This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Josh Philpot asks Dr. Richard Caldwell if he would elaborate on a caution he gave the congregation at Founders Baptist in a recent sermon. Dr. Caldwell is currently preaching through Matthew and has arrived at chapter 18. If you are well versed in the Scriptures, one of the first things that come to mind is the teachings on church discipline. Dr. Caldwell shared that it’s good and right that we should think about that. Yet he wants us to understand that the discipline process in Matthew 18 is part of a much larger discussion on what it means to be a child of God. The caution Dr. Caldwell raises arises from some things going on within evangelicalism of what it means to deal with sin, as an individual, with others, and how the body of Christ is meant to deal with sin in its midst. Dr. Caldwell shared that the church is being attacked in its adequacy to deal with its own sin issues. And it is something that Satan is particularly targeting in our day. Dr. Caldwell shared there are powerful voices, in the name of evangelicalism even, that are calling for the church to outsource the confrontation of sin. There are powerful voices from within calling for the church to seek out the opinions and advice of the experts to deal with the BIG sin issues. Dr. Caldwell says this comes into play in ways we don’t immediately recognize, and one of those very subtle ways is through the biblical counseling movement. Join in and listen as Dr. Caldwell expands on this statement giving further details, seeking to guide us biblically and encourage us to think wisely.

Dr. Caldwell talks first about the issue of outsourcing being called for by these powerful voices. He reminds us that in whatever realm of responsibility God has given us, we don’t have the right or the freedom to up and abdicate those responsibilities. In the same sort of way, what the Lord has entrusted to the church collectively and corporately, what He has tasked the church with, cannot be abdicated. These responsibilities include dealing with sin within its own midst, where the church attempts to rescue people from sin and the destruction it brings, shepherding and guiding them in a way where they obey the Word of God.

But what’s taking place in the current culture and even within evangelicalism is this questioning of the adequacy of the church to deal with sin. Dr. Caldwell confesses that he doesn’t believe that the church deals with every situation perfectly, but neither does secular counseling. No one, humanly speaking, sees the issues perfectly. So the question is not does the church handle these things perfectly. But is the church handling these things responsibly as tasked by God? Is the church dealing with these things according to the Scriptures? The church must deal with the sin within its body. It should be done in a way that is reverent, conscientious, and loving. Above all, it should seek to glorify God and to achieve what is good and God-glorifying for the people involved. That is the responsibility given to the church.

The other side of this issue relates to the sufficiency of the Scriptures and who in the church is competent for counseling other people. When it comes to who in the church is competent to give counsel, Dr. Caldwell says he thinks the biblical answer is anyone who knows the Scriptures, has the Holy Spirit, is led by the Holy Spirit, and with wisdom, is able to apply the Word of God to the problems they meet with in the lives of people. This doesn’t have to be someone who has had special training or someone who has a certificate or degree specializing in counseling. There are men who have been trained in seminaries and are not qualified to be pastors. That isn’t what qualifies someone. In the same sort of way, while counseling training can be a help and be a good tool, it doesn’t qualify someone to be good at helping others with the Word of God. The issue comes down to these questions that follow. Does someone who wants to counsel, know the Word of God? Are they walking by the Spirit? Are they further along in their Christian walk, mature, and exhibit biblical wisdom? Are they able to help people apply the Scriptures to their needs? These are the measures of competency in counseling. 

However, this is not to say that all people who are adequate and competent to counsel should counsel anyone in the church about anything and everything. God has designed His church with structure and organization. He has faithfully provided for the oversight and care of it. Here is where the study of ecclesiology comes in, helping us to have a healthy understanding of the Lord’s Church. As the Great Shepherd, He has given the church elders, men who are His under-shepherds and are called to watch over your soul. They will have to give an account for those they are tasked with shepherding. They are called by God, qualified by gifting, by experience, and by knowledge of the Scriptures to be able to help people in ways that a fellow believer, even with training and certificates, might not be able to. We want to be careful, we never want to undermine the structure God has ordained in the name of achieving something. By God’s design, a church can be a healthy church without having a counseling center and without having members who are specially trained to counsel. The question is will we honor and respect His design and organization that He has set forth in the Scriptures?

Ultimately this all comes back to believing that the Bible is the Word of God. Do we believe that it is? Do we believe it is sufficient for life in the Lord’s church? What responsibilities has the Lord assigned to His church, to the Elders and members of that church in terms of how they respond to what God has ordained in the church? And is it enough? Do we need something outside the Scriptures to live life in God’s family well? As believers, we must measure what we listen to, believe, and embrace, not by what others say but by the Word of God. The Scriptures are the standard, for the Lord prayed for us in John 17, Father, sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth.  The Word of God is where we look for our sanctification and our growth in holiness. The Bible is truth. And the church is the pillar and support of the truth in this world.

As you think about and ponder the things discussed on the podcast today, you might consider listening to the sermons Dr. Caldwell shared from his studies on Matthew 18, along with other sermons he has delivered relating to ecclesiology.   Following is the group of sermons from Matthew 18:

Children & God’s Kingdom

Threats To God’s Children

Caring For God’s Children

The Correction of God’s Children – Parts 1, 2, & 3

Forgiving God’s Children

The Seriousness of Forgiveness

The post Subtle Shifts From the Sufficiency of Scripture In Biblical Counseling appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Josh Philpot has some questions for Dr. Richard Caldwell regarding dreams and visions. The class Dr. Philpot teaches at Founders Baptist Church has been going through the book of Genesis, and they’ve been reading about Joseph’s dreams and the ability to interpret them. He says that it’s been a very interesting study. Dr. Philpot also shares that recently he read something about Bethel Church in Redding, CA, having begun something they’re calling The Dream Life School of Interpretation. This new school or teaching they’re promoting appears to go even beyond the teachings and training that one would receive at their school of supernatural ministry. On Bethel’s promotion page for this new school, they tell us that God often speaks to us through dreams and visions. They say that through our dreams God releases inspiration, innovation, invention, direction, wisdom, and much more from Heaven. They want people to learn the value of dreams and visions as a language of God so that they will be equipped with the gift of interpretation. But based on our reading and understanding of the Old and New Testaments, is this something the Scriptures call us to? Is God speaking to us through our dreams as He did with people like Joseph, Daniel, and others in the Old Testament and like Joseph, Mary’s husband-to-be, in the New Testament? Are we supposed to be seeking interpretation of our dreams and visions?

Dr. Caldwell says there’s no doubt that God has spoken through dreams and visions in both the Old and New Testaments. None of us would deny that. So the answer he gives is not because he doesn’t believe that God is capable of doing such things because He has. God is the initiator of dreams, and He has communicated through them. What you have when you have prophets communicating with people through dreams, visions, and even direct words from God, is giving instruction, direction, correction, etc., during times when the Word of God was not yet complete. God was giving special revelation. Not only did God give them dreams and visions, but He also gave them the ability to understand and interpret them. Joseph makes this point clear in Genesis 40:8 when he states that interpretations belong to God. This is true for the Old and New Testaments, which comprise God’s special revelation. But dreams and visions aren’t the only means God used for communicating while His revelation was not yet complete. In the New Testament era, He used Apostles and Prophets guided by the Holy Spirit. When the Apostolic era passed and the New Testament came into being, God’s special revelation was finished; it was complete. What we have in our Bibles and hold in our hands today is truly supernatural. It is the divinely inspired and providentially preserved Word of God. And now, by the Spirit of God, His Word is understood and applied; this is how God speaks to us today. Therefore in light of these truths and more, Dr. Caldwell says he does not believe that God is communicating today with His people through dreams and visions.

Additionally, Dr. Caldwell shares from Jeremiah 23, where God acknowledges the legitimacy of dreams. People dreamed in Bible times, and people still have dreams today. But he points out that where God does this, His emphasis is on His Word He has spoken. Here, God likens His Word to fire and a hammer that shatters a rock. That Word that God has given to us we can read, hear, and know it’s from Him. We can be sure that what we’re hearing when we hear the Word of God is the truth. Truth and error are determined by the Word of God, not by dreams and visions. Your dream can be the product of your imagination. It might be the product of your dinner the night before or even the product of the deceitfulness of your own heart. 

So while we can read the New Testament and find examples in the book of Acts where God used dreams and visions, we will not find teaching in any of the epistles where God’s people are instructed or directed to rely on dreams or visions for guidance. We need to be careful to distinguish between the descriptive and prescriptive revelation that God has given. We have the once for all faith that’s been delivered to the saints, and we are to continually be being filled with the Spirit of God. We are to let the Word of God dwell in us richly, make our decisions based upon the Scriptures, and then apply the Word faithfully. This is what is prescriptive. What we have, as Peter says, is the prophetic word made more sure which we would do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. We need to acquaint ourselves with God’s Word, soak in it, be saturated with it, master it effectively, and live it out, not be carried away by trying to interpret dreams and visions.

If you are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of our responsibility to think rightly and respond rightly to the Scriptures, consider listening to the following sermons exposited by Dr. Caldwell:

God Has Spoken In Son

Serious Danger – Parts 1, 2, & 3

Cessationism Demonstrated & Defended – Parts 1 & 2

A Mature View of The Ministry

God’s Holy Word

God’s Word & God’s People

The Life of Peace – Praiseworthy Thinking

The Gospel Dynamic – Part 1 & 2

Stand Your Ground

The post Does God Still Speak Through Dreams and Visions? appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

How should Christians handle end-of-life decisions? Are there principles that should guide Christians in making end-of-life decisions? Will the principles be the same for all end-of-life situations? How can we know what is best?

Making decisions for someone we love when they aren’t able can be arduous. Making decisions for/about someone else’s health and well-being is often clouded with emotions and can be intensely painful. So when someone finds that they need to make an end-of-life decision for a loved one, the weightiness of that decision can be more than any of us want to bear. But these things are inevitable, and without a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care that expresses our loved ones wishes, we need to make the best possible informed decision or decisions that we can. So how should Christians approach these kinds of decisions? Is it ever appropriate to withdraw medical treatment from someone so that they can pass away? Or, do we have a responsibility, knowing the sacredness of life, to try to preserve it at all costs? Join Dr. Josh Philpot and Dr. Richard Caldwell for this episode of the Straight Truth podcast as they seek to encourage us with biblical wisdom and guidance in the answers to this subject.

Dr. Caldwell wants us to first know that God is sovereign and to understand that there is nothing He is not sovereign over. Knowing God is sovereign over all things is a comforting doctrine. God’s Word tells us that all our days were written down before we lived even one of them. There is a day for our birth and a day for our death, and both of them were determined by God before we ever lived. As we think about this, it will help us to remember that life and death are never in our hands, nor the doctor’s hands. To live or to die is in the hands of God. We don’t have to feel guilty as if we are in control of our loved ones living and dying because we aren’t; God is. Until Jesus comes again, we all have a day to die. For the believer, it’s a portal into the presence of God, a day of great rejoicing. For the unbeliever, it’s a tragic day.

Secondly, Dr. Caldwell mentions we live in an era that God has placed us in, which most of humanity never experienced. Because of the advances made in medical technology, we sometimes face decisions that past generations wouldn’t have even faced. If we have a loved one on medical equipment that’s sustaining their life, we can choose to have those unplugged. We don’t have to feel guilty if we make a choice to turn a person over to the natural processes.

A third thought Dr. Caldwell shares is that because of advancements in modern medicine, there are times that it may present the possibility for life to go on. So if there is hope for intervention that might bring recovery and extend our loved ones life, we don’t need to feel guilty about wanting to wait to remove those life-supporting systems. It’s not wrong for us to want to wait and see if there is a way that they might recover. We don’t have to feel guilty about this.

So while it is possible that our loved one might perish without the life-sustaining medical equipment and intervention, at the same time, it is possible that they might not. God may sustain them to full recovery, but He might not. We do not have to feel guilty about considering both options. We should listen to the doctors and get good medical advice, all while keeping the truths of God’s Word in our minds. God knows our hearts, and we can make these decisions either way and rest in His good and perfect care.

Keeping these three things in mind will help us make the best wisdom-informed decisions that we are able. Dr. Caldwell says he believes that this makes these decisions less intense. He also says that it is good if people can make their intentions and wishes known in advance before loved ones have to face these decisions. Those ways of making these things known are helpful because, then, we don’t have to feel guilty about honoring our loved one’s wishes. He wishes there was a hard and fast rule for each situation, but there isn’t. So we need the Spirit of God, and we also need good sound judgment.

All of our days are in the hands of our God. We cannot add a single hour to our lives or the lives of our loved ones. Our responsibility is to provide the best loving care we can, make wise, informed decisions as we go along, and trust God, our Creator, and Sustainer, for the time He has determined when a life shall end. Following are sermons to listen to that will help us as we think about life and death. In them, Dr. Caldwell reminds us, as he has in this podcast, that all of our days are determined by God and that if we are reconciled to Him, we have nothing to fear when our final day comes. The very moment we pass from this life, we enter the presence of God and shall be with Him forever.

Following are sermons by Dr. Caldwell that will assist in further thinking through how to make End-of-Life Decisions:

The Sovereignty of God

A Christian’s View of the Body

Fearless Expectations

Hopeful Grief

Thinking Our Way Home

Christ’s Resurrection & The Believer

The post End-of-Life Decisions: A Christian Perspective on End-of-Life Decisions appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

As Christians, we know that in the New Testament, Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, pray for them, and do good to them. But we also know that there are passages in the Old Testament, like some of the imprecatory Psalms, that seem to speak differently about this. We read of David, in Psalm 139, of hating those who hate God, hating them with a complete hatred, and counting them as his own enemy. Can both of these ways be right? Is it possible to hate our enemies and love them at the same time? Aren’t we supposed to love the sinner and hate the sin? How can we determine who is rightly an enemy? These questions are discussed and answered in this episode of the Straight Truth Podcast. Join us as Dr. Josh Philpot presents these questions to Dr. Richard Caldwell, seeking answers to help us think through the challenges of knowing who our enemies are and what our responses toward them should be.

Dr. Caldwell says that, of course, both of these truths of the Scriptures are right. He mentions there are two things we need to keep in mind when we think about this. First, is what is being perpetrated against me versus what is being perpetrated against God. So I can hate what’s being done to our God, His name, His honor, His truth, His people, and His church, yet love the person who attacks me. Two, we can hold to both as it pertains to personal offenses. In the same heart and mind, we can hate what the person is doing and who they are by the virtue of sin and yet love them and desire their conversion.

So as we think about these people and come into contact with them, we know who they are right now. They are sinners in need of God’s saving grace. We know what they deserve as a result of who they are. We know where they’re headed and what they most certainly will meet with if they continue on this path. Yet still, even though this is where they are right now, and whether their attacks are against God or us personally, we are to love them by not returning evil for evil, by praying for their conversion, and by seeking to do good for them if given the opportunity. Their greatest need is Christ.

We also need to remember that we were all once the enemies of God by nature before He saved us. Those that are outside of the Church are still His enemies. So at any given time, when we see some sort of persecution upon the Lord’s people it is an attack on Lord’s Church. There are places where believers are dying for their faith. While it’s not an attack on us personally, in a sense, it is because they’re our brother or sister; they’re part of the family of God. The Lord Jesus Christ mentions this to Saul as a personal attack upon Himself as Saul, soon to be Paul, is persecuting church members in Acts 9. It’s an attack on Christ; in that sense, it’s an attack on all of us. Other areas of attacks might be very personal, extending to a business relationship or family relationship where someone is mistreating us on a personal level. In these and other ways, there is also a kind of enemy. We are to think of them in two categories. There is what they are that we should hate, and there is, at the same time, a responsibility to love them with the love of Christ. We are to show people, even if they are our enemies, that we love them and pray for them, even as they would spitefully use us on purpose.

Dr. Caldwell reminds us that many different categories could be discussed in a conversation like this. Some of them would lead to discussions on things like Christian pacifism. Christian pacifism would say that if someone breaks into my home to harm my family, loving my enemy means I don’t withstand them. Basically, it means I don’t protect my family. Within this same framework of understanding, others would say that Christians can’t serve their nation as soldiers during wartime. Dr. Caldwell shares that he believes these are misapplications of the passages that teach us to love our enemies and exhorts us to be very careful with categories as we apply these truths. But as we face an enemy of God, of His church, of the truth, or as we face an enemy of ourselves on a personal level, we are called to both hate the evil and yet love the individuals in the way Christ has loved us and in the way the gospel would instruct us to love them.

Following are sermons by Dr. Caldwell that will assist in further thinking through how to love our enemies:

Righteousness & Retribution

Loving By God’s Standard

Hearing Jesus About Our Enemies – Part 1 & 2

Judgment That is Not Judgmental

A Godly Reading of the Golden Rule

Faith’s Grand Narrative

The Logic For Love of Enemies

Who Wants Life? – Part 2

Who Wants Life? – Part 3

Glorious Ministry

The post Should I Love or Hate My Enemies? appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Josh Philpot asks Dr. Richard Caldwell about double predestination, sometimes called reprobation. In Romans 9:22-23, we see that God has some vessels of wrath that He has prepared for destruction. We see something similar in 1 Peter 2:8, where some disobey the word as they were destined to do. But in other texts like 1 Timothy 2:4, we read where God our Savior desires all people to be saved and, in 2 Peter 3:9, which says that God does not wish that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Dr. Philpot asks Dr. Caldwell how do we understand these seemingly contradictory statements. Specifically, regarding predestination, has God created some people to be saved and created some people to be ultimately judged and destroyed? 

Dr. Caldwell says to know the truth in any realm, we must learn to submit our thoughts and emotions to the Word of God, or we will never get to the truth. If we read God’s Word through the grid of what we desire, then we will never come to the truth. We have got to be willing to let the Bible say what it says and then submit our minds and hearts to that. A second principle that helps answer the question is for us to acknowledge that the Bible says things we can’t fully get our minds around. God is God, and we are not. We are creatures with limited capacities. One other distinction that gets to some of the texts Dr. Philpot has shared is that we have to distinguish between the desires of God as He has given them in Scripture and the decrees of God. God has not decreed everything He desires. In some way, God is able to desire the salvation of all men though He has not decreed it.

Dr. Caldwell takes us to Romans 9 and shares the text beginning from verse 19. He points out a key phrase in verse 21 we need to pay attention to – out of the same lump. On the potter’s wheel, there is only one lump of clay, and that one lump is fallen. Out of that lump, which all of it deserves wrath, God has chosen to save some. Some are formed that God does save, and others are formed that He does not. Dr. Caldwell recommends that everyone get a copy of R.C. Sproul’s book, Chose by God. He shares that he believes that Dr. Sproul does the best job of simply helping us get our minds around this topic of double predestination. He shares that one of the things Dr. Sproul discusses in the book is that there’s a difference between double predestination and equal ultimacy. Equal ultimacy is the idea that God works, in the same way, to damn people as he does to save people. Dr. Caldwell says equal ultimacy is not true. God has predetermined destinies in such a way that some are chosen for salvation, and some are not. But God doesn’t work in the same way to damn people as He does to save people. To save people, God intervenes. In the damnation of people, God leaves them to their own choices. For anyone to believe and be saved, God has to do something. In the elect, God intervenes, grants the new birth, regenerates, and, as a result, gifts us with repentance and faith. In the case of the non-elect, Christ is set before them, the gospel offered to them, and if they should want Him, they can come, but they don’t want to, so they are left with their own desires. In this way, from the same lump of clay, some are formed for honorable use and some for dishonorable, and that’s God’s right.

Dr. Caldwell explains that Paul anticipated questions when he wrote this in Romans, and one of the ways you will know you are teaching the passage right is that you will get those same questions. When you teach God’s sovereignty in salvation, you get all these questions and more. But if Dr. Caldwell were to teach what is referred to as an Arminian view of the gospel, nobody ever asks the questions. So he offers a challenge to his brothers who don’t agree with him on this topic and asks them, does anybody ever ask you these questions they asked Paul? They won’t he says, because you’re not teaching what Paul taught. But if you begin to teach that God is absolutely sovereign in the matter of salvation, people will ask these questions.

Dr. Caldwell goes to Exodus and reads some passages about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart then he reads others where Pharaoh is said to be hardening his heart. How does this work? Is God doing the hardening, or is Pharaoh? Dr. Caldwell says the answer is both, and this gets to Romans 1, where we see man fall deeper and deeper in sinfulness, and we read the repetitive phrase that God gave them up. Through common grace, God is at work restraining sin in this world. If He weren’t, this world would fly out of control. But God doesn’t harden a heart by putting sin in there; it’s already there. What He does is takes the brakes off, so to speak, and allows men and women to run deeper and deeper into the depravity that is already present in fallen man. He hardens men and women by giving them over, letting them go in their own choices and go their own way. Dr. Caldwell says the last thing we want in our unregenerate state is for God to give us over to our own desires because we will certainly be damned.

In saving us, God does what we could never do for ourselves. He intervenes and pours out redemptive grace transferring us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His own Son. So double predestination makes grace grace. It makes salvation, salvation, and deliverance, deliverance.

Following are sermons by Dr. Richard  Caldwell from Romans 9 to help better understand God’s sovereignty and absolute rights in the matters of salvation and reprobation:

The Freedom of God’s Will

The Justice of God

The Sovereign and Just Judge

God’s Rights

The post Double Predestination Explained appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, we will be dealing with a very personal question from a young mother. Dr. Philpot shares that a young woman writes in sharing that she is married with three children. She recently became pregnant with a fourth. Out of shock and fear, feeling that she couldn’t handle another child, she did not tell her husband and then went and had an abortion. She now recognizes what she has done as a terrible and wrong decision. She sought counseling from others, but it hasn’t brought the peace of mind she hoped for. She still hasn’t told her husband and writes now to ask for Dr. Caldwell’s counsel and advice. Dr. Caldwell has been a pastor for over thirty years and has counseled many with biblical wisdom. What counsel and advice can Dr. Caldwell offer that might bring the peace of mind she longs for?

Dr. Caldwell shares first that he would start with the gospel. What he means by this is, does this young woman truly know Christ? Dr. Caldwell is not saying that genuine believers can’t make disastrous decisions. What he is asking is, was this disastrous decision a manifestation of failure where there is genuine faith, or was that decision a manifestation of the absence of faith. Does a believer’s reaction to a pregnancy, obviously, it shouldn’t but can it, include ‘I’m going to the abortion clinic, and I’m going to have an abortion.’? So it’s a good and important question to ask. Do you really know Christ?

Lots of people deal with God in a generic fashion. Their knowledge of God is generic. Therefore their knowledge of salvation and forgiveness is misinformed and generic. People can say they have asked God for forgiveness, but they don’t understand that in the biblical terms of the gospel. Those terms are that Christ died for sinners, paying for all the sins we will ever commit in full at the cross. The eternal Son of God took upon Himself an additional nature, a real human nature, so that He, as the Son of Man, died on the cross for sinners, has been raised from the dead, lives forever more, ascended to heaven, is coming again and intercedes on behalf of those who have trusted in Him. Forgiveness for sins for all sins, including this one, is found in trusting in Christ and Christ alone. There is no forgiveness apart from the shed blood of Christ. So this is the place we would need to begin. Do you really know Jesus because there is no forgiveness, no matter how guilty you feel or how many prayers you might offer if you haven’t trusted in Christ?

Assuming this woman is a genuine believer and has made an illy, rash disastrous choice, what now would Dr. Caldwell advise? He would say you need to know there is no relief from guilt without genuine repentance. You need to bring this sin fully into the light. It must be seen for what it was, you must call it what it was, and it is. It is murder. While you didn’t perform the procedure yourself, you sought it out and allowed it; you are responsible. So to have the freedom from guilt, you must see your sin for what it is and confess it for what it is. You must come before God and deal with this honestly, confessing this sin for what it is, then acknowledge that in Christ Jesus there is forgiveness of that sin and accept the forgiveness of Christ, that is real, full, and free.

As far as telling your husband, Dr. Caldwell says he would need to ask more questions before advising you to move forward immediately. However, he says that if your husband loves you and he loves the Lord, then you need to trust the Lord and tell him. He says, then he would say, with all these sorts of things, that together you need to go and see your pastor. This is assuming you are members of a local church and, hopefully, it’s a healthy local church. Dr. Caldwell asserts that this is where you should be shepherded, not by him via the internet. He advises that you go and see your pastor and let him shepherd you through this phase of your life.

The emotions and aftermath of our sins are many and varied. Feelings of guilt, shame, and fear are among the many things we might experience. So part of the issue here may involve the fear of going to your pastor. Maybe it seems easier to ask the guy on the internet. Maybe there’s a lesser degree of fear of exposing your sin to somebody you don’t know versus someone you do. Dr. Caldwell says he believes this comes about often as it relates to biblical counseling. It seems easier to go to this counseling center or group to get help to deal with your sins rather than talk to your own pastor about them. Many go to these because they don’t want to talk to their pastor about the sins they commit. Dr. Caldwell says he does not believe this embraces the New Testament concept of the local church, reminding us that God gave us human shepherds for a reason. If your church isn’t healthy and sound, then go find one that is. But if your church is, and you have faithful shepherds who are good and godly men, let them shepherd and care for you. It’s what God means for them to be and do in your life.

The only remedy for our guilty souls is the forgiveness of Christ. It is to Christ we must turn for forgiveness. When He forgives us, we are forgiven. When He cleanses us, we are clean. As the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” And as Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you, who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Our God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. He casts them as far away from us as the East is from the West. He drops them in the sea of forgetfulness to remember them no more. His forgiveness is real, it is full, and it is forever! Do you know this forgiveness?

If you would like to learn more about these things, consider listening to the following sermons by Dr. Caldwell:

The Gospel as Preservative

Preaching the Gospel to Christians

Not Ashamed

What the Gospel Reveals

The Nature of Abraham’s Faith

No Condemnation

The Ugliness of Sin & The Beauty of Grace

The Only Hope for The Guilty Soul

Confessing Our Sin

The Joy of Forgiveness

Reasoning Our Way to Repentance – Parts 1 & 2

Distinction and No Distinction

The post Should I Reveal that I had an Abortion? appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

The New Testament teaches the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit of all believers. But in the Old Testament, this wasn’t the case; it was different. How can we understand the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament? That work appears to have been selective and temporary. For example, we read King David praying to God in Psalm 51 to not take ‘Your Holy Spirit from me.’ Whereas New Testament believers, permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit, are being transformed into the image of Christ, from one degree of glory to another through the work of sanctification. So then, if the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell Old Testament believers, and just sort of, came and went, how were they sanctified? This is the topic for this episode of the Straight Truth Podcast. Join us as host Dr. Josh Philpot asks Dr. Richard Caldwell to share his thoughts and understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in saving and sanctifying believers in both eras, old and new.

Dr. Caldwell says this is a great opportunity to think about continuity and discontinuity. Continuity is that, which remains the same, and discontinuity is that which is different. So what is the same and what is different? As Dr. Philpot mentioned, the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit is new, so something different has taken place. But, if we understand and believe what the Bible teaches about all mankind since the fall, we have to know that no one has ever been saved in all of history apart from regeneration. Man does not and cannot save himself. He is blind, and he is dead. Man does not love God nor the things of God and has no desire to live for God. God must do a work in a man’s soul for this to change; it requires the grace of God at work in the soul that brings new life. This is regeneration and is the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart for salvation. This has not and does not change from the old to the new. So, in the same way, to think that anyone can live a godly life without the help of the Holy Spirit, Old or New Testament, would be erroneous. The Holy Spirit is He who works to give the eyes of faith to believe God, His Word, and His promises, to love the Scriptures, and the desire to obey Him.

Dr. Caldwell shares about Jesus coming to Nicodemus in John 3, where Jesus talks about the new birth. Nicodemus is reproved for not knowing and understanding the things Jesus speaks about with him. Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel and had the Old Testament. He should have understood the need for the new birth, even in the Old Testament. If new birth was required in the Old Testament, so also was sanctification and growing in godliness. But what’s new then? What’s new is that we have the Messiah; we have Christ. The Old Testament progressively continued to point to the coming of Christ, but He hadn’t yet come. In the New Testament, we have Christ come. Now we have met with Emmanuel, God with us, God incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. In this same discussion with Nicodemus, we begin learning it’s through Christ that love takes on a new character. Dr. Caldwell shares what this means and looks like in the life of believers.

Before Christ was to return to heaven, He promised the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who baptizes us with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is given to those who have trusted in Christ. This is a post-resurrection, a post-ascension reality that every believer is now permanently indwelled by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is our comforter. He is Christ in us. He is the seal and down payment that God has given to us, His people, regarding our future inheritance. He works in us for our sanctification, for the holiness without which no man will see the Lord. His indwelling confirms the fact that we are headed toward a future that God has promised, one we will most certainly have. These are all new realities.

Sanctification for the New Testament believer is Christ in me, the hope of glory. We are now being conformed to the image of the Son of God. That could not have been an Old Testament goal set before the people of God because Christ had not yet come. And even though the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell the Old Testament believers, the work of sanctification was for growth in holiness, growth in godliness. The Spirit was still active outside of them influencing them to those ends. So, while sanctification is not new, it does take on a new significance. Christ is now the standard and example. He is not just our redeemer. He is also our model of what our lives should look like now that we’ve been redeemed.

It is important to understand the Bible on its own terms and affirm continuity where it exists and discontinuity where it exists. The Bible doesn’t make it complicated. It just sets it forth before us in very clear, simple terms, and we ought to embrace everything it reveals. St. Augustine famously said, “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” This statement expresses how the two testaments of the Bible are so marvelously interwoven with each other. To understand the New Testament in its fullest sense, we must know the Old. For the Old Testament lays the foundations for the New. It points forward in time to prepare the people of God for the coming of Christ and His work in the New Testament. 

Would you like to learn more about the Holy Spirit, about His work in regeneration, salvation, and sanctification in God’s people? Consider listening to the following sermons exposited by Dr. Caldwell from the Word of God:

The Unbelief of The Sinner

Another Helper – Parts 1 & 2

The Holy Spirit – Parts 1 & 2

Because He Has Come – Parts 1 & 2

Our Teacher

Something New

Something Better

A Faithful Shepherd – Part 2

The Baptism in The Holy Spirit – Parts 1 & 2

The Holy Spirit as God’s Seal and Pledge – Parts 1 & 2

The post Salvation and Sanctification in the Old and New Testaments appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

If sin remains with/in us until glorification, how do we mortify them? If mortifying sin means killing it, how do we actually do that? If we kill our sin, why does it remain, and why do we go on in sin?

This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Richard Caldwell and Dr. Josh Philpot discuss the mortification of sin. What does it mean to kill it? What does it look like to kill sin? And if we are taking the steps necessary to kill sin in our lives, why does it not go away? These are questions we need answers to if we are to grow and progress in the Christian life. Without understanding our sin and dealing with it ongoingly, we can stifle our sanctification process, bringing dishonor and shame to our Lord who bought us. In Christ, we are new creatures. Daily we must put off sin and put on Christ. Listen in as Dr. Caldwell opens the Word of God and helps us to understand this process of mortifying our sins.

Dr. Caldwell affirms that on this side of glorification, we will not be perfected, and sins will reappear. Mortification means that we have to go on putting those sins to death. Putting them to death means that we deal with all our sin issues in light of our real death to sin and in light of our real new life in Jesus Christ. We must deal with sin in accordance with the truth as it is in Jesus.

Dr. Caldwell shares Romans 6:5-11. He tells us that it teaches us that we know a real freedom right now with respect to sin because of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus came into the world to die on behalf of our sins. He has accomplished that. It is finished. It is done. There is something about Jesus’ death to sin that informs the believers’ death to sin. Before Christ, we were enslaved to sin, but now united to Christ, we can choose to say no to sin and yes to Christ. So mortifying sin is to regard ourselves as dead to that sin. Moment by moment, choice by choice, decision by decision is how we put sin to death.

When a believer gives themself to sin, they are living as if they are still a slave, as if they are still in Adam. But, if we are in Christ, we do not have to give in to sin. Instead in that very moment, we put it to death by saying no to it and saying yes to Jesus Christ. Putting to death sin will be a continual process that believers must engage in daily because killing sin does not happen all at once. So, we must battle to slay our sin, doing so with the sword of the Spirit, with the belt of truth, through the power of the Spirit. We won’t do this perfectly, and there will be times when we trip and stumble.

So what do we do when we stumble? We repent, we get up, and we walk again. We don’t use it as an excuse to go on in sin. Dr. Caldwell explains that Romans 6 also addresses this. As believers, we want to serve Christ and live righteous lives, and we’ve been given the capacity to do that. This is a pattern for those who have new life in Christ. Those made new by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit will live new lives. Anything less is a contradiction of who we are in Christ.

So if we are going to mortify sin, we cannot give it oxygen. We cannot give it room to live and breathe. We must subdue sin by refusing it, by starving and rejecting it. Our Lord said that if our hand causes us to sin, cut it off. He said if our eye causes us to sin, pluck it out. It should be obvious that He is speaking metaphorically. He is not saying for us to literally cut off our hands or pluck out our eyes. He is using radical terminology to help us understand the seriousness of sin. We want to take radical action to do whatever is necessary to overcome sin and put it to death. 

We must recognize the presence of sin in our lives to kill it. To recognize sin as sin, we must know the Word of God. We must saturate ourselves with His Word cultivating hearts that desire to obey God as we understand and take sin seriously. Consider listening to the following sermons by Dr. Richard Caldwell that will encourage us in our walk with Christ to do these very things:

The Certainty of New Life

The Application of Doctrine

Salvation’s New Abilities

Why Grace Meets Objections

The Answer to Grace Abuse

Our Death With Jesus

No Chance to Repent

Worship and the Mortification of Sin

The Believing Life

Living in Hostile Territory – Part 1

The War Within

The Sin of Adultery

The Children of God in this World

Threats to God’s Children

The post How To Mortify Sins appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

 This week on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Josh Philpot shares with Dr. Richard Caldwell that 2 Chronicles 7:14 from the Old Testament gets brought up constantly in the United States by pastors and lay Christians alike, politicians, and many others familiar with it.  We can read blogs and articles on the internet that refer to it and even watch videos promising great hope if we would only turn and repent.  In all fairness, this is understandable as we witness the rapid moral and spiritual decline transpiring in our nation.  Debauchery and sin are everywhere, from the highest level to the lowest. People want to claim the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 because they want to see God heal our land. There’s even talk of people praying for a great revival such as what happened at Nineveh.  Dr. Philpot asks Dr. Caldwell what does he hear from this text?  How does he interpret this text?  Additionally, he asks if Americans repent like Nineveh will God spare us from further decline; will He fix us and turn us in a better direction?

 To this last question, Dr. Caldwell says the answer is no.  It’s important to remember that for any verse of Scripture we read, we must consider the context for proper interpretation.  This is what biblical hermeneutics is all about.  He says that when we mishandle verses, it causes us to be left with misunderstanding.

 The context for 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the theocratic national people of God, the nation of Israel, whom God chose for Himself to serve as a light to the nations.  Through that nation, until the coming of His Son, they were to be the primary means He would use to disseminate truth to the world.  God declared blessings and curses to the nation of Israel regarding their obedience and disobedience to the covenant He made with them.  Along with the curses for disobedience, there was the promise of retaining God’s blessing if there was repentance; this is the context for which the promises in 2 Chronicles 7:14 are given.  It is to those people who were in covenant with God as a nation that these promises were given.  These promises were not made to us and are not for us.  It would be wrong to assume that the United States of America (USA) has a relationship with God that matches that of the biblical theocratic nation of Israel.  It would be wrong to think that God’s people, in any particular country or nation today, who have penitent hearts towards God and cry out to Him for the healing of their land, are guaranteed that healing.

 However, having said this, Dr. Caldwell says we can take the verse and talk about some right applications we can form from it. We should care about the land in which we live.  We should want to see God honored and glorified in our land.  We should desire that the land we live in would be more favorable to the gospel and that people all across our land, from all walks of life, be converted.  As New Testament believers, members of the Body of Christ – His Church, we can and should pray for these things.  All Christians should actively seek to work for the betterment of the nation and the people who reside in it.  But to take 2 Chronicles 7:14 as a promise if we pray and repent, even collectively as God’s people today, if the Church gets it right, then God will heal our nation, that is wrong.  We do not have that promise; we cannot claim that.

 The Church is the Lord’s Church, and the nation is the nation.  While the USA has had a notable history with the gospel since its very beginnings, this does not make it a Christian nation.  The USA is not another Israel, it is not the new Israel and is most definitely NOT a Christian nation.  But for those living within its borders, if they’re turning from their wicked ways, they’re repenting and living faithful lives, sharing the gospel and seeking the conversion of the lost, and building up good biblical churches, there will be benefits.  There will be practical benefits within any nation where this is happening as Proverbs 14:34 says, righteousness exalts a nation.  But where this kind of living is not taking place, such as the decayed living we see in the USA, this proverb also says that sin is a disgrace to any people, and with it comes great destruction.  Therefore it is good to recognize this and pray for our nation, even asking the Lord to bring a great awakening and to send revival.

 Dr. Philpot asks Dr. Caldwell why God would change His outworking from one age to the next.  Why would God go from working in one age as He did with the nation of Israel to doing something different in a whole new age like the New Testament and the time in which we live?

 Dr. Caldwell says it’s because, ultimately, what God is doing, is about His redemptive plan for humanity and all that He has made through the finished work of His Son.  God’s plan has progress to it.  There is a progressive outworking of eternal decrees from Genesis to Revelation. As mentioned before, there was a time when God’s primary means of disseminating truth was through the nation of Israel.  But now, in the time in which we live, the primary means is through His Church.  The Church is the pillar and support of the truth in the world, not Israel.  So it’s essential that we pay attention to and believe what God has chosen to do different in time, as well as what remains the same.  We’ve got to recognize the continuity and discontinuity as it is within Scripture and embrace both of these things.

 As those who belong to the Lord’s Church, we remain faithful as we live in the midst of an unbelieving world.  We go on praying, and we go on trusting our God.  The ultimate healing for our nation, all nations, and the whole world will be the kingdom of Christ that Christ Himself will usher in.  That is the ultimate outcome of the things for which we long.

Below are sermons that can help us think through the things discussed in the podcast today; consider listening as Dr. Caldwell faithfully exposits the Word of God:

Portrait Of A Lost Man – Part 1

Paul’s Burden & Ours

Protections Against A Wasted Life

Longing For The True King

A Christian Vision For Engaging The World – Parts 1 & 2

The Beautiful Life & Civil Authority

The Christian’s Relationship To Governing Authorities

Abraham’s Family Of Faith

The post If The United States of America Repents, Will God Heal The Nation? appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.

How should a Christian deal with the sins, before coming to Christ, that the conscience brings to bear on our hearts and minds? What should we do when some sins we remember are 5, 10, and maybe even 20 years old? How can we deal with our emotional feelings of embarrassment, shame, pain, and guilt over our past sins?

The very moment a person turns from their sin, by faith, in repentance to Jesus Christ, all sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven. But as Christians, we know this is not the end of it all, for the entire life of believers is to be one of repentance. Throughout the rest of our lives, through the work of the Holy Spirit, our sins are brought to bear upon our hearts and minds. Many of these may include sins from our past, which can sometimes weigh heavily upon our consciences. What do we do when we are conflicted over past sins, especially if they nag at us and provoke feelings of guilt? In what situations or circumstances do we need to go back and seek the forgiveness of others and make amends for those sins? What can we do when we struggle with the pangs of guilt aroused by the conscious awareness of our lives before knowing Christ? These are some of the questions that Dr. Richard Caldwell and Dr. Josh Philpot will attempt to help us make sense of this week on the Straight Truth Podcast as we seek to be open, honest, and transparent before the Lord.

Dr. Caldwell tells us it would be helpful to have blueprints for every situation so that we might instruct people in exactly what they are to do. While we don’t have specific instructions, what we do have is the Scriptures. In the Scriptures, we have principles. But the application of these principles requires wisdom. Some of these issues become a matter of judgment. By the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, we develop the ability to make good judgment calls. Good judgment is judgment saturated with Scripture, which includes wisdom, which is how you apply the Scriptures in any given situation.

If we can clear our consciences by going to another and have the occasion to make amends for a wrong we’ve done, where it will make sense to the person we are going to, we should do that. If there is a barrier between us and someone else due to our sin, we should want to make things right with them. However, where no permanent barrier exists, it might be more beneficial for us to deal with the issue between ourselves and the Lord. In our pursuit of a clear conscience with/about others, we want to be as sure as we’re able that the results would be positive, as in helpful or beneficial, and not destructive, even harmful or hurtful. To go back to people from 5, 10, or 20 years ago might not be for the best. There will be times when the most appropriate way to handle certain sins of the past is between yourself and the Lord. Times, for example, when you might bring injury upon another person because they have no idea of that sin.

Dr. Caldwell shares Romans 12:18, which shows that sometimes there will be things that will not be possible for us to fix, make right, or make amends for, as it depends on us. Where we can live peaceable lives with others, to the degree that we can, we should. But there are going to be situations where it isn’t possible. He also shares 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 which is an example of this truth as it relates to husbands and wives and divorce. In these texts, there is an acknowledgment of what we can do and what we cannot. Dr. Caldwell shares that sometimes our consciences will be loaded down with things we can’t go back and fix. When we find ourselves in these kinds of situations, then we go and make it right between ourselves and the Lord. If we are given the opportunity to make things right with a person or party we’ve injured, we always want to do that. But those times of opportunity will not always be there. 

Many of the conscience issues we face can be and are often related to our lives before becoming a Christian. Dr. Caldwell shares that he does not believe that we are tasked with tracking down people from our past, searching them out to make our confession to them. If we have dealt with the sin and made it right in our heart before the Lord and we run across that person sometime later, we can gladly try to make it right with them. But, he doesn’t believe we are responsible, nor should we feel compelled to search them out.

Dealing with overwhelming guilt regarding sin calls for us to live out our theology. What we believe and why we believe it really matters. We have to be able to apply the truth of the gospel along with knowing and understanding the justification that comes to us from God through Christ. If we are truly saved then we are no longer guilty before God. In Christ, we stand before God clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ, in whom there is no guilt. So we must ask ourselves, how do we stand before God? Are we guilty, or are we forgiven? If we find ourselves unwilling to make something right, that’s different; that’s a sin issue. We must be willing to make things right wherever the Lord calls us to. When we’ve done that, we can rest in the forgiveness of that which Christ has forgiven us. We can walk in the forgiveness that is really ours. But if we don’t, we aren’t going to have the peace of conscience that we so eagerly seek. The only way we will have relief in the emotional realm is if we apply the truth and we really believe that truth.

The following sermons by Dr. Caldwell will help to deepen your understanding of these truths shared in the podcast today:

Confessing Our Sins

The Lives We are Urged To Live

The Goal Of Our Ministry – Parts 1-3

Attitudes That Belong To The Spiritually Mature – Parts 1 & 2

Answers For The Doubting Heart – Parts 1 & 2

No Condemnation

Wisdom For Life’s Trials

The Only Hope For The Guilty Soul

The Joy Of Forgiveness

The post Making Amends for Past Sins appeared first on Straight Truth Podcast.