Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

This podcast feed hosts the public teaching ministry of Dr. Bryant K. Owens. I am an independent scholar exploring Christian Studies in today’s secular world. I believe that thoughtful Christianity can bring meaningful change in our churches, classrooms, homes, and communities. With years of experience as both a pastor and educator, I am passionate about the historical Christian worldview and the...

The theme of the parable of the sower focuses upon the differences between how the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven is received. The Kingdom of Heaven, according to Jesus, is like seed being down for a crop. As Jesus and his disciples preach the Word of God, the Word is sown like a farmer sowing seed. The nature of the Kingdom is cast like seed, beginning small, and then growing as the Kingdom r...

Why parables? The twelve disciples inquire of Jesus as to why his teaching methods involved parables (v. 10). Matthew's account implies that Jesus instructed his twelves with different, more direct, teaching methods. Otherwise, the twelve would not notice a stark difference in how Jesus instructed the crowds. Before we can understand Jesus' parables, we must listen to Jesus' reasons for speaking i...

This morning following the celebration of our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem, I felt it appropriate to reflect upon the Providence and Sovereignty of God. This hymn of praise urges God’s people, those whom God chooses to be his own, to trust and to worship HIM alone. We are reminded as we read this wonderful hymn that God alone is worthy of our deepest devotion. No other god and no other worldly distra...

Psalm 98 is clearly a song of JOY and celebration, a remembrance of God’s faithfulness while also prophesying the future fulfillment of salvation by our LORD God. This is a psalm of JOY for salvation that has arrived and will come someday. One theologian said of Psalm 98: “This psalm is to be understood prophetically of the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ.” So why does the psalmist call fo...

This fourth Sunday of Advent is the last Sunday morning before we celebrate the birth of our Savior on December 25th. The brokenness of God’s fallen creation at last sees hope in the miraculous incarnation of God’s Son. Today’s text will give us a glimpse into the mysterious yet revealed truth of the Incarnation of God himself as he steps into humanity – resulting in the birth of the Son of God wh...

We are reminded on this third Sunday of the Advent season of the JOY that Christ’s redemption of our sinful state brings. Today’s passage of the encounter between the Heavenly Host of angels with the lowly Shepherds will show us the contrast between two states of the human dilemma. We must look at these shepherds and their encounter with God’s heavenly host of angels & God’s glory as the divine in...

The distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is about six miles. Herod's scholars sent the Magi to a particular house in that same town. Now if the bible is the Word of God, without error in all that it affirms, then stars are not what we have all been quietly assuming them to be. The STAR was a heavenly object (or being) that obeyed the Father in Heaven in order to show HIS glory by bringing faithful...

What was once good is now corrupt. The free will choice of the first man and the first woman to exchange God’s presence with the voice of Satan set them into a bondage of the will. Their willful decisions enslaved them and the subsequent generations to come. All who carry the Imago Dei now carry the curse of this original sin. There is no hope in our own will. There is no hope in our choices. God...

The Humble Spirit of Giving Thanks: Romans 1:7-15 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 Ephesians 1:15-17 Philippians 1:3-6 Colossians 1:3-8 1 Thess 1:2-5 2 Thess. 1:3- 2 Tim 1:3-5 Philemon 4-7

What does Jesus mean in Matthew 12:50 that his brothers, and sisters, and mother are those who "do the will of my Father in heaven?" They are whom God chooses with genuinely contrite & broken hearts, who are intimately connected with HIM who are repentant and forgiven and redeemed and regenerate. Jesus' true family are not those who are family by birth or legal standing. Jesus' true family are tho...

The warning from Jesus in this passage refers to the blind understanding that one's soul is clean when one purges immoral action from one's life-style only to stand back and admire the great work unaware of the dangerous enemies lurking outside looking for an opening to re-occupy the spiritual house (the soul) again. The second messy occupation of demons is worse than the first possession.

After all of the signs and miracles that Jesus did in the presence of these religious elite, and after HIS harsh rebuttal of their stubborn and blasphemous hearts, the Scribes and Pharisees who had been rebuked by Jesus for blasphemy had the audacity to ask for a sign from Jesus to prove to them who he was ... a sign to prove to them that Jesus himself was not blasphemous, not from Beelzebub. How...

Words matter. The consistent theme throughout scripture is that the only way to salvation is by God's grace manifest in man's faith. What Jesus means in these final verses of the passage is that words will be reliable evidence of the reality of salvation. While our LORD knows the hearts of men better than we do, the speech of the redeemed person will be different because the renewed heart is diffe...

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable because the avenue to forgiveness is rejected ... slandered. In attributing the work of the Spirit of God to the person of Satan, the Pharisees are guilty of opposition to the Spirit of God ... the only Spirit that can change the will ... who can draw the unrepentant to repentance. These Pharisees rejected the very thought of repentance. Their will...

In this passage we see Jesus' confrontation against the charges that he was under the power of Beelzebul (or Satan). Jesus shows in his action of casting out demons is that HE is LORD over the spiritual. But we also see that the demonic forces are invader of God's creation. The HOLY Spirit is at work as Jesus heals and as exorcises demons. If all of the created order is under the control of God th...

In this passage Jesus heals a man of demon-possession and his blindness and his inability to speak. These physical ailments were certainly the result of demon possession. While all of the crowd around him were amazed, the Pharisees were not. They slandered the Holy Spirit by slandering Jesus who confronts the Satanic forces at work in this scene.

Greater than Jesus' miracles of healing is the prophecy of him as the gentle and meek servant. Matthew includes the prophecy of Isaiah 42:1-4 in this intermission within the 12th chapter of the gospel as the greatest evidence that Jesus was/is the Messiah. Jesus never allowed the opposition of the Pharisees to hinder the ministry that God the Father placed upon him. In no way was the prophesied Be...

The point of Jesus' actions on the Sabbath was to show who HE was. Jesus is LORD of the Sabbath and is LORD of the Law of God. Jesus shows in this passage that the true purpose of his ministry was to restore fallen humanity to the original state of wholeness in relation to our Creator. By restoring the suffering hand of this poor man with a withered hand, Jesus shows that HE restores all things ba...

This passage speaks more about Jesus' authority that it does the proper definition of Sabbath. If Jesus is the authority spoken of in the Prophets, then how much more authority does HE possess over our hearts & lives? Jesus is our rest. HE is the authority over all the commands to work for six days and rest on the seventh. All of God's redeemed are to rest one day out of seven. Yet this day is our...

The first thing that we see in Jesus' conclusion of the discourse in eleventh chapter of Matthew is that those who come to him will share in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who come to Jesus are those who are humble in hearing what Jesus chooses to reveal. Jesus calls all to unite with him in celebrating the hidden things of God that are now revealed. No one can come to faith on their own morality or...

Jesus and John the Baptist both preached truth during their ministries in Galilee and there were many, many people who did not join them. Some ridiculed. Most did not care. They did not come to him because they refused to acknowledge him. They were indifferent. Why did the passion for righteousness not drive the citizens of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin to embrace Jesus when they were privile...

We first prayed for the Church in Afghanistan on this Sunday morning. The brave Christians live in the midst of evil. Yet many are bold and loyal to Christ. They are not fickle and bored children who do not wish to join the wedding feast of the Lamb. Please pray for the Church in Afghanistan. Jesus praised John the Baptist and then challenged the crowds with him who followed after John's ministry...

This passage of Matthew's gospel has Jesus turning to the crowds that were with him learning from his activity and his teaching. They witnessed and interaction between Jesus and some of John the Baptist's disciples. Now Jesus prepares to teach them something about who John the Baptist was. At the same time Jesus teaches them something about themselves; how they search for the truth about God. By s...

Doubt is a believer's Journey, not an unbeliever. Because if faith is the gluw that binds us to the truth of redemption through Jesus Christ, then doubt is the test of that bond. Without genuine faith in Christ, there will be no opportunity to second guess the bond. John the Baptist sits in prison and sends two of his disciples to Jesus to confirm that Jesus is the 'One to come' as prophesied in t...