Episode 64: Year End Review and Exhortation to Bible Reading

Through the Ruled Church podcast.

The Father’s Pleasure in the Son and the Kingly Church

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy.

It's a monarchy.

Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

And that's a wrap. 2023, Eddie. This is the last episode.

That's right, man. You know, it seems so strange because we record early, so we're in the very beginning of December, but when everybody hears this, we'll have already had Christmas. We'll have celebrated with our brothers and sisters in the local church and with our families, and then this'll be coming out at the end of the year.

So I hope you had a good Christmas, Quattro.

Year-End Greetings and the Final Episode of 2023

Yeah, you too, future Eddie. Welcome to the Real Church Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Nelson, and here is with me, Eddie Ragsdale. I'm the pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. Eddie is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Marshall, Arkansas, and we're coming to you on a Wednesday is when the episode comes out, and this is the final episode of 2023.

It's been a good year, Eddie.

It has been a good year. Man, we've got some real highlights, I think, to remember back over this year, and just the things that the Lord's done in our churches and in our lives and in our families, and so it's been a good year, the year of our Lord, 2023.

That's right, and we have an exhortation at the end. We do wanna talk a little bit about Bible reading. I think that's important as we come to, it's kind of a natural thing some people are thinking about, maybe New Year's resolutions, or if you're like Eddie and I, just kind of something you do every year, but let's start out with some highlights.

The number one episode of 2023, you weren't on it, Eddie.

Oh, really? It was you and Jonathan, probably.

Yeah, it was that one with Jonathan and I, and we talked about Christian nationalism and all millennialism and the kingdom of Christ, so that's been our, kind of far and away, our number one episode. Did you ever listen to that one?

I did, yeah, yeah. I think I've listened to every episode that I wasn't on.

Okay, but after that, do you wanna guess which one was there?

Was it me and Gunnar?

No, no, no.

Oh, man, I was hoping it was me and Gunnar. No, I have no idea.

No, it was really our series on Baptist Covenant theology, so we see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Of the top seven episodes, three of them are that series from Baptist Covenant theology.

Well, I'll tell you, one of my highlights from 2023, you know, I look back over this year, was back in the spring semester, I audited a class with Dr. Johnson at Grace Bible Theological Seminary and on Baptist Covenant theology, and I would say that is one of my highlights from 2023, being in that class, hearing the teaching, doing the reading, and getting a better grasp of Baptist Covenant theology, especially as it relates to the 17th century and the differences between the Presbyterians and the Baptists and all those things.

It was really helpful. It was really helpful to me, so that would be one of my highlights, was thinking about Baptist Covenant theology.

You know, just a little segue here for a second, that really plays into Bible reading too, I think, because one of the beautiful things about Baptist Covenant theology is that it helps us as we're reading the Bible to put the Bible together as a whole story.

You know, there were several years, I read the Bible trying to figure these things out, but the more and more familiar I became with how the Bible was put together, and by the way, I think you and I both kind of came to this similarly, and that is we knew we didn't believe this.

We knew we weren't dispensationalist or whatever, but it was hard to kind of articulate, okay, this is what I'm seeing. This is how I think the Bible fits together. And when you come across the 17th century Baptists and then you come across present-day Baptists talking about the federal headship of Adam and Christ, and you see these things have been well-articulated, you're like, yes, this is it.

I mean, that was how it was for me, and I think you've said something similar, right?

Yeah, the way I look at it is when I was studying in the class this last spring, doing the reading, especially the Denault's book on the distinctives of Baptist Covenant theology and Dr. Jeff Johnson's book on the kingdom of God, as I was doing the reading and studying, it wasn't really that I was coming to believe things that I didn't already believe.

I already believed these things from the scripture. It was rather I was learning terminology and I was seeing how the pieces that I already believed fit together. And it was like, yeah, that's gotta be the way it is because I already believed that from reading the Bible.

If we're good Bible students in the sense that we're reading the whole Bible, we're putting it all together, then you really can use a bit of a test when you're studying any area of theology. Does that fit with what you already know from reading the Bible?

And if it doesn't, well, then that's pretty clearly something that is problematic if it doesn't fit with the overall teaching of scripture that you're gaining. So yeah, that was really, really, really helpful.

Yeah, and I wanna be clear too, this is not about finding a system and then forcing the Bible into it.

No, it's about reading the Bible and letting the Bible, what fits? Oh, this fits.

Yeah, and keep reading, keep reading, keep studying. Amen, that's good. Okay, top three, this one was top three. Maybe not surprising, maybe a little surprising. I almost don't remember much about the episode, but I could see why it would be up there because it's a pretty practical episode.

And that was episode 34, the invitation system, childhood conversions, and when to baptize. Do you remember that episode? I mean, I remember it, but I can't remember all our discussion.

Yeah, I don't remember all of our discussion, but I do remember us talking about that. And I think that's one of those issues that's gonna be perennial because it just keeps coming up, different issues.

Even some of our Baptist brothers, and I don't wanna get into controversy here with what I'm about to say, but I was recently listening to some discussion with some Presbyterian brothers, and essentially what was being pointed out was that we have some Baptist brothers who aren't far from being Pato Baptists because of the way that they practice such early childhood baptisms.

Our brother, David Miller, has warned us about that over the years, about the Southern Baptist numbers, the one statistic that's going up is baptizing preschoolers. Another thing I was saying about, and I don't know if we addressed it in that episode or not, I can't remember, but when it comes to evangelism, I think a lot of pastors believe they have discharged their duties of evangelism by giving some sort of altar call at the end of a sermon.

When really, if you think about it now, we should preach the gospel every Sunday morning for two reasons, or every main gathering, I think for two reasons. One, believers need the gospel. We need to be reminded that our position with God is not based on our works, it's based on what Christ has done.

We are accepted in Christ. We enter boldly into the throne room of heaven through Christ. We need the gospel, the good news of Jesus being born of the virgin, suffering under Pontius Pilate prior to that, living a righteous and holy life, and then dying on the cross for sinners and raising again.

Believers need that. But secondly

Those who know it best seem hungry and thirsting to hear it like the rest.

Amen.

That sounds like a song. And then we should preach the gospel on Sundays because though the gathering, and let's be clear, you know, the gathering is for believers. We gather as directed and guided by the word of God because it's for believers.

It's not for unbelievers. However, we welcome unbelievers. We want unbelievers to come in. I want them to hear the gospel and I expect that in our midst are unbelievers. So that's why we preach the gospel.

What I'm trying to get back to here is this, the invitation system, the altar call methodology, which by the way is not biblical, is not the be all end all method of evangelism. You haven't done your duty of evangelism just by tacking the unbiblical method of altar call on to your sermon.

I would just add to what you were saying about unbelievers being in our midst. This crosses my mind, I believe, every Sunday. I'm always thinking about the fact that I know that there are still our unconverted children of our faithful families in our church.

And so I'm always appealing because they're hearing the gospel every day and family worship, devotions, Bible reading with mom and dad around the kitchen table. However, each individual family does it in our church as well as Sunday school, Wednesday night classes, all those kinds of things.

But I want them hearing the gospel proclaimed each week because that is one of the things that's happening in the service is that the Christians are being called, you know, every week in our service, we do have a call for people to come forward every single week in our church service.

But instead of it being a call to the unbelievers to come forward, we call the believers to come forward and receive from the Lord's table. And I just love it because what we're saying to our unconverted children is, here's this offer of the gospel and we're calling them to faith because they're seeing their mom and their dad, maybe a brother or sister that's come to Christ, go forward and receive from the Lord's table.

And there's that weekly reminder of the need for them to place their faith and their trust in Christ personally and not just think, well, I'm part of a Christian family.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's good, brother. And you think some people are like, well, if you, I'm gonna tell you a story, I'm not sure that you know this yet. If you don't do an altar call, how are people gonna get saved?

Well, first of all, that's just historically inaccurate. The altar call wasn't even around for a good 18, 1900 years. So how are people becoming converted? Men like Charles Spurgeon, Martin Lloyd Jones, people were getting converted in droves in their churches and they weren't doing altar calls.

But something else, Eddie, the other Sunday morning, I preached on the righteousness of Christ. And what we do at the end of the service is typically I come back to the front. We have chairs, not pew, but the front row.

And I turn around and we sing. And typically we don't sing necessarily like any kind of invitational song, just as I am or whatever. I mean, sometimes maybe that might come up, but we sing a hymn after the sermon.

I don't even remember what hymn we were singing. But I got to my seat, we began singing, and maybe like halfway through the first verse or something, this woman comes and grabs me by the arm. I turn and it was a visitor who had been coming for maybe at that point, like a month or six weeks or maybe more.

And she's like bawling. And she says, Quatro, I think I just got saved, you know?

Wow.

Yeah, yeah. And so we're working through that, by the way. So another thing, like we haven't baptized her, we're trying to work through this and make sure. So in the Bible Belt, and this may be different in different contexts, but in rule Bible Belt setting, we want to guard against, on one hand, we don't want to delay someone obedience that they should give to God and be baptized.

On the other hand, we definitely don't want to just baptize someone just because they say they're a Christian. Because of our culture in the Bible Belt, it's a dangerous false conversion is a real and dangerous thing.

So anyway, we're still working through this, but I'm just saying, if the spirit of God is working among the people, you don't have to do unbiblical, man-made things in order to see results. Trust God with those.

Anything else there, brother?

No, no, you know, I think when I first came to hold the convictions that we're talking about right now, the convictions that we talked about in that episode, that was really the main thing that got a hold of my heart was if God's really converting them, I don't need to do anything but what the Bible says.

And so, you know, kind of getting onto another subject that we've mentioned a lot of times, the regulative principle, but whatever God tells us to do in worship, we should do that. And God will use those means to accomplish his purposes.

Amen. Well, the next one is we did an episode on the assurance of salvation. We're just looking at top 2023 episodes. That was episode 38 from May of this year. And so that's up there, a number of listens.

I can probably understand why. I think that's something we wrestle with.

Another one of those issues that's just regularly one that people are dealing with.

Baptist Covenant Theology and Reading the Bible as a Whole Story

Yeah, that's right, that's right. Then another one up there. So two more to kind of mention for 2023. Another one was a change of heart. So you interviewed me on the book, that was March episode 32. And that's in top 10 overall, so 2022 and 2023, but in our top episodes of this year.

And the Lord, just as I look back on the year myself, very grateful to Free Grace Press and the opportunity to have published that this year, kind of different for me. It's kind of more hands-off because like the first two books was like me taking over everything.

And this book was really some things had changed better with Free Grace Press. And so they've kind of taken it over and I was like, that's a blessing. And I'm grateful for that. And I'm grateful for those who read it and endorsed it and those who have offered the feedback that they have on it.

Well, how has the response to now, several months later, how has the response to that book being maybe compared to the response you've had from Death to Life and Before the Throne?

Well, it's a little bit harder for me because I'm not as in control of this one. So it's like, I don't know as much, you know, but so in that regards, it would be less simply just because I don't know, but in talking with the publisher and everything, it seems to be, you know, seems to be doing well.

I just sent out yesterday, goodness, I think it was like 14 books to some folks. And so that was encouraging. And another thing, you know, philosophically, I'm changing a little bit about this kind of stuff.

So it costs to write, you know, it takes time, it costs to produce, but I really want to be cautious personally, and I'm not throwing this on anyone else, but I really want to be cautious of selling the gospel.

So it makes sense, you know, like I do think authors should be paid. I think that Christians should be charitable and say, we understand what this, the time and effort and energy that went into this, and we want to purchase this book.

The same time, we want to be careful. I think of, you know, by the way, if you're out there and you're like, hey, I want to write a book to make money. Don't do that.

That's right.

It's, that's, number one, it's the wrong motivation. Not a good motivation to write. Number two, it's really impractical, you know? So anyway, but yeah. So, and then the next one, I said there was only gonna be two more, I'll mention, I will mention, I will mention two more now.

The other one that was up there this year was our George Whitfield episodes.

Publishing, Motivation, and the George Whitefield Episodes

Oh yeah, with Dr. West.

Yeah, that's, yeah, that's right, yeah. Somebody said that to you, didn't they?

Yeah, a brother of my church said, I've been listening to the episodes. You and Quatro were talking to that scholar, the doctor, and I was like, that was a joke. He's not actually.

No, but it's a joke, but also we do love West. He is a scholar.

We do love West. He is a scholar, yeah.

And that was really great. You know, those, those episodes.

Oh yeah, very good.

I think one of them I ended up having to do without you. I don't remember.

Yeah, I think I was out of town or something like that.

But two of those episodes are.

You know, what we're, what we're realizing is I'm not very important to these episodes because they do well, even if I'm not here.

Not true, brother. You, you are, you are important. So George Whitfield, and then, and then Christ in Mexico was another one of our top ones this year. And so I enjoy, I'm glad, I'm grateful for that because I love what we're doing in Mexico.

Actually on Wednesdays, I have a Zoom meeting with these brothers. I have a Zoom meeting here in just a minute when we get off with these brothers. And so I love what the Lord is doing in Mexico. And I'm, I'm, I'm encouraged by that.

That was, that was episode 47. So that's kind of the, the highlights from this year, from the, from the podcast. What, anything you want to say about the podcast or?

You know, I know it wasn't, I mentioned it already. I know it wasn't one of the highlighted episodes, but, you know, I went with Gunnar and Randall and we went to do evangelism at the, at the parade in Fayetteville.

And the parade, that was certainly not a highlight, but getting to proclaim the gospel with those faithful brothers, that was a highlight. Getting to record the podcast and spend that time with Gunnar, just debriefing and thinking about those things and thinking about.

Evangelism at the Fayetteville Parade and the Beauty of the Gospel

Yeah, episode 48, if anybody wants to check that out.

Episode 48. Yeah, that, that was really, that was really good. So that, that was a highlight, not the, certainly not the depravity that was on display, but the beauty of the gospel in the midst of it.

That was, that was a wonderful thing. And so, and I'll tell you another thing this year, we have done, it feels like we've done a lot more interviews and I really like that. I hope that our audience would give us some feedback, but, you know, we've had several different people that have joined us on the, on the podcast, like we've already talked about.

We had Wes for some episodes, but, you know, even the last few weeks, we had the episode with Dr. Jared Moore. We had the episode with Dr., with Russell the other day.

Yeah.

And so we've, we've, we've had more guests on, and I really, I'm enjoying that, enjoying having these brothers on to talk about different issues. Had Jim Elliff on, and, you know, like you said, Jonathan's been on several times with you.

And so I really, I'm really enjoying having these different brothers join us on the podcast. It's been good.

Yeah, amen. Well, personally for me, 2023 has been a great year. If I would say 2022 trial, year of trial, and 2023, a year of recovery, and maybe even, you might say reformation.

Yeah.

So, you know, as our, you know, personally feel like I've, I've grown in the Lord and I'm not by no stretch of the imagination, like John Newton, I'm, I'm not where I need to be or should be, but by the grace of God, I'm, I'm not what I am, you know?

Yeah.

And our church is really seeing growth. You know, we, we started out this year, January 1st of 2023 as Perryville Second Baptist Church, a strong, I say strong, but, you know, fairly committed, I guess, Southern Baptist Church, somewhat committed.

I mean, by the turn of the year, things had really changed because of several factors, but now we closed the year as Providence Baptist Church, a reformed Baptist congregation. We have adopted this year, the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith.

Officially back in March, we have added another elder, Pastor Jacob Robinson. In April, we have become more committed to evangelism. We have seen a couple of baptisms this year. We have seen a couple of several families join the church.

There are things that we want to continue to reform. We've had to, you know, remove some folks from the roles and, and get our roles in order. There's some things we want to continue to grow in and do, but, but 2023 has been very fruitful and encouraging in those regards personally and for the church.

And some of you guys on the podcast have kind of joined on that journey, at least partially, you know, so, and some have reached out and have been encouraging. And so it's been a good year in those regards.

And then of course, in my family, we've added a baby. And so baby Margie arrived in October and she's just over two months old. And she's got several chins now. And this, today, Eddie, of course, you've already experienced this.

You've had to go through this, but today, my oldest is going for his driving test. Yeah, so, and next, next Wednesday, you and I actually won't record because next Wednesday is his birthday. And so we'll be going out for, for birthday breakfast.

Yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact, my second son is studying now so that he can take his, his test. And I'm just going to tell you, I hope that your pocket book is ready because the insurance is not kind when you start adding those teenagers to the insurance.

So I'm just going to tell you that, but yeah, it's been a good year. You know, we've had some, we've had some struggles and things in the church, particularly, you know, church discipline type issues that have, that have come up.

I wouldn't want to go into any more detail than that, you know, on the podcast, but at the same time, we've seen the Lord, you know, bless. We've just had so many children born, which I know, like you said, you guys had a baby and I know Gunnar and Liz had a baby.

And so I know you guys have had several children born in your church too, but we've, we've had a lot. There's a lot of babies around here and a lot of young children. We've seen the Lord bless a couple of different families in our churches with small children that have come into their family through adoption and other things like that.

So the opportunity to minister to kids has been just expanded in our church. And so we're thankful for that. We had a brother in our church who has begun to preach some, you know, this year. And so that's been a blessing to have that leadership.

We don't, we don't have another elder yet, but we have had that. So it's just really been great. Hey, finally got Quatro Nelson in the pulpit at Marshall First Baptist Church this year.

Hey, amen.

It only took seven years to get you here, but finally, finally had that.

Well, well, hold on a second. I think that's a little, I think that's, I think you're being a little, you're not telling the whole story. You haven't allowed me in your pulpit for really 10 years. I don't know.

I don't guess you ever preached at Shirley, did you? I didn't even think about that.

You've preached in every church since I've known you that I've pastored, you've preached in. So Emmanuel and here, you've preached. And yet you've known me for over 10 years now, and I only got one invitation.

So thank you for finally allowing me to preach at Marshall.

Personal, Family, and Church Growth in 2023

Yeah.

Well, you know, I'm just going back and looking here. Episode 22, this actually came out this year, reading the Bible in 2023. I'm gonna really just have to, we're wrapping up here, but I'm really gonna have to direct people to listen to that.

I'm not sure that we'd say anything today that would be anything new. I mean, there's a couple of things I wanna say, and I'm sure you do too, Eddie, about Bible reading. I would just say, as we go into a new year, find a plan, find consistency, a place and a time, and then take up your Bible and read it.

Yeah.

You don't have to read through the Bible every year, though I think that is a good goal, but you should be reading the Bible daily. Christians, particularly in America, and now look, I know a thousand qualifications, but Christians in America today who aren't reading the Bible every day, there's an issue.

Pastors who aren't reading the Bible every day, you may be disqualified. You need to repent and you need to be a student of the book. So let us take up this precious word of God, and let's listen to Him, and read the scriptures every day.

Now, I go back, like I said, episode 22, I know we talk more about plans and how we do it and those sorts of things, but that's just an exhortation to you. The Bible is better than gold. It's sweeter than honey.

Take it up, read it, and it's by reading the scriptures that God grows us and shapes us and reveals Himself to us. Anything you wanna add or thought on that?

Well, yeah, I'm gonna say, in that episode last year, or at the start of the year, I talked about that I was gonna do something different this year. I wasn't gonna use a plan, and I'm gonna say after having a year doing it this way, don't do that, get a plan.

Because my intention this year was I was really gonna focus in on the book of Isaiah. And I have read quite a bit in the book of Isaiah, but I've still read different places in the Bible. But I'm planning on in 2024, going back and reading the Bible chronologically again, that that's my preferred plan.

And so I'm gonna do that again in 2024. Like you said, I don't feel like I haven't been in the Bible. I mean, I have been in the Bible consistently all year long, but I don't think it has been as profitable this year.

I kind of felt like, man, I've done the same thing. I've done several different plans, read several different translations over the last several years, and I wanted to really do something different. And I thought it would be more profitable than it was.

And so this is kind of me at the end of the year giving an update on how did that work. If you go back and listen to that episode and you hear me explaining what I'm planning on, well, it didn't work so well.

It was not so great. And so I'm going back to my chronological reading plan.

In 2024.

And then I think I might've mentioned before, but Nate Pickowitz has a book out there, How to Eat Your Bible. I don't know if you've read that or not, but he's got a different sort of method. And that's, it's not what I do, but it's a good book and it might be helpful to some.

So How to Eat Your Bible by Nate Pickowitz. But the simplest plan is the David Miller plan. We've already mentioned him. He's on the, if you didn't know, he's in the intro of our podcast, but the David Miller plan is to open up the Bible, start with, I wish I could talk like him, start with Genesis chapter one and verse one, read.

And then the next day you pick up wherever you left off, the verse you left off the day before, you pick up on that verse and you read again. And honestly, that's how I read through the Bible the first time I took my, had a little Bible, small print.

I don't know if I could read that anymore. And I divided it, the number of pages by the amount of time that I wanted to be through. And I came up with like four pages a day or whatever. And I read it, you know, simple as that.

But we need to be

And it's four chapters, it's four chapters a day gets you through the Bible in a year, right? Four chapters a day, more or less.

It's really good. It's not that much.

It's really ridiculous. The average reader can read through the Bible in like 72 hours. If you divide that up, I'm gonna even, let's say you're not average. Just say, I'm a real slow reader.

Okay.

In about 15 minutes a day, or let's say, let's say you're, you'll say you are the bottom of the barrel. You are the slowest reader in America. Okay. So we'll double it. 30 minutes a day. In 30 minutes every day, you could have read through the whole Bible.

And we say, yeah, but that's just hard. 30 minutes, man, that's a lot.

Okay.

So 15 minutes a day, and you're the slowest reader in America. You could read through the Bible once every two years.

Right.

So it's not as a monumental task as some people make it out to be. You've just got to do it. And you've just got to stick with it. And if you've been a Christian longer than say, you know, five, 10 years, you haven't ever read through the Bible, it's time to start, brother or sister.

Pick it up and read. And it's through the scriptures. Like I said, that God grows us, shapes us. It's not just that. We need to pair that with commitment to the church, study with one another, sitting under the solid preaching of the word, but don't remove it either.

To whom much is given, much is required. And here we are in a place with accessible Bibles. And we also, and I know some brothers, and it's not the same, but it is a good alternative in some regards. People on the road a lot, driving a lot, you can listen.

We have access to the scriptures. We have time. Now I know you say, I don't have time. Yeah, but you're not actually working, you know, 22 hours a day. There are times that you have to set aside to read the scripture.

So anyway, it really just comes with a motivation. You just got to do it.

Right.

Yeah, I would absolutely agree. That's right.

Well, brothers, it's been a great year and I'm grateful for you. And I'm grateful for, we've grown as a podcast, some of the listenership and stuff. So that's been encouraging. And even if no one else was listening, I'm pretty sure it'd be meeting every week.

Cause that's one of the fun things about this is getting, you know, there was that while there that we really, we didn't lose bass,.

But we really didn't talk much there for a while.

So it's good. Well, I hope everybody closes out 2023 by going to church cause the last Sunday of the year is on, or the last day of the year is on Sunday. And then we'll catch you guys next year. Take us off here, Eddie.

See you guys next year.

The Church as God’s Masterpiece and the Call to Respond

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the toimos, the masterpiece of God.

How are you going to respond?