Reformation With Dr.Nettles

I must say my wife and I have had a wonderful weekend at the First Baptist Church in St. Francis. Somehow, Pastor J.W. Glidewell managed to get Dr. Tom Nettles to be the guest speaker for their annual Reformation Weekend Conference.

Dr. Tom Nettles as a person was exactly how I perceived him. He is a kind and gentle man with a godly disposition. He is a man who seeks after the Person of Christ. He is very approachable and easy to speak with.

We arrived a little late for the second session. For some reason we thought St. Francis was on Mountain Time. Nevertheless, I heard enough of that session to know the rest of the time spent there would be well worth the trip.

In the third session, Dr. Nettle preached on Luke chapter 2, where the prophet Simeon was privileged to see the Christ prior to his death. His sermon was extremely thorough, and he pointed out things in the text I would not normally have seen. I was simply amazed at his ability to paint a picture of Christ as the Person of salvation as taught in the pages of the Old Testament. Salvation is not merely a plan but is a man, the Person of Christ.

His fourth session really drove home the glory of Christ in his substitutionary death. The text was (the much disputed text on this Blog) 1 John 2:1-2. He fully dealt with the exegesis of the text and demonstrated how the Christian ought to hate his sin even more than losing his own life. The sermon was one of the best messages on the Christian life I have ever heard.

Afterwards, I asked Dr. Nettles about the issue of the term “world” leading to universalism. He explained to me that if men are consistent in their logical view of the atoning work, then they may become Universalists. Usually, however, they simply hold what they perceive as two clear concepts of Jesus dying a substitutionary atonement for His people and Jesus dying substitutionarily for every single person ever. He more than demonstrated that this idea radically diminishes the work of Christ in being the sin bearer of his people. He showed from both the immediate context and the broader context of Scripture several reasons as to why “world” in verse 2 could not mean every single person ever, but referring instead to the scope or sphere that the context demands.

This morning’s sermon was on Colossians 3:1-4. Again, he painted a picture of the Glory of Christ that simply moved your soul. The message moved the congregation to a renewed longing for the Revelation of the glory of Christ being displayed in both the destruction of the wicked and the ultimate salvation of the church.

I must admit that listening to lengthy expository exegetically based sermons is something I am not accustomed to doing in person. It is one thing to listen to a sermon on MP3 while driving around, pausing as needed. It is another to concentrate and think and remain prayerful while sitting and listening to someone live in a pulpit.

My family was blessed this weekend with some of the best preaching I have heard. Yes, Steven took notes. Hopefully we will have time this week to go over them and think through and meditate upon the Word of God.