3 New Sermons from SGBC

This week we have three new sermons from Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. One is from our series through the Book of Jonah and the other two are from the ongoing series in the Gospel of John. May God encourage you as you listen to His word being preached.

New Sermon from Sovereign Grace Baptist Church - Brisbane

Police Stop Christian Preaching in Australia

The following is a news report that was on national television in Australia. It involved a ministry in which I am a leader. Please pray for Australia and pray that the Gospel will be free to be preached.

Two New Sermons from Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

This week we have two new sermons from Sovereign Grace Baptist Church - Brisbane.

The first is "Preacher on the Run" which is the first in a four part series on the book of Jonah. The second is "Sign-Seekers" which is apart of our series in the Gospel of John, this sermon will examine the question of signs, wonders, and the people who seek them.

May you be encouraged as you listen to these sermons from the Sovereign Grace Baptist Pulpit:

Operation 513: Can an Atheist Backslide?

Saturday, 3 July 2010

As I made my way into the city I couldn’t help but wonder if tonight was going to be the night that I get seriously injured. The reason for this thought was not because I had experienced some strange prophecy or because I had feelings, but rather it was because the week previous a young Muslim man came in with a couple of his mates. For the most part they were loud, hostile, but yet non-violent. However at the end of the night one of them went to pull a knife on me. He left with a promise that he would be back the following week with a gang to take me down. Ahh… the religion of “peace”.

David and I were both on the look out, but by God’s grace nothing major happened from these jihad wannabes, in fact the Muslim gang was as scarce as a pork chop in Mecca. There was no sign or Allah Akbar from them.

Now that isn’t to say the night was boring, far from it. Instead of Afghani teenage terrorists we had loud mouthed drunk atheists. While Ryan was preaching this one rough looking bloke came up and began to scream and curse. Normally hecklers like this are golden as they draw a crowd, however, this guy would yell, rant and rave but then walk away and start ranting to the crowd. So after Ryan tried to deal with him in the open air, I thought it wise to go talk to him one to one.

The drunk atheist got in my face and began yelling at me. As he yelled I found myself being covered in spit and chewed up dinner, but apart from that he wasn’t too bad. It turns out that this man had some deep hurts. His mother had died recently and his wife was tragically killed in a car accident. He wanted to know why God allowed death and suffering. When I tried to answer he just became more hostile, so I said to him, “You don’t really want an answer do you?” To which he agreed, he was just after someone to blame and God seemed like a good scapegoat. He then said Christianity didn’t have any answers and walked away calling me a coward. A title that confused me, since I was the one who came up to him and tried to answer his questions, and he is now walking away. I guess that makes one a coward…

The rest of the night was fairly tame. Ryan preached, Dave preached and Blake preached. There wasn’t much more heckling, but there were some great one to ones.

To God Be the Glory!

Saturday, 10 July 2010

The Bible is a Neolithic book! It was written in the Neolithic period! You cannot trust it!

Wayne was in fine form tonight. The heckling began while Alex (not the Atheist) was preaching. I stood in back play listening to the ramblings that is Wayne. Yarran and I were discussing some of the arguments that Wayne was using, and we both found it interesting that in the Neolithic period (allegedly) there was no alphabet or writing, so we were both confused how the Bible was supposed to be written some 4000 - 5000 years before the invention of the alphabet. But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good heckle.

Alex dealt with Wayne for some time, and then Wayne must have been on repeat because once again he went back to the Neolithic argument. It was at this point I jumped in and began to deal with the heckling.

I asked Wayne for proof of the Bible being written then, and his best argument was, “Genesis says there was a talking snake and unicorns”. But then his argument changed slightly to say that the oral tradition began in the Neolithic times.

When I challenged Wayne on these points and made an apologetic showing how unicorn, doesn’t have to mean a mythical one horn horse, but rather it could be a one horned animal and that the talking snake was actually Satan talking via the snake. I concluded by saying for you to disprove the Genesis account, your main argument has to be against God, you have to disprove Him.

Well that sent us on another round of heckling. Wayne the atheist started to talk about how some things are immoral etc. So I asked him on what basis does he make a judgement on something being immoral? His reply was that society determines what is right and wrong. So I took him a step further and said, “What if one society condones child rape, is that ok?” And Wayne replied by saying that it is universally wrong. Now he had an issue, how can right and wrong be determined by individual societies and yet there still be absolutes?

This was a question Wayne was unwilling to answer. So I put to him, “To say that something is immoral requires there be a universal moral law, which is not tainted by our own society values, if that is the case then there needs to be a moral law giver, who is outside of our domain, that is the being we call God. For there to be right and wrong, there must be one who determines right and wrong. An atheist cannot have a moral basis apart from God.”

At this stage Wayne was happy to let another heckler take over, this heckler had the deep theological thought of “What happens to the souls of cars when they die?” To which I simply replied, “Well that depends if they run on LPG or Petrol”.

The rest of the heckling for the night was fairly tame. We had some good one to ones and many tracts were handed out.

Praise God for a good evening.

View photos from the outreach, here.

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The following is from Ryan Hemelaar about a certain conversation he had:

Doctor S backslides from atheism?

On Saturday, I got into a conversation with "Doctor S" from the Brisbane Atheist Group. We started talking about the Ontological argument - specifically Plantinga's formulation of it. Not sure what that is? Read it below:

1. It is possible that a maximally great being exists.
2. If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.
3. If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.
4. If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.
5. If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.
6. Therefore, a maximally great being exists.

A maximally great being would a necessary being, therefore if he can exist is some possible world, he must exist in every possible world (because he's necessary), including our own. Doctor S admitted that the argument is logical and he knows of no way of refuting it. So I asked whether he now believes the conclusion of the argument. He answered, "I'll have to go home and see whether anyone else has refuted the argument." I responded, "If no one has, will you then believe it?" He answered, "No, because it doesn't mean that no one has been able to refute it and just can't find it." So I said, "This shows you actually have a vested interest in not believing in God because you are unwilling to believe under any circumstances. For this argument is logical with its premises supported, so therefore it is not just a matter of the conclusion possibly or probably following from the premises, it means that the conclusion to the argument logically and necessarily follows."

After a bit of further discussion, he said, "I can admit there is a maximally great being, but that doesn't mean a 'God'." I asked, "But is not a being who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, and so on, 'God'?" He refused to admit this. He tried to maintain that admitting that there is a maximally great being does not mean he is no longer an Atheist. I disputed this point with him, letting him know what is the standard definition of atheism in the field of Philosophy (according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - it doesn't mean lacking a belief in God, it rather means the belief that there is no God.

He then went on to try and deny logic to get around the predicament he was in, but I pointed out to him that logic is the basis for all rational discussion and so he cannot do that.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Jesus the Evangelist (Part 2) - Josh Williamson

Do you have a passion to reach out to the lost, but are not sure how to do it? If so then this sermon is for you. Learn how Jesus shared the Gospel and be better equipped for soul-winning.

Operation 513: Islam is Peace

Saturday, 12th June, 2010

I was running late for the city tonight, but Ryan was able to cover me. Upon arrival, I found that we had a serious preaching problem. Normally we need three preachers to get us through the night, but this night we only had two. Blake had lost his voice so was unable to preach. But by God’s grace Ryan and I would be able to preach through the night.

After a bit of a discussion Ryan got up first and began to preach. Following the usual outline, Ryan preached and Wayne heckled.

For over an hour Ryan preached and dealt with a few hecklers. Wayne had some good arguments tonight on does the bible contradict itself, and he even produced arguments I have never heard of before. But a quick study of the texts showed that there was no contradiction, but full points to Wayne for effort.

During Ryan’s open air, I was able to have a discussion with a man who has study the Bible with Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and other cults. He was telling me about his Hebrew and Greek studies, but it soon became clear that his understanding of the original languages wasn’t very good. He like Wayne wanted to show the Bible is full of contradiction, but each one he produced showed the Scripture had no internal errors.

At about 11:15pm Ryan finished preaching and during this time there were some great one to ones occurring. If you looked around our section of the Queen Street mall you couldn’t help but notice that the team was locked in many spiritual conversations.

At 11:30pm I stood to preach and nearly straight away Wayne began to heckle. He used the same old arguments, so I answered and presented the Gospel. Then about five older hecklers arrived, all of who were drunk out of their skull. They began to slur and heckle, I couldn’t understand what they were on about, but they were convinced of something.

The funny thing is it turns out they live in the area I pastor in, and afterwards a couple of them came up to apologise about slurring the local Baptist pastor. God-Willing I will encounter them again in my witnessing around my local area.

Monday, 14th June, 2010

“God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen! Send her victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the Queen!”

The Queen’s birthday public holiday was here, many people were off work and going to the city for the day, so we decided to head in and talk about the King of Kings.

Jeremy, Blake (with voice back) and I caught the train into Central. Shortly after getting on the train we noticed a couple of men hop on also. One of them had the biggest crucifix you have ever seen and he was reading Augustine. We picked them as being from the local Catholic seminary so we got a Catholic tract out ready for them. A few stations later when they got off Blake handed it to them. They have read it and since sent an angry email. Please pray for them.

As we were coming into central station I thought it would be a good idea to preach for about 90 seconds between stations. So I stood up and began to share the gospel. At the mention of Jesus one man stormed out of the carriage into another, but the rest of the people listened and many took tracts afterwards. One man even walked up and shook my hand at the end of the preaching.

By now we were at central station, so we made our way into the city centre. As we approached King George Square we ran across a lady (we think) sitting on a chair with a sign sprouting how we aren’t to think but feel (I wonder if she used thought to write the sign). I questioned her a bit on her belief, she didn’t have many answers and in the end she promised to read a tract. Please keep her in prayer.

After this we went and preached on Elizabeth street. Jeremy was the preacher and he did some good preaching. It was good to see him get up and preach again. He is quite a gifted speaker, may God use him for His glory.

At around 3pm we head back home. It was a great day of witnessing.

Saturday, 19th June 2010

There was a chill in the air tonight as we went out preaching. Unlike last week, this week we were awash with preachers. As we prepared for the night I toyed with the idea of preaching in speakers corner to those in a café opposite, but for some reason it never happened.

At 9pm we set up as usual, but unlike our normal routine there was no Wayne. So we began by just preaching. Jeremy was the first man up and he preached for near on an hour.

During this time I ended up in a conversation with a Muslim man from Afghanistan. He was sprouting all these lies about Christianity and when challenged he couldn’t answer. It even turns our we knew the Quran better than he did. The man kept saying Islam is a religion of peace, they never hurt anyone. And then it changed. All of a sudden he went running off after two teenage girls, as I watched him I noticed he became hostile to them, he got right into their faces and started abusing them. He even raised a fist. I went down after him and put myself between the girls and him. He continued to threaten them, and I informed him that would not be a wise path to walk down. He then tried to intimidate me, that didn’t work, so he left swearing and cursing and threatening us. Good proof that Islam is “peaceful”.

By now Jeremy had finished preaching and it was time for Yarran to preach. He did a great job and got a good size crowd. Then the atheists descended, so he tagged in David Gee to deal with their objections. Dave answered all their questions on atheism and evolution, but these hecklers weren’t overly amused. Then it went to the gospel, and they were less happy.

It was midnight when Dave stood down, many had heard the gospel and the atheists had some things to think about. Praise God for a good night.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Full report with pictures: http://www.operation513.com

For other Operation 513 team reports visit: http://www.operation513.com/battlelog.php

Operation 513: The Bible Supports Rape

Saturday, 29th May 2010

David Gee and I shared a good time of fellowship as we made our way into Brisbane city for the night of witnessing. Unfortunately we missed the team prayer and bible reading due to delays, but we were able to meet with the team at 9pm.

We were aware that once again the Brisbane Atheists were planning to visit us, it was just interesting to see that they have dwindled in numbers over the past few months. There was a time when there were many of them swamping us at once, now there only seems to be about four joining for the heckle-fest. I was disappointed to see that Steve their leader was not present and neither was the former “Christian” both of whom have shown themselves to be very close minded when claiming to be open. I am looking forward to talking to them again to see why Steve hasn’t contacted me in order to examine evidence for God (as he said he would) and to see why the former “Christian” destroyed a DVD when he promised to view it. One would almost think they are not interested in being free-thinkers.

So here is the scene. We are setting up and getting ready to preach, and then strolling up towards us was Alex and his merry men. They were looking for a heckle and we were willing to try and answer their questions.

The first preacher up was Blake, he started by presenting Christ and what He did on the cross for sinners. Before long some Muslims (two of which were homosexual) began to heckle, but as usual, when challenged they left.

Now it was time for Alex to enter the fray.

As usual he led in with his denouncing of all things related to God, although I am yet to see how by just asserting that we are lying and that there is no God actually proves his case. He began his usual tirade claiming that 1 plus negative 1 equals nothing, and that somehow proves there is no God. I for one am confused, that if we have to add something to get nothing, then surely there was something to begin with.

Alex then began to misrepresent Christianity by claiming that we believe the world was created by magic by some cosmic magician. To this comment his atheist mates laughed. But, I didn’t hear a rebuttal to what Ryan Hemelaar called out. Ryan called out to Alex, “At least we have a first cause, you have the world coming about by magic, but with no magician.”

Alex once again turned his attention to Blake and began to heckle more. Normally involving much insult and very little intellect. Alex then pulled out his argument against Blake, “You haven’t study science so you cannot argue science.” To which we asked Alex if he has study science, he replied by saying, “A scientist is one who uses scientific method to reach a conclusion.” That was his argument to justify his ability to use science, when asked if that same definition extended to Christians he refused to answer. And just for the records. The atheists claim that I used this argument on Alex, saying that since he isn’t a scientist he can’t argue science. I never would use such an argument. He was the one which entered that line of reasoning into the discussion not us. And if you atheists still don’t believe me, I am sure the audio recording of the open air will show testimony to the fact that it was Alex who argues that way.

Somehow Alex ended up in a discussion with Ryan, Bekk and I. Once again he was arguing his 1 plus negative 1 equals nothing. But he is never fully able to explain it. He then changed arguments to include monkeys. He then went on about seeing evidence for and against monkeys in a crate and then concluding by subtract the anti-monkey from the monkey we can say there were no monkeys. At this point I was just stuck on the absurdity of the anti-monkey.

Alex during this time made a boast that within 100 years Christianity would be wiped out. And later in the night he hinted that violent force may be used by the atheists to achieve that end. That should make for interesting listening if and when we make available the audio for download.

It was around this time that the atheists decided it was beer o’clock, so they headed off to get some grog.

Blake finished up his preaching then it was time for Ryan to preach. He did a fairly short stint tonight and in his 30 minute preach he didn’t seem to get any really decent hecklers. But he did do a great job of preaching the Gospel.

After Ryan finished preaching, it was my turn to preach. So I stood up and began to proclaim the gospel. As I did from up the mall came Alex and his merry men again (this time even more merry as they had just boozed up).

Alex and another atheist (I believe his name was Steve, if not sorry) began to heckle. Steve asked a good question to which I answered and asked him a question, but before he could answer, Alex came running in to think for him. I had to keep Alex from answering for Steve. It must be that Alex doesn’t think Steve is capable for thinking for himself.

Some of the questions thrown at Steve he couldn’t answer, so once again Alex would jump in and begin to speak. Then he asked a question which he claims knocks out the Bible (he has even made a YouTube video about it), the question he puts forward is, “If the Bible is true, why are there only marsupials here in Australia and not anywhere else in the world? How did they get here?”

My answer first was, “How do you know they are only in Australia? And, they could have gotten here by two means, first migration or they could have gotten here the same way the cane toad did. And that is by people bringing them.”

To my answer Alex just laughed and mocked. I knew Australia was not the only place marsupials were found, so decided to call out David Gee, who is a veterinarian doctor and asked him where else they are found. Dave told the crowd and Alex that marsupials are found also in Papua New Guinea and South America. Plus just because we don’t see them in other parts of the world doesn’t prove they weren’t there before (for instance lions in some parts of middle east and Europe etc).

Dave produced evidence, but would Alex concede? NO! He changed arguments but wouldn’t admit he was wrong. His whole argument, and his whole premise for attacking Christianity was built upon a misunderstanding, if he had done a little bit of research he would have found out he was mistaken. But an atheist isn’t interested in fact, they are interested in suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. They are interested in hiding behind any false argument in order so that they don’t have to acknowledge the Sovereign God who rules over them.

It was approaching midnight at this stage so I wrapped up the open air by preaching the Gospel once again. The atheists need to hear this message as does anyone else. Christ Jesus died in the place of sinners, He suffered the death that we deserve, then three days later He arose again from the dead, and now He can offer forgiveness of sin to all those who would seek Christ with a repentant heart and trust in His finished work on the cross.

Praise God for the Gospel and Praise God for the honour of being able to proclaim it.

Saturday, 5th June 2010

Another great night and yet another chance to make Christ known. The team rallied as per usual in King George Square for a time of prayer, Bible reading and fellowship. At 9pm we made out way up to the Queen Street Mall where we began to get ready for the night of preaching. We were a bit delayed in setting up the Bible table etc tonight, so we didn’t start preaching until 9:30pm.

Andre was the first preacher up and he did a great job in proclaiming Christ. Soon in to his open air he had a large crowd and a few good hecklers. The heckling centred around the biblical teaching of wives submitting to their husbands and women preaching in the church.

Andre tried to answer their questions but the hecklers wouldn’t listen. By now two very vocal feminists were going nuts claiming the Bible supported treating women as second class citizens and that it supports the rape of a parents daughter.

By now Andre’s voice was going so he tagged me in. I immediately called out the most vocal feminist and insisted she bring some support to her claims. She couldn’t and even admitted to not knowing the Bible. So I asked her, how do you know the Bible says these things if you don’t know the book?

I then swung it around and explained how the Bible commands men to treat their wives. And I used (as Paul does) the example of Christ laying down His life for His bride. Well they didn’t like that, they got even angrier and maintained that we treated women as sub-human. Yet, whenever I would show them from the Scripture their error they would just move to another ill-informed argument.

By now one Asian feminist was screaming hate at me, and saying, “Give me a bible, it supports rape of daughters!” So we gave her a Bible and asked her to show us. She was referencing Lot and his daughters in Genesis, but she couldn’t find it. One of the team came over and helped her find the verse. She then started to claim victory so I asked her to read it to the crowd. As she did the crowd erupted saying, “See, rape is OK according to the Bible, men rape women!” The problem is they didn’t know the text very well.

I replied by saying, just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean it is allowed. For instance God records David committing adultery, it records the sin and failings of people. Just because it does that doesn’t give one permission to do it.

Then I asked a question to a really vocal feminist who was trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy. “Let me put a scenario to you. If someone goes to a pub and gets another person drunk and makes it so they are out of it. Then that person has sex with the person who is drunk and not with it, are they guilty of rape?” The woman yelled the person who does that is a rapist! So I asked, “Should the victim be called a rapist and blamed for it?” She yelled NO! Then I pointed to the text to show that Lot wasn’t the one raping, but rather it was the daughters that got him drunk and then slept with him. I asked her who was the rapist in that situation? She stormed off.

Another man took up the heckling maintain that we were in error. This time he argued that the Bible is full of contradictions, to which I asked him to show me just one. He couldn’t, but maintained that he had been informed that there were errors, but he had never read the Bible. I asked him to show proof for his claims, but he just said, “Educated people said it, so I believe it.” I pointed out that educated people would disagree, so would he believe them, he said he wouldn’t as those that believe the Bible have a bias. To which I answered, so do those that don’t believe. He was fairly silent after that, but I wouldn’t let him go.

I kept targeting his central argument and used that as a springboard to preach the gospel. By the end the man looked like he was wanting to get out of there. But, I think it was clearly demonstrated that Christianity has the answers to the questions people ask.

I’d been preaching for about 90 minutes when I decided to wrap it up and hand it over to Blake. Blake then proceeded to preach for a further thirty minutes and mopped up the last hecklers. It must be said that Blake is becoming a brilliant preacher, he is growing in confidence and he deals very well with hecklers.

Praise God for an awesome evening.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Full report with pictures: http://www.operation513.com

For other Operation 513 team reports visit: http://www.operation513.com/battlelog.php