Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - G3 2014 Q&A Session

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - G3 2014 Q&A Session · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: If substitutionary atonement is the true biblical doctrine.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Does it provide any room for a universal or general
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: atonement as many free will Baptists believe that Jesus died
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: for the whole world without exception?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I would like to go ahead and just start with
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: a more difficult question.
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: Could you repeat that?
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: Would you like for me to repeat it?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Okay, here's the question. The question is this. If substitutionary
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: atonement is a Is the true biblical doctrine, does it
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: provide any room for a universal or general atonement as
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: many free will Baptists believe that Jesus died for the
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: whole world without exception?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: This is something I'm going to answer it by maybe
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: not even answering it.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: And here's why.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: When I take a doctrine like substitutionary atonement. Which is
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: talking to me primarily. About a glorious salvation. And a
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: glorious death.
• 1:42
  Speaker 6: Reveling.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: In all that that includes. And then to see people.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: That the only time they ever talk about it. Is
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: in a.
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: Debate over Calvinism.
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: It really upsets me. Um.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I believe in particular atonement.
• 1:58
  Speaker 7: Um.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I'm a five-point Calvinist or a five-point Spurgeonist or whatever
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: you want to call it. But this is just my point.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Some people will take a doctrine and just grind with
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: it when this thing.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: Is actually used.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: It's best used proclaimed to the masses of a Christ
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: who died and a great call to all men to
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: repent and believe.
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: So that would be my answer. Amen.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Any follow-up from the panel? I think that, I will
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: say this, I think that is a very wise answer.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: I think that I fully agree with that as a
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: pastor that I see a lot of people that want
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: to make a platform of debate over issues and we
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: should not do that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Let me give you another example.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Even John 3.16 says, The purpose of John 316 is
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: not to argue particular atonement, general atonement or anything else,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: it's to proclaim a glorious savior. And sometimes I feel
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: like we just on both sides take text and instead
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: of talking about just the beauty of what he's really
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: trying to speak forth, we use it to grind out
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: some theological issue. There are other verses in the scriptures
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: to do that with. We should use each verse according
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: to the purpose for which it was written.
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: Very good.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: Lawson, the next question comes to you.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Earlier you spoke about the importance of expository preaching. And
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: today many people consider themselves expositors, but they are not
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: true biblical expositors.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: If you could, give us just.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: An overall simple definition for expository preaching.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 3:52
  Speaker 8: I would draw it from Scripture itself.
• 3:53
  Speaker 9: 1 Timothy 4.13 says, until I come give attention to
• 4:00
  Speaker 9: the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.
• 4:05
  Speaker 8: Those three parts, I.
• 4:06
  Speaker 9: Think, is really the engine that drives expository preaching.
• 4:11
  Speaker 8: You read the text. You read the text.
• 4:15
  Speaker 9: You teach or explain the text. And then you exhort
• 4:20
  Speaker 9: with the text. All three of those components, I think,
• 4:24
  Speaker 9: are necessary. To reduce it down to two from a
• 4:28
  Speaker 9: text would be 2 Timothy 4.2, preach the word. I
• 4:34
  Speaker 9: think that's what expository preaching is. I think both words
• 4:38
  Speaker 9: are important in expository preaching. I think one without the
• 4:42
  Speaker 9: other leads to extraordinary imbalance. All exposition and no preaching,
• 4:51
  Speaker 9: you end up with an egghead church. All cognitive... all
• 4:58
  Speaker 9: kind of like what Paul was talking about here, just
• 5:00
  Speaker 9: wanting to argue and debate points, that type of thing.
• 5:03
  Speaker 9: Stoic personalities who's really almost their personalities have been neutered.
• 5:09
  Speaker 8: It's just all cognitive. It's just all exposition.
• 5:13
  Speaker 9: The other extreme is equally dangerous, if not worse, all
• 5:16
  Speaker 9: preaching and no exposition.
• 5:20
  Speaker 8: It's like the old thing, weak point, yell, hear. It's
• 5:25
  Speaker 8: just all heat. It's all emotion.
• 5:28
  Speaker 9: It's all ranting and raving, and there's no substance, no
• 5:33
  Speaker 9: content whatsoever. But when you marry the two, exposition and preaching,
• 5:41
  Speaker 9: it's like gas and a fire. In expository preaching, expository.
• 5:48
  Speaker 8: Is the adjective.
• 5:50
  Speaker 9: Preaching is the noun. And so expository describes the kind
• 5:56
  Speaker 9: of preaching that it is. The word expository carries the
• 6:00
  Speaker 9: idea of being explanatory, explaining, as we said about Calvin,
• 6:06
  Speaker 9: the authorial intent, the literal meaning to the audience to
• 6:09
  Speaker 9: whom it was first addressed. You get inside of a
• 6:13
  Speaker 9: text of Scripture, the meaning of the text is the text.
• 6:17
  Speaker 8: Until you have the meaning of the text, you do
• 6:19
  Speaker 8: not have the text.
• 6:21
  Speaker 9: And so it's explaining in a very rational, logical, cognitive way.
• 6:30
  Speaker 8: What God meant by what God said. But it is to.
• 6:33
  Speaker 9: Be presented and delivered with all of the elements of preaching,
• 6:40
  Speaker 9: which is to herald, which is to declare, which is
• 6:44
  Speaker 9: to proclaim, and with all of the elements of preaching
• 6:49
  Speaker 9: to exhort.
• 6:50
  Speaker 8: To console, to.
• 6:53
  Speaker 9: Comfort, to rebuke, to reprove, to invite, to summons, to challenge,
• 6:59
  Speaker 9: to confront, to convict.
• 7:04
  Speaker 8: The Puritans used to say.
• 7:05
  Speaker 9: You want a fire in the pulpit, and a fire
• 7:08
  Speaker 9: gives off both light and heat. There is the light
• 7:13
  Speaker 9: of exposition. There is the heat of preaching. And both
• 7:17
  Speaker 9: of those elements must be present. And I find that
• 7:20
  Speaker 9: most men are top-heavy in one direction. They're very brilliant expositors,
• 7:28
  Speaker 9: but they really are more lecturers. They're just talking commentaries.
• 7:34
  Speaker 9: Or men are very gifted in public proclamation.
• 7:38
  Speaker 8: They just are very shallow.
• 7:42
  Speaker 9: And they have very little to say, very little doctrinal content,
• 7:45
  Speaker 9: very little theological fiber. But when you bring both of
• 7:49
  Speaker 9: those elements together, you have a sharp two-edged sword.
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: And I do not believe.
• 7:54
  Speaker 9: That there is any more presentation of truth that is
• 7:58
  Speaker 9: more powerful than expository preaching. I think everything else is
• 8:03
  Speaker 9: a handmaiden and that expository preaching actually reigns in the
• 8:08
  Speaker 9: life of the church.
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: Very good.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Brother David Miller, the next question comes to you. And
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: some folks, when you preached your first sermon or the
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: sermon yesterday, they noticed that you did not use notes
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: and you memorized the text of Scripture. And the question
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: is this. To someone who memorizes Scripture on an ongoing basis,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: what counsel would you give to someone that would like
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: to memorize large, lengthy sections of Scripture?
• 8:41
  Speaker 10: Well, it's much easier to memorize in a contiguous passage
• 8:47
  Speaker 10: rather than memorizing a verse here and a verse over yonder.
• 8:52
  Speaker 10: Often there's a storyline. And so my pattern has been
• 8:58
  Speaker 10: to start out in chapter 1, verse 1 and analyze
• 9:02
  Speaker 10: that verse, just simply break it down. In Psalm number 1,
• 9:07
  Speaker 10: verse 1, blessed is the man that walketh not in
• 9:11
  Speaker 10: the counsel of the ungodly. That's one complete statement. So
• 9:16
  Speaker 10: I memorized that. I see that there are three statements
• 9:19
  Speaker 10: in verse 1. He standeth not in the way of sinners,
• 9:24
  Speaker 10: and he sitteth not in the seat of the scornful.
• 9:27
  Speaker 10: Now your first objective in memorizing Scripture is to learn.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: What's being said.
• 9:36
  Speaker 10: Otherwise, you might as well be memorizing a Sears Roebuck catalog.
• 9:45
  Speaker 10: There's no real virtue in the ability to memorize unless
• 9:49
  Speaker 10: you're going to memorize something that's worthwhile. And what greater
• 9:54
  Speaker 10: motive could we have than to hide the Word of
• 9:57
  Speaker 10: God in our hearts? And so I say, I see
• 10:01
  Speaker 10: there are three statements here. I say them to myself.
• 10:05
  Speaker 10: I would often say them out loud so that my
• 10:09
  Speaker 10: ear hears them. And when I have gotten those correctly,
• 10:14
  Speaker 10: I move on to verse 2. And there are two
• 10:17
  Speaker 10: statements there. But his delight is in the law of
• 10:20
  Speaker 10: the Lord. And in his law doth he meditate day
• 10:24
  Speaker 10: and night. Now it doesn't take a genius to figure
• 10:27
  Speaker 10: out there are two statements in that verse. And so
• 10:31
  Speaker 10: I memorize them. Isn't this profound? And when I've gotten
• 10:40
  Speaker 10: those two statements, I go back to verse 1. And
• 10:45
  Speaker 10: I quote... down through verse two, and I just keep
• 10:48
  Speaker 10: adding a verse, and first thing you know, you've got
• 10:51
  Speaker 10: several verses. Perhaps a chapter. And if you stay with it,
• 10:58
  Speaker 10: you can memorize lengthy portions of scripture. And guess what?
• 11:07
  Speaker 10: One of these days, you'll be in a circumstance where
• 11:13
  Speaker 10: the Spirit of God will bring to your memory just
• 11:21
  Speaker 10: what you need for that situation. That's the value of
• 11:26
  Speaker 10: memorizing Scripture. Don't memorize so that you quote Scripture in
• 11:32
  Speaker 10: front of other people. People make much of this because
• 11:37
  Speaker 10: I do it that way. I do it that way
• 11:40
  Speaker 10: out of necessity. I simply cannot handle the Scripture's hold
• 11:45
  Speaker 10: the book, and so I quote the passage. But the
• 11:51
  Speaker 10: reason you memorize Scripture is for your own personal sanctification.
• 11:59
  Speaker 10: Sanctify them through the truth. Thy Word is truth.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Bauckham, the next question comes to you, and it was
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: written by a single woman, and here was her question.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: She says, she says, I don't expect perfection, but when
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: I see these boys consumed with video games and boyish things,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I wonder where the standards should be set when choosing
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: a spouse.
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: That makes me sad. It really does. It makes me sad.
• 12:59
  Speaker 7: I hear that question a lot.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Too much.
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: There does seem to be a famine in the land
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: not just in the word of God but in the
• 13:11
  Speaker 7: way of biblical manhood as well and let me just
• 13:16
  Speaker 7: give you these four things I think they'll be easy
• 13:19
  Speaker 7: to remember the four P's I call them that a
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: man has a responsibility to be a priest and a
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: prophet and a provider and a protector the priest represents
• 13:31
  Speaker 7: his people before God so this is a man who's
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: a spiritual leader this is a man who's a man
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: of prayer This is a man who's a spiritual man.
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: The prophet represents God before the people. This is a
• 13:43
  Speaker 7: man who knows the Word of God, who instructs in
• 13:46
  Speaker 7: the Word of God. He has an obligation to wash
• 13:49
  Speaker 7: his wife with the water of the Word, to bring
• 13:51
  Speaker 7: up his children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: He has to know the Word of God in order
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: to do that. The provider sees that his people have
• 14:01
  Speaker 7: what they need, and so.
• 14:05
  Speaker 7: J-O-B is more than just a book in the Bible.
• 14:11
  Speaker 7: He needs to have a work ethic, and he needs
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: to be a whatever-it-takes kind of man, a man who says,
• 14:19
  Speaker 7: I'm going to do what I need to do in
• 14:22
  Speaker 7: order to provide for those for whom I'm responsible. And
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: the last one is a protector. A protector is one
• 14:28
  Speaker 7: who puts himself between his people and that which would
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: harm them. whether that be physical or spiritual or technology
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: and things of that nature.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: He's a protector.
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: And sometimes people ask the question, well, you know, which
• 14:45
  Speaker 7: should you shoot for? The guy who you wouldn't be
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: scared with if you were in a dark alley or
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: a guy who has sense enough not to take you
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: down the dark alley?
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: To which I respond, yes.
• 15:00
  Speaker 7: LAUGHTER But in all seriousness, that involves wisdom, a man
• 15:05
  Speaker 7: who's not a fool, a man who doesn't bring trouble
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: and call trouble, but a man who doesn't run from trouble. Again,
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: these are just basic things. But those four Ps just
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: help to keep that in mind. Priest, prophet, provider, protector,
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: a godly man, a Christian man. That's what we're looking for. Now,
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: let me say this. and I appreciate the way that
• 15:32
  Speaker 7: the question was worded, you know, we're, we're not looking
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: for men who are perfect because there are no men
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: who are perfect. And, um, there are some women who
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: can't find a man because the man that they're looking
• 15:46
  Speaker 7: for died on the cross and ascended to the right
• 15:48
  Speaker 7: hand of the father.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Um, and there's not another one like him. So there's that.
• 15:58
  Speaker 7: Um, So we're not looking for that, but we're looking
• 16:03
  Speaker 7: for a man who understands these things, who is in
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: pursuit of these things, and who bears some evidence that
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: these things are true of him. And we can see that.
• 16:18
  Speaker 7: And I think we ought to pursue that. And let
• 16:20
  Speaker 7: me just encourage you two ways, women. One way I
• 16:26
  Speaker 7: want to encourage you is that there are There are
• 16:29
  Speaker 7: men out there like that. There really are men out
• 16:32
  Speaker 7: there like that. And the second way I want to
• 16:35
  Speaker 7: encourage you is this. God found a wife for Adam
• 16:41
  Speaker 7: when he was the only human being on earth. Your
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: chances are better than that.
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: Amen.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: Anyone else like to add to.
• 17:03
  Speaker 7: That at all?
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Fathers, this is a wake-up call for you. The coach
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: is not going to teach your boy to be a man.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: The church is not going to teach your boy to
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: be a man, probably. Your wife is not going to
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: teach him to be a man. And if the other
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: boys around him teach him to be a man, you're
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: going to have a lot of trouble. Let me just
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: give an example. I have two boys. One has just
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: turned 11 and the other is 6. Neither one of
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: them know how they got on this planet except that
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: God blessed a marriage. So they're innocent in that sense.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, both of them have been
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: praying for their wives since they were about 6. And
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: they do not giggle about it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: It's very serious.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: When they're schooled, They're told that there's a reason why
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: they're doing mathematics. There's a reason why they're in Okinawan karate.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: There's a reason why they're doing what they're doing. They're
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: being trained to be men so that they could embrace
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: manhood as quickly as possible and take a wife. One
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: of the things, one of the reasons for immorality growing
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: so rampant in this country is the fact that young
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: men used to mature and marry quite early. So now
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: we have a thing where if young men are awakened
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: to the opposite sex when they're, let's say, eight years old,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: and then they don't marry until they're 28, they're fighting
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: a natural God-given desire in a very corrupt and fallen world. Fathers,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: the moment that boy hits the.
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: Ground, he's yours.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: He's yours, and it's to teach him, and do not
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: count on anyone else doing that This is your job
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: that he become a mature man in the Lord and
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: in all other things.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: Beeky, the next question is for you.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: And you have spoken and written about the subject of
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: family worship. And if you were to instruct pastors in
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: this congregation this evening how to further that cause within
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: their congregation, especially the men, to lead their families in
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: family worship, What advice would you give them?
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you for it. The
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: first advice I give is they've got to be absolutely
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: convinced of the importance of themselves. So I'm a pastor.
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: I'm a theological teacher. I'm an author, et cetera, et cetera.
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: But the most important thing I do every single day
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: is family worship. That's the center of my life. I
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: fail here. I feel like I failed everywhere. second thing
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: a pastor needs to do is he needs to convey
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: to his people what the scripture says about family worship
• 19:57
  Speaker 6: and I don't have time right now to lay that
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: out before just to say this scripture basically says we
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: should do four things every day with our family we
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: should read the bible we should talk to our children
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: about the bible We should pray with them. And Psalm 118,
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: verse 15, we should sing with them daily in the
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: tents of the righteous. So those four things go on
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: in family worship every day. And once we grasp the
• 20:23
  Speaker 6: importance of this, that every single day we're talking to
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: our children, at least once a day, and you multiply
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: that times from zero to 20 years of age, you've
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: got 7,000 opportunities to talk to your children about manhood
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: and womanhood and everything. in life from the Scriptures. And
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: so talking about intimate things, giving them the birds and
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: bees and so on, comes very naturally if you every
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: single day are talking to them about the whole counsel
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: of God. So it has this huge benefit of having
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: open communication with your children. You need to convince your
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: congregation of that. Preach a sermon on it. More than
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: one sermon. Refer to it in your sermons. on family visitation,
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: if your church does that, where the elders go out
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: into the families and ask questions, or you do it
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: as a pastor, ask the fathers if they're doing it.
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: Help them do it. Give them a good, short book
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: on which to do it. My little book on family
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: worship actually is so better than anything else I've ever
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: done in my life, I think. Put that in their hands.
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: Ask them to read it. It's a one-hour read or
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: other books like it. And then Go model it for them.
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: If their families aren't doing it, just say, come on
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: over and have supper at my home and let them
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: be included in your family worship. That's the way the
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: Puritans used to do it. They bring the families into
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: their home, they model it for them, the father would
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: go back and do it. If the father wanted more help,
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: the minister said from the pulpit, I'll come to supper
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: at any of your houses and lead your family in
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: family worship to show you how to do it. So
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: that's another thing. You can go to their house and
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: show them how to do it. But the main thing
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: is that you make sure every single father is doing
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: family worship. That's part of your supervision in the Church
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: of Jesus Christ. And that's absolutely critical. Did you know
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: that in the 1640s at the Westminster Assembly, the Puritans
• 22:19
  Speaker 6: decided that if a father was not engaging in daily, serious,
• 22:23
  Speaker 6: prolonged family worship with his family every day, he would
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: be admonished and then censored. If he refused to change,
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: he'd be forbidden to come to the Lord's Supper. That's
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: how critical this was in the Puritan mind. And we've
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: lost that. Life is so incredibly busy, and we have
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: all good intentions. We're going to talk to our children
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: about serious things. But before you know it, the whole
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: week is gone. And family worship is a way of
• 22:48
  Speaker 6: gathering around the Word every single day, bringing them issues
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: of life and death. So your conscience knows you need
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: to do it. The Bible commands you. The Lord Jesus
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: is honored by it. We must do family worship. Thank you.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Can I just ask a follow-up?
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: I wonder if maybe Dr.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Beeky, maybe someone else could just give, some father out
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: here is thinking, okay, I've got to do this. How
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: would you tell him to do it tonight or tomorrow?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: If he just really wants to start this, how should
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: he get started? What should it look like? Just very practically.
• 23:22
  Speaker 7: Yep.
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: He'd go home. He'd say to his wife and his children,
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry. God, forgive me. You forgive me, please. I've
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: been neglecting this. We need to start. And what we
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: do is we start, we'll just start reading the Bible.
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: You each have a Bible on your lap. You read
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: these 10 verses. You each read a couple of verses
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: we share.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: In the reading.
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: And then the father just talks about two or three
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: or four practical lessons from those verses. And then you
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: pray together. The father prays the beginning of family worship.
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: Each of the children take turns praying at the end
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: of family worship. And then you sing. And start out small.
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: Start out with a five-minute family worship and build it
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: up to maybe 15 minutes. If you have young children,
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: if you have older children, maybe 20 minutes. And just
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: say to the children, this is non-negotiable. This is as
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: important as eating. If your son doesn't want to sing,
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: you say, well, that's quite simple. No singing, no food.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: They'll sing.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: Dr.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: Beeky, could I get you to share the two-minute version
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: of your personal experience with your family, your parents, mom
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: and dad in family worship.
• 24:37
  Speaker 6: Well what happened when my parents said their 50th anniversary
• 24:42
  Speaker 6: is all five of us children agreed to speak a
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: word of thank you to both my father and to
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: my mother and we wouldn't talk ahead of time about
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: what we were going to say but the most important
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: thing we wanted to thank them for and we actually
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: taped all this and it was just incredible because all
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: five of us thanked my mother for her secret prayer
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: life because it was just awesome And all five of
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: us thank my dad for family worship, particularly the Sunday
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: night family worship. My dad had a special family worship
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: on Sunday night where he read Pilgrim's Progress to us
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: every single week. And he'd read for about 30 minutes,
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: but we could interrupt him and ask questions. And often
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: he'd sit the book down, and he'd just be weeping,
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: talking to us about how the Holy Spirit leads the
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: people of God. And I remember when I was converted
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: when I was 14 or 15, I would stay up
• 25:29
  Speaker 6: with him, sometimes till midnight and beyond, just he and
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: I talking about the spirits leading the life of a Christian.
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: We'd ask him, what does that mean in the house
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: of interpreter? What does it mean, Mr. Talkative, talking with him?
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: How do Christian and faithful relate here? What does that
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: mean spiritually? I learned so much experientially and practically about
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: vital Christianity from my dad in family worship. It formed
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: my life. And my brothers, my sisters maybe to a
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: little lesser degree, can say the same thing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: Amen.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Tim, the next question comes to you, and it's in
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: regards to your book that you wrote, The Next Story,
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: and you provided helpful information on how to control technology
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: rather than allowing the technology to control you. Could you
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: give just a few helpful, you might say, pointers to
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: help us?
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Well, it's helpful to look at technology, to just understand
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: technology doesn't exist in some perfect world. It exists in
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: this world. And so the same technology that will be
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: a blessing to us will be a curse to us
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: if we allow it. So we have to understand technology
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: is battling us. And it's the sort of thing where
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: we create technology in our image and then it tries
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: to return the favor to us. So we make something
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: we think we need and over time it reforms us
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: in its image. And so we're always just trying to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: use these things well and use them wisely. How do
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: you battle technology well? How do you, what was the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: exact question?
• 26:57
  Speaker 11: How do you.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the exact question was provide some helpful insight on
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: how to control technology rather than allowing our technology to
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: control us.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: So I think that's just being very, very deliberate with
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: it as much as possible. So one thing we do
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: at least a week out of every year, we turn
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: off everything. We go away, we go to the woods,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: usually somewhere in a state park in Virginia, and everything's gone,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: everything's off. And that just shows us, A, our dependence
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: on our technology, and B, shows us just how little
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: we actually need it and how we actually can't exist
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: without it. And amazingly, the world goes on even when
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: we turn off. So when I'm not using Facebook, it
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: always surprises me that the world doesn't just end. I
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: don't need to be on it four times a day
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: in order for this world to go on. And then
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: at least one day a week, I try and shut
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: everything off as well. So I take Sunday and I
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: just shut off everything as much as possible and just
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: don't use those things. Often somebody will send me something.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I sent you a new order of service. Why didn't
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you see it? That sort of thing. But So try
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: and take a day, a week, and at least a
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: week a year where we just turn them all off.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I think that's very refreshing and very helpful as we
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: try and understand the way it plays in our lives.
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: Amen. Thank you, brother.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Thornton, the question's coming to you next, and it's this.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: Do you feel that allegorical interpretation is a problematic error
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: plaguing the pulpit today?
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: If so, what are some ways to avoid this error?
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: Yes, it is.
• 28:27
  Speaker 8: And it's really bad, too.
• 28:32
  Speaker 11: And we don't often think of ourselves as allegorists, but
• 28:36
  Speaker 11: almost everyone in this room is an allegorist. Because what
• 28:40
  Speaker 11: we have conditioned ourselves to believe is that allegorism is
• 28:47
  Speaker 11: something like the ancients did, where you're searching for things
• 28:50
  Speaker 11: in the text that aren't there. But when we get
• 28:54
  Speaker 11: down to the root of the matter... Any meaning different
• 28:58
  Speaker 11: than the author's meaning is allegory or allegorism because a
• 29:03
  Speaker 11: deeper meaning and a different meaning find the same source,
• 29:07
  Speaker 11: something other than what the author meant.
• 29:10
  Speaker 8: So it's everywhere.
• 29:11
  Speaker 11: I want to just go back because, I mean, that's
• 29:13
  Speaker 11: the problem. That's kind of a diagnosis of the problem.
• 29:16
  Speaker 11: If you proclaim a text and it's not what the
• 29:19
  Speaker 11: author intended in that text, then it's allegorism.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: That's the problem.
• 29:25
  Speaker 11: Let me go back to a definition of expository preaching
• 29:29
  Speaker 11: and say that I agree with everything that Steve Lawson
• 29:32
  Speaker 11: said earlier. Sometimes expository preaching is better caught than it
• 29:37
  Speaker 11: is taught. And if you didn't see his exposition of
• 29:43
  Speaker 11: Galatians 1 last night, that is the definition of expository preaching.
• 29:48
  Speaker 11: If you missed that, you need to repent. And then
• 29:53
  Speaker 11: you need to go back and view it online. But
• 29:56
  Speaker 11: that was the perfect example and the perfect definition of
• 30:00
  Speaker 11: expository preaching.
• 30:02
  Speaker 8: It's everywhere.
• 30:02
  Speaker 11: It manifests itself in different ways. And most of you
• 30:07
  Speaker 11: all are either preachers or teachers. And if you preach truth,
• 30:15
  Speaker 11: you've only done part of your job. You must preach
• 30:18
  Speaker 11: truth and your finger must be on the correct text
• 30:21
  Speaker 11: that preaches that truth. And one of the big forms
• 30:25
  Speaker 11: of what I consider allegorism is preaching truth from the
• 30:28
  Speaker 11: wrong text. Because you're not conveying what God intended to
• 30:33
  Speaker 11: convey in that text, which means you've replaced yourself as
• 30:37
  Speaker 11: the author of that text. And that is a major,
• 30:40
  Speaker 11: major problem. And it's a problem all over the place.
• 30:44
  Speaker 11: So we've all done it. We all might as well
• 30:47
  Speaker 11: just admit that we're allegorists, and then we all might
• 30:50
  Speaker 11: as well say, Let's go look at Dr. Lawson's sermon
• 30:53
  Speaker 11: and emulate what he did from Galatians 1. That thing
• 30:55
  Speaker 11: was a beauty. I mean, I sat back on the
• 30:58
  Speaker 11: third to the last row, and I just marveled. And
• 31:01
  Speaker 11: when I went to bed, I was supposed to be
• 31:03
  Speaker 11: thinking about what I was talking about today, and I
• 31:05
  Speaker 11: was thinking about Galatians.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: 1 and how awesome that was.
• 31:09
  Speaker 11: And so I think part of what we need to
• 31:12
  Speaker 11: talk about when we talk about expository preaching is does
• 31:15
  Speaker 11: it have a lasting impact? And to me, that sermon
• 31:18
  Speaker 11: had a lasting impact, and so that's a good evidence
• 31:22
  Speaker 11: that it's expository.
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Bauckham, the next question comes to you, and it's this.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: As an African American, how do I encourage other African
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: American Christians to consider Reformed theology and other deeper things
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: of God instead of being caught up in the emotionalism
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: of Pentecostalism and Word-Faith theology?
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 32:01
  Speaker 7: That's from a person who doesn't know me or they
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: would never have used the term African-American. Because I'm sitting
• 32:09
  Speaker 7: here thinking, okay, are you from Libya or Algeria or
• 32:14
  Speaker 7: are you from Zambia or.
• 32:17
  Speaker 7: That's one of the great ironies. If a person comes
• 32:19
  Speaker 7: here from northern Africa, we don't call them African American.
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: If they're Egyptian or Libyan or Algerian or whatever, it's
• 32:27
  Speaker 7: only if you're sub-Saharan African.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: So anyway, that's a whole other.
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: All of us have a passion for people who are
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: like us. All of us. And that's okay because the
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: Apostle Paul was the same way. We had that from
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: him in Romans.
• 32:51
  Speaker 7: He had a special passion for people who were like
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: him and a special desire to see his kinsmen according
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: to the flesh to come to know God and to
• 33:01
  Speaker 7: serve God.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: And there's nothing wrong with that.
• 33:04
  Speaker 7: But there would have been something wrong with that if
• 33:06
  Speaker 7: he allowed it to interfere with his calling to the Gentiles.
• 33:12
  Speaker 7: Let me say that again. There would have been something
• 33:15
  Speaker 7: wrong with that if he allowed it to interfere with
• 33:19
  Speaker 7: his calling to the Gentiles. Have your passion for people
• 33:25
  Speaker 7: who are like you. We all have passion for people
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: who are like us. But that doesn't define our calling.
• 33:32
  Speaker 7: Our calling is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ
• 33:38
  Speaker 7: to those whom God gives us opportunity to do so.
• 33:44
  Speaker 7: That's our mission. That's the mission. And what I don't
• 33:48
  Speaker 7: want to get caught up in is my own personal
• 33:56
  Speaker 7: affinity groups, my own personal, you know, people who are
• 34:03
  Speaker 7: most like me who get my attention so that I
• 34:06
  Speaker 7: then pervert the mission because that's not the mission. That's
• 34:13
  Speaker 7: not what I'm called to do. So when I hear
• 34:22
  Speaker 7: that question, my initial gut reaction, aside from just sort
• 34:27
  Speaker 7: of cringing, is to say, we're called to make the
• 34:36
  Speaker 7: gospel clear for all people. We're called to warn everyone
• 34:44
  Speaker 7: of sin. and pursuing anything that is not Christ, that
• 34:49
  Speaker 7: is not the gospel. And the level of melanin in
• 34:54
  Speaker 7: a person's skin doesn't change the significance of that calling.
• 35:03
  Speaker 7: That's what we're talking about. We're talking about people with
• 35:06
  Speaker 7: more melanin versus less melanin. And how do you communicate
• 35:11
  Speaker 7: to a person with more melanin? The amount of melanin
• 35:13
  Speaker 7: in your skin does not determine how you hear the gospel.
• 35:25
  Speaker 7: There's other assumptions in the question, and that is that
• 35:28
  Speaker 7: the people with more melanin are more Pentecostal.
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: That's racism.
• 35:37
  Speaker 7: Because, you know, those African-American people, they're pulled toward Pentecostalism.
• 35:43
  Speaker 7: They're pulled toward Word of Faith. They're pulled toward, that's racism.
• 35:48
  Speaker 7: That's racism. Millions of people are pulled toward that stuff.
• 35:55
  Speaker 7: And I want them all turned in another direction.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: Amen? Every last one of them I want turned in
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: another direction.
• 36:05
  Speaker 7: And so if I say that loud enough, And if
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: I say that consistently enough, there will be high melanin
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: people and low melanin people who hear it.
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: And that's what I want. I want all melanin people
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: to hear that.
• 36:26
  Speaker 12: And nor do I have to lose in any way, shape, form,
• 36:31
  Speaker 12: or fashion that natural tendency that God gives all of
• 36:36
  Speaker 12: us To look at people who come from situations and
• 36:40
  Speaker 12: circumstances like we do, by the way, that's another assumption.
• 36:43
  Speaker 7: All black people have the same circumstance, you know, like
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: black people in New York and black people in L.A.
• 36:49
  Speaker 7: They're just, you know, all the same and all get along.
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 36:57
  Speaker 7: And so that assumption is just not true. But I
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: do have affinities for people who have, you know... certain
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: things in common with me. And I am grateful. But
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: here's what I have to remember even about that. When
• 37:15
  Speaker 7: I see a person who is like me, who comes
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: to faith, who gets it, who, you know, however you
• 37:24
  Speaker 7: want to term it, ultimately what I'm rejoicing in is
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: being reminded of what God did in me. Paul wasn't saying,
• 37:35
  Speaker 7: you know, my kinsmen according to the flesh, these Jewish people,
• 37:38
  Speaker 7: they're more significant, more special, more whatever. He's saying, I'm
• 37:45
  Speaker 7: one of them. God pulled me out of that same thing.
• 37:49
  Speaker 7: And every time I see God pull someone out of
• 37:52
  Speaker 7: that same thing, it reminds me of the goodness of
• 37:55
  Speaker 7: God and what he did for me. If that's where
• 37:58
  Speaker 7: you are, amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Thank God for that.
• 38:04
  Speaker 7: If it's something else, if it's I look like this,
• 38:09
  Speaker 7: therefore my attention and my focus has to be on
• 38:13
  Speaker 7: others who look like this, I think you've stepped over
• 38:17
  Speaker 7: a boundary that ought not be crossed.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Don't beat around the bush next time in getting to
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: the answer. Jump right in there. The next question, Brother
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: Paul Washer, the question was, And I'm going to add
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: to this question because a brother came to me just
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: before the Q & A, and he asked me this
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: almost identical question. The question was, how would you approach
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: sharing the truth with a brother who differs with you theologically?
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: What approach would you take? All right, that's the question.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: But a brother approached me a moment ago and said
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: that he came down, traveled to the G3 conference, is
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: staying with someone that he apparently doesn't know about an
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: hour away from here. They were kind enough to just
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: offer him a place to stay. And the person in
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: conversation over the past couple of days, he has learned
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: that they're a follower of Joel Osteen. And he wanted
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: to know how to best approach sharing the truth with
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: this individual.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Well, in all things, Christ-likeness, in all things, bearing the
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: fruit of the Spirit, and all things speaking with wisdom
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: and throughout the scriptures and Jesus is admonition in Chapter
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: seven of Matthew, plus many verses in Proverbs. We have
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: guides of when to speak and not to speak. When
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: you are speaking truth with someone showing the virtue of Christ.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: And as long as they are open to receiving that truth,
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: continue on when they close down. A wise man will
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: oftentimes also close down his arguments. Because you're casting your pearls,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: you're giving what is holy, you're answering a fool according
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: to his folly.
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: My.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: One thing I always do, and it's according to Colossians,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: chapter four, verses two through four, where Paul talks about
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: praying for an open door. praying for wisdom, boldness, proper behavior,
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: is that I have found that when I cannot speak
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: to men about God, I speak to God about men.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: I am not a great, I do not have great
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: reasoning powers. I am not a great debater. I am
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: so limited when I deal with men. But I am
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: not at all limited when I deal with God, because
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: the spirit searches my heart and knows how to pray.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: And so I'm going to speak the truth, if I
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: sit down on an airplane, which I often do, I'm
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: usually going to open up my Bible. I'm going to
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: make it known right there, you know, they're going to
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: see me looking at the Bible and I'm going to
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: talk to them and I'm going to pray that a
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: door will open. If a door I see we're getting,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: you know, halfway through the trip, a door hasn't opened.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: Then I am going to say to them, excuse me.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: I'm a Christian.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: And it would mean everything to me if you would
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: just give me five minutes to share the gospel. Most
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: people do. Some people become very angry. And when they do,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: I say thank you. And I continue talking about what
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: they want to talk about. That way, when they get
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: off the plane. They're not telling their friends, I was
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: accosted by some evangelical jerk who tried just rode me
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: the whole time we were on the plane. No, they're
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: going to get off that plane and they're going to
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: feel ashamed because I served them. Because I loved them
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: and they were shameful to me and that they would
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: not let me even five minutes to share the most
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: important thing in my life. Remember, in every situation of
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: human interaction, according to the Sermon on the Mount, our
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: problem is a lack of Christ likeness. Our problem is
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: a lack of Christ-likeness.
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: Dr.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: Beeky, the next question is for you. Related to your
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: recent book on Puritan theology, could you provide for us
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: just a bit of encouragement on how the Puritans can
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: encourage and help us in ministry today?
• 42:35
  Speaker 6: That's a great question. Yeah, I had a dream in
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: my 20s to write... a book on a Puritan systematic theology,
• 42:47
  Speaker 6: because I'm convinced that Puritans in all branches of theology
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: have a great deal to teach us about marrying doctrine
• 42:54
  Speaker 6: and practice, holistic Christian living. A fellow by the name
• 42:59
  Speaker 6: of Mark Jones, a PCA pastor in Vancouver, actually submitted
• 43:02
  Speaker 6: some chapters to me from Puritan area that I have
• 43:05
  Speaker 6: not worked in, and so we collaborated and we just
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: published this book. The first Puritan systematic theology ever written,
• 43:17
  Speaker 6: running from prologama to eschatology, what the Puritans actually believed.
• 43:21
  Speaker 6: And so we took 50 different areas and looked at
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: 50 areas where the Puritans have contributed something substantial to
• 43:28
  Speaker 6: theology and then looked at how, in eight chapters, how
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: the Puritans take this doctrine and put it into practice
• 43:34
  Speaker 6: in the home and in their personal lives. And I
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: would say this to you, that I think the Puritans,
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: more than anything else, though they have their mistakes, and
• 43:44
  Speaker 6: they're not a monolithic group, by the way, they have
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: differences among themselves, they have this united passion to take
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: the whole of the Bible and apply it to the
• 43:54
  Speaker 6: whole man for the whole of everyday life. And they
• 43:59
  Speaker 6: teach us how to handle trials. They teach us how
• 44:02
  Speaker 6: to live enamored with Jesus Christ. They teach us, more
• 44:06
  Speaker 6: than any other group of writers, the heinousness and spiritual
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: insanity of sins They teach us the glories of a
• 44:14
  Speaker 6: Trinitarian-centered theology. They teach us how to walk with God
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: day by day. They teach us about family worship. They
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: teach us so many, many things. And so if you're
• 44:27
  Speaker 6: not reading the Puritans, I would advise you just get
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: this book, look at some of the footnotes, start reading
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: some of the Puritans, but use the book and use
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: the chapters to get you into their writings because we
• 44:41
  Speaker 6: try to write in a contemporary way what they believe
• 44:45
  Speaker 6: but we want you to go further than that we
• 44:47
  Speaker 6: want you to be reading the Puritans themselves and the
• 44:49
  Speaker 6: main impact when you can get your congregation to start
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: reading the Puritans the main impact is you will see
• 44:56
  Speaker 6: not only in your own life but also in the
• 44:58
  Speaker 6: life of your people an increased measure of profound spiritual
• 45:05
  Speaker 6: depth and a real growth in holiness. Sometimes I feel
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: that in my ministry, my promoting of Puritan works to
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: my congregation and their actual reading of them and having
• 45:19
  Speaker 6: it change their lives may be more influential than my
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: ministry itself. So to me, I've been reading the Puritans
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: since I was nine years old. I'm now 60, 51
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: years of reading them. I always have one Puritan book
• 45:32
  Speaker 6: going along with other reading. And I'll tell you by
• 45:36
  Speaker 6: far and away, the Puritans have meant more to me
• 45:39
  Speaker 6: than any other means of grace in my life.
• 45:43
  Speaker 12: Amen.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: Brother David Miller, this next question is for you. Being
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: that you were involved in the conservative resurgence years ago
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: within the Southern Baptist Convention and then now seeing a,
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: you might say, a resurgence of the doctrines of grace
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: in SBC life, would you say that the controversy that's
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: anti-doctrines of grace has anything to do with you might say,
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: or let's just phrase it like this, the resurgence itself,
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: is it connected in any way to the conservative resurgence
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: of years past, the current resurgence of the doctrines of grace,
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: being that during the conservative resurgence in the SBC life,
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: they would encourage us to get back to the, you know,
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: of course, to the inerrancy of Scripture. And so do
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: you see a connection there in any way?
• 46:35
  Speaker 10: Absolutely.
• 46:36
  Speaker 12: Absolutely.
• 46:37
  Speaker 10: For years, we fought the battle over inerrancy in the
• 46:43
  Speaker 10: Southern Baptist Convention. It took a long time. Turning a
• 46:47
  Speaker 10: big ship around isn't easy, and it takes some time
• 46:52
  Speaker 10: and space. But over a period of 25 years, we
• 46:57
  Speaker 10: began to turn things around in the convention.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: We decided, fresh and.
• 47:02
  Speaker 10: New, that we do, after all, believe in the inerrancy
• 47:06
  Speaker 10: of the Bible Well, many of us had always believed that.
• 47:11
  Speaker 10: It began to take an effect in the agencies, in
• 47:16
  Speaker 10: the schools. I said to my wife, this was perhaps
• 47:22
  Speaker 10: one of the most prophetic things I've ever said, if
• 47:26
  Speaker 10: we can ever get past this debate about the nature
• 47:32
  Speaker 10: of the scriptures, if we can settle this, I believe
• 47:39
  Speaker 10: that we can move on to discussing some of the
• 47:43
  Speaker 10: other weighty matters. Perhaps we could discuss the nature of
• 47:51
  Speaker 10: the atonement. Perhaps the people of God might even ask
• 47:59
  Speaker 10: what was God's purpose in eternity past when He devised
• 48:08
  Speaker 10: salvation's plan. I cannot tell you fully how thrilled I
• 48:19
  Speaker 10: am that we are having the discussion. In my opinion
• 48:27
  Speaker 10: it is the healthiest thing that has happened to Southern
• 48:31
  Speaker 10: Baptists in my lifetime. A lot of brethren who never
• 48:38
  Speaker 10: considered the doctrines of grace, are being forced to look
• 48:44
  Speaker 10: into them. And for many of them, they're discovering that
• 48:51
  Speaker 10: these things actually exist. And they're wonderful. Now, you all
• 48:58
  Speaker 10: pray for me, and I'll pray for you. Because those
• 49:05
  Speaker 10: of us who preach grace ought to have some of it.
• 49:13
  Speaker 10: So let's debate, let's discuss, and let's show grace. to
• 49:21
  Speaker 10: one another and the Lord God.
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: Will teach his people.
• 49:33
  Speaker 8: I just wanted to.
• 49:36
  Speaker 11: Say something at this point because it often is felt
• 49:40
  Speaker 11: in our hearts, but it doesn't get said. I'm 37
• 49:43
  Speaker 11: years old. I represent a generation within the Southern Baptist Convention,
• 49:49
  Speaker 11: and Josh does too, and I'm sure I speak on
• 49:53
  Speaker 11: behalf of him when I say thank you for making
• 49:56
  Speaker 11: those decisions. In large part, we are a product of
• 50:11
  Speaker 11: the decisions that were made around the time I was born.
• 50:15
  Speaker 11: And those decisions were crucial, not only to the inerrancy
• 50:20
  Speaker 11: of Scripture, but to the heart of the gospel. Because
• 50:23
  Speaker 11: if you lose inerrancy, you lose the gospel eventually. And
• 50:27
  Speaker 11: so I think our generation does not say enough that
• 50:31
  Speaker 11: we are deeply indebted. This conference would not be here
• 50:33
  Speaker 11: today had those decisions not been made. And so from
• 50:39
  Speaker 11: our generation to yours, thank you. And then for our generation,
• 50:43
  Speaker 11: we're beginning to make decisions now that will affect my kids.
• 50:47
  Speaker 11: Let's get it right. Let's think through these things. Let's
• 50:51
  Speaker 11: fight for them. And let's pick the hills on which
• 50:55
  Speaker 11: to die and die for them if we must.
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: Amen.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: Well, the final question will go to Dr.
• 51:02
  Speaker 11: Lawson.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: I quoted you from your book, Famine in the Land,
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: in my introduction of you earlier. And suppose that you
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: knew someone involved in a very pragmatic, focused ministry founded
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: upon a foundation of church growth schemes and techniques of
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: man that caused the gospel to take a back seat.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: And those individuals came to you and asked you to
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: give them counsel on what they should do, whether they
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: should stay or leave. What would be your counsel to
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: those individuals?
• 51:34
  Speaker 9: Let me make sure I understand the question. They come
• 51:38
  Speaker 9: and ask, should they stay or leave in a church
• 51:42
  Speaker 9: where there is.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: They are current members of a church where they are
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: awakened to the truths of the Scripture, and they see
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: that their ministries are very pragmatic, focused, and man-centered.
• 51:53
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 51:54
  Speaker 9: Well, first of all, I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer.
• 51:58
  Speaker 9: Each situation is unique. Each church is unique.
• 52:03
  Speaker 7: Each.
• 52:04
  Speaker 9: pastor who is presiding over that church is unique, each history, etc.
• 52:09
  Speaker 9: So first of all, I don't think you can just
• 52:12
  Speaker 9: automatically say what should be done in every situation just
• 52:15
  Speaker 9: across the board.
• 52:18
  Speaker 8: I do think that by and large.
• 52:21
  Speaker 9: History bears out that those who try to stay inside
• 52:25
  Speaker 9: of a church and change that church.
• 52:30
  Speaker 8: End up being rolled up in the process. and spit out.
• 52:34
  Speaker 9: Even our Puritan friends who tried to stay inside the
• 52:38
  Speaker 9: Church of England in 1662 were thrown out in the
• 52:43
  Speaker 9: Great Ejection. They could not purify from the inside the
• 52:47
  Speaker 9: Church of England. I think Calvin had greater effect outside
• 52:52
  Speaker 9: of Rome than Luther who tries to stay within and change.
• 53:01
  Speaker 9: I think by and large you're going to end up
• 53:04
  Speaker 9: having to follow your conscience and that in most situations
• 53:08
  Speaker 9: for most people is to move on to be with
• 53:12
  Speaker 9: like-minded brothers. It's very difficult to, you don't want to
• 53:17
  Speaker 9: fight your own church and most movements occur top down
• 53:24
  Speaker 9: from the pulpit, the church leaders down into the rank
• 53:27
  Speaker 9: and file of the church and if there is really
• 53:32
  Speaker 9: no hope of capturing the church, that can be a
• 53:36
  Speaker 9: very difficult task to try to bring about change. Now,
• 53:44
  Speaker 9: I think there are obviously exceptions to that, and I'm
• 53:47
  Speaker 9: so grateful for the men like David Miller who stayed
• 53:50
  Speaker 9: within the SBC and tried to change this from the
• 53:53
  Speaker 9: inside out. At that level, that was fought over the
• 53:59
  Speaker 9: inerrancy of Scripture. I'm from Bellevue Baptist Church. I was
• 54:05
  Speaker 9: called in the ministry under Adrian Rogers' preaching. I'm very
• 54:09
  Speaker 9: familiar with the inerrantist battle. And yet at the same time, Dr.
• 54:15
  Speaker 9: Rogers' champion of inerrancy would certainly be no friend of
• 54:20
  Speaker 9: the doctrines of grace. And so there are certain battles
• 54:24
  Speaker 9: that are more easily fought.
• 54:27
  Speaker 8: Than other battles.
• 54:29
  Speaker 10: And it.
• 54:31
  Speaker 9: Would just be difficult for me. Some of it's even
• 54:34
  Speaker 9: the personality and temperament of the individual. It would just
• 54:37
  Speaker 9: be hard for me to sit in a place where
• 54:40
  Speaker 9: the Word of God is not honored, where the truth
• 54:42
  Speaker 9: is not held high, where there's crass pragmatism going on,
• 54:48
  Speaker 9: false conversions, false baptisms, just etc., That would be difficult
• 54:55
  Speaker 9: for me to give my money to underwrite this and
• 54:58
  Speaker 9: in some way feel a participant in this.
• 55:02
  Speaker 8: And so I would.
• 55:03
  Speaker 9: Have to pull, personally, I would have to pull out
• 55:06
  Speaker 9: after some initial attempts to try to turn this around.
• 55:11
  Speaker 8: But life is so short.
• 55:14
  Speaker 9: I just don't want good money going after bad money.
• 55:18
  Speaker 9: I just don't want to be pouring water into the desert.
• 55:22
  Speaker 9: where what influence I have, what efforts I have. I mean,
• 55:25
  Speaker 9: if I'm investing money in a business and one business
• 55:29
  Speaker 9: is losing money and the other is making money, I mean,
• 55:32
  Speaker 9: a wise man is going to pour his investment into
• 55:35
  Speaker 9: what's making money. And I don't really want to pour
• 55:38
  Speaker 9: my time, my talent, my treasure into what's producing false
• 55:42
  Speaker 9: converts and is really not upholding the truth. I want
• 55:49
  Speaker 9: all that I am to be invested in that which
• 55:53
  Speaker 9: is most in conformity to.
• 55:56
  Speaker 8: The standard of Scripture. That's just a general answer.
• 56:02
  Speaker 9: I think that there are noble fights to be fought
• 56:05
  Speaker 9: within local churches. But for me, there needs to be
• 56:09
  Speaker 9: some evidence of hope that we can turn this around.
• 56:16
  Speaker 9: And I think too many people just stay too long
• 56:20
  Speaker 9: in just dead churches like the church at Sardis. You
• 56:23
  Speaker 9: have a name, but you're dead. And where your influence
• 56:27
  Speaker 9: could really be exponentially used in other places. Having said that,
• 56:33
  Speaker 9: I think every individual Christian has to answer that on
• 56:38
  Speaker 9: their own.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: Amen.