Today when you discuss worship you have to address “Worship Warfare.” Albert Mohler does in He is not Silent: “The subject of worship is now one of the most controversial issues in the local congregation” (page 23). The only part of his statement that I disagree with is the one word “now.” Worship warfare has been raging for centuries. It took Benjamin Keath (1640-1704), one of the early English hymn writers. In 1668, he became pastor of the Particular Baptist Church in Southwark. It took Keath twenty years to persuade his Baptist congregation to sing hymns and not just Psalms. Even after twenty years, some of his members left and started another church so they could sing just Psalms.
Read moreSTEP TWO: Study the Passage
This takes time. A large block of uninterrupted time early in the morning is usually the best. There is an excellent interview between C. J. Mahaney and Mark Dever on this necessary step. Mark Dever says that he first reads and rereads the passage that he is going to preach and spends about 35 hours a week in sermon preparation. Dever tells the following story to make his point:
Read moreYou Can Be Mentored by Spurgeon!
Since Spurgeon was not televised and Mclaren did not pod cast, does this mean I must leave their beautifully leather bond sermons just to decorate my library shelves? Being personally familiar with a preacher is helpful to benefit from his preaching. Andrew W. Blackwood in his book Preaching from the Bible aids us in getting to know preachers from the past. Blackwood encourages preachers to read at least one good biography of a well known and greatly used preacher before getting into his printed sermons. Next, read any books he has written on preaching and pasturing (Andrew W. Blackwood. Preaching from the Bible. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1941, pages 235 ff.).
Read moreGod is Incomprehensible and at the same time Knowable!
When Muhammad Ali was the current reigning world heavy-weight champion boxer and at the height of his fame, he was on an airplane that was preparing to take off. The flight attendant came by and reminded him to fasten his seat belt. Ali said, “Superman don’t need a seat belt.” To which the quick-thinking flight attendant replied, “Superman don’t need an airplane, either.” Ali buckled his seat belt. Ali, you may remember, was famous for obnoxiously boasting, perhaps to intimidate his opponents, “I am the Greatest, I am the Greatest” (Charles Swindoll, Shedding Light on our Dark Side. Insight for Living, 1993, 85).
Read moreThe Love Song of all Love Songs
I was listening to The Dave Ramsey Show on Radio one evening while driving and he said what I had heard before that 50% of all marriages don’t make it. But here is the good news, that percentage could be raised to 90% with the following seven changes. I am recalling these from memory since I was driving, so they may not be word for word as Dave listed them.
Read moreThe Trinity, Three Biblical Statements
The Trinity can be summarized in three statements supported by Scripture. Any belief or movement or person who alters one of these Scriptural views is unsound Biblically. These three Biblical summaries refute Modalism, Jehovah Witnesses, and Mormonism.
Read moreThe Topical/Doctrinal Sermon
I like James Braga’s practical book How to Prepare Bible Messages. I am fond of it because it was the book my Homiletics professor used to teach me how to preach back when the earth’s crust was still hardening. Braga divides sermons into the three traditional categories that some challenge today.
Read moreSTEP ONE: Choose the Passage
John Calvin was dedicated to preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible. Steven J. Lawson in his book The Expository Genius of John Calvin wrote that Calvin preached through “Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, the Major and Minor Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews” (page 33). Calvin was banished for three years (1538-1541) from Geneva by the City Council because he refused to let members living in open sin participate. When the city began to struggle, the City Council invited Calvin to return. “In September 1541, Calvin reentered his Geneva pulpit and resumed his exposition exactly where he had stopped three years earlier—-on the next verse! Similarly, Calvin became seriously ill in the first week of October 1558 and did not return to the pulpit until Monday, June 12, 1559—-when he resumed at the very next verse in the book of Isaiah” (page 33). Hence, the advantage of series preaching through books of the Bible.
Read moreEIGHT SIMPLE Steps To Preparing and Preaching a Sermon
Start early! This is the welcomed advice of Bruce Mawhinney in Preaching with Freshness, Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 1991, p. 41). “Early exegesis helps to prevent late eisegesis.” Bruce Mawhinney is senior pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Mechanicsburg and writes one of the most refreshing books on preaching I have ever read. Preaching with Freshness is a first-person narrative on reviving stale preaching. Howard Hendricks said, "If more books on preaching were as interesting as this, then perhaps we would have more interesting preachers."
Read moreImpeccability of Christians
C. H. Spurgeon was preaching in a conference in which another preacher was teaching that Christians could attain sinless perfection in this life and that he had humbly attained this sinlessness. The next morning at breakfast, Spurgeon snuck up behind the sinless preacher and dumped an entire pitcher of milk on his head. Guess what happened? He sinned.
Read moreDoes God Reveal Himself to us Through an "Inner Light?"
John 1:9 is sometimes called 'the Quaker text,' because the early Quakers, based on the verse, believed that sufficient light was offered to every person" (David J. MacLeod. The Creation of the Universe by the Word: John 1:6-9. Bib Sac 160 July-Sept 2003: 305-320). Some Quakers refer to the “inner light” as an internal revelation if appropriately responded to can save. They use John 1:9 as the proof text: “[That] was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.”
Read morePrayer that Works!
When I was probably 11 or 12, I used to love to throw a rubber ball against the side of the house and play catch with myself. I once was visiting my cousins in Tennessee. My aunt was inside the kitchen cooking with the pressure cooker and I was outside throwing the rubber against the side of her house. On that side of the house was a storm door that led into the kitchen. I accidentally threw the rubber ball and hit the bottom of the storm door, which was made of metal. The rubber hit the storm door with a WHAM!!! Well my aunt thought the pressure cooker exploded and I could hear her scream from outside. The next thing I knew she burst out door blessing me out for nearly scaring her to death.
Read moreThe Indwelling Old Testament Believers by the Holy Spirit
I like what Mike Stallard did when he traced the ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout the OT beginning with the Pentateuch through the Post-exilic books. This is laying a biblical theology foundation upon which you can build a systematic theology. It also avoids starting with the NT doctrine and arguing backwards or reading the NT into the OT. It seems that scholars who defend the permanent indwelling of OT believers by the Holy Spirit start with the NT doctrine of indwelling and argue backwards. This is the case with Robert McCabe in his article entitled, “Were Old Testament Believers Indwelt by the Spirit,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal vol. 9 (2004): 215-264. He exegetes the following passage in the following order: John 7:37-39, John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 2:14-15; Ezek. 36:25-27; 1 Cor. 2: 14-15; Rom. 8:9-11; Num. 27:18, and Psa. 143:10. The majority of passages used to defend the permanent indwelling of the OT believers by the Holy Spirit are from the NT. Leon Wood starts his arguments for the permanent indwelling of Old Testament saints with the Holy Spirit with this statement: “But if the Old Testament saint was not permanently indwelt by the Spirit, how was he able to remain a child of God? The New Testament is clear that believers now are preserved by the indwelling Spirit 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:18; 1 Peter 1:5). Were Old Testament saints able to keep themselves? It is not easy to believe so” (Leon Wood, The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, pages 39-40). Mike Stallard begins in the OT where progressive revelation commences on this doctrine.
Read more4th of July: Are We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection? (Part Last)
What are the Responsibilities of Believers Regarding Government?
1. Christians can Influence those in Government
Wayne Grudem lists many examples of Christians positively and significantly influencing government: “Christians influence on government was primarily responsible for outlawing infanticide, child abandonment, and abortion in the Roman Empire in AD 374; outlawing the brutal battles-to-the-death in which thousands of gladiators had died in AD 404….In England, William Wilberforce, a devout Christian, led the successful effort to abolish the slave trade and the slavery itself throughout the British Empire in 1840” (Politics: According to the Bible, pages 49-50).
Read more4th of July: Are We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection? (Part 4)
Can Evangelism and Politics Mix?
Put bluntly, America is becoming more secular. Albert Mohler identifies the problem: “Recent studies have indicated that the single greatest predictor of voting patterns is the frequency of church attendance. Far fewer Americans now attend church, and a recent study indicated that fully 20% of all Americans identify with no religious preference at all. The secularizing of the electorate will have monumental consequences.”
Read moreAre We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection on July Fourth? (Part 3)
Before we seek to correct the justification of the murder of abortion doctors like George Tiller by referencing Deitrick Bonhoeffer's plot to murder Adolf Hilter, we must remember our responsibilities to God ordained human government.
Read more4th of July, Are We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection (Part 2)
The late Dr. Jack L. Arnold agreed with John MacArthur that the Revolutionary War was rebellion against God:
In our own American Revolution, Christians were divided over how to understand their responsibilities to the state and over the right to revolt. Some, especially those of the Church of England, fought on the side of the British in an attempt to be faithful to Romans 13:1. Others fled to Canada. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a Tory and sided with England rather than with the Colonies because of his biblical conviction. Yet the Reformed Churches, especially the Presbyterians, felt the revolution justifiable. This revolution was somewhat different from others as it did not result in a breakdown of law and order. Political, social, and economic order was maintained. In fact, the Congress of 1774 had no thoughts of revolution and tried for two years to gain equal representation by lawful means. History shows that Britain, not the Colonies, forced the issue. It was in 1776, after much prayer, that the Continental Congress decided to declare its independence. This ultimately led to the formation of our Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges God as the Creator of all men. Our Constitution and form of government were set forth to a nation that was God-fearing, Christ-living, and biblically oriented. However, this does not prove it was biblically correct to revolt…To resist government is to resist God because government is merely an instrument of God.
Read moreJuly 4th: Are We Celebrating Independence or Insurrection? (Part 1)
On July 4th we celebrate Independence Day, the day commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This document declared our independence from the government of Great Britain in 1776.
Great controversy between evangelicals rages concerning what the Founding Fathers did in the Revolutionary War for Independence.
Was the America Revolution civil disobedience or rebellion against God’s Word in Romans 13?
Was the Revolutionary War Self-Defense against Great Britain or Sin?
Was the War for Independence Just War or offensive war?
Was the Declaration of Independence a declaration of unbiblical treason?
Read moreSermon Illustration: Headless Snake Points to Satan's Demise
As a kid, I loved Mission Sundays, when missionaries on furlough brought special reports in place of a sermon …. There is one visit I've never forgotten. The missionaries were a married couple stationed in what appeared to be a particularly steamy jungle. I'm sure they gave a full report on churches planted or commitments made or translations begun. I don't remember much of that. What has always stayed with me is the story they shared about a snake.
Read moreFather’s Day Sermon: Thanks Dad For All the Little Things
Michael Bryson, a first-time father, surprised his wife on her first Mother’s Day. He did so by bringing their six-month old son, Jason, to the hospital where she worked as a nurse. After the balloons and the laughing and the sharing was over, Miriam returned to her post and her two men returned to the car for the trip home.
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