ScriptureStream

By Mark Watson

Just the gospel, plainly spoken. ScriptureStream compiles lessons presented at the Benchley church of Christ, located just north of Bryan, TX. Visit ScriptureStream.com for full notes on each lesson a... more

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How many episodes does ScriptureStream have?

The podcast currently has 3,209 episodes available.

ScriptureStream episodes:

October 30, 2013The Work of Local Churches, Part 7
Local churches are authorized to provide for the preaching of the gospel.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation.
Romans 1:13-16 – Paul was eager to preach because he knew it would bring eternal joy to those who received it with honest and good hearts.
Matthew 28:18-20 – Jesus told His apostles to teach all the nations to observe His commandments.
I Corinthians 14:26 – Teaching of the gospel, done properly, will edify (if received properly).
Matthew 4:23
II Thessalonians 1:8 – The gospel is something that can be followed. It is more than just the death, burial , and resurrection of Jesus.
Local churches are to provide for the preaching and teaching of the gospel.
I Thessalonians 1:6-10 – This church was commended for sounding forth the word of the Lord.
I Corinthians 9:9-18 – Paul explains that preachers can get their living from the gospel.
Philippians 4:14-18 – Paul thanks the Philippian church for sending him money.
II Corinthians 11:7-9 – The Corinthian church should have recognized their obligation to support Paul. He took wages from other churches so that he could serve Corinth.
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30min
October 29, 2013A Man That Produces Faith
Romans 10:17
A message that produces faith
The life of Christ
John 1:14,18 – Jesus is a way of explaining God.
If you had the power of God…
Would you make yourself wealthy?
Would you pursue fun and pleasure?
Would you show off your power?
Would you always get your own way?
Would you make everyone adore you?
Would you punish your enemies?
Philippians 2:6-8; Acts 10:38 – The humble ways Jesus used His power.
Completely devoid of human vanity
No concern for the petty or trivial
Focused on the eternal and spiritual
Yet with compassion on the suffering
Selfless, humble, obedient
Matthew 8:1-3 – Jesus touches and heals a leprous man.
Luke 19:9
John 3:4-5 – Jesus washes the disciples’ feet
The teaching of Christ
John 7:17-18
Matthew 5:44-45 – Love your enemies.
Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31
Matthew 7:3
Matthew 15:11-20 – The contents of the heart are what matter.
Luke 10:36
Luke 12:15 – Beware of greed. Jesus’ focus was on the soul. There are more important things than material goods!
The death of Christ
John 3:16
Romans 5:6-8 – Christ died for the ungodly.
Matthew 26:39
Luke 23:33-34
Matthew 27:42-43 – He was openly mocked.
I Corinthians 1:18 – If you can read the story of Jesus and understand it and not see the power of God, you will perish.
The resurrection of Christ
John 20:6-8 – The disciples discover the empty tomb.
John 20:18 – Mary Magdalene announces the resurrection of Jesus.
I John 1:1-2
The hope of redemption in Christ
II Corinthians 5:18-19
Acts 13:48
Conclusion
The gospel message of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation.
It is a message that discerns the hearer and moves us to choose.
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30min
October 27, 2013God's Most Glorious Work
Acts 14:15; Genesis 1
II Corinthians 3:17 – Christians are God’s new creation.
The saved relationship that God created in the church is the most glorious creation of God. Ephesians 3:3-12
Ephesians 1:4 – God’s plan started before creation of the world.
Acts 9:15
Ephesians 1:6 – Christians sit with God in heavenly places.
Just as man cannot improve on God’s physical creation, man cannot improve on God’s most glorious creation – the church.
Man today has the audacity to set aside God’s most glorious work by building and maintaining man-made institutions for spiritual work and worship and asserting them to be better than God’s most glorious creation.
The church is the fulness of Christ; man needs no more.
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30min
October 27, 2013God's Creation: Physical and Spiritual
Galatians 6:15
God’s creations rely upon His power.
Physical creation
Genesis 1:1-3
Three possibilities for the existence of the universe:
It always existed (violates 2nd law of thermodynamics)
It was spontaneously generated (violates 1st law of thermodynamics)
It was created (the Bible’s explanation)
Psalm 90:1
Spiritual creation
II Corinthians 5:14-19 – The plan of salvation came about through God’s initiative.
Consider how much more work God put into His spiritual creation than the physical creation. God started on it before the creation of the world.
God’s creations have purpose.
Physical creation
Genesis 1:26-30; 9:1-3,7 – God creates plants and animals for man.
Isaiah 45:18 – God formed the earth to be inhabited.
Spiritual creation
Ephesians 2:10 – We were created to serve God.
Psalms 148:3-5,8 – God’s creation praises Him in its existence.
Gensis 1:25 – We are made in the image of God.
Colossians 3:10
Ephesians 4:22
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30min
October 27, 2013Christian Attitudes, Part 7
Recap of previous lessons
More on the better righteousness
Review of Point 5: Getting even (Matthew 5:38-42; Exodus 21:23-25; Deuteronomy 19:18-21)
Don’t
Difference levels of perceived offense.
People who do you actual harm
Evil person who insults you
One opposing you at law
Government mandate
People in need
Justice is not a rendering of evil (v17)
Resisting evil
Would be a never-ending task for us
Not ours to do. I Thessalonians 5:15; Proverbs 20:22; Romans 12:17-19
Overcome rather than resist. Romans 12:21
Results? Romans 2:4
Don’t avenge insults (John 18:20-23)
Be compliant to a fault when “they” come after you
By litigation
By government coercion (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26)
Point 6: Love (Matthew 5:43-48)
Not just your neighbor – Remember Leviticus 19:18?
Also your enemies
No pat on the back for loving your own – who doesn’t?
Why your enemies?
To what end? I Peter 3:8-9; Ephesians 5:1; Romans 2:3-4
How does this make us perfect? Romans 5:8
Compare v45 to v9.
Jesus the example.
Don’t put on a show (I Corinthians 12:14,21,26-27)
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30min
October 25, 2013The Choice of Faith
Hebrews 11:1 – a description of what faith does
Faith is a choice
Faith requires a choice that goes beyond observable facts.
John 20:29
II Corinthians 5:7
I Peter 1:8-9
The evidence only takes us so far.
Moral or spiritual choice must take us the rest of the way.
Faith is reasonable but not provable.
God has intentionally made it this way.
Hebrews 11:6
What faith? - Hebrews 11
It gains God’s approval. Hebrews 11:2,39
It pleases God. Hebrews 11:5-6
It shows true reverence. Hebrews 11:7
It shows true obedience. Hebrews 11:8
It shows trust. Hebrews 11:11
A commitment to the spiritual. Hebrews 11:13-16
A rejection of the physical. Hebrews 11:25-27
Conclusion
Faith is based in part on observable evidence and reason.
But faith will always require a choice that goes beyond what can be seen.
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30min
October 23, 2013A Story That Produces Faith
The lead up to the leap of faith.
A persuasive message that speaks to something inside us. Romans 10:17
The message of salvation in Christ runs through the Bible. It produces faith in those who see it.
John 5:39
Luke 24:26-27,44-45
Threads that tie together in Christ
The sacrifices of atonement
A law giver like Moses
…
Colossians 2:17
Physical family → spiritual family
Earthly family → heavenly nation
Physical deliverance → spiritual deliverance
…
Redemption is realized in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:7
The end of the story of redemption
Revelation 20-22
A story with a beginning, middle, and end.
Revelation 20:10 – Satan deceived Eve; Christ defeated Satan; Satan will be judged.
Revelation 20:11 – The world was cursed; Christ came into the world to save man; the world is destroyed.
Revelation 20:12-12 – Adam brought death; Christ overcame death; all will be raised.
Revelation 21:1-2 – Physical Jerusalem; spiritual Jerusalem; heavenly Jerusalem
Revelation 21:3 – Tabernacle, God dwells with Israel; the church, the temple of God; God’s people dwell with Him fully in Heaven
Revelation 21:4 – A curse inflicted; a curse borne; a curse removed.
Revelation 21:4-5,9-14 – 12 tribes; 12 apostles; the glorified people of God.
Revelation 21:15-16,21-22,24 – Nations divided; nations invited; nations redeemed.
Revelation 22:1 – Rivers of Eden; …
Revelation 22:2 – Tree of life; the tree that gives back life; the tree of life.
Revelation 22:3 – Sacrificial lamb; the lamb of God; the lamb who reigns.
Revelation 22:4,14 – Cleansing of the priests; washing of regenerating; washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 22:16,20-21
Conclusion
The story of redemption began in Eden and will end in Heaven.
In Jesus, God provided deliverance from the curse of sin and death.
When we see the story woven and tied together it produces faith in us.
How will the story end for you?
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30min
October 23, 2013 The Bible and the Origins of Writing
[Sorry, no notes available for this lesson.]
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30min
October 22, 2013Evidence for Faith
The leap of faith
Romans 1:19-20
Exhibit A: The universe
Cosmic microwave radiation background of the universe
The universe contains over 170 billion galaxies
Galaxies contain 10 million to 100 trillion stars
Estimated total of 70 sextillion (7*1022) stars
The law of cause and effect
For every event there must be a cause sufficient to account for it.
God, the universe creator
Only a being of infinite power could bring such a universe into existence. Genesis 1:1; Psalms 19:1; Isaiah 40:25-26
Only a force which is itself eternal could be a sufficient first cause.
Something must start everything. Revelation 1:8; 22:13
Only a force of nature could bring it about.
Exhibit B: The laws of physics
The 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics
Nothing new is being made.
Everything is moving toward a disordered state.
No natural cause can account for the existence of the universe.
All energy progresses to a more disorderly state, thus the universe cannot always have existed.
Psalms 102:25-27
Exhibit C: The fine tuning of the forces of nature
Genesis 1:1-3
Isaiah 45:19 – God created the universe to be orderly.
Physical values finely tuned to incredible precision
Electron to proton ratio
Electromagnetism to gravity ratio
Must be correct to 1 in 1*1018
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30min
October 21, 2013Is Faith Irrational?
We must build up our faith!
Irrational: not endowed with reason or understanding.
The charge that faith is irrational:
It is not based on observable evidence.
It is not based on reason.
It is not verifiable by experimentation.
It is a blind leap of faith accepted on the basis of revelation.
It amounts to superstition.
People believe because they want to.
The response of the Bible:
The charge that faith is irrational is a dishonest effort to stigmatize believers and cut off debate.
This is an ad hominem attack and is not reasonable at all.
Acts 26:24-26
Name calling does not prove anything.
One man’s reasonable is another’s crazy.
Religious faith is in fact based on observable evidence.
Romans 1:19-20 – The invisible attributes of God can be seen through what He has made.
Acts 14:16-17
Believers cite lots of evidence.
We see the same things as unbelievers.
We reason to a different conclusion.
Two interpretations of the same evidence.
Religious faith is based in part on reasoning from the available evidence to a logical conclusion.
Acts 17:2-4
I Peter 3:15
We reason from the evidence.
We conclude faith is more reasonable.
Does unverified mean irrational?
Faith may not be verifiable at the present but many things in science are accepted as possible or even likely without current verification:
Dark matter
Gravity waves
Black holes
Certain sub-atomic particles
Life on other planets
Basic assumptions of science:
There exists a single unchanging set of laws which govern all events in the universe.
Human beings are able to understand the workings of the physical universe.
The laws which describe the universe are describable by mathematics.
The response of the Bible
Much religious faith is based on revelation, but revelation itself is a type of evidence.
John 20:30-31
Acts 1:3
II Peter 1:16
It’s called testimony
It’s the basis on which we “know” just about everything we know.
Equating our faith with superstition is disingenuous.
John 7:45-46
Luke 24:32
Faith does not involve choice that goes beyond observable facts
Hebrews 11:1
John 20:29
The evidence only takes us so far.
There is a moral or spiritual choice that takes us the rest of the way.
Faith is reasonable but not provable.
God has intentionally made it this way. I Peter 1:8-9; Hebrews 11:6
...more
30min

FAQs about ScriptureStream:

How many episodes does ScriptureStream have?

The podcast currently has 3,209 episodes available.