"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

1 & 2 Peter Bible Study Audio (MP3)

The audio for the lectures from the Strength for the Struggle class are being posted at the link below. We are slowly honing in on the recording quality. The first lesson did not get recorded, and the second lesson has a little distortion, but lessons three and four seem to be pretty clear. This link also has a lot of great sermons and lectures by pastor Jeff Saltzmann and other great teachers at Bethel Grace Baptist Church.

Bethel Grace Baptist Church Sermon Archives

God Bless,

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-

You Must Suffer - John Piper

Making Light of Christ - Charles Spurgeon

"But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise."—Matthew 22:5.

Oh! my hearer, thou makest light of Christ, if thou puttest him anywhere save in the centre of thine heart. He who gives Christ a little of his affections, makes light of Christ; for Christ will have the whole heart or none at all. He who gives Christ a portion, and the world a portion, despises Christ, for he seems to think that Christ does not deserve to have the whole. And inasmuch as he says that, or thinks that, he hath mean and unholy thoughts of Christ. Oh! carnal man, thou who art half religious, and half profane; thou who art sometimes serious, but as often frivolous; sometimes apparently pious, but yet so often unholy, thou makest light of Christ. And ye who weep on the Sunday, and then go back to your sins on the Monday; ye who set the world and its pleasures before Christ, ye think less of him than he deserves; and what is that but to make light of him? Oh! I charge you, ask yourself, my hearer this night, art not thou the man? dost thou not thou thyself make light of Christ? The self-righteous man who sets himself up as a partner with Christ in the matter of salvation, notwithstanding all his trumpery good works, is such a ringleader among despisers, that I would gibbet him in the very middle of them, and bid all like him tremble, lest they also be found slighters of Jesus.

Charles H. Spurgeon, From the sermon "Making Light of Christ"

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

To the Disheartened

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Psa_43:5

It is one source of the eternal freshness of the Psalms that they tell the story of a struggling soul. They open a window on to that battlefield with which no other battle can be compared—the moral struggle of the individual with himself. And it is well that that story should be told in poetry, for there is nothing like poetry for describing battles. There is a rich suggestiveness in poetry, a rush of emotion, an enthusiasm that catches and conveys the excitement of the field. The dullest war correspondent grows poetical, his words become colored, vivid, picturesque, when he narrates the actions in the war. It was right, then, that for this warfare of the soul we should have the strong music of the Psalms.

Now as we read that story of the psalmist's struggle, one of the first things to arrest us is the likeness of that battle to our own. Ages have fled, and everything is different since the shepherd-king poured out his heart in melody. And yet his failures and his hopes are so like ours, he might have been shepherding and reigning yesterday. We are so apt to think we fight alone. We are so prone to think there never was a life so weak, so ragged, so full of a dull gnawing, as ours. We are so ready to believe that we have suffered more than any heart that ever loved and lost. And then God opens up the heart of David, and we see its failures and we hear its cries, and the sense of loneliness at least is gone. He prayed as we have prayed. He fell as we have fallen. He rose and started again as we have done. He was disheartened, and so are we.

Speaking of disheartenment, there is one temperament that is peculiarly exposed to that temptation. It is that of the eager and sensitive and earnest soul. If you are never in earnest about anything, you may escape disheartening altogether. To be disheartened is a kind of price we pay for having a glimpse at the heavens now and then.

"The mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain;
And the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain."

So the dull pain of being disheartened now and then is the other side of man's capacity for enthusiasm. Give me a flood-tide and I shall expect an ebb. Give me an earnest, daring, generous, loyal heart, and I shall know where to discover melancholy.

-George H. Morrison- Devotional Sermons