Introduction: About me, my beliefs, and what I intend for CrossTown.

I use this first podcast to provide a short biography about me (David Spaugh), my beliefs, my approach to the Bible and Bible teaching, and what I hope to accomplish through CrossTown.

Thanks for listening! I hope you take up residency in CrossTown!

See my Buzzsprout page at https://crosstown.buzzsprout.com

Don't forget! You can send me a text using the link above, or if you have any questions, my email address is crosstownmht@gmail.com. 

If you would like a copy of my doctrinal statement, I'll be happy to send you one! email me at the email address above, and I'll get one to you ASAP.

By the way, check out my book Sailing the Seven Cs on Amazon.com. It's a mystery novel wherein I probe the question "If God is good, why is there suffering in the world?" You can find it by copying and pasting the following link.

https://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Seven-Cs-David-Spaugh/dp/B08WTZZPF5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1U4OR0NB6PHZR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1vYyXsdmiNEUI6oulPpp9l_

HreBpYuyQ8MQlYATASyU.NiULDAHoiC_Ti5_WyIDEnecl8sHGIwIWqgNMk2sSiTo&dib

_tag=se&keywords=sailing+the+seven+cs&qid=1769693640&sprefix=

sailing+the+seven+cs%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-1

“Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org”

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello everyone, I am Pastor David Spaw, and this is Crosstown, my hometown. Everyone is welcome to Crosstown, where we focus on the Bible theology and engage in expository teaching of God's Word, the Bible, with cultural analysis and apologetics woven in, and the cross of our King and Savior Jesus Christ is our town square. Now, whether you're a settled resident of Crosstown or just passing through, I'm glad you are here with us today. Of course, we don't have, as of yet, a lot of settled residents in Crosstown because this is my very first podcast. But with God's help, we will build into a thriving podcast community of people from all walks of life who want to learn more about God's word and how it applies to our lives. By the way, my intro music is called Blooming Spring by Lemon Music Studio. I discovered it on Pixabay, a royalty-free music store. I find it very catchy, and I hope that you like it. This first podcast offering will be relatively short, only 25 minutes or so. In the future, I'm aiming for somewhere between 35 and 45 minutes for each installment. Today I simply want to introduce myself, relate something of my ministry training and experience, and give a vision of what I want to accomplish here at Crosstown. My name is David Spaw, I'm a retired Baptist minister with 30 plus years of pastoral ministry experience. After studying political science at Indiana University, I transferred to the Moody Bible Institute, where I graduated in 1985 with a BA in Bible theology. After five years of pastoral ministry, I figured I needed a little bit more education, so I returned to school and graduated from Bethel Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. That was in 1993. I'm married to my loving wife Susan with three grown children, nine grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and a dog, Zelda the Wonder Dog, and I'm sure we'll talk more about all of my family and our dog as well as time progresses through Crosstown. I love to fish, I like to deer hunt when I have the chance, I like to read and work out and go on walks with Sue, eat any Italian food and cook on the grill. Also, Sue and I love to travel. We particularly enjoy the ocean and the beach. As far as some of my favorite reading subjects are concerned, I really enjoy reading theology, cultural apologetics, and World War II history. I enjoy reading books about the history and assumptions and dynamics of Marxism and Fascism, showing how these false philosophies, which are really religions, have played out in history and are rearing their ugly heads in our society here in 21st century America. Among my favorite authors are Ronald Nash, and everything I've read of his is worth reading. A very powerful and cogent writer. Nancy Pearcy is a great apologist, and her books are always terrific. C.S. Lewis also is great, which goes without saying, as he was one of the premier apologists for Christianity in the 20th century. His protege, Harry Blemeyer, is also a great apologist. I love reading his cultural analysis as well. Anything that these individuals wrote is worth picking up. Outside of the Bible, perhaps the best book I've ever read, which had the most impact on my thinking, is Herbert Schlossberg's Idols for Destruction, Christian Faith and its confrontation with American society. Though it was published in 1983, it is a classic that is just as pertinent and applicable today as it was when it was written over 40 years ago. Now, if I may indulge in a bit of shameless self-promotion, I've also written a book. It is called Sailing the Seven Seas, and it combines a treasure hunt mystery with apologetics. The story revolves around two twins, Koi and Hunter Stark, sons of recently widowed pastor and Coast Guard veteran C. Q Stark. To make a long story short, the twins discover a series of seven clues, that is seven C's, that's where the C's come from. C-S, not C-E-A-S-Cs, but C S Cs, leading to a buried Revolutionary War treasure on the Witherspoon Estate. While searching for the clues, Hunter grieves for his recently deceased mother and wrestles with the question, if God exists, why is there suffering in the world? The book includes a lot of fast-paced action, fast cars, fist fights, twists and turns, and ultimately, well I'm not going to give it all away, but I wrote the book not simply to be a fun adventure, but to give Christians means to defend the faith when challenged with the question of God and suffering. Anyway, I've included a link to this book on the webpage attached to this podcast, and I hope you'll check it out, and I hope you enjoy it. Now, as far as my theological and biblical beliefs are concerned, most of that is found on my webpage linked to this podcast. But in short, I'm reformed in my theology and I believe in the five solas, scripture alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, and of course to the glory of God alone. All is done for the glory of God. I have a more in-depth doctrinal statement on the link where you can see what I think about revelation, that is how God reveals himself, both in general revelation, nature, for example, human conscience, and special revelation, how God revealed himself, for example, in his word, how I think and what I think about God and Jesus, the Holy Spirit, mankind, salvation, the church, and last things. All of these things are going to be on my doctrinal statement, so please check that out for more information on my theological persuasion. Now, what about my preaching or teaching philosophy? First, I use a lot of illustrations from everyday life and scriptures and nature and history and hypothetical situations and personal experiences. This is not unusual, of course, since most preachers do. The master preacher, the master teacher, Jesus himself, used illustrations nearly every time he spoke. Illustrations that included things like wheat or pearls, Abraham, vineyards, kings, sheep, sparrows, the weather, and more. Jesus' parables were often extended similes, which were hypothetical stories to which people could relate that drove point his points home. What better example of preaching can one find than Jesus himself? Second, I'm a big proponent and practitioner of expository teaching and preaching. What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, expository teaching is taking a passage of scripture and going through it verse by verse, explaining what the text means in context, how it fit in with the author's perspective and worldview, and then applying it to our own life situation here and now. Expository preaching is not what the text means to me, but investigating the text and determining what the author intended to convey, regardless of my subjective experience or prejudices. Let me give you a couple of examples. I was once at a wedding where the officiating priest used John 12.24 as the charge to the bride and groom. John 12.24 says, Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. From this passage, the priest said that that means when a couple is married, they are married for eternity, and they are married continually forever in heaven, that marriage is an eternal institution. Friends, you will be hard pressed to find a worse exposition of a biblical text. In the context of John 12, Jesus is talking about his own death and resurrection through which he will bring forth fruit. In other words, he's going to save sinners. His death brought salvation to the lost. Now, in the context, a secondary application can be found that Christians are also to die to self. We are to be living sacrifices, we are to live lives of sacrifice and self-denial, just as Jesus did. But there's nothing in this text at all about marriage, eternal or otherwise. Another example of a bad interpretation I once heard was made by a faith healer on television. He supposedly healed a man's heart disease and then said, I know your heart is healed, because Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled. Now, friends, that's a quote from John chapter 14, verse 1, where Jesus has just told his disciples that he would be betrayed by Judas and that he is going away and can't follow. And he says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house there are many mansions or many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus was not talking about people having their physical hearts fixed. He was not talking about physical health. He was clearly using a metaphor for fear and anxiety. He was encouraging them not to be anxious or afraid, because through belief in him they were guaranteed a glorious home in heaven. Jesus was not talking about physical health in any way, shape, or form. So expository preaching is not just preaching based on the subjective whims or the fanciful observations made by the interpreter. The interpreter instead looks at a verse in its context, understanding the words, the grammar, the flow of thought, the theological assumptions, and the historical backdrop as the author understood them. This is crucial in understanding and properly interpreting a passage of scripture. Now there's something else I'd like to add here in regard to my preaching style and philosophy. When we preach or teach, our expository preaching should not be limited to only specific texts or issues or verses, but at times we should go and exposite entire books or sections of scripture. Take, for example, the entire gospel of Luke or take, for example, the entire book of Jeremiah, something like that. During a five and a half year hiatus from a pulpit from my pulpit ministry, this was about 2015 to 2020, Sue and I searched for a church to attend in our native northern Indiana. We tried several churches and stayed at some for extended periods of time. However, invariably the preaching was topical. For example, this week the pastor would preach on stress, next week he'd preach on grace, the next week he'd preach on some other topic like loneliness or marriage or fear or depression or joy or faith, addictions, whether it's addictions to drugs or pornography or food. In one church over several weeks we heard a series of messages entitled Stuck. One week was along the lines of what to do when you're stuck in a lousy job. Maybe the next week was what to do when you're stuck in a bad marriage. The next week was being stuck in the summertime blues or being stuck in financial woes or some other such subject. This sort of preaching schedule prevailed in churches we tried, and it was an approach to preaching I find efficient for at least two reasons. First, it runs the risk of turning the Bible into a self-help book, and the church is turned into a therapy session for self-absorbed clients. The Bible and the church become a mere means to help us cope with our problems and help us make it through the week. Thus the preaching and teaching become man-centered, and the greater goal of worshiping God and glorifying Him and drawing closer to Him and cultivating holiness are sacrificed on the altar of self-help. Now, I have to be careful because I don't want to overstate my case. I have a certificate in biblical counseling where personal problems such as marital issues and addictions and debt and money and so on are approached through the lens of scripture. The biblical counselor will deal with specific problems, drawing on pertinent passages from the Bible to help the counseling see his or her issues from an eternal perspective. And if we think about it, even Paul's letters, for example, are counseling on specific issues. Just take a look at the book of 1 Corinthians, where Paul deals with various problems in the Corinthian church and how they were to overcome them. There were factions in the church, jealousy in the church, immorality among the flock, selfishness, eating meat offered to idols, irreverence at the Lord's table, pride and misuse of spiritual gifts, and there are other things that they had problems with as well as well. But even then we have to emphasize that overcoming personal problems is not an end in itself, but a means to serving God with greater devotion, worshiping him with greater trust, and growing in holiness and selfless service to others. Not simply how to make it through the day. Topical preaching does not necessarily lead to deficient worship or a me centered parishioner, but I think it runs that risk. And second, a second reason I think topical preaching is deficient is because by and large the Bible isn't written topically, as though you go to the table of contents or you go to the index of subjects and simply pick the pertinent passages. Take for example the Gospels. They all begin with Jesus' birth or the beginning of his ministry. Then they follow his life and teachings through various aspects of that ministry, where he goes through different locations. For example, he might be in Jerusalem, and then the next section he might be in Galilee, and then he might be in the Temple Mount, and he might be in Samaria. Different discourses. There's the Olivet Discourse, there is the Sermon on the Mount, there is the bread of life discourse in John chapter 6. And those are the kinds of things that you'll see in Jesus' ministry as we start at the very beginning going through all of his teaching until we get to the end of his ministry, consummating with his death and his resurrection. Take Genesis. It starts out with the creation, the fall, the promise of redemption, the beginning of civilization, the call of Abraham, the lives of the patriarchs, ending with Jacob's family in Egypt. Genesis leads directly into Exodus, where the Israelites, who are now slaves in Egypt, are redeemed by God, and they are led, excuse me, to the promised land. Take Paul's letters, Romans and Colossians. They start out with introduction, they're filled with theological and practical teaching, and end with some sort of farewell. Clearly, Paul intended his letters to be read the same way they are written, from beginning to end, from start to finish. As an illustration, suppose a loved one was on an extended overseas trip and you sent a and sent you a dozen or so letters, but due to a glitch in the postal service, they were not delivered one at a time as they were written, but were all sent to you at once in a bundle. What would you do? Well, when it comes to human letters, you would first try to determine which letter was written first and then read them successively, the first letter, the second letter. You don't necessarily have to do that with the Bible, of course, because you can read and study the book of Isaiah, then you can read and study the book of James or whatever. You don't have to necessarily determine in what order they were written or given to you, as it were. But when you do get those letters, you begin to read them from beginning to end. You don't say, well, I wonder what Joe or Mary or Tim or Betty said here about travel in these letters, and then look for every instance where travel is mentioned to gain his insights into the subject of travel. You would not go through the letters looking for every instance where your loved one mentioned food and see what he had to say about his meals. Instead, you would open the letters one at a time and read them from opening greeting to the farewell at the end. And this is the preferred way of preaching. Start at chapter 1, verse 1 of any book of the Bible, any letter, any prophet, any gospel, and go verse by verse, section by section, paragraph by paragraph, all the way to the end of the book. And when we do this, a couple of things happen. First, you see everything in context and see how it fits into the entire letter or the entire gospel or prophet. And second, there is no need to jump all over scripture to preach on random topics, because when the preacher goes through the entire book, whether it's history or prophecy or wisdom literature or a gospel, you end up hitting on numerous topics. Go through the book of Romans, for example, and you'll not only get rich theological teaching, but the practical applications stemming from that theology. Things like spiritual gifts and love for neighbors and generosity and faith and hope and peace, dealing with stress, handling finances, worship, honesty, patience, forgiveness, and just about any other subject one could conceive of will be touched on in one way or another. Now, again, I'm not totally against topical preaching. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I've preached a series of topical sermons on ethical issues like divorce and remarriage, capital punishment, abortion, and others as well. It's important to do this on occasion because there are times where the Christian needs biblical clarity on social issues. When our nation engages in a war, it's necessary for us to see from a biblical perspective if and when war is justified. Because homosexuality and the trans movement are such a large part of our cultural debates today, we need to investigate the scriptures and see how Christians should think in regards to human sexuality. In these instances, we do an inductive study, going from text to text, looking throughout the scriptures, finding what Isaiah says about this, what Leviticus says about this, what Paul says about this in the book of 2 Corinthians, and so on. And then you gather all this information inductively and see how the Bible as a whole addresses these issues. I've preached a series of sermons on hell and Satan. I've gone through systematic theology where various theological concepts are treated. In the future, here in Crosstown, I intend on teaching through the Ten Commandments, looking at them through the lens of various passages, drawing out inferences, and showing how they apply today. Again, in series such as these, the process is an inductive one, wherein I gather isolated passages to explain what the Bible as a whole says about a particular subject. But most of my preaching, perhaps 80%, 90%, is expository. I teach expository and preach expository messages, whether going verse by verse through a single psalm or going through the entire Gospel of John or Malachi or Ephesians or Ruth or 1st and 2 Peter and others. The process can take many weeks. I once preached through the entire Gospel of Gospel of John, touching on every verse over the course of 71 sermons. And when you take into consideration holiday sermons and special services, missions, Sundays, and so on, when I didn't preach on John, the series took me 23 months. But it was worth it, not only in educating the congregation who are to grow in their faith in the Lord, but as the pastor, I learned an enormous amount about God's word from such an approach. This brings me to another advantage of expository preaching. As one exposites scripture, going through entire passages and books of the Bible, one learns to see the Bible in a holistic sense. One begins to see how the Bible fits together from Genesis to Revelation. If one goes through Matthew and then through Malachi, then through the book of 1 John, for example, you can see how each of the books of the Bible fits together, how all the parts are interrelated, how they build on one another, support one another. As one goes through the New Testament, one can easily see how the New Testament writers and figures quote the Old Testament and show how the Old Testament points to the New Testament and the New Testament is built on and fulfills the Old Testament. In short, through expository preaching, we learn the Bible is not a compilation of unrelated stories, but a unit with the focus of the whole on God's plan of salvation in His Son Jesus Christ. And this awareness only grows as we feed more and more on expository preaching. Well, that should do it for today. I trust through this introduction to the Crosstown Podcast, you've learned something about me and how I intend to minister through it. So check out my webpage and take note of some of the content there. The webpage, of course, is linked to this podcast. The next installment of Crosstown is going to be posted next week and weekly after that. So I hope you have enjoyed this first podcast. I hope you check out Crosstown again and visit with us soon. In the meantime, may the Lord bless you and may you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you next time.