KevinPierpont.com

See the video after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

All of John MacArthur’s sermon audio is now available for free download as of Nov. 5, 2008.

(Via: Pyromaniacs)

John MacArthur takes on the idea that good preaching is aimed at the felt needs of the hearer. He notes: “This is what is wrong with superficial, marginally biblical preaching.”

I’d suggest preachers and parishioners read the whole thing here.

Here’s the summarized list.

1. It usurps the authority of God over the soul.
2. It removes the lordship of Christ from His church.
3. It hinders the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. It demonstrates appalling pride and a lack of submission.
5. It severs the preacher personally from the regular sanctifying grace of Scripture.
6. It clouds the true depth and transcendence of our message and therefore cripples both corporate and personal worship.
7. It prevents the preacher from fully developing the mind of Christ.
8. It depreciates by example the spiritual duty and priority of personal Bible study.
9. It prevents the preacher from being the voice of God on every issue of his time.
10. It breeds a congregation that is as weak and indifferent to the glory of God as their pastor is.
11. It robs people of their only true source of help.
12. It encourages people to become indifferent to the Word of God and divine authority.
13. It lies to people about what they really need.
14. It strips the pulpit of power.
15. It puts the responsibility on the preacher to change people with his cleverness.

“So preach the Word, even though it is currently out of fashion to do so (2 Tim. 4:2). That is the only way your ministry can ever truly be fruitful. Moreover, it assures that you will be fruitful in ministry, because God’s Word never returns to Him void; it always accomplishes that for which He sends it, and prospers in what He sends it to do (Isa. 55:11).”

Pulpit Magazine’s blog has moved to my favorite blogging software, WordPress, and today posts an important piece on interpreting scripture. What Does This Verse Mean “to Me”?

The nucleus of all that is truly practical is sown up in the teaching of Scripture. We don’t make the Bible relevant; it is inherently so, simply because it is God’s Word. And after all, how can anything God says be irrelevant?

Reading…

NASB MacArthur Study Bible available soon…

Tim Challies and Doug McHone have the privilege of liveblogging the 2006 Shepherd’s Conference. I suggest you check out Tim and Doug’s blogs over the next few days for their perspective on the conference. Should be good–wish I could be there. Keynote speakers are John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, R.C. Sproul, Steven Lawson, Ligon Duncan and Mark Dever. Tim Challies says he’ll also be liveblogging the Together for the Gospel conference in April. Sounds like a nice gig.

These two posts indicate that The MacArthur Study Bible will be available soon in NASB translation. This is something I’ve wished was available for some time. And an ESV version would be nice too.

UPDATE: The NASB version of the MacArthur Study Bible is now available for pre-order for a projected April delivery date.

Order the hard back version here.

Order the leather bound version here.

Grace to You with John MacArthur is now podcasting their daily radio program – here’s the link for your favorite feed reader — Bloglines is a good choice. (via: Phil Johnson)