Ready Always to Give an Answer
By Michael Klikas
17 September
2006
Adult Education Hour
Nehemiah 2:1-5
Introduction: Once again we are going to give a quick recap of what we covered last week to help us pickup where we left off. We started out by stating that as we are mounting a verbal defense either with another person or on our own, we need to be praying. A good example of praying when you are alone and talking with someone is found in Nehemiah Chapter two, verses one through five.
Nehemiah 2:1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.
Nehemiah 2:2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,
Nehemiah 2:3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
Nehemiah 2:4 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 2:5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.
We need to praying at all times but especially when engaging in apologetics.
Then we stated that not everyone is going to suffer for righteousness’ sake and it could be because no one knows sometimes other the persons church family that they are a Christian. We also said that just because you’re not suffering doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong. Then again, if you are suffering, don’t assume that you are doing something right. It could be that the Lord is chastening you and that you really aren’t suffering for righteousness’ sake.
We then made the point of saying that the very first thing you must do as an apologist is sanctify your heart to God. If your heart is bent on proving someone wrong rather then exposing them to truth so that they might be converted then you have not sanctified the Lord God in your heart. Everything that we say or do comes from the heart. So if your heart is not wholly given to the Lord then it will show in your life and in the way you approach apologetics.
Finally we talked about what we are passionate about. There are many things that we will become very passionate about, take a stand on and refuse to move off of our position, yet we will stand by quietly when someone uses the Lord’s name in vain or says that the Bible is just another book. We said that if we are passionate then we will be ready to defend the truths we hold dear to our heart. But we also said that sometimes we have to defend against our own thoughts, doubts and struggles.
Now please do not tell me that you do not struggle every now and then with doing right and sanctifying the Lord God in your heart. Everybody struggles as various times in their Christian life. As a result of these struggles we sometimes fail to get into the fight by saying things like we don’t want to get involved or it’s not my problem. We start to think about what is important to us. What is important to us becomes more important then answering those who would say that the Bible isn’t true, that being a gospel witness is nothing more then being brain washed, or what ever people may say. The next step that we take is we fail to take the truth that we know and apply it to our own lives. This then leads to rebellion because we know what is right and we know what we should do and we just don’t want to do it. Then when we are caught off guard and suffer loss in the battle for the truth, we do not understand why. But if we were to look back we would see that it was because we failed to make ourselves ready for the fight that is always before us. Is our loss in battle due to not being prepared or is it because we do not believe? Essentially, not being prepared and unbelief are intertwined. If we do not believe the truth that we are studying then how will we be ready to answer every man? Being ready means that you could be called on at any moment to give a defense for the truth, you and not the person next to you may be called on to defend the truth. Are you ready and prepared? You know what you need to do and if you do not prepare yourself then you are sinning.
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Haven’t you ever struggled with the fact that you know you should do something, or for that fact not do something and had to fight within yourself to do what is right? If you are not ready to fight your own sin first then you will never be ready to fight for the truth that is contained in the word of God because truth will mean little or nothing to you! The preparation must first be in your heart before you can ever answer anyone else and try to reach them at the heart level. Notice that I said the heart level and not the intellectual level. Many intellectual people know the Bible and yet are still lost. Romans 10:9 speaks about the heart and not the intellect. You cannot convince someone of the truth intellectually. This is also true of the person who is saved and is struggling. They do not need to someone to come along side them to reach their intellect. Then they become nothing more then a Pharisee that is still struggling. You may be required to stand along side a brother or sister in Christ and fight with them. Will you help fight a heart battle, or an intellectual battle? Are you ready and are you willing to help get to the heart of the matter?
We looked at the words be ready last week but we did not cover all we needed to. Let’s look at our definition again.
The Greek word for be ready is:
åôïéìïò Strongs No: 2092
Transliterated: hetoimos; Pronounced: het-oy'-mos
It means:
1. prepare ready
a. of things
1. ready at hand
2. opportune, seasonable
b. of persons
1. ready prepared
a. to do something
b. to receive one coming
So we have looked at how to be ready. The other thing that these words be ready means is opportune or seasonable. That means at the right time. There are times where we have to wait to talk to someone about the things of the Lord. God is also a God of timing. Talking to someone about the Lord who is drunk may not be the best time to do that. But when they are sobered up, that is when you really want to try and work their heart over with the word of God. God is a God of timing and order. We see that in creation. So we have to be wise when we are witnessing and know when we should or shouldn’t witness. However, do not use that as an excuse to not witness or to not look for the opportunities that are already there. There are so many opportunities each day that we pass by because we are looking for that perfect opportunity. God provides them for us all the time, and if God provides them then they are perfect. The problem is that we don’t look for them or we think we can decide which opportunity is right. There obviously has to be wisdom involved, but this goes back to knowing what the word of God says. We have to be careful because sometimes we have to know when to not engage the enemy. Never fight a battle on someone else’s terms and battle field. But when you have the advantage make full use of it and then launch your assault. In other words, fight the battle the way the Lord would have you fight it and not the way you think it should be fought or the way the enemy wants you to fight it. As I said, if we were to just open our spiritual eyes we would see so many opportunities every day to give the gospel and defend the truth.
Then finally that last definition we see here is to receive one coming. People are going to come to you and ask you why. Why do you go to church every Wednesday night? Why do you go to church twice on Sundays? But let me warn you, not everyone that comes to you is going to do so out of curiosity. Not every one that comes to you is going to be nice and just wonder why, though there will be some people like that. There will be some that come to you with the intent of confusing you and leading you astray. There will be some that come to you and will be looking for the opportunity to do nothing more then make you a spiritual casualty that no longer engages in the fight. But there will be others who will come to you because someone else has planted the seed and now it is time for you to water. Whatever the case is you must be ready for whatever situation comes up.
When I was in the army there were two rules concerning my weapon. My M16 never left me and if I dropped it I followed it down and did pushups, a lot of them. Why was that, because my M16 was the difference between life and death for me! If I had no weapon I was defenseless which not only meant I could die, but others around me could die because I wasn’t prepared. I ate with that weapon, slept with that weapon and even when I would wash up, my weapon was there. The enemy was not going to say that they couldn’t attack me because I was shaving. By the same token, I couldn’t use the excuse that I was eating my gourmet MRE’s, and that’s why I couldn’t protect others around me. Whether it was 3am or two in the afternoon I had to be ready to fight. I did that by always being armed and ready to fight. The other thing that was implemented was the challenge and password. If a person came to the perimeter they were challenged with a code word and had to know to the password or they weren’t allowed in the perimeter. It was both parties’ responsibilities to know the challenged and password. The same is true in our spiritual life. There is never a time that I can let my guard down, and neither can you. We must always be ready for whatever comes our way, friendly or not. We do not want to wound a brother or sister in Christ with friendly fire and we do not want to let the enemy come into our camp. We must always be ready. Now notice what this word always means.
Always means.
áåé Strongs No: 104
Transliterated: aei; Pronounced: ah-eye'
1. perpetually, incessantly
2. invariably, at any and every time: when according to the circumstances something is or ought to be done again
Christianity is not a job because we usually do not work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Though there may be weeks we think that that is the case, it isn’t. Christianity is not a life style because life styles change. Being a Christian is all encompassing because it is what we are, who we are and that should never change. Our identity is gone because when someone sees us they should see the Lord Jesus Christ every moment of every day and not us. Because of that we should perpetually be ready to defend the truth of the scriptures. We do not defend the truth when we feel the need to defend the truth because feelings change. Always means that our feelings have nothing to do with defending the truth because there should never be a time when we are not ready to defend the truth from the word of God. When you start to take to heart this verse you will realize that this verse is a command that must be obeyed and our “personal feelings” have little or nothing to do with that. Our enemy is always looking to cause trouble and discourage the Christian. He is looking to make us doubt the power of God and his word. Because of that we must never let down our guard, no matter how tired we are and no matter how battle worn we are. So what does this readiness entail?
Well let’s look at that verse again.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Here then is the word that we base our reason for apologetics on. The group of words that make up the part of the sentence that reads to give an answer comes from the Greek word apologia.
áðïëïãéá Strongs No: 627
Transliterated: apologia; Pronounced: ap-ol-og-ee'-ah
1. verbal defence, speech in defence
2. a reasoned statement or argument
The word means verbal defense. How many times have you been so worked up or angry that someone just didn’t see the truth and you wanted to wring their neck? Oh come on, don’t act so pious. This includes anyone, your spouse, children, neighbors, extended family, JW’s who come to your door, co-workers. The list could probably go on. But you get into a situation where you are defending the truth and the other person either doesn’t get it or they purposely oppose you and you get just a little worked up. We have to remember that unless the Lord opens their eyes they are not going to see. All we have to do is remain obedient and calm and let the Holy Spirit work on their heart. You are called to defend the truth, not to be the Holy Spirit. You are not going to make the situation any better by wringing their neck, shouting louder then they do, or looking meaner. All you have to do is obey the word of God and give them the truth. We are called to defend the truth. We cannot save a person or even open their understanding. All we can and must do is what the Lord commanded us to do and leave the rest to God, regardless of how you “feel.”
Obviously we want to present the best argument we can. This means that we must be knowledgeable in our use of the scriptures and that is why I have taken so long to get her. My intention was to show you that you must use the scriptures within the context of how the Holy Spirit wanted them to be used. Now as we have already looked at most of this chapter, we saw that this chapter pertained trials and hardships that we will face as believers. Whether it is the wife with the unbelieving husband, or someone doing something evil towards you and that you do not as verse eight says, render evil for evil. There will also be those that seek to do us harm. This harm could be in the form of physical harm, spiritual harm, or in the form of financially hurting us. It could be that they wish to play mind games with us. In whatever way someone seeks to do us harm, we must always remember that no matter what, our testimony must be full of integrity and we should respond in a verbal defense to anything that is contrary to the word of God because this is what we are commanded to do. This defense could pertain to the blatant use of our Lord’s name in vain to the use of euphemisms. This could be defending the doctrines that we hold dear to or it could be defending the gospel to a lost person in the hopes that the Lord converts their soul. But remember this, a verbal defense means that you have to OPEN YOUR MOUTH! A glaring look at someone who uses the Lord’s name in vain is not a verbal defense. Talking about someone behind their back to someone else is not a verbal defense it’s gossip. Lashing out at that person because they really deserve a tongue lashing for what they said is not a verbal defense it’s a verbal assault. Clamming up and not talking to that person for a day, a week, a month, or until you absolutely need to talk to them is not a verbal defense it’s sin because you are internalizing the problem and not confronting it in a biblical way. So we have to speak in order to give a verbal defense. Okay I get what your saying, so what’s next, how do I do this?
In order to know how to give a verbal defense you must first identify your audience or to whom it is that you will speaking to in defense of the truth. The next word we are going to look at is interesting because it will help identify with whom we will give a verbal defense of the truth to.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
To every man:
ðáò Strongs No: 3956
Transliterated: pas; Pronounced: pas
1. individually
a. each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything
2. collectively
a. some of all types
++++
...“the whole world has gone after him” Did all the world go after Christ? “then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.” Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem, baptized in Jordan? “Ye are of God, little children”, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one”. Does the whole world there mean everybody? The words “world” and “all” are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture, and it is very rarely the “all” means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts --some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile ... (C.H. Spurgeon from a sermon on Particular Redemption)
From this word we can see that it may be one on one or it may be that you are speaking to a group of people. Not every man will ask you, but of everyone that does, we need to be prepared. So you will find that in living this verse that you may have to answer a single person or a group of people. Either way it doesn’t matter because if you have studied the word of God and have prepared yourself through prayer then whether you answer one person or one hundred people the truth will still be the same. You may have to address different things with either a person or group of people, but as we said much earlier, it should always be with the same goal in mind. The goal should be to point that person or that group of people to the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of your verbal defense. By making this your goal you will be able to give them gospel while all along defending the truth. But first you have to start by preparing your heart to be ready to be used by the Lord for his purpose of defending the truth and giving the truth.
Now that we have identified our audience what are we going to do with them? We are going to answer their questions, but maybe not in the way they want us to. They want to know why you are a Christian because they don’t understand. Why don’t you drink? Why don’t you smoke? Why are you always in church? Why don’t you, and the list goes on. These questions along with many more are ones that you have probably heard at some point from unbelievers and even people who claim to be believers. At other times you may have to defend your stance on doctrines of the Bible. When a Jehovah’s Witness comes to the door they are all over the place because they aim to take away the focus that should be on the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what they say, all I do is point them back to the scriptures and show them in the word of God that the Lord Jesus Christ is in fact God in the flesh.
With charismatic’s and the gifts that they think they have I will show them truth and leave it at that. They are so emotional and irrational that it’s almost like talking to someone who is taking illegal narcotics. Here is one of the dangers of apologetics. We think that we have everything figured out for our defense and in actuality we may be weak in an area that we want to defend. But we take it on anyway, and forget that it is only by prayer and study that we can defend the truths of God’s word. So we set out on this mission and all of a sudden the lies that we were trying to expose have now become truth to us because we were too weak to take on such a task. I know someone who continued to let their Christian life slip and slip. At first they were set for the defense of the scriptures against things like healing and tongues. Today they are in a church that believes in tongues and healing despite what the word of God says. They have focused more on what men said they can do then what the Lord himself does through men who are completely incapable by themselves.
Why did I tell you all this, because I want you to think about the hope that is in you. Without Christ none of us have hope and we were and will always be incapable of producing that hope ourselves. The other reason that I told you this is because while you should study the word of God, you have to let the word of God and not the doctrines of men work in your heart. Men have and always will produce a false hope. There is no strength in what they offer, and there is no hope in what man offers. The hope that world talks about is unsure. They have no idea what the outcome will be. I hope that I get that new job. There hope is obscure and dependant upon factors such as luck, the big break, and their own hard work. While there is nothing wrong with hard work, our hope is much different because it is based on the authority and lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that whatever happens, whether we get that new job or not, that if our attitude is right and our focus is on pleasing the Lord that our hope is solid and unmovable because everything will work out to the glory of God.