(FYI: You can watch the messages on the Ligonier site for free, which is far better than reading my posts.)
Break out session: The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon Steven Lawson
(If you love Spurgeon, love the gospel, and love the doctrines of grace, please watch this. It will be worth every minute of your time. My notes are sparse because I was listening rather than writing.)
Charles Spurgeon had the depth of Calvinism and the breadth of evangelicalism. If you only have Calvinism, you can get stoic eggheads staring at their navels. If you only have evangelicalism, you can get a manipulative gospel. Spurgeon combined both.
He was born June 19, 1834 and was raised in a Christian home. He was converted at age 15 and started preaching at age 16. He was called to pastor the New Park St. Chapel at 19. Within a year, it was standing room only. By age 20, Spurgeon preached at Exeter hall to 5000. He became pastor of the Metropolitan at age 26, which seated 6000. He founded the pastor's college and orphanages for boys and girls. He published the Sword and the Trowel and authored 135 books, 4000 sermons in 65 volumes which have sold over 300 million. Spurgeon died on January 31, 1892 at age 57.
When Spurgeon preached, his confidence was in the Word. His preaching was Christ and Him crucified, because "a sermon without Christ is an awful thing." He was a Calvinist because he was so biblical. "I believe nothing merely because Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teachings in the Word of God."
Spurgeon preached the certainty and freeness of divine grace but he preached in a way to compel the sinner to respond now. We need to learn from Spurgeon because we are in danger of being Calvinist in name and hyper-Calvinist in our practice.
Session 10: When Worlds Collide Del Tackett
We are in a conflict between contradictory worldviews. Each have a set of truth claims that purport a reality, but they all can't be true. The biggest conflict occurs not from examining what is outside but what is in ourselves.
Rejecting the meta-narrative and the consequences of rejecting the meta-narrative.
Meta - large, Narrative - story
Postmodernism rejects the meta-narrative, scoffing at any sense that there is a larger story. This is what Satan was doing when he spoke to Eve. God had already told Adam and Eve the larger story, but Satan offered another narrative - another story that pretends to give an all-encompassing explanation of history or life to legitimize some version of truth.
This is what causes us to believe there is something more appealing about my script. Do we really believe there is a meta-narrative that is a good meta-narrative even if it brings hardship, pain, suffering, and rejection? Is. 46:9-11, Jer. 29:11, Phil. 2:13 We will have no future and no hope if we do not live in the larger story of God. We may think we have these things, but not if it's according to our own scripts.
What is truth?
- Truth is transcendent, eternal, absolute, immutable, exclusive. Truth does not emanate from me.
- Truth is propositional, objective, it can be expressed and is knowable.
- Truth is consequential. There are consequences with how we respond to the truth and consequences when we reject the truth.
Consequences of rejecting God's story?
We believe "it's all about you", your story, your script. We live in a world filled with manipulators trying to manipulate you into fulfilling their story. This leads to a death of relationships, because we only care about people when they enhance my story. Isolation, alienation, rejection of authority, loneliness (This is the most technologically connected generation, but the loneliest. The lie "it's all about you" has pulled out the rug from under true relationships because they are built on sacrifice.) anger, hatred, bitterness, depression, despondency, lack of hope.
What does this have to do with the Christian mind? Everything! What are we going to do when we write our script and someone trashes it? Are you going to base how you walk on how you feel or base how you walk on what you believe is really real?
In the garden, Jesus prayed "Not my will by thine be done". "Not my script, but Your script." We enter by the narrow gate. The sign over the broad gate is "It's all about you." But the sign over the narrow gate is "It's all about Him."
May we not lose sight of the meta-narrative, the larger story, God's promises, His decrees. Help our unbelief that we may glorify Him.
Break out session: The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon Steven Lawson
(If you love Spurgeon, love the gospel, and love the doctrines of grace, please watch this. It will be worth every minute of your time. My notes are sparse because I was listening rather than writing.)
Charles Spurgeon had the depth of Calvinism and the breadth of evangelicalism. If you only have Calvinism, you can get stoic eggheads staring at their navels. If you only have evangelicalism, you can get a manipulative gospel. Spurgeon combined both.
He was born June 19, 1834 and was raised in a Christian home. He was converted at age 15 and started preaching at age 16. He was called to pastor the New Park St. Chapel at 19. Within a year, it was standing room only. By age 20, Spurgeon preached at Exeter hall to 5000. He became pastor of the Metropolitan at age 26, which seated 6000. He founded the pastor's college and orphanages for boys and girls. He published the Sword and the Trowel and authored 135 books, 4000 sermons in 65 volumes which have sold over 300 million. Spurgeon died on January 31, 1892 at age 57.
When Spurgeon preached, his confidence was in the Word. His preaching was Christ and Him crucified, because "a sermon without Christ is an awful thing." He was a Calvinist because he was so biblical. "I believe nothing merely because Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teachings in the Word of God."
Spurgeon preached the certainty and freeness of divine grace but he preached in a way to compel the sinner to respond now. We need to learn from Spurgeon because we are in danger of being Calvinist in name and hyper-Calvinist in our practice.
Session 10: When Worlds Collide Del Tackett
We are in a conflict between contradictory worldviews. Each have a set of truth claims that purport a reality, but they all can't be true. The biggest conflict occurs not from examining what is outside but what is in ourselves.
Rejecting the meta-narrative and the consequences of rejecting the meta-narrative.
Meta - large, Narrative - story
Postmodernism rejects the meta-narrative, scoffing at any sense that there is a larger story. This is what Satan was doing when he spoke to Eve. God had already told Adam and Eve the larger story, but Satan offered another narrative - another story that pretends to give an all-encompassing explanation of history or life to legitimize some version of truth.
This is what causes us to believe there is something more appealing about my script. Do we really believe there is a meta-narrative that is a good meta-narrative even if it brings hardship, pain, suffering, and rejection? Is. 46:9-11, Jer. 29:11, Phil. 2:13 We will have no future and no hope if we do not live in the larger story of God. We may think we have these things, but not if it's according to our own scripts.
What is truth?
- Truth is transcendent, eternal, absolute, immutable, exclusive. Truth does not emanate from me.
- Truth is propositional, objective, it can be expressed and is knowable.
- Truth is consequential. There are consequences with how we respond to the truth and consequences when we reject the truth.
Consequences of rejecting God's story?
We believe "it's all about you", your story, your script. We live in a world filled with manipulators trying to manipulate you into fulfilling their story. This leads to a death of relationships, because we only care about people when they enhance my story. Isolation, alienation, rejection of authority, loneliness (This is the most technologically connected generation, but the loneliest. The lie "it's all about you" has pulled out the rug from under true relationships because they are built on sacrifice.) anger, hatred, bitterness, depression, despondency, lack of hope.
What does this have to do with the Christian mind? Everything! What are we going to do when we write our script and someone trashes it? Are you going to base how you walk on how you feel or base how you walk on what you believe is really real?
In the garden, Jesus prayed "Not my will by thine be done". "Not my script, but Your script." We enter by the narrow gate. The sign over the broad gate is "It's all about you." But the sign over the narrow gate is "It's all about Him."
May we not lose sight of the meta-narrative, the larger story, God's promises, His decrees. Help our unbelief that we may glorify Him.
What a wonderful message. I'll have to find time to watch it.
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