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Third Avenue Baptist Church

Louisville, KY

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

September 28, 2025

The post 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 appeared first on AlbertMohler.com.

Good morning. I greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s wonderful to be here together with you. And I also want to offer my personal word of welcome to those who’ve gathered here, especially, uh, for the events today and World Watch and all that will take place in the course of this morning and afternoon. Dr. York, I appreciate very much that introduction. Finishing school and all – most people here don’t know what that was – I will simply say it was a staple of southern culture when I was a boy, 12 or 13 years old, I saw absolutely no use for it, then learned uses for it for the rest of my life. But I guess there was one use for it that I didn’t know was coming as a 12 or 13-year-old boy, and that was to answer a question Dr. York basically asked about eating an egg out of an egg cup with one smooth movement. You take the spoon, detach the top of the egg at the narrow end as it should be set, in one movement, and then using the egg spoon, you eat the contents of the egg. Yes, without spilling. There you go. Now you’re finished. It did raise a host of issues for me because that’s when I discovered some people eat soft boiled eggs. So there was a lot of ick among the 12- and 13-year-olds in that room, but we left finished.

I want us to turn to scripture this morning. First Peter, and in in particular First Peter chapter three, beginning in verse eight. We read, “Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling. But on the contrary, bless for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing for whoever desires to love life and see good days. Let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed, have no fear of them nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard, Christ, the Lord, as holy, always prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God’s will than for doing evil.” This is the word of the Lord.

The Lord speaks through the Apostle Peter in his instruction to the church then and the church throughout the ages, the church now in this present age. This word is addressed directly to us and it comes in the context of this magnificent letter from Peter. And before we go further, let’s just exalt for a moment in this letter known to us as First Peter. Let’s remember who Peter was. This is the Peter who was Simon, by Christ’s sovereign act, called to be one of his disciples. This is the Peter who, when the question was asked, “Who do you say the son of man is?”, said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the same Peter who would deny Christ three times. This is the same Peter who in the gospels, Matthew, mark, and Luke and John, will show up either in full strength or not. This is Peter who becomes one of the key leaders of the early church as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we shall see, the Peter who writes this letter is a very different man than Simon the fisherman, all by the grace of God.

I’ve been thinking, as you have been thinking in recent days, over the past couple of weeks, about the lessons learned in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I think even at this point, so many days after that evil act, it is very interesting to hear the cultural conversation, a conversation that was invigorated on that day and continues, a conversation that has continued on two sides of a great worldview divide, a conversation that raises a host of issues for believing Christians. And that is why I believe I was led to this particular text for this day. The key verses of our consideration in First Peter chapter three, I would wish us to look most closely at verse 15, especially the words of command from the apostle that we should be always being prepared to make a defense for anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you. The cultural conversation at this point after the assassination of Charlie Kirk is not what I had expected, not in full. There’s something going on here that is far deeper and I think is truly unexpected, but even as it is shocking, it is important that we pay close attention to what is happening. I want to speak specifically of the memorial service that was held this past Sunday, five hours long. And in particular what’s happened in the last few days in response to that service. The shock of the service for most people was how pervasively Jesus Christ was declared. Christianity was embraced. Standing for Christ was honored. Speaking for Christ was underlined, affirmed. The extent to which witness to Jesus Christ became so pervasive that shocking moments took place, truly shocking moments for someone who has been watching national affairs for many decades. To hear the vice President of the United States, JD Vance, say that in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, he had talked more about Jesus Christ and his salvation, his experience with Christ, his words were, “More in the last two weeks than my entire political life.” Something’s happening there. There were people I had never expected to hear a direct word of Christian witness from who got up with scriptural citations and coherent Christian argument. There were those who got up and spoke not only of the fact that Charlie Kirk was a Christian, but that they had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through Charlie Kirk’s direct influence and witness. One young man who spoke of the fact that he was aimless, he was lost, he was involved in many different patterns of sin, but he came to Christ through the witness of Charlie Kirk. And not only did he come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only was he saved, his life was transformed. And he said, “Here at this service is my wife and our infant baby.” That’s just a picture of everything fractured, becoming something whole by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. President Donald Trump said, “Isn’t this like an old-fashioned revival service?” Now with full respect, I don’t know how he would know. I just don’t imagine he’s actually attended many, but nonetheless, he knows what one is. Or you could put it in different words, he certainly knew one when he saw it. He wasn’t wrong. He was right. The secular response, the political response to this, has come in waves. The first response was that this is just too much. And you know, the thought that is expressed there is not the five hours of length, it’s the depth and comprehensiveness of the Christianity that was declared. One of the hosts of a media program reviewing it said it got to where you caught onto a pattern and everyone who got up was going to talk about Charlie and about Jesus. That was a complaint by the way, that was what was identified as the problem. Also, there have been posted many of Charlie Kirk’s testimonies of the gospel, even in the last days of his life, I think far more than most people recognized – a far more Christ-centered message than many had had thought. I mentioned just in my own reflections in print, that when I first met Charlie Kirk, he was not so clearly identified as a Christian. So this came as something of a surprise to me over the years, and a most hopeful surprise. But I think it’s important to recognize that Charlie Kirk had been working very hard to be ready to give an answer. It became the essence of his mission in Turning Point USA. That’s what he was doing there at Utah Valley University when he dared people to come and he invited them graciously. And you’ll remember the theme was, prove me wrong. And those of you who’ve seen the clips, you’ll know that in so many cases, on so many campuses, young people had come and asked questions and he directed them to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And with a skill that many people would not have expected, he connected the dots of Christian truth into a very clear argument for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then for subsequent arguments about the veracity of biblical truth and subsequent arguments about how the Christian faith is integrated, he didn’t get to graduate, get a job, get married, and have lots of children, he didn’t get there from nowhere, he got there from Genesis.

The world’s offense, the secular world’s offense, is offensive to us. It’s also puzzling to us, but it’s a wakeup call. And I want to turn to this text to remind us that each one of us, and I want to speak particularly to the young Christians in this room, particularly, that you bear in your generation a responsibility to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you. This text from the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter gives us that message clearly. In light of what we have seen and heard and learned in just the last couple of weeks, I want us to think about readiness for Christian witness.

Now we look to this particular text and I take us back to verse 15, “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you.” Now, I was raised on, did my early Bible memorization in, the King James version rather than the ESV. And I still love the King James cadence and translation of this text – “Be ready always to give an answer for every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you.”

Three basic affirmations I want us to think about this morning. The first is be always ready. The second is to make a defense, or to give an answer. And the third is for the hope that is in you.

Be always ready. You know, that’s a comprehensive command, always means there’s no time when you’re not to be ready, you’re to be ready, and to be ready you have to be pre-ready. To be ready to give an answer, you have to know what the questions are, and you have to know how to answer those questions faithfully, and that’s not going to come to you by some kind of message from the sky when you need it, it’s going to have to be in your mind and in your heart before the occasion comes. Young Christians, I want to tell you, for the entirety of your lifetimes on this earth, faithfulness is going to require you to be ready to have conversations you’re not ready for now. You need quickly to be determined and to work towards being ready for the moment, the moments, the occasions, the opportunities, the urgencies, that will come to you. We’re living in an increasingly secularized society. The questions are coming with increasing power and increasing frequency, and they’re coming at every level. One of the most interesting things that I know these days is how many incredibly powerful questions come to me through The Briefing from very, very young listeners. Now to be honest, sometimes it’s the parents who send the question. And sometimes the questions are entirely predictable, coming from a certain age and a certain curiosity – “Did Adam have a naval?” Okay, the questions though, they get a lot deeper fast. I give priority to the questions from young children that ask the biggest theological issues. And I have listeners continually say, “Who are these children who ask such questions?” Well, I, I think they’re the children largely of Christian parents who’ve been teaching them the Word and ways of God, and the questions come. You shouldn’t be surprised that a young child doesn’t have questions when there are no dots put on the page. Connecting the dots is largely where the questions arise. At a certain age, middle school, upper elementary school, certainly high school, questions come a bit differently, they come sometimes more complex. I think one of the hopeful signs for me is that when you have a 6-year-old asking that kind of question and a 9-year-old asking this kind of question, and a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old asking these kinds of questions, and this is happening in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, this has to be good. This has to be very good. It should come to us as a tremendous encouragement, but it also underlines that these young people are being taught Christian truth, they’re being taught the scriptures, they’re being taught the Christian faith, otherwise they wouldn’t have this kind of question. And you know, that means that parents have to be ready to give an answer. And I love hearing from parents who aren’t ready, and they’ll write and say, “My 8-year-old has asked, ‘What do I do with this?’” And, and I want to say to this parent, to this mother or father who writes, you are the resident theologian at this moment. You are the entire Christian faculty, husband and wife, mother and father together, you are the faculty of this little university called your family. And I’m glad you asked. Let’s connect the dots.

I was just recently with Mary in Europe, and we were retracing the steps of the Reformation, and I was lecturing along the way. We were at Wittenberg and at Leipzig, other places, where in particular Martin Luther was hammering out the reformation. And one of the things you have to come to know about Luther is that Luther didn’t know what he was going to say tomorrow. The Reformation and its doctrine, the Reformation and its clarifications, it’s recovery of the gospel took place argument by argument. You can stand in different places, and different disputations. Leipzig is one of my favorite ones where it becomes very clear as Luther there is debating the Catholic authority. He’s working out justification by faith alone because the logic is taking him to language he didn’t know he was going to use. You can follow Luther and come to know where he came to know that it wasn’t enough to say, “the authority of scripture.” He had to say, “the authority of scripture alone.” Most famously at the Diet of Worms where he was on trial. And I think when we look at historic figures like that, we like to think they’re just ready-made, just add water and stir. All of a sudden, he was Simon over here he’s Peter, he was here unredeemed, un-uneducated, unlettered, unprepared, over here he’s Peter, ready to go. And I am just emphatic about wanting to point out that if you actually read the four gospels, that’s not the way it worked because the four gospels are honest that Simon, having become Peter, did get some things gloriously right more than once. “You are the Christ, the Son of living God.” In John chapter six, when there are so many who leave, who walk away of the false disciples, when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life, he who eats of me will live, he who does not eat this bread will die.” And in John chapter six, Jesus asked the question of his disciples, “Are you also going to go away?” And it is Peter who says, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have come to know that you are the holy one of God.” When Peter said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” Jesus didn’t say, “’A’ on the final exam, Peter,” he didn’t say, “Peter, you know, your theological cogitations have been quite productive,” he said, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven,” I have to admit it’s hard to imagine how Peter became Peter, the Peter we find in First Peter. This is an uneducated fisherman, this is a man from Galilee, now listen to him as the apostle of Jesus Christ, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for you. Who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for salvation to be revealed in the last time.” Later in that same chapter, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully inquiring what person or time the spirit in Christ was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” So now this unlettered, untaught, Galilean fisherman is telling the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the truths that are coming through his ministry, because they’re coming from the Holy Spirit, are things into which angels long to look. This is Peter who is telling the church of the Lord Jesus Christ how to stand fast in a hostile culture, how to be faithful. Just consider this from chapter two, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but you are now God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” And then the text of our greatest concern this morning, “Be ready to give an answer to anyone who asketh of the hope that is in you.” Just look at the book of Acts – just think about the book of Acts with me if you don’t have it right in front of you – when we hear the command here, “Be always ready.” I can’t think of any book that demonstrates the fulfillment of that command like the book of Acts. And just for the sake of time, we’ll have to go fast. But just consider how Acts begins in Acts chapter two with Peter on the day of Pentecost. What do we read in verse 14? “But Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them, ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you. Give ear to my words for these men are not drunk as you suppose for it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.’” Peter preaching in Acts two. Acts three beginning in verse eleven at Solomon’s porch or portico, “And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we’ve made him walk. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses, and his name – by faith in his name – has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given this man perfect health in the presence of you all.’” I don’t think Peter was ready for that, but he was made ready, and when the moment came he, he was ready. The same in Acts chapter four with Peter and John before the Sanhedrin. The same in Acts chapter five with the apostles and their testimony. The same quintessentially in Acts chapter seven. And wasn’t it interesting that in the memorial service last Sunday, just days ago, there was a rather lengthy citation of Acts chapter seven – and this is of course Steven’s testimony. “Brothers and sisters hear me, the God of glory appear to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred and into the land that I will show you,” and then Stephen goes on and on and on and on, in verse 20, he’s to Moses, “At this time Moses was born and he was beautiful in God’s sight and he was brought up for three months in his father’s house. And when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in all his words and deeds.” And he continues on through, he talks about the tent in the wilderness, and then he ended, or you might say in the context of Acts, his message was ended, when he spoke to the people and said, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You, who received the laws delivered by angels and did not keep it.” And they killed him. Just for the sake of time, I’ll mention Paul at Antioch in Pisidia, Acts 13, Paul at Mars Hill, Acts 17, Apollos at Ephesus, Acts 18, Paul at Ephesus, Acts 19, Paul before the people who are gathered in Acts 21, Paul before the council in Acts 22, Paul before Felix in Acts 24, and Paul before King Agrippa in Acts 26. The Book of Acts is a demonstration of the fulfillment that Peter here issues by the Holy Spirit as a command, “Be always ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you.” They were ready when the moment came. Stephen was ready. Peter was ready, John was ready. Paul, having been Saul, the persecutor of the church, is now ready. Are you ready? My encouragement to you is to get ready. In your generation, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ desperately needs you to be ready to give an answer.

Alright, how are you going to do that? Just recently I was reading of a principle of trial law, the principle of trial law that I thought was brilliantly expressed and it captured my mind and I thought, you know, I’m going to share it with you. You didn’t come here for a principle of trial law, one of the most important principles of a trial lawyer making a closing argument. But to me, it is immediately applicable to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially in the context of preaching. But it’s especially relevant to every single one of us, even when we think about a gospel conversation. The principle of the law for trial lawyers in making a closing argument is that you must know there are three arguments. You must keep in mind three arguments. And as you’re preparing to defend the faith once delivered to the saints, you get the immediate application – there are three arguments you need to keep in mind, okay? Remember, this is coming from the context of the closing argument in a trial with so much at stake. The three arguments are these. Number one, the argument you plan to deliver. The second argument is the one you actually deliver in court. And the third argument is the one days later you wish you had delivered. Now, I think those of you who preach and teach, you get the meaning of that immediately. And we understand that’s exactly the way it works. You plan to say something, that’s the first speech. You say something, that’s the second speech. And then days later you think, “I wish I had said.” Now you get the point in the training of lawyers. You want as much as possible to make certain that the argument you make in court is the one you’re going to be satisfied with days later. Now you say, “Why is the first one different than the second one? Why in the practice of law is the first argument not exactly the second argument?” It is because in the second argument, you’re looking at a jury, you’re in a different context than when you were at your desk preparing this argument. Now you’re before a jury with a judge observing, and you’ve got to make an argument because at that point, your audience is the members of the jury, and you’re going to have to do whatever it takes in making this argument to address it successfully to them. Similarly, in preaching, you have a sermon you plan to deliver. You work hard on the material, the content, the words, the arguments. But in contact with a congregation of living people, I believe it should be a different sermon, not a radically different sermon so there’s no continuity with the first, but when you’re looking at people and when you’re preaching to a congregation as I am right now, I’m looking at real live human beings, and that changes how I will make these expressions. But like a trial lawyer, there is no preacher worth anything who doesn’t a few days later say, “I should have said that. I could have defined that a little better. I could have linked this to that.” You know, that’s just what it is to be human. But I think you get the relevance even in the defense of the faith, you know you’re going to have a conversation, and so you plan what you want to convey in the defense of the Christian faith in that conversation, in that class presentation, in this opportunity, but what you say then is not exactly what you plan because you’re dealing with a real flesh and blood human being. You’re in a conversation or you’re before certain people, and there’s a human dynamic. You can tell, “Okay, I need to lay into this just a little bit further. I need to define this a little more clearly.” You know, you connect the dots and then days later you’re going to think, “Oh, I didn’t connect that quite the way I would connect it now,” That’s how we learn, that’s how we improve. But this particular pattern is not just important to trial lawyers, but you can certainly see why it would be. And you want a trial lawyer who’s thinking these ways because you want that middle one, the argument he actually gives, you want it to be the best one possible. You want it to be better than the one he prepared. Similar for the preacher in the sermon, similar for the Christian in any gospel conversation.

What we have heard is the command to be always ready, but ready to do what? Ready to make a defense, to give an answer for the gospel. An argument is a defense for the faith. This is what we call apologetics. It is the intentional defense of Christian truth. It is to make an apology. And you know, in English that sounds like you’re saying, “I’m sorry, I’m a Christian.” That is profoundly not what it means. It’s from the Greek word apologia, which means a defense of the faith. It is a courageous projection of the reasons you believe what you believe, of the foundational principles behind what you say. It means presenting an argument for the truthfulness of Christ and the truthfulness of Christianity, and it means doing so boldly. Boldness is baked into this text. Be always ready to give a defense. That means reasons. Be always ready to give reasons, to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

I desperately needed Christian apologetics as a teenager, as a high school student in particular. There were huge questions that I was being confronted with in school. There were huge questions that I was being confronted with in the middle of the night, just coming from my own mind and heart. “How in the world do I think this? What am I supposed to think about this?” And I was connected by God’s grace to good, healthy influences of Christian apologetics, and I ate it up. I ate it up. I didn’t know anything about different methodologies of apologetics. I just knew I need smart Christians who are faithful Christians, who know what the gospel is, and how to make arguments, and I need to see how they make arguments because when I go to school tomorrow, I’ve got to know how to make those arguments. And besides that, sometimes the biggest arguments are in my own mind and I need to know how to settle those.

There are different schools of apologetics. One of them is evidential wisdom, and it’s just piling up, evidences, piling up arguments, sometimes little arguments, bigger arguments. You just pile up arguments so you can convince people of the truthfulness of Christianity. That was the first apologetic approach I encountered. And I ate it up. Here’s a question, here’s an answer. Here’s a question, here’s an answer. Here’s a denial, here’s how to confront it. And theologically, I think that can be helpful to people, but ultimately I do not believe that one who is dead, lost in sin and trespasses, is going to become a Christian simply by piling up evidence. I do believe you can knock down and destroy some false claims.

The next school of apologetics I encountered was classical presuppositionalism. In so many ways, the opposite of evidentialism. Presuppositionalism is the mode of apologetics that says you have to get back to the most ultimate presuppositions and then work forward. And the most ultimate presuppositions, according to presuppositionalism, and fully in accordance with Christian theology, is the existence of the triune God and the fact of divine revelation. That is a great theological gain. It is a tremendous theological gain. And it reminds us that the way human beings think is we think from basic presuppositions to different thoughts. And thus a part of what we have to do, and, young people, part of why when you encounter people who have very weird beliefs, those weird beliefs don’t come from nowhere. They come from deeper, deeper presuppositions that are the assumptions they’re making. And the problem is the assumptions are wrong. Just to make the issue transparent for a moment, if your presupposition is, “there is no God,” then guess what, the outworkings of your thought are going to be, “There is no right and wrong. There is no morality. There is no ultimate reality. I can make of life, I can make of truth, I can make of beauty, I can do anything with anything because there is no objective reality.” There is nothing that simply is, if there is no God. There is no objective right or wrong, if there is no God. There’s no objective true or false, if there is no God. And so presuppositionalist apologetics would come back and say, “No, we have to trace it back to those original presuppositions. And if those are wrong, everything else is wrong. There is only one set, only one set of true presuppositions. And that begins with the existence of the triune God and the fact of divine revelation.” You work from that, you’ve got right and wrong. You work from that, you’ve got light and dark. You work from that, you’ve got all that you need. Including, just to point this out, if there is no God, you really don’t even have male or female, thus our modern confusion. But if you start from the Christian presuppositions, you’ve got male and female, you’ve got comprehensive meaning, you’ve got right and wrong, you’ve got truth. I really was a very ardent presuppositionalist. At the theological level, I basically still am. But I’ve also come to see the gains in classical apologetics in terms of building arguments, because I don’t think the arguments themselves save, only Jesus saves, but the arguments can really help and it also helps to form out a more cohesive argument. I think there are so many examples through Christian history in which that kind of classical apologetic approach works. There are other methods of apologetics, cumulative case theory, fideism – I don’t have time for all that today – reformed epistemology, – all that is out there. All I want to tell you is you need to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you, and so every single one of you is called to be an apologist.

And if, as I expect, you don’t know where in the world you fit on a spectrum of apologetics, I want to tell you right now that is unimportant to me. What is urgent in this text is that you commit your life to being prepared to give an answer when the time comes. And to give an answer for what? The hope that is in you. This is the hope of the gospel. This is Christ, the hope of the world. This is the hope that is secure, the hope that is ours, the hope that belongs to us simply because we are Christians. It is the heart of the gospel, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Christian hope that is sure and firm, our blessed hope. In Colossians 1:5, the hope laid up for you in heaven, Colossians 1:27, the hope of glory.

Be always ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you, and that means a Christian bearing witness. This doesn’t mean the hope that you heard about. It doesn’t mean the hope that someone has told you about. It means your hope because you have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ is in you, the hope of glory.

What’s at stake in all of this? Well, just think of public debates going on right now. So much is at stake. The future of civilization is at stake. The existence of our civilization is at stake. What’s at stake in this? Listen to the public conversation, even in the course of the last several days, you’ll understand what is at stake in this. We’re the ones who know that what’s at stake in this is heaven and hell, salvation or damnation, being lost or being found.

Let’s remind ourselves that these last few days – especially for many young Christians – these last few days are only bearable because Jesus Christ is Lord and Jesus saves and Jesus is in us as believers, the hope of glory.

So be always ready – quite a task, quite a calling. It’s not addressed to some, as believers, it’s addressed to all. To give an answer, to provide reasons – again, our responsibility. We’re not finished with it until Jesus comes or takes us home. We should be getting better at answering these questions and defending the Christian faith and telling about Jesus until Jesus comes or takes us home. And what are we talking about? It’s not just about an argument, it’s not just about principles of right thought, it is about leading people to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and for them to also know the hope of glory.

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Third Avenue Baptist Church

Louisville, KY

1 Corinthians 11:1–22

September 21, 2025

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Third Avenue Baptist Church

Louisville, KY

1 Corinthians 11:1–16

September 14, 2025

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Albert Mohler:

These are words we need to hear this morning, even as there is within us a righteous call, demand, hunger for justice and righteousness to prevail. We are here in the light of a tremendous tragedy, which is, for a wife and children, a horrifying loss, a life-changing event. There’s a sobriety to our conversation today, but let’s be very thankful we have this conversation in full confidence in Christ. Jesus saves. So, let’s pray.

Our Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, to declare the full power of the gospel in Christ’s name. Father, in light of recent events, we are struck again by the fact that if there is no gospel, there is no hope. But in Christ, there is eternal hope, secure hope, and a hope not merely for our eternal life given to us by your grace, full acquittal of sin, but there is also the promise of full justice, perfect righteousness, a day that is coming where your righteousness and judgment will be so perfect that every eye will be dry, and every tear will be wiped away. Father, we ask your blessing on this conversation because we know that day is coming, but we are not there yet. In these days, we want to be faithful. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This has been a remarkable season in American life. As I wrote in the piece at World Opinions this morning, and as I discussed on The Briefing today, generations are shaped by events, tragedies, happenings that simply become a part of our lives in such a way that there’s a before and an after. It takes, in some cases, some time to figure out what all these things mean, but there’s also an immediacy. The immediacy that came after the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday is one of those moments where, as the day went on, it seemed to me the right thing to do is to gather together for some conversation. Charlie Kirk was an amazing young man, 31 years old when he was shot yesterday. He had been in public debate, conversation, and political life in the United States for 10 years, co-founding Turning Point USA at age 18.

His life, biography, his mode of operation meant that he was a political activist, a public speaker, a public leader, an organizer. He was a provocateur. It was the very love for that kind of debate that set him in Utah yesterday on a college campus, under a tent, with the charge, Prove me wrong. It was public debate that he was engaged in when his life was taken. There is an inescapable human dimension to this story, and as Christians, that’s what strikes us first. His widow, Erika, two precious, extremely young children, a mother left without a father, a wife without a husband, and now children without a father. So, we as Christians have to think of our concentric circles, getting back to what’s most precious, and that’s where we have to say the greatest loss is found, and it’s an unspeakable tragedy.

But then, working outward from that, there are millions of young people who have been, I think, activated, inspired, educated, mobilized by Charlie Kirk. That was the passion of his heart. There is a sense of a movement, even a fellowship of sorts, that comes in such a movement. Especially given his ability to mobilize and inspire so many young men, there’s kind of a brotherhood that is involved. There is grief all around, and there’s more than that because we’re not just talking about someone who dropped dead of a sudden heart attack. We’re talking about an act of violence that took his life. There’s a lot here for us to consider.

This is an unusual event for us, in that we just said there was a chapel service planned, but we need to use this opportunity to have this kind of heart-to-heart conversation as Christians. I am joined here by Dr. Denny Burk, Dr. Dustin Bruce, and Dr. Andrew Walker. Honestly, we’ve been in conversation, we’re in conversation a lot anyway, but yesterday was an unusual level of conversation, and I want to be honest, an unusual level of immediate concern for those whom we love, care for, and live with joyfully on this campus. To put it bluntly, I think Charlie Kirk had a lot of influence, a continuing influence, an inspiring influence on an awful lot of the students at Boyce College, in particular, and specifically the young men of the college. So, let’s talk this thing through a bit in a way that will honor God, and help us to think this through. Andrew, the news came yesterday, what was your first thought?

Andrew Walker:

William F. Buckley founded National Review Magazine, the founder of the modern conservative movement. He was kind of an elite speaking to elites. What did Charlie Kirk do so effectively? He was able to transmit conservative ideas, and praise the Lord, Christian ideas, into a vernacular for the youth. I was reflecting on this with some friends, we just recorded a podcast a little bit ago, and one of the things we said was, Charlie Kirk made conservatism relatable, palatable, and cool for youth culture. It’s always been the adage that when you’re young, you’re rebellious, you’re progressive, you’re trying to break free from the constraints that have formed you, and you want to pursue rebellion for rebellion’s sake. Conservatives in American history have done a good job of having a populist message in the form of Fox News and talk radio, but conservatism has never broken through to youth culture until Charlie Kirk came along.

Albert Mohler:

Andrew Walker:

Albert Mohler:

Andrew Walker:

Albert Mohler:

Denny Burk:

He would talk to people who did not know Christ, who were leftists, who were there opposing him on all kinds of ideological grounds, and he would just talk to them about Jesus. He would preach the gospel, and if they had a problem with some aspect of the faith, he would talk about that aspect of the faith. He was a popular apologist. So, that’s what stuck out to me, he was very explicit about that, as Andrew said, and so that was profound.

Then, also, as people have testified, you can even see it in some of his videos from over the years, of his humanity. One event, there’s a video out there of a young woman coming up at one of his events, he would just debate anybody who walked up,

Albert Mohler:

Denny Burk:

Albert Mohler:

Denny Burk:

Albert Mohler:

Dustin Bruce:

Albert Mohler:

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Andrew Walker:

My concern right now is that if we have a conservatism without Christ, it can descend into kind of red-pilled radicalism, where you embrace a no-holds-barred strategy towards political engagement yourself. I understand that temptation, that’s not the Christian outlook when it comes to our mode of political responsibility. I think if you’re going to channel your anger properly, channel your anger properly by doing the things that reflect what Charlie Kirk would have you do, channel your political agency to vote for the right people who will instill the right values into office. Open your Bible, if you’re married, love your spouse, if you have children, love your children. That is a far more important way, an outlet to channel your anger than just venting online to people. As we learn more about the exact causes of this, there potentially could be some justification for some ideological anger at what’s going on in society around us.

Albert Mohler:

Andrew Walker:

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Dustin Bruce:

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So, I think it’s a good word for us all, it’s very tempting in a moment of urgency and anger to even emotionally join a mob, but we’re called to a brotherhood of Christians, to a fellowship of believers accountable to all these things. Our demand for justice is not less than theirs, it’s actually greater than theirs, but we also know that the ultimate satisfaction of full justice can’t be delivered by a mob, it also can’t be delivered by the rule of law. It can be delivered to the fullest sense possible on earth by the rule of law, but the final judgment on these things is going to be made by the one truly perfect judge.

Denny Burk:

Albert Mohler:

Denny Burk:

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Andrew Walker:

Dustin Bruce:

Albert Mohler:

But we can’t give ourselves to anger, it’s a tough thing. I want to be honest, without righteous anger, people aren’t going to vote the right way, without righteous anger at the right things, they’re not going to sacrifice in order to try to bring change in society and its policies and laws. So, this is the hard thing for us, isn’t it? We want people to be angry, righteously, and I mean, we are not in the sixties, which was a time of tumult, we’re in a time in which the basic humanity of fellow human beings is at stake here, when good and evil in the political polarization of this country, blue and red, are increasingly living in separate moral worlds. So, I am angry about that, and it needs to be channeled into an appropriate anger that leads to something that has consequences, but we can’t give ourselves to anger as a mode of life.

Andrew Walker:

So, then what do we do with that? It means that we are sober-minded and honest, understanding that ideas are not neutral, and ideas are not equal. I’m not here to baptize conservatism, even though I am a conservative, but I am here to tell you, there are metaphysical principles built into the progressive worldview that are completely at odds with biblical Christianity. That’s not a partisan comment, that’s a biblical statement,

Albert Mohler:

Andrew Walker:

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Albert Mohler:

Well, we’re going to have to figure out, we can make some inferences that I think are very likely to be true, but this returns us to the fact we need police, the FBI, and others to do their work. I’m praying, among other things, for an airtight case, for a sense of public recognition that justice has been achieved, and I think those on the left who pray better be praying the same thing, because it would be a tragedy if 10 years from now, we’re still speaking of it at the level of mystery we are right now in terms of who did it, why, where’s the accountability?

Denny Burk:

The thing that concerns me right now is, I don’t know what could produce that kind of response amongst partisans right now, I don’t know that that kind of feeling or sense of common civic purpose is what it used to be. But I think that gives us a particular calling as Christians, we are bearing witness to another kingdom, and that kingdom is invading right here where we’re living. We need to be able to bear witness to that, we love enemies, and the ideologies that we hate, that we know people hold around us, we don’t hate them, we love them, and we love them for the sake of Christ, we want to see them saved, we want to see them converted, we want to see them brought into the kingdom. We can’t live our lives just in this constant outrage of the other, but we have to—

Albert Mohler:

Denny Burk:

Albert Mohler:

Andrew Walker:

Dustin Bruce:

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Albert Mohler:

But Father, I pray that you, as only you can do, would transform that anger into love, protection, faithfulness, and provision. I pray that you’ll surround the Kirk family with those who can give them that immediate, proximate encouragement, protection, and provision. Father, we do understand the stakes are high, we are reminded of that just in the events yesterday and in the events 24 years ago today. We understand the stakes are really high, Father, we feel the urgency of the hour, and we feel the call to do something. Father, I pray that you will, in the hearts of all of us, but in particular in the students in this room, who, if the Lord tarries, will long outlive those of us on the stage, we pray that you will do a work in their hearts to commit them anew to the truth, to justice, in building this community and this nation, and being agents of gospel and grace in this world. May they know how deep and enduring the battle is, and may they be ever confident in the fact that the day of the Lord is coming. Until then, Father, please make us faithful. We pray all this in the sovereign name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thanks for coming.

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Third Avenue Baptist Church

Louisville, KY

1 Corinthians 10:1–33

August 31, 2025

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It’s become a thing, it’s an internet thing, an Instagram-post-it-and-show-everyone thing. Elementary school students, middle school students, high school students – but especially elementary school students, kindergarten students – they’re holding up a sign that says, “first day of school.” It’s a snap and the photograph is there. They look as fresh-faced and excited as children on the first day of school. Then you know what’s going to happen, and that is that when the school year is over, there’s going to be another photograph, it’s going to be reconstituted and then it’s going to say, “the end of the school year.” And the amazing thing is that if you see the first and the second, there’s an amazing growth that’s taken place. That’s the way it is with kids that age, they go in as kindergartners and come out as first graders, they undergo transformation. You can see that they’ve got teeth, front teeth, in the first picture, and no front teeth in the next picture – it’s glorious, it’s wonderful, it’s digital. Everybody sees it, everybody knows what the picture pattern is. I don’t think we do that here. I don’t know how many students, incoming students, had a picture out front holding a “first day of school” sign – I’m going to guess fewer, fewer than kindergarten and first grade – and I don’t think going to be any pictures on the other end the same way, because you don’t change all that much anymore. At the beginning of a school year and the end of an academic term, you look pretty much like you did when you came in. Now we know there’s more to the story. We know an awful lot of growth has taken place, but it’s invisible growth, it’s spiritual growth, it’s intellectual growth – not so easily measured in photographs on Instagram, but of even greater importance, and in it is a greater glory.

We begin an academic term committed to learning, labor, reflection, reading, thinking, writing, memorizing, analyzing. These are the tasks of learning, and they have been pretty constant ever since the school was invented and the process of formal learning was begun. There’s a grandeur to such things, that’s why we formalize this day, and there’s a grandeur to the beginning of things, which is why we feel like we feel at the beginning of this term, especially to look around this campus where God’s glory is so evident. College students filling the campus, seminary students, many of them pushing strollers – it’s a glorious thing and I am thankful for it. I never lose the wonder of getting to see it year after year with my own eyes. This tradition, this formality, it takes place in some form even in now secular institutions – I’m not sure to what effect. I think there’s probably just a reflection that some kind of formality is necessary, but what was a service of explicit Christian worship is now kind of an empty thing. Without Christ, this event becomes something close to just an exercise in self-congratulation – this is something we need to think about. This is not an exercise in self-congratulation. This is not an exercise in remembering how important we are and how lucky the world is to have us. It’s an exercise in remembering that this task of learning is for disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, ultimately not only for the good of society but for the faithfulness of Christ’s Church, to be translated into faithfulness from others, particularly through the preaching of God’s word and the service of Christ’s people. Our frame of reference thus is not just time. Time is on our mind – this is an academic term, it’s a length of time, it’s a length of days – but what makes this special for us is that our ultimate concern even today is not temporal but eternal.

That is why we turn to God’s word – a short passage from the gospel of Luke, the final verses of chapter six beginning in verse forty-six. We hear Jesus ask,

Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

I think we get it immediately. There’s a sense in which the short parable is so self-explaining, it’s so self-evident that you’re already there. A picture of two houses, one built on the rock with the foundation, the other built on the sand. When the water rises, the one lasts, and the other is swept away.

The context is so important. What is happening here? We see a building intensity in Luke chapter six, especially on this day. Look at the beginning of the chapter, let’s begin in verse 12,

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Wow, can’t even mention him in chapter six without making that clear! Yeah, that Judas. So there’s reference here to the calling of the twelve.

Immediately, in verse seventeen, we go to a great multitude. In verse seventeen we read,

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

Often referred to as “the sermon on the plane,” in some circles, “the sermon on the plateau,” it’s a level place. Just in a very short sum of verses, we have the twelve, and now a larger context with many of his disciple – so this is far beyond the twelve – similar to the pattern we see in Matthew, and then there’s a great multitude, and this multitude is described as being very great, coming from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. We’re also told why the crowd came. They came to hear him – this is important for us to understand – they came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases, and they were told that those who came were healed of their diseases as power came out from Christ and healed them all.

And then the language gets a little tricky – you have to read carefully now. Remember the sermon on the plane included the twelve, to whom we’ve just been introduced formally, and then a good many of his disciples, and then a multitude from Judea and Jerusalem and the region of Tyre and Sidon on the coast – so you have three concentric circles here. And then, in verse 20, where we read the Beatitudes, the introductory language says, “He lifted up his eyes on his disciples.” So this is not said to everyone there it is addressed properly to his disciples, and the disciples are those who are taught of Christ and they are those who also follow him, and he issues the Beatitudes, the blessings:

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Alright, he lifted up his eyes on the disciples and he blessed them. But then he pronounces woes, following the blessings: “But woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry”–notice the parallelism here, those who are hungry now will be filled, those who are greedily filled now will be hungry–“woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” Thereafter, the command to love your enemies, “But I say to you who hear”–okay, again, you know what’s coming, so you know that’s important. “But I say to you who hear”–so in this case, he’s not really speaking to everyone in the same sense because even at this point we understand in those concentric circles there are those who hear and there are those who hear. The distinction is those who hear respond to Christ in faith and follow him and obey him. So, in the introduction here, verse 27,

But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

That’s a lot. That’s a lot. The standard is set incredibly high, and then he immediately says that we’re not to judge,

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

And then the parable of the blind leading the blind, and after that, the passage of the tree and its fruit. It is so important to this point – we have those who are blind leading the blind and there’s also the warning about a bad tree, bad fruit:

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

And then that question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” It’s an astounding question. It’s a haunting question. It’s a fairly horrifying question. It’s one of those questions that is asked by Jesus in the Gospels, and I’ll be honest, it makes me thankful I wasn’t standing there at the time. I’m not sure how you bear it. If you hear it in full force, it comes with much force. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

In Matthew chapter seven, verse twenty-one, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. In the Gospel of Luke chapter eight, verse twenty-one, Jesus answers, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Luke chapter eleven verse twenty-eight, Jesus says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” There’s a repetition here. This is a pattern. There’s a consistency.

It’s reflected also in the apostolic teaching, most famously in James chapter one, verses twenty-two and following,

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

So at least a good deal of Luke chapter six is Jesus speaking to those who are the twelve whom he has chosen ,and then a larger group of disciples who say, and perhaps even intend in some sense to follow Christ, and then there’s a vast multitude from Judea and Jerusalem, Tyre and Sidon, the seacoast. There are different patterns of response here, but the rebuke in chapter six comes very clear when Jesus asked that abrasive question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” So in other words, those who truly confess Jesus Christ as Lord are distinguished by the fact that we do what he says. It’s a fairly simple formula. Those who do what Christ said, they are doers of the word, to use the language of James.

We’re called to be doers, and not mere hearers. That in itself is a very cogent warning for us, isn’t it, at the beginning of an academic term? Because we’re going to be confronted with so much. We’re going to be learning so much. We’re going to be teaching so much.

But this isn’t about just some kind of mind game, it’s not just some kind of esoteric truth quest, it is disciples, rightly understood, learning faithfully in order to live more faithfully. This isn’t just a Gnosticism. It’s not just an exercise in mind enrichment. The intention and the mission, the stewardship of this school is not merely to produce people who know, but men and women who do. So that’s good for us to know. It reminds us that everything that we’re about in the course of this academic year really comes down to the heart and the disposition of the heart and whether or not we are faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if we’re faithful disciples, then every truth that we hear becomes a part of what we do in obedience to Christ and in honor to Christ.

And then there is this short parable – two men, two houses. It’s interesting how quickly Jesus says, “You need a picture, so I’m going to give you a picture. I’m going to show you what he is like.” And notice exactly how that sentence comes, “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like.” So he is going to give us the positive example – that’s the first part of this very short passage is to give us the positive example, and the positive example is the man who builds his house upon the rock. Specifically, he digs deep, he lays the foundation on the rock, and then, “When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.” Two men, two houses, one raging stream, the result is that one house stands and the other falls.

It’s not like this isn’t a picture fresh in our minds. It’s fresh in our minds from Kerrville, Texas, tragically, horrifyingly enough. It’s fresh in our minds from western North Carolina. It’s very much fresh in our minds. Now we not only read of such things and hear of such things and hear tales of such things, in times past, we have video that comes immediately to mind. When you see the raging waters where the land had been dry, now there’s a cataract of water and it’s a violent cataract of water, and it carries entire buildings and houses and communities away, and people too. The ruin is great.

The difference is also clear. There’s a difference, even house by house, which one’s taken, which ones not taken. Foundations, as it turns out, mean just about everything. It makes me think of Abraham as described in the book of Hebrews chapter eleven, verses eight through ten,

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Brothers and sisters, we’re looking for a city that has foundations whose maker and builder is God. The eternal promises of God are summarized as a city that has foundations. The city is on the foundation. That foundation, the New Testament tells us is Christ, and thus it is unshakeable.

This is made abundantly clear in 1 Corinthians chapter three, verse eleven, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” That’s why we sing that precious hymn, “The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord.”

The house that stands is built upon Christ – faith in Christ, obedience to Christ, submission to Christ, life in Christ, obedience to God’s word, hearing and doing. A simple formula, just so crucial for our understanding as we begin this term, or any term. But, of course there’s not just one house in this parable. There are two men in two houses and the first one stands, and you already can figure it out, you understand narrative dualism, you know exactly what’s going to happen, if the one stands built on a foundation, the second one is going to fall. And so you feel it coming, and it comes.

“But the one who hears and does not do them”–that is his words–“is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” Some of you hear the older translations, “and the ruin of that house was very great.” Easy to understand. Just think of some of the images of what we’ve seen – the house sitting on the ground becomes a boat, and one that sinks. The devastation is horrifying.

I’m sure those who heard Jesus tell this parable could easily just imagine what they were seeing. I can remember the first time seeing the Jordan River. It doesn’t look very threatening, but like other rivers it doesn’t look threatening until it is and arid land that looks so dry can become the most dangerous when water sweeps through. You can think, “There’s no reason we’d have to build a foundation here.” But guess what? The rain comes, the waters rise, the floods move, and they destroy and kill.

“When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell.” So in other words, the parallelism here, the contrast, is absolute. The water’s rage against the house built on the foundation of rock, and the water’s going to rage and rage and rage and rage – the house is going to stand because it is built upon a firm foundation. The second one is not even a matter of eventually falling, it falls immediately, just gone, and the ruin of that house was great.

I just want to quickly consider three ways this fall can easily happen when we hear, and fail to do, the teachings of God.

The first is doctrinal. That’s one of the first things we can think about, and certainly when we begin this term and we can look at the world around us. We can see with our eyes houses carried away, houses that fell immediately and are gone.

When I became president of this institution, I had to go to so many meetings that are required by accreditation and all the rest, and there were many, many, many theological seminaries present, and the evangelical schools were vastly outnumbered by the liberal schools – there were just many of them – and they knew who they were, we knew who we were, in one sense we’re not even about the same thing, but nonetheless, we have to go to meetings. If you go to those meetings today, a lot of those schools are simply gone. They’re just gone. Guess what? Theological liberalism kills education, and in more than one way. The deadliest way is it abandons the gospel, and the next thing you know the institution is teaching some other gospel, and then at some point it’s just an entirely secular, humanistic, therapeutic gospel, there’s nothing left. It’s one of the reasons why we recite together the Nicene creed. It’s one of the reasons why we make very clear that in our covenant with the Southern Baptist Convention and with its churches, we require every faculty member to teach in accordance with and not contrary to the Abstract of Principles and the Baptist Faith and Message. And we’ve added to that, we’ve had to add to that, we also have in addition to that the Danvers Statement, and we have added to that the Nashville Statement.

You know, there’s some conversations I’m glad I’ve never had to have. James Pedigru Boyce, the founder of this institution, I don’t think he could have imagined that the faculty of this institution would ever have to be required to sign a confessional statement that a boy’s a boy and a girl’s a girl and that marriage is a union of a man and a woman. I hope I never have to explain that to him. But that’s the responsibility that falls to us and it is because in an age of rampant, almost automatic, reflexive, theological accommodation, more institutions have been lost than retained. More seminaries have been lost than retained. More Christian colleges have been lost than retained. More denominations have been lost than retained. There used to be people inside, now there’s a rainbow flag outside and no people inside. It is a declension we can easily see, and frankly we can sometimes look at it and say, “Well, that’s not us.” The horrifying thing is at one point they said, “That’s not us,” but now it is.

It’s doctrine, it is the faith once for all delivered to the saints, that we must maintain in obedience to Christ. The teaching that takes place here in this college, the teaching that takes place here in the seminary, has got to be the continuity of the Apostles’ teaching without apology, with all the protections and parameters necessary, principles, to make that happen. That means the great doctrines of the Christian faith, it means the specific doctrines of the Reformation, and in particular, the doctrines of the Baptists. But it also means that included within the doctrine of the church are the moral teachings of Christ. They too are doctrine, and all that is a part of our confessional responsibility.

You look across what is called evangelicalism today, and evidently, to be evangelical is to be one podcast away from heresy. One panel discussion or interview away from apostasy. One bestselling book ,and you trade celebrity for orthodoxy. The fall of that house is very great.

Moral. This is another way that you see the fall. And in considering doctrine, it’s the fact that we believe what we teach, we live what we teach. In this moral collapse, again, horrifying things we never thought we would see, right? Weird things we never thought we would see. Some of them are pretty constant, biblical – the seduction of the flesh, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, the seduction of the eyes – but all these old sins come even in new forms – pastors who have been disqualified from ministry because of misbehavior in social media, even with false accounts – and it is weird stuff. Again, I am glad I don’t have to explain that to generations now gone who never even knew there were such avenues of destruction

The old way still horrifyingly leads to the crash of many houses – adultery, sexual immorality – it’s a devastating fall. Not too long ago, major media looked at one city – I’m not going to name the city – looked at one city, major American city – many people would consider it kind of a nexus of American evangelicalism – and just pointed out that there have been like twenty moral failures in major churches just in that community within the last several years. Brothers and sisters, that’s a horrifying betrayal of the gospel. For that to be on the front page of a newspaper is a scandal to the entire Church and a warning to us all.

The third collapse I would mention is spiritual. I have to tell you that the older I get, the larger this one looms. I think it was really early, very early, I came to see the danger of theological collapse and accommodation, and just the force of circumstances, I was forced to see it. In terms of the sins of the flesh, yeah, I don’t think I knew about as many falls in times past as now can be communicated so quickly. That’s a long story throughout Christian history, a long story going back to Genesis three. I think we can understand that, and we understand why the church of the Lord Jesus Christ requires of those who are disciples of Christ that we obey the commands of Christ and the commands that are relayed to us directly by Holy Scripture concerning marriage and sex, intimacy, and all. But I think when I was younger, I did not see so clearly the potential for spiritual fall.

At this point in my life, I am also scandalized, not by people who went out with headline adultery, nor by even bestselling theological liberalism, but they’ve gone out, I think, because of boredom. The house has fallen simply by fatigue, what the French call, “ennui” – boredom, sloth, inattention, distraction. Other things enter into this – envy, anger, resentment, spiritual collapse, loss of heart, discouragement, estrangement. Those don’t make the headlines, but they should break our hearts. The ruin of those houses also very great. Someone who young was filled with vigor to serve Christ and his glory in the pulpit or in the church or as a member of the church in the world, determined to make a difference for Christ, now, just sleeping Sundays off. You say, “How could that happen?” The fall of that house is also very great. It turns out that boredom and sloth and loss of heart can be just as deadly.

I just thought I might think with you about those three different disasters. And at the beginning of this semester, think about doctrinal disaster and moral disaster and spiritual disaster. And just look around this room in order to encourage one another, that we are here to build a house upon a rock. In our individual lives, by God’s grace, by the power of Christ, may we build our house upon a rock. May we never, ever, fail to be fully attentive to what it means to build a house upon a rock.

Brothers and sisters, may we never forget that we are not the rock. May we never forget that Boyce College and Southern Seminary are not the rock. May we never deceive ourselves into thinking our ministry or our work for Christ is the rock. There is only one foundation that is laid, and that is Jesus Christ our Lord. We have no ability to withstand the raging waters of the flood, we are the essence of sink sand, but Christ is able, and Christ is mighty, and Jesus saves.

And it is none other than the Jesus, who is Lord and Savior, who spoke these words, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Who then tells us that those who come to him not only hear him but do what he says. And he gave us the picture of the two men and the two houses and the two ends.

But here’s the last thing I want us to think about: Jesus himself determines the order of our consideration. He doesn’t say, “I want to tell you about two men and two houses. The first one, the one who built his house on the ground, and it was destroyed, and the second who built his house on the rock, he dug a foundation and built his house on the rock, and the floods came and it stood.” Jesus sovereignly knows how we need to hear this. We need to hear the promise of the first, but perhaps what needs to linger in our hearts is the horror of the second – “And the ruin of that house was very great.”

May it not be brothers and sisters, all praise to God.

Let’s pray together, “Father, we are so thankful for the clarity of your Word. And Father, we are reminded of the deadly danger even in hearing your word – that we will merely hear your word. Father, may we be not merely those who hear, but those who do your word. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

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Third Avenue Baptist Church

Louisville, KY

1 Corinthians 9:1–27

August 17, 2025

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