We begin a new series of teachings tonight in the 6:10 service at Rainsville First Baptist Church on "The Kingdom of God."
Years ago through my teaching through the Gospels, I discovered how much Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God. As I journeyed these years since this subject keeps jumping out at me over-and-over again.
I am delighted to continue this personal study by beginning teaching for our church. The Holy Spirit has confirmed the timing of this teaching to me several times so I share this for "such-a-time-as-this."
Tonight, I being with "Why Is the Kingdom of God Important?" Isn't that the place to begin. Why do we do this teaching?
It is this subject that caused the Lord to show me:
* the Kingdom of God is the number one agenda of God.
* We may be in different churches, but we are to be about the same Kingdom.
* God is greater than Baptists or any denominational church.
We will seek to define the kingdom while we focus on the King. Without a King, you have no Kingdom. If you have a Kingdom, you must have a King.
Jack Taylor once said, "If the kingdom is important at all, then it is all important."
See you tonight with a Bible in hand and hunger in your heart.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
God Saved a Wretch Like Him: John Newton (1725–1807) by John Piper
Throughout his 82-year life, John Newton was a depraved sailor; a miserable outcast on the coast of West Africa; a slave-trading sea captain; a well-paid surveyor of tides in Liverpool; a beloved pastor of two congregations in Olney and London for 43 years; a devoted husband to Mary for 40 years until she died; a personal friend to William Wilberforce, John Wesley, and George Whitefield; and finally, the author of the most famous hymn in the English language, “Amazing Grace.”
Why am I interested in this man? Because one of my great desires is to see Christians become as strong and durable as redwood trees, and as tender and fragrant as a field of clover — unshakably rugged “in the defense and confirmation of the gospel” (Philippians 1:7), and relentlessly humble and patient and merciful in dealing with people.
Tender Hearts, Tough Roots
It seems to me that we are always falling off the horse on one side or the other in this matter of being tough and tender, durable and delightful, courageous and compassionate — wimping out on truth when we ought to be lionhearted, or wrangling when we ought to be weeping. How rare are the Christians who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel.
John Newton did not always get the balance right. But though he had feet of clay, like every hero other than Christ, his great strength was “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). He carried in his heart a tenderness that loved the lost, lifted the downcast, welcomed children, and prayed for enemies. And his tenderness had roots as tough as a redwood’s.
I begin with a brief telling of his life, because for Newton, his life was the clearest testimony to the heartbreaking mercy of God he ever saw. His remembrance of his own salvation was one of the deepest roots of his habitual tenderness. He could not get over the wonder of his own rescue by sheer, triumphant grace.
Moral Ruin and Misery
John Newton was born July 24, 1725, in London to a godly mother and an irreligious, seafaring father. His mother died when he was six. Left mainly to himself, Newton became a debauched sailor — pressed into naval service against his will when he was eighteen. His friend and biographer Richard Cecil said, “The companions he met with here completed the ruin of his principles” (Memoirs of the Reverend John Newton, 1:9). Of himself, Newton wrote, “I was capable of anything; I had not the least fear of God before my eyes, nor (so far as I remember) the least sensibility of conscience” (Memoirs, 1:12).
When he was 20 years old, he was put off his ship on some small islands just southeast of Sierra Leone, West Africa, and for about a year and a half he lived as a virtual slave in almost destitute circumstances. The wife of his master despised him and treated him cruelly. He wrote that even the African slaves would try to smuggle him food from their own slim rations. Later in life he marveled at the seemingly accidental way a ship put anchor on his island after seeing some smoke, and just happened to be a ship with a captain who knew Newton’s father and managed to free him from his bondage. That was February 1747. He was not quite 21, and God was about to close in.
The Precious Storm at Sea
The ship had business on the seas for over a year. Then on March 21, 1748, on the ship’s journey home to England in the North Atlantic, God acted to rescue the “African blasphemer.”
Newton awoke to a violent storm as his room began to fill with water. He was assigned to the pumps and heard himself say, “If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us” (Memoirs, 1:26). It was the first time he had expressed the need for mercy in many years. He worked the pumps from three in the morning until noon, slept for an hour, and then took the helm and steered the ship till midnight. At the wheel, he had time to think back over his life and his spiritual condition.
At about six o’clock the next evening it seemed as though there might be hope. “I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favor. I began to pray: I could not utter the prayer of faith; I could not draw near to a reconciled God, and call him Father. . . . The comfortless principles of infidelity were deeply riveted. . . . The great question now was, how to obtain faith” (Memoirs, 1:28).
Slave Trader Turned Preacher
For six years after this time, Newton said he had no “Christian friend or faithful minister to advise me.” He became the captain of a slave-trading ship and went to sea again until December 1749. In his mature years he came to feel intense remorse for his participation in the slave trade, and he joined William Wilberforce in opposing it. Thirty years after leaving the sea, he wrote an essay, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, which closed with a reference to “a commerce so iniquitous, so cruel, so oppressive, so destructive, as the African Slave Trade!” (Memoirs, 6:123).
In 1764 Newton accepted the call to be the pastor of the Church of England parish in Olney and served there for almost sixteen years. Then he accepted the call at age 54 to St. Mary’s Woolnoth in London, where he began his 27-year ministry on December 8, 1779. His eyes and ears were failing, and his good friend Richard Cecil suggested he cease preaching when he turned 80, to which Newton responded, “What! Shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak?” (Memoirs, 1:88).
John and Mary had no children of their own, but adopted two nieces. When Mary died seventeen years before John, he lived with the family of one of these nieces and was cared for by her as if he were her own father. Newton died on December 21, 1807, at the age of 82.
Newton’s Tenderness
We turn now to John Newton’s tenderness, displayed first in the spontaneous love he felt for nearly everyone he encountered. According to Cecil, “Mr. Newton could live no longer than he could love” (Memoirs, 1:95). His love to people was the signature of his life. He loved perishing people, and he loved his own flock of redeemed people.
Whoever . . . has tasted of the love of Christ, and has known, by his own experience, the need and the worth of redemption, is enabled, Yea, he is constrained, to love his fellow creatures. He loves them at first sight. (Memoirs, 5:132)
It’s the phrase at first sight that stands out in this quote. Newton’s first reflex was to love lost people.
Newton also displayed a clear mark of Christlike tenderness in his love for children. “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them” (Mark 10:14) is the badge of tenderness that Jesus wore. When Newton came to Olney, one of the first things he did was begin a meeting for children on Thursday afternoons. He met with them himself, gave them assignments, and spoke to them from the Bible. At one point he said, “I suppose I have 200 that will constantly attend” (John Newton, 143).
We see perhaps the most remarkable instance of Newton’s tenderness in his care for William Cowper, the mentally ill poet and hymn writer who came to live in Olney during twelve of Newton’s sixteen years there. Newton took Cowper into his home for five months during one season and fourteen months during another, when the poet was so depressed it was hard for him to function alone. In fact, Cecil said that over Newton’s whole lifetime, “His house was an asylum for the perplexed or afflicted” (Memoirs, 1:95).
What would most of us have done with a depressed person who could scarcely move out of his house? William Jay summed up Newton’s response: “He had the tenderest disposition; and always judiciously regarded his friend’s depression and despondency as a physical effect, for the removal of which he prayed, but never reasoned or argued with him concerning it” (John Newton, 41).
Now, where did such tenderness come from? What were the roots that sustained such patience, mercy, and love?
Physician in Bedlam
Few things will tend to make you more tender than to be much in the presence of suffering and death. “My course of study,” Newton said, “like that of a surgeon, has principally consisted in walking the hospital” (Memoirs, 1:100). His biblical assessment of the misery that he saw was that some, but not much, of it can be removed in this life. He would give his life to bring as much relief and peace for time and eternity as he could. But he would not be made hard and cynical by irremediable miseries like Cowper’s mental illness.
“I endeavor to walk through the world as a physician goes through Bedlam [the famous insane asylum]: the patients make a noise, pester him with impertinence, and hinder him in his business; but he does the best he can, and so gets through” (John Newton, 103). In other words, his tender patience and persistence in caring for difficult people came, in part, from a very sober and realistic view of what to expect from this world. Life is hard, and God is good.
This sober realism about what we can expect from this fallen world is a crucial root of habitual tenderness in the life of John Newton.
Saved Wretch
Newton comes back to his own salvation more than anything as the source of tenderness. Till the day he died, he never ceased to be amazed that, as he said at age 72, “such a wretch should not only be spared and pardoned, but reserved to the honor of preaching thy Gospel, which he had blasphemed and renounced . . . this is wonderful indeed! The more thou hast exalted me, the more I ought to abase myself” (Memoirs, 1:86).
Newton expressed this sentiment most famously in his hymn “Amazing Grace”:
Amazing grace! — how sweet the sound —
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The effect of this amazement is tenderness toward others. The “wretch” who has been saved by grace “believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him an habitual tenderness and gentleness of spirit. Humble under a sense of much forgiveness to himself, he finds it easy to forgive others” (Memoirs, 1:70).
Glad-hearted, grateful lowliness and brokenness as a saved “wretch” was probably the most prominent root of Newton’s habitual tenderness with people.
Peaceful Beneath God’s Providence
In order to maintain love and tenderness that thinks more about the other person’s need than our own comforts, we must have an unshakable hope that the sadness of our lives will work for our everlasting good. Otherwise, we will give in, turn a deaf ear to need, and say, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Newton found this peace and confidence in the all-governing providence of God over good and evil. He describes his own experience when he describes the believer:
His faith upholds him under all trials, by assuring him that every dispensation is under the direction of his Lord; that chastisements are a token of his love; that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings, are appointed by Infinite Wisdom, and designed to work for his everlasting good; and that grace and strength shall be afforded him, according to his day. (Memoirs, 1:169)
This unshakable confidence that the all-governing providence of God will make every experience turn for his good steadied, strengthened, and sustained Newton so that he didn’t spend his life murmuring, but singing: “’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
Friday, January 25, 2019
Our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting comes to an End this weekend
Our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting comes to an end this weekend as we gather for worship on Sunday.
As we have done the past two years, we will this Sunday devote the entire morning worship service to prayer. It will be a service of Scripture reading, singing, praying, silence and crying out to the Lord. We will also baptize Sunday morning.
Come prepared to meet with the Lord.
Also, there is a special Rainsville Community Prayer Service tomorrow at Broadway Baptist Church. The schedule:
9-10 AM we will join with Broadway as they broadcast the daily prayer service from The Church of the Highlands.
10:00 AM - we will have a special local service praying for our Community leaders and our community. We should dismiss by 10:15. All the churches are invited as this service will be led by the Rainsville Ministers Fellowship.
If you did not get a "hard copy" of the 21 Day devotional I wrote, here is the link to the online version.
As we have done the past two years, we will this Sunday devote the entire morning worship service to prayer. It will be a service of Scripture reading, singing, praying, silence and crying out to the Lord. We will also baptize Sunday morning.
Come prepared to meet with the Lord.
Also, there is a special Rainsville Community Prayer Service tomorrow at Broadway Baptist Church. The schedule:
9-10 AM we will join with Broadway as they broadcast the daily prayer service from The Church of the Highlands.
10:00 AM - we will have a special local service praying for our Community leaders and our community. We should dismiss by 10:15. All the churches are invited as this service will be led by the Rainsville Ministers Fellowship.
If you did not get a "hard copy" of the 21 Day devotional I wrote, here is the link to the online version.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Our Wednesday night service (1-23-19) - 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting
This is the last few days of our annual 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Our theme has been "PRAYER: A Disciple's One Request" based on Luke 11: 1-4.
Due to the concert this Sunday night, we will not be able to have our annual service of hearing what God has done and rejoicing over the grace of God in our lives.
So, we are using the three Wednesday nights during these 21 days to reflect and rejoice together. The past two Wednesday nights have been delightful times of prayer and hearing testimonies from His people. Tonight should be the same.
Join us at 6:10 for this prayer service or join us on Facebook (Rainsville First) or on our web site (https://rfbc.sermon.net.com).
Then this Saturday we are joining together with Broadway Baptist Church and other believers across our city for our second annual Community Prayer Service beginning at 9:00 a.m. The first hour will be joining The Church of the Highlands service and then at 10:00 we will have a special time of prayer for our Community Leaders and our community.
Due to the concert this Sunday night, we will not be able to have our annual service of hearing what God has done and rejoicing over the grace of God in our lives.
So, we are using the three Wednesday nights during these 21 days to reflect and rejoice together. The past two Wednesday nights have been delightful times of prayer and hearing testimonies from His people. Tonight should be the same.
Join us at 6:10 for this prayer service or join us on Facebook (Rainsville First) or on our web site (https://rfbc.sermon.net.com).
Then this Saturday we are joining together with Broadway Baptist Church and other believers across our city for our second annual Community Prayer Service beginning at 9:00 a.m. The first hour will be joining The Church of the Highlands service and then at 10:00 we will have a special time of prayer for our Community Leaders and our community.
Monday, January 21, 2019
WHY THE NORTH AMERICAN CHURCH IS UNLIKELY TO EXPERIENCE REVIVAL by Chuck Lawless
First, a caveat: I strongly believe that revival is the gift of God, and He grants it sovereignly according to His plan. My point with this post, though, is not that we somehow control God’s event calendar; instead, it’s that our church culture doesn’t exhibit some of the characteristics that have preceded God’s great movements. Here’s why I wonder if the North American church will experience revival:
- We’re not really desperate for God. We may use that kind of “desperation” terminology, but the words don’t always reflect our heart. It’s been some time since I’ve seen a congregation that pleads for God’s presence.
- We tend to speak about the sin of others rather than deal with our own sin. We preach strongly against sins that we sometimes tolerate under our own roof. Few people are so broken over personal sin that they can only cry out to God.
- We find happiness in our stuff. Sure, we know it’s all fleeting, but we treat it as if it weren’t. The more stuff we have, the “happier” we feel and the less we need God – and we often have much more stuff than people around the world do.
- We know little of the Word of God and often less about church history. We don’t know enough about the stories of God’s miraculous intervention and powerful displays to long to see the same. Our general lack of knowledge equates to a corresponding lack of burden.
- We have too few persevering, patient, persistent prayer warriors. Our praying is usually reactionary; that is, we pray only when we must. Not many of us lie on our faces pleading with God to fall on us with His power.
- We can grow churches without the power of God. That growth may not be the result of non-believers gloriously transformed by the grace of God, but it still results in increased numbers. And, churches that show any record of growth seldom begin praying for revival.
- We’re probably not ready to pay the cost of revival. When God falls on us in His power, the result must be a brokenness that leads to repentance from sin and weeping over lostness. It means calling the church to holiness and dealing appropriately with members who choose to live in rebellion. Revival often wounds first before it heals – and I’m simply not convinced the North American church is ready for that.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Has America ever been this bad?
In my preparation for the Noah series, I remembered some material I found years ago about how "non-Christian" our nation was years ago. We often think - things have never been this bad in America before. But that is not true. Read on...
Below is taken from Dr. J. Edwin Orr, a historian of
revival. You can read the entire
dialogue with Nancy Leigh DeMoss at
Not many people realize that in the wake of the
American Revolution, there was a moral slump.
Drunkenness was epidemic. Out of a population of five
million, three hundred thousand were confirmed drunkards. They were burying
fifteen thousand of them each year. Profanity was of the most shocking kind.
For the first time in the history of the American settlement, women were afraid
to go out at night for fear of assault. Bank robberies were a daily occurrence.
The largest denomination at that time was the
Methodists, and they were losing more members than they were gaining. The
second largest was the Baptists. They said that "they had their most
wintry season." The Presbyterians met in general assembly to deplore the
ungodliness of the country. The Congregationalists were strongest in New
England. Take a typical church—the Rev. Samuel Shepherd of Lennox,
Massachusetts said, "In sixteen years they had not taken one young
person into fellowship."
The Lutherans were so languishing that they discussed
uniting with Episcopalians, who were even worse off. The Protestant Episcopal
Bishop of New York, Bishop Samuel Provost, quit functioning. He had confirmed
no one for so long that he decided he was out of work, so he took up other
employment.
The Chief Justice of the United States, John
Marshall, wrote to the Bishop of Virginia, Bishop Madison, that "the
Church is too far gone ever to be redeemed." Voltaire said, “Christianity
will be forgotten in thirty years time.” And Thomas Paine preached this
cheerfully all over America.
In case you think it was the hysteria of the moment,
Kenneth Scott Latourette, the great church historian said, “It seemed as if
Christianity were about to be ushered out of the affairs of men.” The churches
had their backs to the wall—it seemed as if they were about to be wiped out.
Take the colleges at that time.
•
They took a poll at
Harvard, and they discovered not one believer in the whole student body.
•
They took a poll at
Princeton, a much more evangelical place, where they discovered only two
believers in the student body, and only five that did not belong to the filthy
speech movement of that day.
•
Students rioted.
•
They held a mock
communion at Williams College.
•
They had
anti-Christian plays at Dartmouth.
•
They burned down the
Nassau Hall at Princeton.
•
They forced the
resignation of the president of Harvard.
•
They took a Bible out of
a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey, and they burnt it in a public
bonfire.
•
Christians were so few
on campus that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and kept their
minutes in code so that no one would know what they were doing to persecute
them.
-->
Friday, January 11, 2019
New Series of Sermons on Noah beginning this Sunday
Noah...a major film was made in 2014 on this man.
Noah...a man who is quite controversial. Was there really a flood? Worldwide flood? Localized? Was there literally an ark? Was this man mentally deranged believing in something that had never been experienced?
Answers in Genesis has built a replicate of the Ark in Kentucky and it reaches thousands of guests each year.
Jesus mentioned Noah...twice. Luke 17: 26-27 and in Matthew 24: 36-39 and in both instances Jesus is referring to the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus links His second coming to Noah...how? why?
This Sunday, we continue our journey through the book of Genesis as we look at Noah - this wonderful man who was a "preacher of righteousness" (II Peter 2:5) and is a likeness of Christ, Himself. This Sunday we will begin with Jesus and his statement about Noah in Matthew 24 around the theme of "As Were The Days of Noah."
This Sunday I continue the series "Restore Your Church" as we continue to look at the issue of Leadership in the local church concerning Elders and Deacons.
Noah...a man who is quite controversial. Was there really a flood? Worldwide flood? Localized? Was there literally an ark? Was this man mentally deranged believing in something that had never been experienced?
Answers in Genesis has built a replicate of the Ark in Kentucky and it reaches thousands of guests each year.
Jesus mentioned Noah...twice. Luke 17: 26-27 and in Matthew 24: 36-39 and in both instances Jesus is referring to the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus links His second coming to Noah...how? why?
This Sunday, we continue our journey through the book of Genesis as we look at Noah - this wonderful man who was a "preacher of righteousness" (II Peter 2:5) and is a likeness of Christ, Himself. This Sunday we will begin with Jesus and his statement about Noah in Matthew 24 around the theme of "As Were The Days of Noah."
This Sunday I continue the series "Restore Your Church" as we continue to look at the issue of Leadership in the local church concerning Elders and Deacons.
Monday, January 7, 2019
5 Spiritual Dangers of Skipping Church by Nathan Rose
I read recently that my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, has a total of 16 million members, but on a typical Sunday only 6 million of those members attend their local church’s corporate worship gathering. Considering the importance and necessity of corporate worship for the Christian, this is a very discouraging statistic. Not only is it disheartening, it is also spiritually dangerous for those who profess Christ, but regularly miss worship with their church family. Below, I want to list some reasons and explain why skipping church is a really bad idea. [1]
1. You will miss out on God’s primary design for your spiritual growth and well-being.
The central aspect of corporate worship is the preaching of God’s Word. The proclamation of Scriptures is God’s primary means for a disciple of Jesus to grow in spiritual maturity. When a professing Christian misses church they are missing God’s prescribed process for spiritual growth.
2. You disobey God.
Corporate worship is not optional for the Christian, according to the Bible. Hebrews 10:24-25 makes this clear:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some...”
Author and pastor, Greg Gilbert comments on this passage, “At the very least, therefore, we have to say that, for every Christian, attendance at church gatherings is not optional. The author of Hebrews—and therefore the Holy Spirit himself—commands Christians to be present when the believers to whom he or she belongs gather.”
At my church, we reflect this biblical command in our church covenant, which states:
“We commit, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to...continue meeting together regularly [and] work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church, as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines”
God’s people ought to strive to keep God’s commands. One of his commands is meeting together regularly for corporate worship.
3. You make a statement to the world that God is not worthy of worship.
What we spend our time on shows what we truly value. If you miss church in order to sleep in or to attend a sporting activity, what does this say about the worth you ascribe to God? Replacing your church’s regularly scheduled worship time with some other activity demonstrates that God is not actually worthy of our worship; something else is. Unfortunately, this is the attitude and conduct of unbelievers, not God’s people.
4. You can’t minister to anyone.
Too often people think that corporate worship is only about getting their own spiritual needs met. And therefore if they don’t have any spiritual needs at that time then there is no reason for them to attend. The problem with this view of worship is that it’s too individualistic and self-centered. As Christians, our lives are to be spent serving, helping, and encouraging others.
Missing church robs you of an opportunity to serve someone other than yourself. If you are gone on Sunday morning you can’t offer a word of encouragement to someone who needs it; you can’t welcome an unbeliever who doesn’t usually come to church; you can’t pray with a fellow member who is suffering; you can’t encourage the other members with your voice during times of corporate singing; you can’t encourage your pastor with your presence while he preaches the sermon he has labored over all week. These are just a few ways you can’t serve if you are absent on Sunday morning.
5. You skip out on a foretaste of heaven.
God created us to worship him. That’s the primary reason you exist. This is why the church was redeemed and this is what God’s people will do when Jesus returns and restores our fallen world. Revelation 22:3 gives a picture of this:
“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.”
In 1988, three whales became trapped under a sheet of ice near the city of Point Barrow, Alaska. In an attempt to save the whales, rescuers dug a series of breathing holes in the ice leading back to the ocean. Two of the three whales were rescued because they were able to get the oxygen they needed and were guided in the correct direction. Similarly, Sunday morning worship is a like string of breathing holes the Lord provides for his people guiding and sustaining them until they make it to their true home in heaven.
[1] These reasons do not pertain to people who are providentially hindered. I believe there are circumstances in which it is appropriate and even necessary to miss corporate worship with your church family. Sickness, physical disablement, being out of town to take care of one’s elderly parents are just a few examples.
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