometimes given to people when they hear just that much, that we as Christians go around apologizing all the time. Oh, I'm so sorry. To be a Christian, I'm so sorry. I believe this. I'm so sorry. This is true. That isn't what Peter's talking about. The apology that somebody offered in the ancient world was a reasoned defense against an accusation. And that's why Plato, for instance, in one of his best known dialogues entitled the Apology, recounts Socrates day in court, where Socrates appears before his Athenian accusers and offers his defense, where he tries to vindicate his own innocence publicly. That's what an apology is. An apology is taking an accusation and giving your rebuttal, giving your reasoned answer in reply. It isn't saying I'm sorry all the time. Peter says, be prepared to offer to any man who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, be prepared to give him your apology, your defense. And so apologetics, very simply put, as we study it in the Christian world, apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith. The defense of the faith. And Peter says, rather than fearing the terror of your persecutors, be prepared to offer an apologetic, a defense of the faith. And so this morning we begin a short series based on 1 Peter 3:15, a series that will deal with the defense of the Christian faith in the midst of the hostile world in which we find ourselves. What's the first thing we need to learn in this series about apologetics? The first thing you need to learn is don't be troubled by your persecutors, but rather have a Christian mind. In fact, if I can convince you this morning, if I can at least put you on the path toward having a Christian mind, then we'll have got the major part of the battle taken care of. But you see, we don't even understand what we're talking about, do we, about having a Christian mind. And that's Part of the problem. Let me go back and take this piece by piece then. First of all, Peter says, don't be troubled by your persecutors. Don't be troubled with fear. And what is the key to having a calm disposition in the face of opposition and attack? A calm disposition. So we should always stop and wonder why it is certain Christian apologists do not have a calm disposition when they defend the faith. Why is it that they give the impression that they have in fact been raised like Romulus and Remus, the ancient founders of the city of Rome, who were raised suckled by wolves? Why do Christian apologists sometimes give that impression? This wolf like character, this pounce upon your opponent and dominate your opponent. Why do they give the impression that they're vicious and hostile? Well, it may very well be because they within themselves have an insecurity that they are compensating for. You know, that's true of all of us. We tend to get really worked up when we're not sure of where we stand or how we would defend ourselves. The key to a calm disposition in the face of opposition and attack. The way to keep God's demand to remain unperturbed, Peter says, is twofold. One, have a clear conscience that your behavior has not been shameful. Verse 16. We've already looked at having a good conscience. That wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good banner of life in Christ. And the second way to have a calm disposition, to be unperturbed in the face of attack, is to have a reasoned answer for those who challenge the truth of your faith. That's what verse 15 is all about. Be ready to offer an answer to any man who ask you reason for the hope that is in you. Two things are necessary then. One, your manner of life must be shameless. You must be confident that you don't stand on the shaky ground. That something you say, oh, but look at the way you live, or look at the way you act, or look at your attitudes. We need to have a clear conscience before God so that we can stand before men and know that the more they look at our behavior, the more, the more they'll have to agree with what we've done. Or else perversely change the standards of God which are written in their hearts. Perversely suppress that truth and distort. Really helps, doesn't it? To know that if men will take the time to learn what you've done or why you've done it, that they'll be forced to Say you haven't done something evil. That's how you stay unperturbed. That's how you have a calm disposition. Have a clear conscience, first of all, and secondly, have a reasoned answer for the hope that is in you. If your behavior is blameless and if you have a secure intellectual basis for your beliefs, then nothing need disturb your peace of mind. You know where you stand, no matter how tough the attacks from others become. Even if, as with Peter's readers, you're hauled off to court because of your profession of Christian faith, you know you have a good conscience before God, and you know you have an answer for your beliefs. Indeed, I want to suggest to you this morning, Christians, that if you've escaped shakiness and insecurity, you may psychologically find yourself able to stand back from a situation like Peter is describing. Stand back from the confrontation and try to help your opponent deal with his own doubts and fears and personal problems, that is his own intellectual and moral turmoil, rather than taking it as some kind of personal attack that weighs you down and makes you unsure of the outcome. If you have a clear conscience and a reason for the things you believe, in the midst of that, you can stand back and look at what's going on and see what your opponent needs to hear to help him out of his problems. That takes a very secure disposition to be able to do that, one that comes not because we have exercised ourselves so much, we have so much practice debating. You say I can chop him down no matter what he says, but rather a security that comes because our hope is in the name of the Lord, and that we know that the Lord God Almighty can handle whatever difficulty arises, and that there are answers, in fact, for whatever may be brought up. And so Peter says, don't fear their terror, but rather have a Christian mind. That isn't exactly the way he puts it. That's something of a paraphrase here. What Peter says is, instead of being troubled with fear, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. In a word, paraphrasically, have a mind committed to obey Christ. Have a mind committed to obey Christ. I'm going to say it one more time, because maybe then it will get through. Have a mind committed to obey Christ, not just a personal or emotional attitude committed to obey Christ, not just a body in its outward performance committed to obey Christ, but have a mind which is committed to obey Christ. Peter says, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. What does it mean to sanctify something? Well, if you come from ritualistic circles and Christian world, you might think of sanctifying as sprinkling holy water upon something. Well, I don't believe that holy water does anything to sanctify anything. But if you follow the idea of sprinkling holy water, maybe you'll get the idea here. When holy water has been sprinkled on something, it is sacralized, it has been set apart or consecrated. And anything that has been made holy that is used improperly for mundane purposes, for what would be called secular purposes in the Roman world. Anything that is not used for religious purposes after that point, you see, has been abused. You have violated the character of it. To sanctify something is to set it apart for a special use. It is to make it holy. And the word for holy, both in the Hebrew and the Greek, by the way, has the sense of setting apart, making it different. When God says that he is holy, he means he is set apart from the creation. He is other than the creation, though the creation is finite and fallen. God is infinite and holy. He is set apart from everything. And so now we are told we are to make holy Christ as Lord in our hearts. How can we make Christ holy? That doesn't make any sense. Christ is holy, is the holy One of God. He's the only begotten Son of God. He is the one who can say which of you convicts me of sin. Christ is holy, but we are to treat him as holy or consecrated. We are to set him apart. To set Christ apart is the very opposite of setting him aside. We don't set Christ aside and forget about Him. We rather set him apart than, or set him above all that we do and say so that instead of forgetting about him, we live under and in terms of his consecrated place in our hearts. And so set Christ apart. Peter says, not aside, set Christ apart in your hearts. And now we need to take a few moments to talk about what this is, to set something apart in your heart. Because the first thing you have thought about, if you're thinking right now at all, is, well, that means emotionally, I'm to be committed to Jesus Christ. Because the heart is the seat of emotion. In our culture, we think about head and heart. Even Christian ministers fall into the very misleading trap of contrasting head and heart. I do that from time to time too. It's just common parlance. We think about mere intellect or the mere mind, and then we talk about, but then we love Christians, Christ in the heart, meaning we have a fervency or emotional commitment to him as well. But this is not a biblical way of talking not at all. When the Bible tells us to do something from the heart or in the heart, what it means to tell us is that outward professions, external performance is useless if doubt and divided loyalty are still within us. External claims to following Christ as Lord must flow from a heart, from a genuine or what we might call heartfelt commitment to Jesus as the Master. So then to set Christ apart in the heart is to do so truly to set Christ apart genuinely. You see, in the Bible the heart is set in contrast not to the mind. The heart is set in contrast to the mouth are to the lips. And a very good example comes to mind From Matthew the 15th chapter, verse 8. In Matthew 15:8, Jesus quotes Isaiah, so it really has the sanction of Old and New Testament. Matthew 15:8, Jesus, speaking of the Pharisees, quotes Isaiah who said this people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. You see, the heart stands over against the mouth or the lips. Somebody can say something with the mouth, but it must be believed from the heart. And so to do something in the heart or from the heart is to do it truly, genuinely, non hypocritically. That's what the biblical idea would be. Now, in our culture, of course, we contrast the heart to the mind, but in the Bible, man's heart encompasses all of his inner self, all of his private thoughts, plans, emotions, or what have you. The inner self is the heart of man. And that includes much more than emotions. I don't say it excludes emotions. There are some who would tell you the heart just is what we call the mind, and that's mistaken, I think. But the heart includes much more than the emotions. I can give you some examples here. In Genesis the sixth chapter, verse five, we read, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart. We're not talking about emotions here. We're talking about that intellectual vehicle or organ, the mind, as we might speak of it in our day and age. Or consider Genesis 8:21, where we read, Jehovah said in his heart, I will not again do such and such. Jehovah said in his heart. Now can we translate that? Jehovah said, in his emotions, I will not. No, Jehovah says this in whatever the counterpart in God is to that vehicle that thinks for us, that organ of intellectual apprehension, comprehension and planning. God said in his heart, I will not do this. In Psalm 12:2 we read they speak falsehood with a double heart. Now you could translate that with a double mind, because a double Minded man, remember, is a man who goes two different ways. But it makes no sense to say they speak falsehood with a double emotion. The heart is not simply the seat of emotion. Where does the fool say there is no God? He says it in his heart. And so you see, the heart is the place where verbal transactions can be found. The the speaking of the fool in his heart. Or Proverbs 2:2. Apply thine heart to understanding. Isaiah 6:10. Lest they understand with their heart. The heart is the center of understanding, of reasoning, of thinking, of planning, and of speaking. And so now we begin to understand that when the Bible says, sanctify Christ in your hearts, it means truly from your inner being, and that includes your intellectual process. In your heart is also where you think. Proverbs says in chapter 23:7 that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Now, how do we think? What kind of people are we? This gets us to the heart of what I want you to see this morning. We need to have a Christian mind. We need to have hearts where Christ is Lord and is set apart as such, so that when we think the kind of people we are reflects. We are Christians not just in what we do outwardly, not just in what we feel inwardly, but how we think must be Christian as well. For out of the heart are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23. Out of the heart are the issues of life. You see, if Christ is Lord in the heart, then that means all the other issues of life. What I think, what I plan, what I feel, what I do will be Christian as well. But it begins in the heart. Isn't that what Jesus is getting at in Mark the seventh chapter when he says that it's what is within the heart of a man that determines the character of his life? It's what's within that determines what happens without. Look at Mark 7, verses 18 to 23. This is precisely the teaching of our Lord. Mark 7, beginning at the 18th. And he saith unto them, are ye so without understanding? Perceive ye not that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot defile him, because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught. This he said, making all meats clean. And he said, that which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed. Fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, Railing, pride, foolishness, all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. Jesus said, it's not what you eat that makes you unclean, because what you eat goes into your belly and goes out into the toilet. He says, it's what goes into your heart that makes you unclean or gives you the character that you have. Because it's out of the heart that a man speaks, it's out of a heart that the man behaves, out of the heart that a man has a certain attitude. And so now you begin to get the feeling for the biblical sense of heart, the inner self, that which determines all other things, because out of the heart are the issues of life. Peter says, sanctify Christ in your heart, at the very center of your being. Let Christ Lord it over your thought processes, because he's to be set apart in our hearts as Lord enthroned and ruling over all of our intellectual processes, our thinking, our reasoning, our planning, our attitudes, all other allegiances are to be subordinate to our bowing the heart and mind to Jesus Christ the Lord. Proverbs 1, 7 puts it this way. For the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. The beginning of knowledge is to bow the heart and mind to the Lordly prerogatives of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. In Colossians 2, 3, Peter tells us that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all of the treasures, not just religious matters, but all the treasures of physics and all the treasures of fine arts, all the. And all the treasures of athletics and all the treasures of biology and all the treasures of history and all the treasures of philosophy, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, every single one of them, not one of them is left out. All of them are deposited in Jesus Christ. He's the repository of truth and knowledge. And those who will not bow the heart and mind to him may not know anything were it not for the common grace of God, we restraining their rebellion. And though they would pervert and distort and suppress the truth of God, they yet know him. And knowing him can know other things as well. Christ alone is the Lord of truth and knowledge. And we need to have that attitude. If we're going to do Christian apologetics, we need to have that attitude. If we're going to stand on a secure foundation and be able to answer the world, we need to be able to have a clear conscience about our behavior and then sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. And it has certain implications here for Christian apologetics that I want to end with this morning. If Christ is sanctified as Lord in my heart. If I have a Christian mind, a mind that is discipled to Christ, not just emotions and a body, but a mind disciple to Christ, then there's no room for neutrality. There's no room for neutrality. We're often told, indeed on all sides in our day and age in the evangelical world, we are told that in apologetics we have to take an open minded, nobody knows for sure as yet attitude. We cannot be committed, we cannot beg any questions. We must be neutral. Jesus said, he who is not with me is against me. And that's what Christian apologists, that's what you need to hear today when you say, now wait a minute, I can't beg any questions. I can't assume my conclusion here. I just can't start with a Christian perspective. I've got to begin with nobody knows for sure as yet, and let's just use our senses and find out. Then you remember the words of Jesus. I hope they come back to haunt you and ring in your ears. If you're not with me, you are against me. For no man can serve two masters. You cannot serve the worldly dictates, the philosophers who are unbelievers and serve Jesus Christ. You must make your choice. And from this point on, when you see that no neutrality is permitted by God and that no neutrality is possible in the sight of Jesus Christ, from this point on, the only options are unbelief, Christian commitment and something sub Christian as your commitment. See, there are some people who don't want to be unbelievers, but. But they don't want to be Christians who reason from beginning to end on the basis of God's word. They say there must be neutral zones. There must be, at least until we become Christians. Neutrality. But Jesus says, no, there isn't. You may not. You cannot serve two masters. You're with me or you're against me. New neutrality. Secondly, in apologetics there can be no autonomy. Autonomy is a good word. It's a big one that you probably don't hear in ordinary life. The soap operas are not big on words like autonomy. You're not going to find that in your newspaper day by day, but it's a word that we should all understand. Autonomy means to be a law to yourself, from the Greek word autos self and namos law, to be a law unto yourself, to be self sufficient, to determine things by your own reasoning and standards. Autonomy, basically, is what Satan was encouraging Eve to have in the Garden of Eden. For you see, Satan came to Eve in the guise of a serpent. And he says, well, what about these trees around here? And she says, well, we're not supposed to eat of this one, because in the day that we eat there, we'll surely die. And Satan says, you won't surely die. How extreme. How overbearing. How unreasonable. Eve, think about it. Just do an inductive survey. If all of the other trees in the garden are good for eating, why should this one be the exception to the rule? Look at it. Use your senses, Eve. Use your mind. Eve, come on. There's got to be a misunderstanding here. Or maybe God's jealous. God doesn't want you to become like him. That's what it is. There's an evil motivation in him. You're not going to put up with that, are you? God's trying to keep you from something good. And you know what Eve should have done at that point? At every single point, at every one of those satanic, tempting suggestions, she should have said, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. No, there is no question that what he says is true. There is no variation in God. There is no question about it. We cannot challenge his word. Rather, she said, well, I've got God's point of view here, his hypothesis. I've got Satan's point of view. I've got his hypothesis, and I guess I'll have to be the judge. I'll be a law to myself. Of course, I can't follow God's law on this point because that's begging the question. That'd be assuming a conclusion before I actually looked at it. So I've got to examine all the options, and I've got to use my senses in my mind, and I'll use my own law to decide what's right or wrong. How well did she do, folks? She did. She became autonomous. And I dare say, I think, as E.J. young suggests, very properly in a theological sense, even before Eve bit into the apple or the persimmons or whatever it was, even before she bit into it, she had sinned in her heart of hearts because she became her own little God. Now there's no room for that kind of thing, Christian apologetics. Christ must be set apart as Lord, so that in everything that I do or say, his word is unchallenged, His Word is taken for granted. And I am not a law to myself. Somebody says, oh, come on, think for yourself. Don't depend on the Bible. You say, no, get thee behind me, Satan. I'm not a law to myself. And though you may despise it, I have to have the Bible. I have to have the word of God, and I submit humbly to it. And if that brings you to despise me, then so be it, because I'd rather suffer the reproaches of men than to offend my God. You see, the Puritans were right, as you've heard often, as one person said about them, because they had learned to fear the face of God, they no longer feared the face of men. And that's the second thing you've got to come to if you're going to have a Christian mind. Stop worrying about what the world says about you. Stop trying to gain some kind of achievement or pride or commendation in the eyes of those who are spiritually blind. Let God be true, though all men are liars. No neutrality, no autonomy. Thirdly, no divided field of knowledge. No divided field of knowledge. Now, Francis Schaeffer has used that language in a certain way, which is true enough. But I'm thinking this morning here of those evangelical apologists who suggest that apologetics is guided by reason. And once our reason is satisfied that Jesus really is who he said he is, then our theology is guided by faith. Apologetics is ruled by reason, and then theology is ruled by faith. A divided field of knowledge where you don't have a common epistemological, that is to say, with reference to your theory of knowledge, you don't have a common epistemological procedure in Lord. One final authority. You have two authorities, one for apologetics, one for theology, reason here, faith there. But that won't do, will it? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we overthrow every reasoning that casts itself up against the knowledge of God, seeking to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now, the weapons of our warfare are not physical, they aren't carnal. They're rather powerful to the casting down of every reasoning and imagination that would oppose God. And the reason it's powerful is because every thought's been made captive to the obedience of Christ. When will Christian apologists get it into their heads that they sacrifice power? They don't gain power by giving up their presuppositions. You give up your presuppositions as a Christian apologist, and the Bible says, you're answering the fool according to his folly, and you'll become like unto him. You don't use the foolish tools of the fools if you want to show a better alternative. And so we bring every thought captive to the obedience Of Christ, no divided field of knowledge. And then, finally, before we go too much longer over here, we must develop the mental habit of thinking Christianly. I know that's bad grammar, but you'll remember it. We must develop the habit of thinking Christianly. Thinking Christianly, of using patterns of reasoning and inference, standards that are pleasing to God. Can I illustrate this? I may step on a few toes in doing it, but we need to learn this. Instead of thinking Christianly, we often think traditionally, or we think in terms of our own social outlook or our own expectation. What if I were to propose to you this morning that from time to time we're going to have women take our prayer request and pray in our congregation? Oh, I can see it on the faces already. What? What's that? You see, we tend to think that because women are not to be preachers and they aren't, they aren't to teach men in the assembly with authority, and they aren't to be ordained as elders. All of that's true. We tend to think that way, that all sorts of things carry along with it. It's kind of like a traditional social outlook that says women keep their place and we know what their place is. However, if you look at First Corinthians, the 11th chapter, Paul says quite explicitly that women do prophesy, although we believe that the gift of prophecy is gone, and pray as long as their heads are covered, which I take to be their long hair, not some special veil. But that's another issue. What I'm saying is we tend to think traditionally. Woman praying in our church. Oh, no, we wouldn't do that. Instead of thinking Christianly, what does God's word say about it? Now, what's the problem? The problem is we don't know God's word. You can't develop mental habits of thinking Christianly if you haven't got the material in there. You've got to program the computer with the right stuff if you want it to come out with Christian conclusions. And so we need to be students of the scripture instead of saying, well, now I can imagine what the Christian answer is on that. Now, that isn't a Christian way of thinking. Another mistake we make, and I'll end with this illustration. Often when you ask people questions, you find out that they're trying to give you an answer based on what the consequences of the answer is going to be. And if they reason backwards, did you mean to say xyz? And then you see the person almost, if not on his face actually with his words, saying, well, I don't want you to be led to this conclusion. So, no, my answer is this rather than that, when what's at stake is the truth here, not the consequences. When there's a game called truth are consequences. But in Christianity, the whole issue is the truth, and the consequences can fall where they may. So what's the truth about this matter? A Christian mindset, a Christian mental habit would always answer in terms of the truth, not jumping ahead, saying, now where is he going with this? What are the consequences? Let me see if I can work back to the right answer. And so we can't be traditionalists, we can't be pragmatists. We have to be Christians in the way we think, in the way that we think, because Jesus lords it over our thinking. That means that we don't despise things like inference patterns or logic. The reason for that is that Christ, if he lords it over my thoughts, doesn't want me to mislead people with fallacious arguments. If I tell people, well, you know, some dogs are brown and my dog is brown, so my dog is some dog, and somebody says, oh, I guess you proved it. Somebody should say, that isn't the way a Christian thinks. I mean, a Christian may joke that way, but a Christian doesn't really think that way. He's not committed to that kind of reasoning because that doesn't honor the truth. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. And so those things which lead away from the truth are not honoring to him. Oh, and I must tell you, we don't have a Christian mind today. Harry Blaymire's in the book entitled the Christian Mind Is Right. We do not have a mentality, an objective, socially recognizable way of thinking that can be called the Christian mind. In our age, we have a secular mind. In our age, we have a humanistic mind. In our age, Even Christians think in terms of humanistic categories in our age. And we need to develop, even if it's only in this small congregation, we need to start developing Christian ways of thinking, to think in terms of supernatural categories, that think in terms of moral absolutes, that think in terms of heaven and hell, to think in terms of the truth which can be known rather than skeptical premises. We need to have Christian presuppositions openly acknowledged among us and in terms of which we reason individually and talk to one another corporately. We need a Christian mind. So much more needs to be said about apologetics. We'll come back to this, but this morning you need to learn the necessity of a Christian mind. One where Christ has been set apart as Lord in your heart. In junior high I played football. I played quarterback on offense and I was a cornerback on defense. However, I'd never played cornerback on defense when the coach told me to take that position. And after a couple of weeks of practice, I remember him walking off the field with me one day and he said, you know, Greg, what you need to do, you need to start thinking like a cornerback. Because I wasn't. I was thinking like a linebacker and I was over committing myself and I wasn't protecting the sidelines as I was supposed to. I don't know that I ever became a great cornerback or junior high. But the coach taught me something when he said, you need to start thinking like one. My advice to you this morning, with the authority of God's Word behind, is you need to start thinking like Christians. Let's pray. Father, do cleanse our minds this morning of all of our ways of thought and our inference patterns, our attitudes and standards and methods which are not pleasing to you because they are in fact neutral or autonomous or divided and disloyal. We pray that you would give us ways of thinking which do serve the Lord Jesus Christ and honor his authority in our lives. Help us to set him apart as Lord in our thought processes. Help us to have Christian minds so that we will be fully equipped to answer anyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is in us. And we do pray that you would be glorified by this so that in all things you might truly receive the preeminence. For it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonsen Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.