All right, let’s grab our Bibles and let’s go to Titus chapter 3. Would you go there? We will conclude our expositional study of the pastoral epistles this morning by concluding our exposition of Titus. As we come to the end of this letter, Titus received from his authority, the Apostle Paul, all church planting should be done under proper authority and there was no question about it in the first century; the Apostle Paul, at least among the Gentiles, was God’s authority to oversee that. So Paul writes to Titus, whom he’s given the commission to oversee these local… Read More
If you would, take one of these outlines that might be helpful as we move along. I want to do something of a preamble to our topic, “The Doctrine of Sin.” As I was just doing reading and preparing for the conference, I began to take down notes that I really didn’t have a place to do this overview and when Brother David Miller called and said he couldn’t be here, I thought, “That’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna do this overview, brief exhortation, if you will, on the doctrine of sin,” and hopefully this forms somethings of a… Read More
Well, let’s grab our Bibles and let’s go to John’s gospel and let’s look again at John 1. John 1 as John gives his concise, succinct presentation of the coming of Christ and it’s amazing how under the superintending of the Holy Spirit this, different gospel writers bring out different elements of the glory and the truth of Christ’s coming. Let’s look at it together there, first of all, in verse 1 going down through verse 5, and then we’ll jump down to verses 14 and 15. John 1:1 through 5 and then verses 14 and 15. John writes, 1… Read More
Well, grab your Bibles and go to 1 Timothy. If you are visiting with us today, we’re preaching through the New Testament book of 1 Timothy. We come to 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2. Ah, this is, ah, a rather, um, unique message for a day when we take the Lord’s Supper but not really, not really when we look at it. Often I will preach about the Lord’s Table when we take it, but I put this off already for a week and I want to get into it, however, because we’re doing so much this morning, I’ll… Read More
Well, take your Bibles and let’s go back to 1 Timothy. We’re in chapter 2 this morning. 1 Timothy 2. We’ve already started on this. I call this a prayer guide for the church. Now we’re in this series of going through this pastoral epistle of 1 Timothy and we’re calling this beautifying the bride because that’s what the Apostle Paul is doing, he’s writing to Timothy as Timothy has been left in Ephesus to oversee the church and to fix some things in the church. You know, the church needs fixing a lot. A matter of fact, you study… Read More
Amen. Let’s take our Bibles and let’s go back to the gospel of Luke this morning. Luke 14. Let’s go there, a quite familiar parable with quite familiar truths that I hope will stir afresh in us the great mission and the great passion of our Lord about reaching the lost, and for you this morning who are under the sound of my voice and do not know Christ and have not trusted in him fully as your Lord and Savior, may this be the day that you do just that because I can promise you this, if you will… Read More
Take your Bibles and let’s go to Luke 20 as we continue going through the Gospel of Luke. We are in the last week of our Lord’s earthly ministry, the week before he was crucified and he’s teaching in the synagogue and being constantly affronted and attacked by his enemies. No, his enemies were not the Greek, Roman, secular philosophers and secular progressives of the day, his enemies were those who claimed to be Jehovah’s worshipers. His enemies were those who held the Bible in their hands, quoted Scripture, and yet they had totally lost the truth of the Scripture… Read More
Well, let’s go over to 1 Corinthians 9:15 and we’ll go down through verse 27. As the apostle Paul begins to give us some insights into his own heart and his commitment, and I’ve entitled the message, A Dedicated Disciple. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, beginning in verse 15. Paul says,” but I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than to have any man make my boast an empty one. For if I preach the gospel,… Read More
Well, let’s go back to Titus this morning as we continue through this New Testament epistle. Titus chapter 2. In last week’s installment, we saw Titus addressing the young men of the church, telling them to be sensible, I say that’s biblically sensible in all things, and now Paul turns from just talking about the young men in general to one young man in particular, Titus himself. So let’s look at it together. Titus chapter 2, verses 7 and 8. 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound… Read More
There’s a story told of John Wesley, the great evangelist and founder of the Methodist Church. Says that one day when he was preaching at open air meeting, two ruffians came in the back of the area, picked up stones, and had the expressed intention of disrupting that meeting. With their rocks in hand, they walked up toward the front of the the altar there, standing there in front of John Wesley. But as he was preaching, the reality of Christ and the love of Christ so beamed from his countenance that the fellows were mesmerized. One of the fellows… Read More
I read in the paper that the census workers are going to be in the Shoals area, I guess over the next few days. And that reminded me of a humorous story I read where a census worker was at the door of a certain main, and uh, asking those questions. You know, some of them make sense, some of them do not. He came to the question he asked the man, what is your church preference, and without batting an eye, the man replied, red brick. That is humorous, but how shallow the understanding is today about what the… Read More
