God. Real. Right.

Here is the audio of a message on Hebrews 9:1-15. If you right click the previous sentence you can download the file. If you left (normal) click it, it will begin playing in a new page. If you click the little arrow next to it, it should play on this page.
I presented it to one of my “home” churches, Bethany Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove. It is based on a sermon I prepared from that text for a summer leadership camp for youth in Kerrville, TX.
I apologize to those of you who listen to most of the messages I put online, because the final illustration is one I have used in another sermon here. :O

Because I am normally speaking in other churches on Sundays, I don’t get to sit in my Sunday morning Bible study class as often as I would like. But I was there this week. I am fortunate to have a teacher (Tom Green) who is smart, loves to study, and very good at provoking the members of the study to think about the material he is covering each week. Like many other SBC Bible study groups this week, we were studying 1 Samuel 24-31–in particular, the narrative about Saul in the cave (chapter 24) and camped with his troops (chapter 26), and the one about Nabal and Abigail (chapter 25).
Here is one thing provoked by that Bible study.
The context: Chapter 24 is about David’s Read the rest of this entry »

In the Fall 2008 CTR, Stanley Hauerwas defends his pacifism. The following is simply a section-by-section and sometimes paragraph-by-paragraph response as I read the work. His sections are on the idealism of realism, the nation (or war) as church, and pacifism as realism.

“The Idealism of Realism”
Paragraph 1: Hauerwas claims that critics of pacifism rely on realism to make their claim. But actually, what’s wrong with pacifism is not that it is not realistic, even though I agree that it is not. The fact that something doesn’t work means only that it doesn’t work, not that it is wrong. What’s wrong with Pacifism is Read the rest of this entry »

I know there is much confusion about how Jesus could be in the grave for three days and three nights if He died on Friday and rose on Sunday. The phrase three days and three nights is specifically given as the length of time Jesus says He will be in the grave in Matthew 12:39-40. It is certainly possible that Jesus is using a common expression to emphasize that He would not rise until the third day, rather than giving a hard “moment” of resurrection; that is, exactly seventy-two hours, zero minutes, and zero seconds. So Matthew 12 could be taken either way. The question is, which way should it be taken. (Remember, Jewish days begin at 6 pm.) Does Jesus need to die at the last moment on Wednesday afternoon, so there is time for him to be in the tomb all day and night Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and then He is resurrected on the fourth day, which would be Sunday? Of course not, since although there are Read the rest of this entry »

This message is from the first 18 verses of the second chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6. I delivered it as the interim pastor of Glen Meadows Baptist Church in 2007. While sincerity is essential to Christianity, it is not sufficient. This passage interestingly focuses on what else is needed.
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also freely available on the sermons page, which is also linked on the sidebar, including as an RSS feed (for subscriptions, like with iTunes).
As with every audio link on this blog, you can click the text just left of the playable arrow and the audio will open in a new page, or you can right-click that text and select “save linked file” (or something similar) and download the file to your hard drive, or you can click the little arrow next to an audio file and it will play the sound on this page.

This message is about the man of God who corrects Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13 I delivered it in chapel at Criswell College on September 9, 2008. The text was selected by the students in my Old Testament Preaching class.
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also freely available on the sermons page, which is also linked on the sidebar, including as an RSS feed (for subscriptions, like with iTunes).
As with every audio link on this blog, you can click the text just left of the playable arrow and the audio will open in a new page, or you can right-click that text and select “save linked file” (or something similar) and download the file to your hard drive, or you can click the little arrow next to an audio file and it will play the sound on this page.

This message is about James 5:1-11, the penultimate text of the book of James, and the final upload of my sermons from it. (The sermon on the final passage of the book was posted about three weeks earlier.) I preached this one at Bethany Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove (Southeast Dallas), TX while their pastor was out for one Sunday. It is a church where I served as interim for about a year in much of 2006.
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also freely available on the sermons page, which is also linked on the sidebar, including as an RSS feed (for subscriptions, like with iTunes).
As with every audio link on this blog, you can click the text just left of the playable arrow and the audio will open in a new page, or you can right-click that text and select “save linked file” (or something similar) and download the file to your hard drive, or you can click the little arrow next to an audio file and it will play the sound on this page.

This commandment is based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:12, the golden rule. As it turns out, it is extensionally equivalent (sorry for the obfuscation here) to Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. Many people seem to think the golden rule is about making sure we’re nice to other people so they’ll be nice to us. Hardly.
The point is that if we are going to claim anything is right for us, we must also acknowledge that it is right for everyone else. And if we are going to claim something is wrong for someone else, we must acknowledge that it is wrong for us. As it turns out, this rule is more than coincidentally powerful. It is rationally impossible to believe morality is real and not hold this view. Further, when all is taken into account, it appears that this one rule manages to encompass every moral imperative about living with people.
In traffic, it means one person cannot ethically take the shoulder since the benefit of doing so hinges on everyone else following a rule he has not applied to himself.
In economics, it means there must be a level playing field. That is, there must be a free market, with governmental intrusion only where there is fraud.
Respect for authority, for life, for marriage, for personal property, and for truth itself are all products of this one commandment.

This message is about James 5:12-20. This is the final text from the book of James. I preached this one at Fredonia Hill Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, TX while their pastor was on a mission trip. I will post the sermon on the first half of chapter 5 as soon as I receive it from the church where I preached it!
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also freely available on the sermons page, which is also linked on the sidebar, including as an RSS feed (for subscriptions, like with iTunes).
As with every audio link on this blog, you can click the text just left of the playable arrow and the audio will open in a new page, or you can right-click that text and select “save linked file” (or something similar) and download the file to your hard drive, or you can click the little arrow next to an audio file and it will play the sound on this page.

This message is about Matthew 9:14-38. The will of God is fulfilled in Christ, who has already come. It is right to wait for Christ. But once He has come, it is time to choose, to obey, to act. I delivered the message going through the book of Matthew as interim pastor of Glen Meadows Baptist Church in San Angelo, TX.
(More from James and the Sermon on the Mount to follow!)
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also freely available on the sermons page, which is also linked on the sidebar, including as an RSS feed (for subscriptions, like with iTunes).
As with every audio link on this blog, you can click the text just left of the playable arrow and the audio will open in a new page, or you can right-click that text and select “save linked file” (or something similar) and download the file to your hard drive, or you can click the little arrow next to an audio file and it will play the sound on this page.