Tag / Robert Smith

by Griffin Gulledge

Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. Lectures on Trinitarian Preaching

In April 2012, Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. gave the E.Y. Mullins Lectures on Christian Preaching at Southern Seminary. His title for the series was “Preaching as Intra-Trinitarian Presence.”

For over 20 years, Dr. Smith has been training preachers at Beeson Divinity School** with the core conviction that the aim of Christian preaching is for the hearers to experience God and see who He is in the Scriptures as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He says in his book on preaching, Doctrine That Dances, “…doctrinal preaching is the escorting of the hearers into the presence of God for the purpose of transformation.”

In these three lectures, Smith holds forth on Trinitarian preaching and encourages preachers to recover the art of preaching from the whole Bible. Preachers should “dust for Christological fingerprints” in every text of Scripture.

There are three lectures total:

  1. God of Our Weary Years – Theocentricity
  2. Theology of the HIMbook – Christocentricity
  3. The Neglected God – Pneumacentricity

I hope that these lectures will aid you as you seek to preach all of God from all of the Bible: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

* * I am blessed to have been one of those preaching students at Beeson, and to have a close mentoring relationship with Dr. Smith to this day. Perhaps the greatest compliment that I can give is to say that Dr. Smith’s character far exceeds his talent. Once you’ve seen his talent, that will mean a great deal to you.

by Griffin Gulledge

Five Great Sermons

Sometimes you just need to hear a great sermon. You may have come to this page through a google search. Maybe you’re a pastor looking to learn from great preaching. Maybe you’re a pastor just tired and in need of the word to be ministered to you. Maybe you’re lost and looking for truth.

I hope you find these sermons encouraging. In my opinion, each of them is an absolutely masterful sermon, given by godly men whom I admire. I hope you are encouraged by them all, not because the preachers are great, but because God’s Word is great.

I have listed them below, in no particular order. Each are wonderful in their own way.

  1. The Glory of the Groan by Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. at Beeson Divinity School
  2. The Gospel by Numbers by Dr. Ligon Duncan at Together For the Gospel
  3. For Such A Slime As This by Dr. Hershael York at Southern Seminary
  4. Shall We Die As A Fool Dies by Dr. R. Albert Mohler at Southern Seminary
  5. How Are Christians Special? by Dr. Mark Dever at Southeastern Seminary

The Glory of the Groan by Dr. Robert Smith, Jr.

The Gospel by Numbers by Dr. Ligon Duncan

For Such A Slime As This by Dr. Hershael York

Shall We Die as a Fool Dies? by Dr. R. Albert Mohler

How Are Christians Special? by Dr. Mark Dever

Let me know in the comments if one of these sermons encouraged you in your walk with Christ!

by Griffin Gulledge

An Interview with Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. on Preaching

This past spring I was honored to interview Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. for a Library Talk at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Smith has been a mentor of mine for nearly 10 years, since we first met on the campus of Southern Seminary in 2012.

Those who have heard him preach before can not help but be moved by his powerful oratory and commitment to the word of God and the gospel. I often tell people, though, that’s he’s even better off stage. I can think of no man I respect more in the world.

I hope this conversation with Dr. Smith benefits and encourages preachers who hear it. In the course of this conversation we discuss sermon preparation, trinitarian preaching, God’s work in the preaching moment, the use of scripture in preaching, suffering in the ministry, and more.