South Decatur
Baptist Church

“As I pressed against the amassed bodies of the crowd that bright spring morning outside Jerusalem, the dust rose in golden clouds beneath a thousand stamping feet. Palm branches snapped from the trees and waved overhead like green banners of triumph, while men flung their cloaks into the road until the path became a living carpet. I had come with the rest—curious, hopeful, hearts pounding—for word had spread that the prophet from Nazareth was riding in at last. Then He appe

The continued existence of true churches today bears witness to their origin in the first church in Jerusalem under the Lord Jesus Christ and to the truth of the New Testament. Jesus Christ declared, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). This promise requires that His church would not cease, but continue from its beginning in the days of Christ’s earthly m

The atmosphere in Jerusalem following the Ascension was a potent mixture of trembling awe and “singleness of heart.” For Peter and the new church, the world had shifted on its axis; they were no longer mere followers, but witnesses charged with a celestial fire. They dwelt in a city that had recently crucified their Lord, yet they walked its streets with “great boldness,” fueled by the promise that they received power after the Holy Ghost had come upon them. Life in this bra

The concept of a mission evokes images of deployed and disciplined soldiers and the Great Commission mirrors that with its revolutionary objective. A military mission seeks the subjugation of territory through physical force, but Christ’s mandate focuses on gaining ground through transformation of souls through the sword of the Spirit. In the military, an order is absolute. Similarly, the Great Commission asserts its Commander: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in ea

Few tasks may be as humbling as sending out a mass mailing. The act involves a significant investment of time, resources, and hope. When the response to that effort is silence, it can feel like a failure. However, through a theological lens, this silence is not a void; it is a space where the principles of faithfulness, the free exercise of the gospel, and the divine law of sowing and reaping converge. In a results-driven culture, we often confuse faithfulness with effect

In Matthew 16:11, Jesus asks His disciples: “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?” While they were preoccupied with their physical hunger and a forgotten grocery list, Christ was concerned with the spiritual contagion of false doctrine. For the modern professing believer, this verse serves as a sobering call to spiritual discernment and a warning against the

It is difficult for Americans to conceptualize or strongly to imagine a king and a kingdom, which then includes the King, Jesus Christ. The whole idea of a king smacks the American idea of freedom. The king would take control in a kingdom, which means an American person subjects himself to that king, something apparently in contradiction to freedom. To most Americans, freedom means you do what you want to do or choose to do. At this point, it would do well to consider th

The New Testament defines the church, not an abstract global entity, but a specific assembly that grounds a believer’s spiritual life. A biblical mandate for assembly warning against “the forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb 10:25) establishes the physical gathering as the non-negotiable rhythm of the Christian life. Because the church is “the house of God, . . . the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), it is the beli

Misguided compassion that enables sin or ignores divine justice finds stern rebuke in scripture. The Bible urges believers to prioritize righteousness over unchecked feelings for others, lest mercy become a veil for complicity in wrongdoing. Consider the folly of repeatedly rescuing the unrepentant: “A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again” (Prov 19:19). Solomon here warns that sparing consequences only perpetuates ha

Scripture teaches church discipline. Those two words are not in the Bible together, church discipline, so how can someone say that church discipline itself is in the Bible? Those two words describe a doctrine, which is also a process in the New Testament, that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave to the church. Most people that understand and believe in church discipline, either do or might think of Matthew 18:15-17 as the church discipline chapter, but they are not all there

The standard of “no-division” is a necessary aspect of the unity of the church prayed for (Jn 17) and required by the Lord Jesus Christ. God is one, so the church must be one, but one is not arbitrary or according to a creative or novel definition. The unity standard of no-division comes from Romans 16:17, which says: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Do you see that?

Charles Spurgeon, called the “Prince of Preachers,” longtime Baptist pastor in London, noted that those who truly love the King will love His palace, that a healthy Christian doesn't need to be driven to church by a sense of duty alone, but is drawn by a holy appetite. He famously remarked that if a person finds no joy in the earthly assembly of the saints, he is poorly prepared for the eternal assembly in heaven, and that a coal glowing in the fire stays hot, but one pulled

Proverbs 16:1–9 provide a spiritual blueprint for setting right goals, objectives that align with eternal reality rather than a mere personal want. The process begins internally with the “preparations of the heart,” which in the Hebrew are the military-like arranging of our desires and intellectual reasoning toward which desires (v. 1). While humans are responsible for this mental aspect of goal making and keeping, the text warns against the inherent blind spot of self-decep

Called “the Benedictus ,” Luke 1:67–79 is not merely a father’s (Zacharias) celebration of a newborn son (John the Baptist). After nine months of divinely imposed silence, his first words give a hymn of redemptive history. In the first half of the song, he looks past his own son to the very covenant faithfulness of God: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant

The Christmas story is pivotal as evidence of Jesus Christ as God, Lord, Savior, Christ, and Messiah. All these titles have some overlap with one another and all are important. In a biography of Jesus Christ, the birth takes a prominent place and each gospel account of Jesus provides some difference or nuance for more material and a variation of detail, filling in the total picture. Those attacking these gospel narratives say Matthew and Luke contradict each other. I beli

Scripture shows at least three main reasons why the virgin birth is an essential truth or doctrine. One, the virgin birth proves the deity of Jesus Christ, that He is God. If Jesus was born like any other person—a natural conception with a human father—then He is just that: a man. A good man, a great teacher, maybe even a prophet. But not God in the flesh. The virgin birth, where the Holy Ghost was the Agent, proves that His origin is Divine. Look at what the angel Gabriel

Scripture declares that the “whole duty of man” is to “fear God, and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This task is paramount, for the Lord instructs us, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Our soul’s whole focus must be set upon this high mark. To please the Lord is the very foundation upon which belief rests. For “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh

Before the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sat down at God the Father’s right hand to rule His followers in the midst of His and their enemies through the church, He commanded them visibly and physically to go and make disciples of all nations. “Make disciples” is the meaning of “teach," in Matthew 28:19, the Greek word, matheteuo . A major aspect of making disciples of Jesus Christ is the truth. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is both synonymous with and paral

I went to Youtube and I did a basic search by typing, “Christian Zionism.” Many different podcasts and talks appeared with those exact words in the title, and all of the presentations were negative. One person with tens of thousands of views said it was a “cult.” Others said they would present a list of reasons it was wrong or unbiblical. So what’s true or what’s happening? Is Christian Zionism true? Certainly it matters how one defines that terminology. A lot, and I m

People, especially church people, hear and have heard the word, “ministry.” It translates the Greek word, diakonia , a noun that is found thirty-four times in the New Testament. There are many related words, including the verb form, diakoneo , which means, “to serve.” In a general way, the term translated “ministry” means “service,” which is sometimes also how the King James Version (KJV) translates the word. “Ministry” is also related to “minister,” diakonos , which the