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Skip Heitzig: You know, some people, this is just a common psychological phenomenon. Some people reject other people before they can be rejected. I had a friend who used to call these rejection junkies.

They just, I'm going to make, I've been hurt enough by enough people that I'm going to reject people before they can ever reject me. I'm going to keep them at arm's length, and because of the mistrust of other people, they're very suspicious and even paranoid. And this is called rejection avoidance. You want to reject those who might reject you or even before they can do it.

So we cancel unkind coworkers or classmates. What I'm saying is you don't have to do that. You can make a choice to do what Jesus said. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies.

Jesus said, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even the sinners do the same. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Can we say and cancel you?

That you may be sons, children of your Father in heaven. In other words, you show what family you're a part of by responding in love. So resist firmly that temptation.

I just want you to think for a moment about Jesus. Before Jesus came, you think he knew what he was getting into? You think he knew that he was going to go to a society, a culture that would cancel him effectively, that would hate him. He was stepping right in in the middle of cancel culture.

And of course, he knew that. 1000 years before he came, it was predicted in Isaiah the prophet. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He knew that he would come to his own and his own would not receive him, they would reject him.

And knowing all that, he still came. And he didn't cancel Judas, even though he knew what Judas was going to do. He didn't cancel Peter, even though Peter denied him three times. In fact, he went to the cross and from the cross itself, said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

So, react calmly, resist firmly. Third little thing you can do, reply clearly. Reply clearly. Verse 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready, here it is, to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

I know this is a very famous apologetics text, but I want you to consider it in light of this context. Just because people disagree with you and get offended by the truth that you speak, should not cause you to stop speaking the truth. What it should do is make you get really good at explaining the truth, articulately, clearly, intelligently, and reasonably.

Because people are going to ask you, why do you believe that? And you should have something ready to go, prepared to speak clearly. Reply clearly. Now, when people ask you, as he indicates here, why you believe what you believe, they might be asking the question because they're either considering listening more to you or they're on the verge of canceling you.

They're considering, should I listen or should I just get rid of this person? So, you should have reasons ready to share. Now, notice what he says here. He says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That is set set Jesus apart in your heart. Set him apart as Lord of your life. And just think of Daniel in Babylon for a moment.

It says Daniel purposed in his heart. Before he ever went into the court of Nebuchadnezzar, something happened inside his head, in his heart, his inner being, where he made a decision. He purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies. So, when it says sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, the idea is, know who you are in Christ.

Be firmly aware that you belong to him. You're his child. You're his representative in this world. It always has to start inwardly in the heart before you ever take it outwardly to the world. So that's the idea of of sanctifying the Lord in your heart. Know that Jesus didn't cancel you. You belong to him. You're going into this as a child of God, as a representative of the kingdom.

And then, also in verse 15, sanctify the Lord in God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense. Now, just a couple notes about that word. Defense is the word apologia or apologion in this context. And we get the word apologetics from that. The idea of apologetics or an apologetic defense is not that you are saying, I'm sorry for what I believe, it's not an apology.

It's a defense as it's translated here. It's a word that means a formal defense in a judicial courtroom. That's the idea. You're going to state your case. We are always, do you know this, we're always in a courtroom? We're always in a courtroom. The world is a living courtroom.

And people are deciding, they're always deciding, am I going to reject Christ, am I going to receive Christ? They're thinking about those options, especially when they hear the gospel and perhaps when they're around you. So, it's really not about you or canceling you. They're really deciding if they should cancel God or not.

So you want to go in sanctified in heart, ready to make an apologia, a defense, a formal defense. Here's what I've discovered about the typical unbeliever, for the most part. Unbelievers have good questions. They have very good questions. The problem is we don't always have good answers. And we should, we can. We can learn a few things and have this stuff ready to go when we need it.

And the Bible encourages us to do so. Jesus said that we are to love the Lord our God with our all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength. You need to know what you believe, but you also need to know why you believe what you believe. And I've discovered there's a lot of Christians who will say, well, I believe this. Then they go, well, why?

Because he said so. Okay, think that through a little bit because you have just a few seconds or minutes to gain or lose an audience. So, you want to have this stuff ready. I remember when I was my own experience, I've told you before, I was saved at 18 years of age. I was 17 turning 18, gave my life to Christ.

A few months later, I find myself in in the back of my first college course called integrated zoology, in which my professor said, anybody here believe the Bible? I didn't know what I was, I figured he was a believer. He wanted fellowship. I raised my hand. I stand up. And he said, the aim part of the aim in this class is to dismantle your belief system. That's what he told me.

So, you know, I I put myself out there and I immediately got attacked. Well, a few months after that, I found myself in an anatomy class, a radium physics class, and a number of those kind of courses where the Bible was considered myth. And I was shaken in my faith. And I said, I don't want to follow a myth. If I'm following a myth, I'm quitting.

I'm not going to follow a myth. What that did is that drove me into a search, an intellectual search. And I became intellectually satisfied by the answers that I found and I got so ready and equipped to share this in the college campuses that I was in and the workplace that it was the most exciting time of my life.

One commentator said this, and I'm quoting, Any Christian who cannot present a biblically clear explanation of their faith will be insecure when strongly challenged by unbelievers. In some cases, that insecurity can undermine their assurance of salvation. The world's attacks can overwhelm them.

Well, I got overwhelmed and I was determined, if I'm going to believe in this, I want to know why I believe it so that I never get overwhelmed ever again. But I will overwhelm them with love and facts. So, react calmly, resist firmly, reply clearly. Let me give you a fourth way to handle cancel culture.

Respond humbly. Okay, you you're equipped, you know all the answers, you're looking for people to talk to and maybe whittle down to size with your clever arguments. Watch out. Notice what it says in verse 15, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. Notice there's a comma, not a period.

It says, with what? Meekness and fear. That means humbly and respectfully. The New Living Translation says, you must do this in a gentle and respectful way. Paul talked about speaking the truth in love.

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Skip Heitzig: So, the goal then isn't to not get canceled. The goal in the conversation is to hopefully open up their heart to the one who cancels their sin. See, it's not like, well, they may not like me, so. We got to get over that quickly. There's a lot of people who will not like you. Most people in the world will not like the Christian.

If they're living in Christ. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. That's the promise. So the goal isn't to to not get canceled, the goal is to open up people's hearts. And the goal is not to win an argument with apologetics. The goal is to save the soul.

Or to realign the soul if they're awful a little bit. So, be humble. Be humble, respond humbly. Just remember this. I've always been fond of saying this. I've said it for years. If you want to win some, be winsome.

Be winsome in order to win some. When people see your humility, they're more apt to open up their hearts and their ears. Be respectful. Listen and speak with deference. I read a little section this week by a pastor named Chris Waker, who talked about believers canceling other believers.

And that's sort of a whole subset of the cancel culture. You have Christian believers canceling other Christian believers. And he says, there's a built-in arrogance and self-righteousness to it. The unspoken presumption is that my theological views are so perfect, they cannot be questioned and I cannot be wrong, and I could never be dismissed. Yours are such that I feel free to pass judgment and dismiss you.

The Apostle Paul knew and saw and understood more than any of us, and he understood that, and nonetheless he confessed, here on earth, we know in part. First Corinthians 13. God breathed his scripture infallibly through Paul and others, but we who interpret those words are not ourselves infallible.

Surely no one's theology is perfect, and we should be humble enough to admit that and humble enough to extend that same grace to others in a disagreement. But she is so good, it's so rich. Yes, the words of scripture are infallible. You and I, however, we have our view and interpretation of it. And yes, most scriptures are clear and have a single interpretation, but give grace.

Give grace. So respond humbly. React calmly, resist firmly, reply clearly, and respond humbly. I'm going to give you a fifth and final little way to handle cancel culture. Rest inwardly. Rest inwardly. It's called having a good conscience.

Verse 16, Having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For, it is better, if it is in the will of God, to suffer. Notice that suffering can be part of the will of God.

It's better if it's in the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Now go back to that little phrase, good conscience. Clear conscience, you might say. A good conscience, there's no pillow as soft as a clear conscience. You want to sleep well, clear conscience.

Ben Franklin said, a good conscience is a continual Christmas. I like that. It keeps giving, keeps giving. It's the best tranquilizer, he said. Now, having a good conscience, what is a conscience?

A conscience is a divinely placed internal mechanism that either accuses you or excuses you. Let me say that again. The conscience is a divinely placed internal mechanism that either accuses you or excuses you. That in a nutshell is the definition of a conscience. It's good to have one. It's good to have one finally tuned.

Now, what happens at salvation when we come to Christ? God cleanses our conscience from all the guilt and all the shame accumulated over all the years. We are aware of our sin, but we are also aware that he's cleansed me from my sin. So, in Hebrews 9, it says the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

That happens at salvation. You know you're guilty, you realize it, you're poor in spirit, you confess it, all that accumulated shame and guilt cleansed away. And I see it. I see it when people come to Christ. I often see tears in their eyes. I see a relief during their prayer or afterwards.

But, that's just the beginning. That's at salvation. Then we must guard our conscience. And I would say, keep our conscience tuned. By prayer, by exposure to the scriptures, by fellowship and hearing how the word lives and breathes in other people. In Acts 23, Paul said, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

They slapped him for saying that, but he meant it. Very next chapter, Paul said in Acts 24, I always strive to have a good conscience and without offense toward God and man. That's a clear conscience. A clear conscience will help you endure counterculture. Because you know the truth inwardly.

They may say anything they want, but you happen to know the truth inwardly. So, as you face criticism, a clear conscience. Now, notice a couple words, defamed, reviled. That's all cancel culture stuff. Defamed, reviled, it means evil speaking, verbal abuse, social media shaming.

I love how the message that paraphrased by Eugene Peterson renders this. He writes it this way. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing they're the ones who need the bath.

Clear conscience. Clear conscience, soft pillow is a clear conscience. I remember a number of years ago, I had a very difficult time in the ministry here. It was about 20 years ago. Some of you may recall the volatility of that episode in our church history. And I I had a number of critics, and somebody came to me after a service and they said, man, this must be so rough for you. This must keep you up at night.

I said, no, actually, I sleep like a baby every night. They said, really? I I wouldn't be able to sleep. I said, you know why I can? Because I know the truth. I'm sustained by the truth. People can make up anything they want. They can say anything they want. I happen to know the truth. And Jesus said, the truth will set you free, and it will. It will.

Now, let me close, bring this plane down to a landing. By saying this, you ready for this? God has his own cancel culture. He is willing to cancel our sin. He is willing to cancel everything that is opposed to us, all the things that are true about us that would cause us shame.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 13 and 14, you were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges that were against us. He took it and he destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross.

Let me kind of rephrase all of that and just simply say Jesus Christ, remember I said he came into this world? He knew what was up. He knew what he was about to face. He's stepping right into the very culture that's going to cancel him and kill him. Jesus came and was canceled so that you and I could get uncancelled by God.

He willingly went through the canceling so that you and I could be accepted in him. I don't know if you have ever received Christ. Most of you have. This is a church, by and large, believers are here. But you know, sometimes they they invite friends or family members and they come close, they listen to messages, they'll they like the songs, they feel good about it.

Some even fancy themselves as being believers. And I find that I preach the gospel to unbelievers, but I also preach the gospel to people who think they're believers, who are not. They're not following Jesus. They're not pursuing him. There's no evidence of any life change, there's no real proof that there's a disciple in the making.

Jesus said, they're going to produce fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100-fold. There's no evidence that they realize their sin has been canceled and they have new life. So I want to just give an opportunity as we close this message that if you online or in this room have never given your life to Christ or in any of our campuses, today's an opportunity for you to absolutely make sure that you belong to him.

You're part of the family. And that that God when you come to him will cancel every ordinance, every commandment, every rule, every regulation that is written that says, you blew it. He'll cancel it and make you his child. Forgive you.

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