More Precious Than Gold Audio

The audio from the conference is being uploaded to Mount Hermon's website. You can get to them here.

Sola Scriptura: The Sufficiency of Scripture

The sufficiency of Scripture is an incredibly practical doctrine that is fading out of style in this generation.

Many evangelical churches and Christians affirm that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God and treat it with great importance. But, at the same time, they essentially undermine its sufficiency by looking outside of the Bible for strategies to grow their church or solutions to fix their problems. Though they believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible, they see the Bible as inadequate for guiding us in this modern era. They see the Bible as an ancient book that can’t be sufficient for the 21^st century Christian or church.

Have you ever struggled with these questions? Is the Bible really necessary for living a life pleasing to God? Is the Bible sufficient to answer the questions you have about God and His plan for your life? Is the Bible just a good guide to starting a relationship with God but an outdated guide to progressing in that same relationship? Is the Bible really sufficient for your everyday struggles with depression, marriage, parenting, and finances?

The sufficiency of Scripture means that nothing else is necessary for the life of faith. We don’t need any other source of instruction in order to know and live for God in this world. The Bible doesn’t need to be supplemented by any other source on the matters it speaks authoritatively on.

Here is how John Piper defined the sufficiency of Scripture: “The Scriptures are sufficient in the sense that they are the only inspired and (therefore) inerrant words of God that we need, in order to know the way of salvation and the way of obedience.”


In my sermon on this topic, here is the definition and outline I used to affirm and defend this important doctrine:

The Bible contains all we need (1) for knowing God through the gospel, (2) for living for the glory of God in every circumstance of life, and (3) for nourishing, sustaining, and growing the church.

After discussing each of these points, I gave 6 practical implications of the sufficiency of Scripture:

1. The Sufficiency of Scripture demands that we value the Scripture as precious beyond measure.
2. The Sufficiency of Scripture demands that we not elevate our traditions and preferences to the level of Scripture.
3. The Sufficiency of Scripture demands that we not neglect anything in Scripture.
4. The Sufficiency of Scripture demands that we test everything by the truth of Scripture.
5. The Sufficiency of Scripture demands that we be content with (thankful for) the content (the substance) of Scripture.
6. The Sufficiency of Scripture demands that we labor to bring it to every people group on the planet.

Glory of Christ Conference Audio

Here is the audio from The Glory of Christ Conference:

The Glory of Christ - Justin Childers

The Glory of Christ's Life - Andy Raynor

The Glory of Christ's Death - Jonathan Brooks

The Glory of Christ's Resurrection - Dan Rolfe

The Glory of Christ's Present Work - Justin Nale

The Glory of Christ's Excellencies - Jason Gault (Audio coming soon)

The Glory of Christ

The audio from my sermon from Sunday night at the Glory of Christ conference is online. You can get it here.

Glory of Christ Conference

If you live in Eastern NC, join us for a conference on the glory of our Savior. Christ Baptist is one of 5 churches sponsoring this conference. It starts Sunday evening at Wilson Presbyterian Church at 6:30pm. You can get all the details on the speakers and locations on this flyer. Please post this info on your blog, facebook, or Twitter (and actually personally invite your friends).

God Revealed Conference Audio

God Revealed: Delighting in the Character of the Creator

March 21-24, 2010

• God has Revealed Himself: Exploring the Knowability of God – Justin Childers
• God Revealed as Sovereign: Exploring the Supremacy of God – Jim Upchurch
• God Revealed as Triune: Exploring the Nature of God – Justin Nale
• God Revealed as Holy: Exploring the Perfection of God – Jason Gault
• God Revealed as Just: Exploring the Wrath of God – Jonathan Brooks
• God Revealed as Love: Exploring the Kindness of God – Dan Rolfe
• Q & A - Justin Nale, Jonathan Brooks, Dan Rolfe, and Justin Childers

First Half of the God Revealed Conference Audio

1. The Knowability of God - Justin Childers
2. The Sovereignty of God - Jim Upchurch
3. God as Trinity - Justin Nale

To download, right click on the link and choose "save target as."

God Revealed Conference

Christ Baptist Church is co-sponsoring a conference on the attributes of God with several other area churches March 21-24.

You can find out all the details on this flyer. Please plan to join us and pass this flyer along to anyone you think may be interested in attending.

God Exposed Conference

I'm looking forward to the preaching conference this weekend at Southeastern. It's called God Exposed: Awkward Preaching in a Comfortable Age. Some of my favorite preachers will be preaching on preaching: Mark Dever, CJ Mahaney, Thabiti Anyabwile, Dr. Akin, and others. I'm really looking forward to the "sermon review" times. Pray for me. I desperately want to grow in my ability to proclaim God's Word.

Advance 09: Day 3

Danny Akin did a fantastic job expositing Hebrews 13 this morning. He drew out 9 marks of healthy churches (He should have made a joke about "9 Marks of a Healthy Church" but he passed up the opportunity).

1. Healthy churches consistently love each other (v. 1).
2. Healthy churches care for those in need (v. 2-3).
3. Healthy churches honor the divine institution of marriage and family (v. 4).
4. Healthy churches have unshakeable faith in the providence of God (v. 5-6).
5. Healthy churches respect those who teach the word and shepherd their souls (v. 7, 17, 24).
6. Healthy churches are not moved from a Christ-centered theology (v. 8-9).
7. Healthy churches are characterized by sacrifices of praise (v. 15).
8. Healthy churches are characterized by a ministry of prayer for its leaders (v. 18).
9. Healthy churches look to the Lord Jesus who will perfect them in good works (v. 20-21).

It is well worth listening to if you have time. He did some ranting on the racial segregation of our churches and the importance of the family. He concluded by making a strong point about the centrality of Christ in our theology.

Advance 09: Day 2

Another jam-packed day at the Advance conference. All the messages have been excellent. However, Driscoll's second message was the best sermon on idolatry I've ever heard. I highly recommend that you listen to it. It is also the only message I've ever heard by Driscoll in which he didn't yell.

Check the Desiring God blog for links to the audio messages.

Advance 09: Day 1

The first day of Advance '09 was excellent. The messages are already online. I highly recommend Brian Chappell's message.

Advance: A Conference about the Power of The Church

Here is the basic schedule for the Advance 09 conference I'll be attending this week. Every session looks good!

Thursday -- June 4th
01:00 : What is the Church – Mark Driscoll : Session 1
02:00 : The resurgence of the Church – Tyler Jones : Session 2
03:00 : Communicating the Gospel through preaching – Bryan Chappell : Session 3
03:45 : Preaching the Gospel to the De-churched – Matt Chandler : Session 4
05:00 : Q&A

Friday -- June 5th
09:00 : Keys to Understanding the Church & Kingdom - Ed Stetzer : Session 5
10:00 : Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church around the Gospel – J.D. Greear : Session 6
11:30 : The Ultimate Shepherd - Eric Mason : Session 7
02:30 : Ministry Idolatry – Ezekiel 14 – Mark Driscoll : Session 8
03:30 : Q & A
05:00 : Let the Nations be Glad part 1 – John Piper : Session 9

Saturday -- June 6th
09:30 : Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith – Daniel Akin : Session 10
10:45 : Let the Nations be Glad part 2 – John Piper : Session 11

2 Conferences I'll be Attending

1. Advance '09 (Durham). Piper, Driscoll, Chandler, Aiken, Chapell.

2. God Exposed (SEBTS). Dever, Mahaney, Thabiti, Aiken.

2 Subjects for which I am passionate about: The Church and Expository Preaching.

Raising Great Kids Parenting Conference

The Raising Great Kids Parenting Conference last weekend was fantastic. Here is the audio from the weekend.

Main Session 1 - Children are a Blessing...No Really, They Are! (Justin Nale)
Main Session 2 - Scolding, Spanking, Time Out: What the Bible Says about Disciplining our Children (Dan Rolfe)
Main Session 3 - It Takes a Church: The Local Church's Role in a Child's Life (Jonathan Brooks)

Breakout 1 - Public School vs. Home School vs. Private School: Sorting Through the Options (Dan Rolfe)
Breakout 2 - The Adoption Option (Jim Upchurch)
Breakout 3 - The Why and How of Family Worship (Eddie Burroughs)

Raising Great Kids

Justin Nale has the details of our upcoming parenting conference (March 27-28). If you are in the area, plan to join us. I'm looking forward to learning from these men.

Surveying The Wondrous Cross

If you live in the Wilson area, I hope you are planning to join us for Surveying the Wondrous Cross this weekend. Friday evening and Saturday morning we will try to pour contempt on all our pride. We will force ourselves to peer into the gospel in order to catch a glimpse of the glory of Christ.

Get more details here.
If you are coming, leave a quick comment.

John Stott:
“All around us we see Christians and churches relaxing their grasp on the gospel, fumbling it, and in danger of letting it drop from their hands altogether.”

Father, tighten our grip on the gospel. Build your church and glorify your Son this weekend.

Surveying The Wondrous Cross

If you live in the Wilson/Rocky Mount area, I hope you will set aside October 17-18 to survey the wondrous cross with us. We will be singing about, celebrating, and proclaiming the glory of Christ crucified for sinners. The conference will be held at New Hope Elementary in Wilson. More details will be coming soon. However, here is the preaching schedule:

Friday night:
"The Guilt of Man and the Glory of God" - Romans 3:21-26 (Justin Childers)
"Boasting Only in the Cross" - Galatians 6:14 (Dan Rolfe)

Saturday morning:
"The Defeat of Satan at the Cross of Christ" - Genesis 3:15 (Justin Nale)
"Reconciliation with God and Each Other" - Ephesians 2:11-22 (Eddie Burroughs)

Preparing for T4G 2008

I have the undeserved privilage of attending Together for the Gospel this week. God willing, I hope to provide updates, insights, and news from the conference here on the blog (No, I'm not "live-blogging").

In preparation, here are some relevant links:
1. CJ Mahaney on team building at conferences.
2. Tony is sitting by the machine making all the name tags and offers some helpful insights on the conference.
3. Justin Nale has some of the books we won't be recieving at T4G.
4. I voted for CH Spurgen to be invited to speak.
5. My thoughts from the music at T4G 2006 (you may still be able to hear the bootleg recording of "I Will Glory in My Redeemer." Most Sunday mornings you can find me in my office singing along with this recording.)
6. My reflections on the expereince with Rob, Clif, and Mark at T4G 2006.
7. The infamous MacArthur "cheese tray" picture from T4G 2006 (Knocks on the door are going to be welcomed this year).
8. Here are the titles of the messages for T4G 2008.

Gospel Growth Conference

The Gospel Growth Conference was both stimulating and encouraging. It was a bit different than I had expected. Here are some of my reflections/wrestlings:

1. The point of the conference was that as church leaders our task is not to "grow" the church. The problem with the modern church growth movement is that it is asking the wrong question. From the title of the conference, I gathered that this would be the main point. I thought they spent way too much time developing this point and not enough time fleshing it out practically. I was already convinced of these things and wanted to go to get help as to what these ideas look like in my local church.
2. I did not agree with Phillip Jensen's definition of a church. He defined a church very broadly. He advocated that a church is simply a gathering of Christians for the purpose of hearing God's Word. Thus, he does not believe that "parachurch" organizations exist. He believes they are churches. Mainly, he argued for this from the word translated "church" in the New Testament (It means 'gathering'). I think he is missing the fact that the idea of church in the NT assumes a leadership structure and assumes a level of commitment from the people (membership). I don't want to say a parachurch organization is a church.
3. I hope the idea of "Gospel Growth" catches on. We need to be concerned with the gospel bearing fruit and increasing in people's lives, not just in seeing our churches get larger. Often, our churches must get smaller in order for true gospel growth to be happening.
4. There was a strong and robust call for expository preaching. God shapes His church through His Word. Faith comes from hearing.
5. I am thankful for the opportunity to attend a conference like this. Although I did not come back with a list of practical implications, I have a renewed passion to be faithful to God's purpose for the church.