Dr. L. Keith Harper was Professor of Baptist Studies. Dr. Daniel Akin offers a word of welcome and provides the school’s mission (0:00-0:35). Dr. Harper begins his sermon by reading from Philippians 3:1-14 (0:36-3:17). He explains that the main theme of Philippians is the sufficiency of Christ (3:18-5:02). He separates the Scripture reading into three parts: Paul’s warning (verses 1-6), what Paul wanted more than anything else (verses 7-11), and Paul’s confession (12-14) (5:03-5:27). In verses 1-6, Paul warns his readers of the enemies of the cross who place the law above faith and warns them of themselves (5:28-13:01). Reading from verses 7-11, Dr. Harper discusses Paul’s desire to know Christ better after his conversion on the road to Damascus and illustrates that Paul’s greatest gain was losing his old life (13:02-25:38). Dr. Harper presents Paul’s confession in verses 12-14: Paul is continuing to run the race for the glory of God (25:39-29:58). He then provides a quote from J.I. Packer’s “Knowing God” and expresses his wish that all believers would seek a deeper understanding of God (29:59-34:08). He concludes his sermon with a prayer (34:09-34:46). Dr. Akin gives a final word (34:47-35:50).
John Warwick Montgomery was a lawyer, Lutheran theologian, professor, and writer. Montgomery asks the congregation to write down two website addresses (0:00-2:19). He then begins his sermon by reading from Acts 26 (2:20-7:05). Using Paul’s defense against King Agrippa and Governor Festus as a guide, he focuses on how to preach the Word to a secular world (7:06-10:41). First, we must preach the Gospel for ourselves; the Gospel must be presented personally (10:42-12:28). Second, we must preach to all—the “small and the great” (12:29-14:58). Third, we must create common ground between us and non-believers (14:59-17:27). Montgomery speaks that we should begin with our testimonies, just as Paul did (17:28-21:37). However, the danger of testimonies is that non-believers have the tendency to focus on what the speaker experienced rather than connecting the experience to Jesus and His salvation (21:38-22:07). Testimonies should always lead someone from the subjective speaker to the objective Christ: this does not typically happen (22:08-22:57). A testimony is an overall good place to start when spreading the Gospel, but the message should be restricted to Scripture (22:58-24:42). The Gospel is the center of the message that liberals do not take seriously and that conservatives do not realize leads people to salvation (24:43-25:52). Jesus is the cornerstone that one must fall on to be saved, and the events in the Gospel occurred publicly for all (25:53-30:09). How the Gospel will be received is not certain, but we must remain faithful and always restrict the message to Scripture alone (30:10-31:02). A word of prayer concludes the sermon (31:03-31:33).
This collection contains 106 annual reports of the Tuckaseigee Baptist Association, founded in 1829 in North Carolina. They met mostly in Jackson County (N.C.) but has included Haywood, Swain, Macon Counties (N.C.) and Rabun County (Ga.). Years covered are: 1831, 1857, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1885, 1888, 1891, 1898 - 1903, 1907, 1908, 1910 - 1912, 1913, 1915, 1918, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1929 - 1931, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1942 - 1948, 1951, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1961 - 1967, 1969 - 1996, 1998 - 2023