Beggars at the Gate

Jesus and the apostles talk a lot about the unity of the church and how important that is. But sin is pervasive and seeks to destroy what God has created. With that in mind we look at the sin of division. We'll look at 13 causes of division written by Benjamin Keach in his excellent book, The Glory of a True Church, add a couple modern examples, and then look at what the Bible says about unity.

Perhaps you've heard the question asked "how do we keep the next generation in church?" There are a number of studies that look at how many of our young people leave the church after they graduate high school. How should the church address this?

We finish our discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity by looking at what is called the eternal relations of origin and how we have communion with this God.

The doctrine of the Trinity is at the heart of our faith and is often the subject of attack. What does the Bible say about it and what should we believe? How does this doctrine affect us as believers? We discuss this and more as we begin our discussion of this great doctrine of our faith.

We finish paragraph 2 of chapter 2 in the 1689 by discussing God in relation to creation. Our God is sovereign and good and does good, even when we don't understand it all.

We made it to the second paragraph of Chapter 2 of the Second London Confession of Faith! We spend time discussing God's glory in himself and our delight in our most blessed God as his people.

Here's part 2 of our interview with our sending pastor, Matt Emadi. We dive into discipleship and pastoral visits in this part. We're so thankful for Matt Emadi's faithful service and willingness to discuss the church with us.

We interview Pastor Matt Emadi from our sending church, Crossroads Church in Sandy, Utah. We discuss preaching, membership, and what makes a healthy church. We apologize that Matt was a little hard to hear in this interview. We're still trying to perfect our audio set up for a third person.

We finish the first paragraph of chapter 2 on God and the Trinity by discussing the attributes God has gracious shared with us and his disposition to save his people.

We continue our dive into the depths of theology, the being and essence of God, as we press on into the first paragraph of chapter 2 of the 1689. We discuss God's eternality, immutability, and other attributes of God that we know by "negative analogy." Join us as we marvel at who our God is and worship him in truth.

We dive into Chapter 2 of the 1689, Of The Holy Trinity. We make it part way through the first paragraph and discuss who the Bible reveals God to be and why he is, and can only be, the only true God.

Is the practice of church membership a biblical one? At CGC we believe that it is. So where do we find it? What is membership? And what are some of the ways it can be and has been abused?

We finish chapter 1 of the 1689 confession by looking at the use of Scripture in interpretation and controversies. We discuss the use & limitation of the historical-grammatical method of interpretation, how we should read and understand the Bible, as well as where creeds and confession stand in relation to the Bible.

We take a week off of the 1689 to discuss David's song of confession and repentance in Psalm 51. In this devotional episode we discuss the nature of sin and the glory of God's forgiveness.

We discuss the clarity of Scripture (or its perspicuity) and why that's so important as well as the languages it was written in and why we need translations.

Can we add to Scripture? What does it mean "necessarily contained" and why did the Particular Baptists change this from the Westminster? What governs our worship and why? We discuss this and more as we continue moving through the 1689.

We continue our discussion of the Bible's authority in the church and the internal witnesses to the Bible as the Word of God.

We continue our series through the Second London Baptist Confession, the 1689, by looking at the authority of Scripture. Why do we believe this is the very word of God? How do we prove that to those around us? Are there other testaments we should submit to? What about the Apocrypha.

We continue our series through the Second London Baptist Confession by looking at the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of the first chapter, Of The Holy Scriptures. What books make up the Bible and why? Who decided this?

We look at one of the great doctrines of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura, as we continue our series through the 1689 and look at chapter 1, paragraph 1, Of The Holy Scriptures. We talk about natural revelation and special revelation, can we trust our Bibles, and why the Bible is so necessary.

We begin our series through the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (or the 1689) by looking at the introduction. Why was this written and what use does it have in the church? Is it helpful to have a confession of faith like this in a place like Utah? the1689confession.com

Many believers make new plans around the new year to read the Bible more or read the whole Bible in a year. How should we think about personal Bible reading? What are the benefits? Are there any dangers we should look out for? We also discuss some of our plans for the podcast in 2025.

What makes a church plant into a church? There's a theological aspect to this question (and we address that) but also a practical one in terms of maturity. In this episode we look back on the year that was and rejoice in the ways God has worked in us and in our church.

We continue our short Advent series through some of our favorite hymns and their rich gospel theology by looking at Hark the Herald Angels sing. Some of the major themes include God's reconciliation of sinners to himself, what it means that Jesus veiled his divinity (and what it doesn't mean), and the often forgotten fourth verse.

This Advent season Ben and Darren discuss some of their favorite hymns and the depth of gospel truths each one has. This week we look at Joy to the World and discuss why we can be joyful even when life often isn't and what Jesus came to do.