Entries in notes from sermon, lectures, etc. (10)
Recommended for Listening VI
The audio and video from this spring’s reFocus Canada 2008 main conference sessions is now available. reFocus Canada is a ministry of Willingdon Church in Burnaby, BC. Its purpose “is to unite Canadian pastors around a resurgent
historical evangelicalism and equip them to preach the full counsel of
God in an age of relativism.”
Looking at the list of speakers and topics, I’m guessing all of audio will be valuable for listening and learning. This afternoon, while painting windows and doors, I listened to the first session, The Basis of Authority: Authority in the Godhead, by Bruce Ware. I recognized much of the material from Ware’s book, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which I reviewed favorably three years ago and added to my short list of solid theological books suitable for the lay person.
The subject of both the book and the sermon/lecture/whatever is the relationships between the persons of the Trinity, the roles those three persons have, and how knowledge of the relationships and roles within the Trinity ought to affect the lives of believers. If you haven’t read the book, why not take an hour while you’re doing drudgework to listen to the audio of this session? If you’ve already read the book, I’m betting you’ll jump at the chance to be instructed on this topic again.
And there’s a handy-dandy set of notes for this session, too.
rebecca
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Recommended for Listening V
- The Authority of Scripture by Mark Dever. I listened to this one because I thought it might be a useful addition to this week’s theological term post. It turns out this was indeed a fine lecture to link to for more information on sola scriptura, so I updated the post to include it.
- The Troubled Soul: God’s Word and Our Feelings by C. J. Mahaney. This is a difficult time of year for me. My wedding anniversary is on Sunday and for the last couple of years I’ve struggled for a few weeks around this time. Other anniversaries that you’d think might be more distressing have been easy sailing, but this one brings a rainstorm. This message by C. J. Mahaney on Psalm 42 focuses on talking to ourselves when things are hard, just like the psalmist does. Can I let you in on a secret? I would not have made it through the past few years if I hadn’t kept on telling myself of God’s faithfulness, his sure promise that my difficulties are conforming me to the image of his Son, and the hope my future inheritance.
- Bible Q&A with Al Mohler. This is an amazing session for two reasons: None of the questions are dumb ones and Dr. Mohler handles them all easily.
rebecca
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Recommended for Listening IV
Four standouts in my recent sermon/lecture listening
- The Gospel in Four Simple Points (Phil Johnson)
- Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1 and Part 2 (John Piper)
- Selina Hastings - Lady Huntingdon (Michael Haykin)
rebecca
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Recommended for Listening III
There’s nothing like travelling to give you time to listen to sermons and lectures, and I listened to more than a few during my flights and layovers. Here are some that I would recommend to you.
John Reisinger on the Sovereignty of God
From the Canadian Carey Family Conference, 2001.
- The Sovereignty of God in Providence
- The Sovereignty of God and Decrees
- The Sovereignty of God and Prayer
- The Sovereignty of God in Salvation
- The Sovereignty of God in Personal Life
D. A. Carson on Missions as the Triumph of the Lamb
From the 2004 Missions Conference at Reformed Theological Seminary. (The lectures are intended to be heard in the order given.) HT: God is Better than All.
- Revelation 4
- Revelation 5
- Revelation 21:1-8
- Revelation 21:9-22:6
- Revelation 12
- Revelation 13
- Revelation 14
rebecca
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Recommended for Listening II
Here are a few more of Wayne Grudem’s Sunday school lessons based on his Systematic Theology that you might find helpful to you in your own Bible study:
One of Wayne Grudem’s gifts, you’ll find, is communicating in a way that almost anyone can understand, so even if you are a beginner on these issues, you won’t find these lectures too difficult for you.
(I recommended a few more of the mp3’s from this series here.)
rebecca
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Recommended for Listening
I’ve listened to many mp3 lectures, sermons, or Sunday school lessons over the past few months. Here are a few that I think are particularly interesting, informative, and valuable.
D. A. Carson (I’ve included links to my notes posted on each of these, too.)
- The Ironies of the Cross and notes.
- On Being Prepared for Suffering and Evil, Part 1 and Part 2, and notes on Part 1 and Part 2.
- What is the Gospel? and notes.
- The Canon of Scripture: Old Testament, New Testament
- The Inerrancy of Scripture: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
John Piper on Romans 9 (From Desiring God Radio)
- Freedom/Justice of God in Unconditional Election, Part 1, Part 2
- The Fame of His Name and the Freedom of Mercy, Part 1, Part 2
- The Hardening of Pharoah and the Hope of the World, Part 1, Part 2
- How God Makes Known the Riches of His Glory to the Vessels of Mercy, Part 1, Part 2
Phil Johnson
- A Survey of Heresies: Six lectures on five historical (yet recurring) heresies.
rebecca
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What is the Gospel? from D. A. Carson
Updated on Saturday, November 3, 2007 at 10:26PM by
rebecca
Here are notes from another of Donald Carson’s sermons, What is the Gospel? This one was preached last May at the 2007 Gospel Coalition Conference. I suggest you listen to the sermon for yourself and use my notes as a supplement to help you remember what you heard.
The fragmentation of the church in the west has led to a fragmented understanding of the gospel.
Common Misunderstandings of the Gospel
- The gospel is reduced to a narrow set of teachings about the death and resurrection of Christ, which rightly believed, tip people into the kingdom. After that, the real training and transformation, discipleship and maturity take place. This view is much narrower than the biblical view, in which the gospel is the embracing category which holds much of the bible together, encompassing lostness and condemnation, through reconciliation and conversion, through to the consummation and the resurrection.
rebecca
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On Preparing for Suffering and Evil from D. A. Carson
- Insights from the beginning of the Bible’s story line: Creation and fall.
- Insights from the end of the Bible’s story line: There’s a heaven to be gained, and a hell to be shunned.
- Insights from the place of innocent suffering: Job.
- Insights from the mystery of providence: God is sovereign, but human beings are responsible.
This is one of the most difficult areas to work through theologically, and yet it is very important for us to come to some sort of stable view of these matters. Carson begins with two propositions, which he says are biblically mandated for thoughtful Christians.
- God is utterly sovereign, but his sovereignty never functions to mitigate human responsibility.
- Human beings are morally responsible creatures, but their moral responsibility never functions to make God absolutely contingent (dependent on us in some way).
rebecca
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On Preparing for Suffering and Evil from D. A. Carson
If you live long enough, you will suffer. How do we think about these things?
Questions about suffering and evil are asked by the Bible itself. It’s important not to enter this topic thinking we have all the tough questions and the Bible is simplistic. Examples of tough questions about suffering and evil in the Bible: Habakkuk, Job, Psalms, Elijah, etc.
- Insights from the beginning of the Bible’s story line: Creation and fall.
This is God’s world, and when he made it he made the world good. Everything evil, dark, repulsive in it comes from Genesis 3. The Fall is revolt against the God who made us, sustains us, and who will be our judge. It is important to think through the significance of this.
The sin most offensive to God is idolatry—the degodding of God, the vertical dimension of sin. All the horizontal dimensions of sin come from the anarchy that results from the degodding of God—from us wanting to be God.
In the Bible, in all sin, God is always the most offended party. For example, when David sinned, he confessed, “Against thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight.” What makes sin so vile is that it is against God.
All the entailments of disaster, suffering, etc., spring from God’s pronouncement, “Thus far shall you go, and no more.” Unless you see this, you have not even begun to think in a Christian way about suffering and evil. When we face death, from a Christian perspective, it is the inevitable result of our rebellion. We are all under the sentence of perishing; we are all guilty.
Summary: It’s a damned world, and justly so.
rebecca
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The Ironies of the Cross from D. A. Carson
Do you have some boring spring cleaning or yard work to do? Download a good sermon, like The Ironies of the Cross from D. A. Carson, and listen while you work. Don’t worry that you can’t take notes, because I’ve already done that for you and posted them right here. And don’t think that you can skip the sermon because you’ve read my notes. The sermon has so much more, not the least of which is Don Carson’s dramatic reading of the scripture.
The text of this sermon is Matthew 27: 27-50.
The use of irony in narrative is a way of telling us what’s important in a story. In this account, Matthew gives us four ironies in the story of the cross.
The Four Ironies of the Cross
- The man who is mocked as king is king. (verses 27-31)
- The ironic statement in scripture:
And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
- How this statement is ironic: Those mocking think it’s false, but Matthew and his readers know that Jesus really is king, but a different sort of king with a different sort of kingdom. See Matthew 20:20ff, which includes this statement from Jesus:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
rebecca
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