"Growing in Godliness" Sermon

Here is a sermon I preached recently at Bethel Grace Baptist Church.

The four points covered are...

-What Godliness is not
-What Godliness is
-How Godliness is increased
-Godliness and past sins


God Bless,

Doug

Preach as if Your Life Depended on It

Minister, preach as if your very life is dependent upon the gospel you are proclaiming, because it is.

Doug

Opium and Preaching

For years opium has been popular because it gives people a false sense of peace and stupefies them to any legitimate fears, which seems to be the same method used to gain popularity by many modern preachers.

Doug

Application Without Exegesis: A Destructive Trend

Exegesis is foundational to understand scripture’s application to our lives. The problem is that many in the church want to hear the application without doing the work of the exegete. In many cases this has also been translated into the way many preachers preach. In order to keep congregants happy, they are given large amounts of life application with little if any scriptural content. This puts both the preacher and the congregant in a dangerous position, because now neither the preacher nor the churchgoer is tethered to the text. Two major problems can arise in the life of the church member because of this. First, even if the application of scripture is correct, when it is challenged by those who disagree, the church member is left defenseless when it comes to defending this truth biblically. And second, if the application is not truly derived from scripture, then the church member has been sold some kind self-help scheme as if were a “biblical principle.” And when this self help scheme eventually lets them down, not only will they be disappointed in the church, but they may even start to believe scripture is no longer trustworthy. This is indeed a destructive trend.

-Doug Eaton-

God's Plan To Prosper You Includes Your Death

For the Christian, God's plan to prosper and not to harm you includes your death. Often when we talk about trials and God doing his work in us, we think about Job, but what about the Christian who dies in the prime of life and didn't escape their trial? Did God fail to prosper them, or do we have to assume that they deserved it? The answer to both of these questions is, no. God's is doing a work that is bigger than us, and His ways are higher than ours.

God Bless,

Doug

How to Be Irrelevant

Homosexuality: Be Careful What You Say

What I find when it comes to the topic of homosexuality, is that many times Christians want to soft-peddle it in order to make people comfortable. This desire to soft-peddle tends to be driven by the outrage that is often unleashed by the homosexual community upon those who think their lifestyle is sinful. When we see this, many think, oh no, we have offended them, they will never know we love them if we do that. The problem with this type of thinking is that it usually assumes that the outrage is justified when in fact it is not. Often, the charges against Christians have nothing to do with the homosexuals actually being unloved, and have more to do with them not wanting anyone to tell them they are in sin. If we kowtow to these objections we are actually bowing in reverence to their sinful rebellion to the Word of God. I for one chose not to do this because I love them dearly and see them as totally depraved sinners, just like I was until I was brought to faith by the conviction of the Law, and told how Christ fulfilled the Law on my behalf and bore my wrath on the cross. It will not do to act like someone sins are small and then present the Gospel. Like Luther said, Christ did not pay a meager price on a meager cross for someones meager sins. He paid the ultimate price, because our sin (mine, yours, and the homosexual's) are disgusting and need to be rejected immediately.

Doug

Porn and Paper Pastors - Dan Phillips

Here is a thought provoking post by Dan Phillips of the Pyromaniacs.

Porn and Paper Pastors

God Bless,

Doug

The Importance of Preaching Damnation - Brian Brodersen

Gospel Distractions

'Not all distractions to the Gospel seem like distractions. Sometimes they may even seem helpful."

(Sorry about the audio, it is a new camera and I am still working out the settings)

An Important Message About Sharing the Gospel From Penn of Penn and Teller (an atheist)

Jesus Never Sought to Amuse Them

Jesus pitied sinners, pleaded with them, sighed over them, warned them, and wept over them; but He never sought to amuse them!

When many of His disciples turned away, because of the searching nature of His preaching--I do not find there was any attempt to bring them back, by resorting to something more pleasant to the flesh. I do not hear Him saying, "We must keep up the gatherings at any cost! So run after the people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow! Something very short and attractive, with little, if any, preaching. Today was a service for God--but tomorrow we will have a pleasant evening for the people! Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it, and have a pleasant time. Be quick, Peter! We must get the people somehow; if not by Gospel--then by entertainment!"

No, this was not how He argued. Gazing in sorrow on those who would not hear the Word--He simply turns to the twelve, and asks, "Will you go away also?"

-Archibald Brown-

You can read Brown's entire article here, "The Devil's Mission of Amusement".

Can You Lose Your Salvation? mp3

Here is an MP3 download of two sermons I recently preached on the topic of eternal security and perseverance of the saints.

Kept by the Power of God

Part 1 makes a case from Scripture for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

Part 2 looks at arguments and scriptures used to argue that you can lose your salvation.

Both parts are included in the download. The video above only contains part 1.


God Bless,

Doug

***Updated 6/29/08***



Lane Chaplin has graciously added the full length version of this sermon to his youtube channel. For those of you who do not know Lane, he works with several ministries by uploading video and audio content for them. Because of this work youtube has granted him permission to upload full length video and sermons. His youtube channel is one of the best on the web if you are looking for some great Christian and theological content. Be sure to give him a visit.

Lane's Blog

Lane's Youtube Channel

Doug

More Great Theology Lectures (MP3)

Gospel Prizim has put together a great list of resources if you are looking for more theology lectures. See the link below.

Virtual M. Div.

Enjoy,

Doug

10 Ways for Pastors to Hinder the Church.

After reading 10 Ways to Hinder your church, a friend asked me for a separate list for pastors. Here is what I came up with. Can you think of any others?

1. Avoid preaching the Word of God.

2. Be more concerned about what people think than what God thinks.

3. Realize preaching is really about entertainment.

4. Never take time off.

5. Spend all your time on secondary matters and never really get to the Gospel.

6. Get a hobby horse and ride it every week.

7. Don’t study; just expect the Spirit to give you your sermon as to walk up to the pulpit.

8. When you have a point to make but don’t know how to make it, shout louder.

9. Exegete movie quotes as the text of your sermon.

10. Realize that it’s not about truth, it’s all about how people feel.

May we all preach the Word.

-Doug-

Do You Know the Time?

This is me preaching to the camera in my garage again for whatever it is worth. :-) This video is looking at Romans 13:11-12.

Thoughts on Soul Winning

“We do not regard it to be soul-winning to steal members out of churches already established, and train them to utter our peculiar Shibboleth: we aim rather at bringing souls to Christ than at making converts to our synagogue.”

"In the next place, we do not consider soul-winning to be accomplished by hurriedly inscribing more names upon our church-roll, in order to show a good increase at the end of the year. This is easily done, and there are brethren who use great pains, not to say arts, to effect it; but if it be regarded as the Alpha and Omega of a minister's efforts, the result will be deplorable."

"Teach gospel doctrines clearly, affectionately, simply, and plainly, and especially those truths which have a present and practical bearing upon man's condition and God's grace. Some enthusiasts would seem to have imbibed the notion that, as soon as a minister addresses the unconverted, he should deliberately contradict his usual doctrinal discourses, because it is supposed that there will be no conversions if he preaches the whole counsel of God. It just comes to this, brethren, it is supposed that we are to conceal truth, and utter a half-falsehood, in order to save souls. We are to speak the truth to God's people because they will not hear anything else; but we are to wheedle sinners into faith by exaggerating one part of truth, and hiding the rest until a more convenient season. This is a strange theory, and yet many endorse it.”

“To try to win a soul for Christ by keeping that soul in ignorance of any truth, is contrary to the mind of the Spirit; and to endeavour to save men by mere claptrap, or excitement, or oratorical display, is as foolish as to hope to hold an angel with bird-lime, or lure a star with music. The best attraction is the gospel in its purity. The weapon with which the Lord conquers men is the truth as it is in Jesus. The gospel will be found equal to every emergency; an arrow which can pierce the hardest heart, a balm which will heal the deadliest wound. Preach it, and preach nothing else.”

C.H. Spurgeon- The Soul Winner-

PS. I posted this a couple of years ago but thought it was worthy of a repost.

Was That Worship?

I had a co-worker once who loved just about everything Disney. He put a sticker on his car, and would proudly wear Disney hats and shirts. He was one of the managers at the store where I was working, and I remember one day when everything was going wrong he said to me, when this day is over I am going home and I’m going to watch an old Disney movie. When I pressed him a bit as to why he chose to watch an old Disney movie as opposed to anything else, he said, "Disney things just bring me back to when I was a kid." Ultimately there was a sense of nostalgia from all the memories of growing up, and these things moved his affections in a way that made him feel a bit better after a hard day.

On another note (no pun intended), music has a way of doing the same type of things for us. I can remember in high school and college and it even happens now occasionally, when I would be listening to secular radio, and that new song that I had been waiting to hear would come on. Immediately, I would turn up the volume and I would be energized by what I was hearing, singing along with all the passion I could muster.

Now there really is nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia and being energized or moved by some piece of music, but when you put these things together with a Christian worship service or program we must be careful to discern our affections. I bring this up because sometimes I think we can be misled to think that we have had a time of worship or that we have heard a really good sermon simply because our affections were moved.

We must pay close attention to what is actually moving our affections in order to discern whether or not it is worship or even spiritual. When those first chords of our favorite praise song are played by the worship leader, are we being energized much like any natural man who hears a secular song that causes him to turn up the radio or are we really worshipping? And when grandma’s favorite Hymn starts to play and causes us to experience a time of peace and contentment while thinking back to when she used to sing it to us as a child, do we sometimes confuse that with worship?

Now I am not saying we should only sing boring songs or songs that don’t remind us of anything, or that it is impossible to really be worshipping during these times. In fact, I think it can be good at times to remember our family worship from when we were growing up, and I also think it is good that we still have people today writing new psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for us to sing today that get us excited. But what I want to stress is that simply because we have these moments does not mean we are worshipping or that we have been moved by in adoration of God. Charles Spurgeon once said that if he wanted to, he could move congregations to tears by telling them sad stories of mothers with sick children or energize them by telling them stories of men and women who accomplished great things. But he said it would be a waste of time unless they where moved to cry over their sin and take joy in Christ and the cross.

Even the natural man’s affections can be moved in strong ways, but those affections will never be worship unless they are moved by the word of God as it points us to Christ and what He has done for us. Whether we attend a modern or traditional worship service is not the biggest issue, but we must be sure to seek out worship and preaching that convicts us of sin, and shows us the remedy in Christ.

-Doug Eaton-

Southern Seminary Sermons MP3

Here is the link for he Spring 2007 chapel services for Southern Seminary.

Spring 2007 Chapel Services for SBTS

I highly recommend the first one on the list by Al Mohler on desiring to know nothing except Christ crucified. It's a good message for preachers and teachers of the Gospel.

God Bless,

Doug

Present-Day Religion

Present-Day religion far too often soothes the conscience instead of instead of awakening it; and produces a sense of self-satisfaction and eternal safety rather than a sense of our unworthiness.

~Martin Lloyd Jones~