Sufficiency of Scripture

Preach the Word

Posted on April 22, 2013Leave a comment

To have an opportunity to preach the word anywhere is a humbling occasion. I have nothing to say to any gathered body of believers that is of any value unless it comes from the word of God.

Last week, I was invited to preach (with an interpreter) to the Lord’s people in a faithful church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The occasion was encouraging to me as I witnessed the meeting house fill with worshipers. The gathering was filled from wall to wall, front to back. The worshipers were engaged in the singing without the aid of song books or overhead projection. Attention to the bible was given by the pastor who preached for about 45 min before he introduced me to preach.

At the end of the day, no one will ever remember the visitor from America, but oh that they may forever be influenced by the Lord as the Holy Spirit instructs them in the word.

It was a pleasure to meet pastor Bernito Dorsainvil. It was a pleasure to sit in his home and hear him speak of his desire to see the Lord work through his life and that the church he pastors be a display of the glory of God. His brother Viles Dorsainvil was kind to translate our conversations and the preaching. I hope the Lord will allow other opportunities with these brothers in the Lord.

It’s About the Gospel

Posted on April 3, 2013Leave a comment

a followup to this mornings post…

What Happens to a follower of Christ on the far side of the wilderness? It’s hard to say what happens individually to everyone, but it is certain to be life changing.

This afternoon Silas posted a generous offer to visitors of his website and his art work. From now until April 11, 2013, 100% of all painting sales will be donated to New Horizon Home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Silas and Bianca are tender toward the gospel mandate to the nations and especially to those tender to the heart of God, orphans.

Visit Silas Thompson Fine Art and pick a painting today. Price list is here.

New Horizon Home is more than a simple orphanage, not that an orphanage is simple. New Horizon Home International is a global gospel outreach. Alex Viellard, director of New Horizon Home International desires to see bible centered, gospel preaching churches and pastors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It’s about the Gospel.

May the Glory of the LORD fall down on his people.

1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the [desert] will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus 2 It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.

Isaiah 35:1-2 (NASB)

A Man Needs a Good Roadmap

Posted on April 2, 2013Leave a comment

“I never met a man who did not want to be a great father.” Scott Brown

I’m happy to announce that Eastside Baptist Church will be hosting a conference this coming fall designed to call out fathers to look to God through the sufficiency of Scripture to be Godly fathers.

Men, join me this fall for “the Master’s Plan for Fatherhood” September 13-14, 2013, in Twin Falls, Idaho.

New Kind of Father from NCFIC on Vimeo.

More information here: The Master’s Plan for Fatherhood

Preach the Word

Posted on January 15, 2013Leave a comment

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Tim 4:1-4 NASB)

Spurgeon:

Are you afraid that preaching the gospel will not win souls? Are you despondent as to success in God’s way? Is this why you pine for clever oratory? Is this why you must have music, and architecture, and flowers and millinery? After all, is it by might and power, and not by the Spirit of God? It is even so in the opinion of many.

Brethren beloved, there are many things which I might allow to other worshippers which I have denied myself in conducting the worship of this congregation. I have long worked out before your very eyes the experiment of the unaided attractiveness of the gospel of Jesus. Our service is severely plain. No man ever comes hither to gratify his eye with art, or his ear with music. I have set before you, these many years, nothing but Christ crucified, and the simplicity of the gospel; yet where will you find such a crowd as this gathered together this morning? Where will you find such a multitude as this meeting Sabbath after Sabbath, for five-and-thirty years? I have shown you nothing but the cross, the cross without flowers of oratory, the cross without diamonds of ecclesiastical rank, the cross without the buttress of boastful science. It is abundantly sufficient to attract men first to itself, and afterwards to eternal life!

In this house we have proved successfully, these many years, this great truth, that the gospel plainly preached will gain an audience, convert sinners, and build up and sustain a church. We beseech the people of God to mark that there is no need to try doubtful expedients and questionable methods. God will save by the gospel still: only let it be the gospel in its purity. This grand old sword will cleave a man’s chine [i.e., spine], and split a rock in halves.

How is it that it does so little of its old conquering work? I will tell you. Do you see the scabbard of artistic work, so wonderfully elaborated? Full many keep the sword in this scabbard, and therefore its edge never gets to its work. Pull off that scabbard. Fling that fine sheath to Hades, and then see how, in the Lord’s hands, that glorious two-handed sword will mow down fields of men as mowers level the grass with their scythes.

There is no need to go down to Egypt for help. To invite the devil to help Christ is shameful. Please God, we shall see prosperity yet, when the church of God is resolved never to seek it except in God’s own way.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1888, vol. 34, p. 563

(HT: Tim Challies via Justin Taylor

Posted on January 10, 20131 Comment

I remember for the first time seriously considering the advice at a type of church growth conference or a leadership development conference I attended. The advice that we attract more flies with honey than we do with vinegar has been around for decades, maybe longer. Where this may be true in the fly kingdom and flies everywhere would like us to continue promoting this belief, I began to question why we use such a metaphor? What are we saying about the Bible when we say something like that? What are we saying about Jesus? What are we saying about the church? These types of questions have lingered in my mind for over a decade.

Let me first define my issue. When it is all thought through and considered it is for me an issue of the sufficiency of Scripture. Meaning that I have had to answer a question that leaves most of us uncomfortable. It is what some might call a “Crisis of Belief.” Do I believe that God will do what He says he can and will do. Am I going to respond as Abraham and Sarah did when the Lord told them that the two of them would have a child? I think they believed God wanted to do this, but they were obviously going to have to help the promise out.

Have we somehow done a similar thing with the promise from our Lord when Jesus told Peter that the gates of Hell will not prevail or when Jesus said that He would build His church? Have we become so enlightened that we dare to make such godless declarations that we can attract more flies with honey than we can with vinegar in relationship to the Lord’s Church? What do we even mean by that?

When a church, who is responsible to preserve the gospel, looks to another source to accomplish her duty she has begun to slide down a slippery slope that we have been warned of from Scripture. (Most all of the epistles warn the church to be careful, even to the point of contending for this truth.) It appears from history that the church has been in this fight from the birthing of the church in the book of Acts. The apostle Paul is engaged in this battle with passion and clarity.

Don’t we have a huge responsibility? The gospel is at stake. I am not at liberty to handle this gospel with such commonness. I am responsible to deliver it rightly today and preserve it for any generation to follow. What kind of church would I want to be part of? What kind of pastor do I want to have? Do I want a church that prefers methods of the secular world over Scripture? Do I want a pastor who will use ‘honey’ to attract a crowd or do I want a pastor who will be bold enough to actually use “vinegar?” As for me and this church we will choose the latter.

I say to the post-modern, world embracing, honey spreading church as Moses did to Pharaoh; “Let my people go.” May the Word of God be enough for you and your church.

_____

adapted from an earlier post: Honey or Vinegar? August 2, 2011

Posts Tagged with Sufficiency of Scripture

Preach the Word

It’s About the Gospel

A Man Needs a Good Roadmap

Preach the Word

Sufficiency of Scripture

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