Greetings!
My name is Lars Larson. I am the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Leominster, Massachusetts, USA. I have served in this church since July, 1998. My family and I arrived here after I served for four years as the pastor of the Munich International Community Church in Munich, Germany. We are originally from Northern California where we served our Lord for 17 years in the Sacramento area. This is our 51st year of gospel ministry, having served in churches in Texas and California as well as in Germany. My college and seminary training include a Bachelor of Arts (BA), Master of Divinity (M.Div.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. The latter two were received from the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary of Mill Valley, California. My PhD is in Biblical Studies with emphasis in the New Testament. My wife, Mary, and I have celebrated over 50 years of marriage. Our God has blessed us with three daughters, who are all married. We have 6 grandchildren.
As pastor, I view myself as an "equipper" and "teacher," challenging and preparing our people to know the Scriptures and their God more fully so that they may be better servants of the kingdom in whatever setting they find themselves. My desires in preaching and teaching, therefore, are fourfold. First, I attempt to show forth the true nature of biblical salvation. Second, I strive to lead our people to recognize and submit to the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, I emphasize that we should submit to the authority of the Bible over every area of life. And fourth, I hope to reinforce to our people that all aspects of life should be dedicated to bring forth glory to God.
It is my conviction that much of Christendom, even much of what is called evangelicalism, is characterized by faith and practice that is not in accord with true salvation in Christ. I fear that a great many of our church members have embraced a "faith" that they have been taught and that they believe sincerely has saved them from their sins, but in actuality they remain under God's wrath. People attend churches in great numbers, they are enthused and "committed" in that they "believe" the gospel that they have been taught, but the content of what they believe is severely flawed or void of substance. "The faith" taught today suffers in ways which the New Testament warned us to repudiate. There are false teachers who are corrupting "the faith" in ways similar to what Jude described, who are "turning the grace of God into a license to sin" (Jude 3). The faith is suffering terribly because pastors are failing to "hand down" the "teaching" to their congregations. Many pastors now deliver therapeutic talks, substituting this for the preaching of the faith (1 Timothy 4:3). There are those that stand in our pulpits blatantly denying long-held tenets of the faith–the authority of the Holy Scriptures alone (Sola Scriptura), salvation by grace alone (sola gratia), justification through faith alone (sola fide), in Jesus Christ alone (solus Christus), all for the glory of God alone (Sola Deo Gloria).
But perhaps the greatest cause for concern in our churches is the crass ignorance of our people and the failure to correct it. People simply do not know what they believe or what they should believe. "The faith" of today is a faith of vagaries–cloudy conceptions of the nature of God and His purposes in history, and misty misrepresentations of the nature of man and his role in God's world. In today's Christianity it is no longer of primary importance what you believe, as long as you "believe." The content of the faith is lost, the true gospel is rare, although our churches appear to be "thriving." In the place of biblical Christianity we have developed a Christian culture (in the west and in particular the USA) in which unregenerate people can enter and feel a part in little time with little effort. They become acculturated into our Christian "churches" rather than converted to Christ, the two not being distinguished. Although they embrace our programs, our music, our "Christian" worldview, and our "Jesus" and "the gospel" as popularly presented, they nevertheless remain unconverted in thought and life. Out of concern for this situation, many of the more visible sermons and texts of this website were selected to awaken those who are "Christians" in name only to the nature of true salvation in Jesus Christ and the way that God has set before us in His Holy Word to receive it.
I pray that many of His people may be brought to know Him in truth through what has been included in these pages. I pray that our Lord will use what has been included here to help you to know and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sincerely,
Pastor Lars Larson, PhD
As pastor, I view myself as an "equipper" and "teacher," challenging and preparing our people to know the Scriptures and their God more fully so that they may be better servants of the kingdom in whatever setting they find themselves. My desires in preaching and teaching, therefore, are fourfold. First, I attempt to show forth the true nature of biblical salvation. Second, I strive to lead our people to recognize and submit to the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, I emphasize that we should submit to the authority of the Bible over every area of life. And fourth, I hope to reinforce to our people that all aspects of life should be dedicated to bring forth glory to God.
It is my conviction that much of Christendom, even much of what is called evangelicalism, is characterized by faith and practice that is not in accord with true salvation in Christ. I fear that a great many of our church members have embraced a "faith" that they have been taught and that they believe sincerely has saved them from their sins, but in actuality they remain under God's wrath. People attend churches in great numbers, they are enthused and "committed" in that they "believe" the gospel that they have been taught, but the content of what they believe is severely flawed or void of substance. "The faith" taught today suffers in ways which the New Testament warned us to repudiate. There are false teachers who are corrupting "the faith" in ways similar to what Jude described, who are "turning the grace of God into a license to sin" (Jude 3). The faith is suffering terribly because pastors are failing to "hand down" the "teaching" to their congregations. Many pastors now deliver therapeutic talks, substituting this for the preaching of the faith (1 Timothy 4:3). There are those that stand in our pulpits blatantly denying long-held tenets of the faith–the authority of the Holy Scriptures alone (Sola Scriptura), salvation by grace alone (sola gratia), justification through faith alone (sola fide), in Jesus Christ alone (solus Christus), all for the glory of God alone (Sola Deo Gloria).
But perhaps the greatest cause for concern in our churches is the crass ignorance of our people and the failure to correct it. People simply do not know what they believe or what they should believe. "The faith" of today is a faith of vagaries–cloudy conceptions of the nature of God and His purposes in history, and misty misrepresentations of the nature of man and his role in God's world. In today's Christianity it is no longer of primary importance what you believe, as long as you "believe." The content of the faith is lost, the true gospel is rare, although our churches appear to be "thriving." In the place of biblical Christianity we have developed a Christian culture (in the west and in particular the USA) in which unregenerate people can enter and feel a part in little time with little effort. They become acculturated into our Christian "churches" rather than converted to Christ, the two not being distinguished. Although they embrace our programs, our music, our "Christian" worldview, and our "Jesus" and "the gospel" as popularly presented, they nevertheless remain unconverted in thought and life. Out of concern for this situation, many of the more visible sermons and texts of this website were selected to awaken those who are "Christians" in name only to the nature of true salvation in Jesus Christ and the way that God has set before us in His Holy Word to receive it.
I pray that many of His people may be brought to know Him in truth through what has been included in these pages. I pray that our Lord will use what has been included here to help you to know and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sincerely,
Pastor Lars Larson, PhD