• Jared Smith's Sermons

    God’s Will For Your Life

    Some of the points covered in this sermon: Exploring the will of God for His regenerate people, as it relates to the practicalities of life, according to the threefold view of life depicted by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:1-4 I. The Life That Was—“For ye are dead,” (3a) II. The Life That Now Is (1,2,3b) 1. Its Essence—“and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (3b) 2. Its Evidence—“If ye then be risen with Christ,” (1a) (1) Seeking After Christ—“seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” (1b) (2) Setting Affections On Christ—“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (2) III. The Life That Will Be—“When Christ, who is our life,…

  • Jared Smith On Various Issues

    Persuasional Regeneration?

    In an article entitled, “The Need For Persuasion In The Preaching Of The Gospel”, Peter Masters wrote: “The hyper-Calvinist regards the regenerating work of the Spirit as a total and complete work of conversion carried on in the heart by the Spirit in a direct manner...Believing that the whole of regeneration and conversion is accomplished by a direct work of the Spirit in the heart, and that repentance and faith are the fruit and evidence of a soul already saved, the preacher has no exhortation left to make!” This is a classic Reformed (Fullerite) Baptist position. I respond:[1] First, the “hyper-Calvinist” does believe the regenerating work of the Spirt is total and complete. Second, the “hyper-Calvinist” does believe that repentance and faith are the fruit…

  • Jared Smith On Various Issues

    Introduction

      John Piper has served as the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota for more than 30 years. In 1994, an organization called “Desiring God” grew out of John’s tape ministry. It is now “an international web ministry with 12,000+ free resources and 3.5+billion monthly users.” Desiring God hosted a conference for pastors in 2007. John Piper spoke on the life and ministry of Andrew Fuller, as it relates to his “broadsides Against Sandemanianism, Hyper-Calvinism, and Global Unbelief”. The title of his lecture was, “Holy Faith, Worthy Gospel, World Vision”. The audio lecture and full transcript may be accessed here: There are many areas one may benefit from Piper’s teachings, but this is not one of them. Having failed to understand the framework of…

  • Jared Smith On Various Issues

    1. High-Calvinists Did Not Like George Whitefield, Because He Preached The Gospel?

    Speaking of John Wesley and George Whitefield, John Piper points out: “The Particular Baptists did not like either of these evangelical leaders. Wesley was not a Calvinist, and Whitefield’s Calvinism was suspect, to say the least, because of the kind of evangelistic preaching he did. The Particular Baptists spoke derisively of Whitefield’s ‘Arminian dialect’.” One of the leading figures among the Particular Baptists was Pastor-Theologian John Gill. The teachings of Gill are representative of the High-Calvinism to which Piper refers. In George Ella’s book, “John Gill, And The Cause Of God And Truth”, he makes the following observation on page 184: “It is very difficult to conceive that anyone familiar with the ministry of John Gill could accuse him of being without vigour in preaching…

  • Jared Smith On Various Issues

    2. As A High-Calvinist, John Gill Was Responsible For Killing A Gospel Spirit Among The Particular Baptists?

      John Piper asserts: “Fuller himself certainly saw Gill as a High Calvinist responsible for much of the evangelistic deadness among his fellow Particular Baptists.” There is an article written by George Ella called, “Exaggerated Claims Concerning Andrew Fuller And False Information Regarding ‘High-Calvinists’”. Ella points out: “1795-1835 was a time of widespread revival with Anglican Robert Hawker preaching to thousands, Independent William Huntington equalled his efforts and Baptist William Gadsby founding 45-50 churches filled with new converts. The Particular Baptists were not inactive in this time but Mr Cook confuses Gill’s orthodoxy with Fuller’s. Gill had one of the largest Particular Baptist congregations in Britain, outnumbering Fullers by far. Contemporary evangelical magazines objecting to Fullerism’s ‘gangerous’ effect on church growth were legion. However, in…

  • Jared Smith On Various Issues

    3. The High-Calvinist Churches Were Lifeless And The Particular Baptists Were Dying?

      John Piper points out: “One of Fuller’s critics, John Martin, Pastor at Grafton Street, Westminster wrote, “Sinners in my opinion, are more frequently converted, and believers more commonly edified, by a narrative of facts concerning Jesus Christ, and by a clear, connected statement of the doctrines of grace, and blessings of the gospel, than by all the expectations and expostulations that were ever invented. (Quoted in Morden, Offering Christ, p. 57.) But in fact, the Hyper-Calvinists were not passionately telling the narrative of the gospel story to the lost and were opposed to the new mission to India. Peter Morden points out that “The prevalence of high Calvinism had led not only to a refusal to ‘offer Christ’ but also to a general suspicion…