I read a story about a Jewish man in Hungary who went to his rabbi and complained, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Take your goat into the room with you.” The man was incredulous, but the rabbi insisted, “Do as I say and come back in a week.” A week later the man returned looking more distraught than before. “We can’t stand it,” he told the rabbi. “The goat is filthy.” The rabbi said, “Go home and let the goat out, and come back in a week.” A week later the man returned, radiant, exclaiming, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat--only the nine of us.”[1]
Read moreProsperity and Poverty (Both can be God’s will)
Joel Osteen famously said in a tweet, "It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty.” God’s Word, however, teaches that it is not always God’s will for His people to experience prosperity. Jesus was born poor and he died poor (click to open). Surely, the servant is not greater than his master. God’s Word also teaches that sometimes poverty is God’s will for His people. The apostle Paul died in abject poverty in the cold and damp Mamertine Prison in Rome. He had to request Timothy to bring him warm clothing for the coming winter. The Prosperity Gospel teaches the opposite.
Read moreA Proverb for Mom and Dad
Last week, six-year-old Mason Stonehouse used his dad’s cell phone and the Grubhub app, to order over $1000.00 dollars of food. He ordered 5 plates of 20-piece jumbo shrimp, chicken sandwiches, chili cheese fries, over $400 of pepperoni pizza, ice cream, etc. After the home deliveries just kept coming, the dad, Keith Stonehouse, figured out what had happened. The dad had let his son use his cell phone to play games for thirty minutes before bedtime. Keith found his son hiding under the comforter on his bed. When his dad asked Mason why he did it, Mason replied, “I don’t know, I was hungry.” Well, Mason went to bed hungry that evening. Mason was not going to reap any of the benefits of his misdeeds. His parents also took the $115 in his piggy bank to help off the food debt. Obviously, Mason lost his cell phone privileges.
Parenting at times can be very challenging.
Read moreFactual Data Sheet for Hebrew Poetry (Proverbs) Part One
I got the idea for “The Factual Data” sheet from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for all sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres of Scripture instead of one size fits all. I have a "The Factual Data" Sheet also for Pauline Epistles and Narratives.
D. Brent Sandy and Roald L. Giese, Jr. in their book Cracking Old Testament Codes have a helpful chapter on interpreting Proverbs: “Proverbs” by Ted A. Hildebrandt. Roy B. Zuck is the editor of Learning from the Sages: Selected Studies on the Book of Proverbs. This is a thorough treatment of Proverbs. Jeffery D. Arthurs has a chapter on preaching from Hebrew poetry in his book Preaching with Variety: How to Re-create the Dynamics of Biblical Genres. In chapter seven, Short Sentences Long Remembered. The form of the genre, in this case, Proverb, should influence the form of the sermon.
Read moreHow to help the dying face death!
Kent R. Hughes related the following story about a pastor who helped a thirty-eight-old mother of four to die.
In the late 1970s, Margie, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of four, was hooked up to a ventilator. Unlike most other patients, she was not heavily sedated. She and her husband had just been told that she had only a few days to live because of the total respiratory failure she had experienced that very morning. Young Margie took a writing pad and asked her pastor, Dr. Darryl Bodie, the bare question “How do you die?”
Read moreFear God and Fear Nothing Else
What do you fear? Or, whom do you fear? A common fear we battle is the fear of failure. I was on a panel of pastors once. We were asked what we feared most as a pastor. My response was that I feared misinterpreting the Bible and wrongly teaching it to our church. Another pastor very honestly responded that he feared failing as a pastor. So many of us fear failure. We fear failure with their friends. We fear being avoided or being rejected by our friends, not getting many likes on Facebook. We obsess over getting a “B” in school. We fear failure in our marriage. We fear our children will go astray or not succeed in life. We fear as the honest pastor failing in our careers. We consternate over losing our job, not getting that raise or promotion or recognition for hard work.
Read moreHow to live in a culture of death!
Kent R. Hughes reminds us that we live in a culture of death: “We play violent video games, watch documentaries on serial killers, and murder our unborn.”[1] The culture of death got pushed back a few steps recently. Last week, the North Carolina legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban. There can be no abortions after 12 weeks, a bill that is more restrictive than the existing law. The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, on Saturday, held a rally in order to publicly veto the bill that had been adopted by the legislature.
On Tuesday the General Assembly overrode the governor's veto of the bill and thus, this particular ban on abortions after 12 weeks in the state of North Carolina will become law. The result is as one senator said, the lives of “millions of unborn children” will be saved.
Read moreBeware of the Home Wrecker!
Some of you remember advice columnist, Ann Landers. Ottis of Wisconsin wrote Ann Landers: Eleven years ago, I walked out on a 12-year marriage. My wife was a good person, but for a long time, she was under a lot of stress. Instead of helping her, I began an affair with her best friend. This is what I gave up:
Read moreHow to Plan to Preach a Series of Sermons
It is important to start early in your planning. Six months in advance will give you time to start reading through the book and even having your devotions from the book from which you will be eventually preaching. This is the method of Jim Rose. Haddon W. Robinson features twelve preachers in Biblical Sermons. Robinson provides a sermon by each speaker. Next, Robinson gives his commentary on the sermon. Finally, Robinson interviews each speaker. The first question in the interview with Rose was: How long does it usually take you to prepare a message? Rose answered:
Read moreAm I the kind of friend I would want to be friends with?
I called a dear friend this week. I met this friend the first week of our college freshman year. He of late has had a difficult life. For some reason, I remembered a book I read years ago: How to Win Friends and Influence People. Why has this book been so popular? This book written by Dale Carnegie in 1936 has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It still sells 250,000 copies annually. The Library of Congress in 2013 ranked this best seller as the 7th most influential book in American history.[1] Why has this self-help book been so popular?
Warren Wiersbe answered: We need Proverbs “Because just about everybody has ‘people problems’ and wants to know how to solve them.”[2] God’s manual on developing people skills was written long before Carnegie’s best seller. God wrote Proverbs to sharpen our people's skills for his glory.
Read moreA Principle of Interpretation: Figures of Speech are to be interpreted in the normal sense of language
Jeffrey D. Arthurs (2007) states in his discussion of the apocalyptic genre in Revelation: Numbers are also highly symbolic in this genre. In Revelation there are seven letters, seals, trumpets, plagues, angels, and bowls. The foundation of the city is made of twelve precious stones, and twelve thousand servants of God from each tribe of Israel are sealed. Then later he asks these questions: Why would a biblical writer use potentially hermetic symbols? What is to be gained from fantasy that cannot be gained from realism? Visionary symbols are more than stylistic choices; they are powerful rhetoric[1]
This is implying the numbers in Revelation are fantasy and serve a purpose but are not literal.
Read moreIs the future millennium on earth "carnal?"
Augustine in his City of God refers to “Chiliasts” or the “Millenarians” as those who believe in a literal future 1000 years enjoyed by those who are raised in the first resurrection. Augustine rejects this view because the “Chiliasts” and “Millenarians” have carnal and not a spiritual view of the 1000 years: “They assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate.”[2] Ryrie counters this false accusation: “Since when is the church only spiritual and the kingdom only carnal?”[3] In 1 Corinthians 3:3, Paul accused the church at Corinth of being “carnal.”
Read moreMust I Go, and Empty-Handed? Hymn Story and the Resurrection
Pastor Charles Luther in 1877 wrote the words to the hymn “Must I Go, and Empty Handed.” Before we discuss the story behind the hymn let’s consider the apostle Paul’s final application at the conclusion of his teaching on the resurrection of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul challenged us “be steadfast, immovable, always abound in the work of the Lord for you know that your labor is not in vain [without results] (15:58).” Our lives as Christians can have results if we serve our resurrected Lord faithfully. Or our lives can have no or little results if we serve unfaithfully. Paul draws this contrast when teaching on the future Judgement Seat of Christ where Christians will give an account of their service to the Lord. Some will “receive a reward (1 Cor. 3:14).” Their service was not in “vain” or without results. Others will “suffer loss” (3:15) and receive no reward or their lives will have been lived in “vain” with no rewards or crowns to cast at Jesus’ feet. We sometimes refer to this sad scene as entering heaven empty handed.
Read moreReplacement Theology
Replacement Theology, which is also called “fulfillment theology” and “supersessionism” is a hermeneutical issue. Replacement theology is a departure from a consistent grammatical-historical hermeneutic. Many reformed and covenant theologians who adhere to the allegorical method of interpretation of Scripture hold to Replacement theology. This is so because, to believe that in one form or another the New Testament Church has replaced Israel, Old Testament Scriptures must be allegorized.
Read moreProphets for Profit (Numbers 22-25)
J. Vernon McGee told of a preacher who came to his wife and said, “I’ve just gotten a call to the church in the next town. It’s a larger town. It’s a much better church. The people in it are more refined and cultured, and they do not cause the trouble they do here, and they’ve offered me a higher salary. I’m going upstairs and pray about this to see if it’s the Lord’s will for me to go.” His wife says, “Fine, I’ll go up and pray with you.” And he says, “Oh, my, no. You stay down here and pack up.”
Read moreThe Doctrine of Propitiation defends Penal Substitution (Part ten)
The Doctrine of Redemption defends Penal Substitution (Part nine)
Redemption is the price God paid to set free sinners in bondage in the slave market of sin (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18). Not only have sinners been redeemed from slavery to sin (Romans 6:17-22) but sinners have been redeemed and set free as prisoners who were on death row (Exodus 21:29-30).[1]
Read moreThe Doctrine of Justification defends Penal Substitution (Part eight)
Despite all sinners falling short of God’s glory, the sinner can be “justified” in Romans 3:24 or declared righteous. Justification in Romans means to declared righteous not to make righteous. This legal or forensic meaning is found in Deuteronomy 25:1. In this courtroom scene,[1] the guilty were to be declared guilty and the innocent were justified or declared righteous.
Read moreThe Doctrine of the Deity of Christ defends Penal Substitution (Part seven)
The “glory of God” in Romans 3:23 is the manifestation of His presence. In the Old Testament, God’s presence was the outward Shekinah glory. In the New Testament, God’s glory was manifested in Christ about whom John could testify, “we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). Every sinner has fallen short of being Christ like. He is the standard against which every person must measure himself. Every believer is presently being changed into Christ image (Romans 8:28) and one day will perfectly “be changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthian 3:18).
Read moreThe Doctrine of Sin defends Penal Substitution (Part six)
Charles Ryrie showed the sinfulness of sinners by explaining the imputation of Adam’s sin directly to sinners and the inheritance of sin indirectly from Adam through the parents of each succeeding generation. Ryrie explained the difference:
Imputed sin is transmitted directly from Adam to each individual in every generation. Since I was in Adam, Adam’s sin was imputed to me directly, not through my parents and their parents. Imputed sin is an immediate imputation (that is, directly, not through mediators between Adam and me). This contrasts with how the inherited sin nature is transmitted. It comes to me from my parents, and theirs from their parents, and so on back to Adam. Inherited sin is a mediate transmission since it comes through all the mediators of generations between Adam and me.[1]
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