Sermon Archive


1 Corinthians 2:1-5: Preaching Christ

Thanks to Alfie Orr for preaching this afternoon at our new building at 20 Archer Street, Timaru. Alfie pastored our church from August 1986 – November 1998 when it was still known as Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church. Today was a significant moment in our church’s history, and to commemorate it, the three previous pastors were able to attend and participate in our services today.


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1 Corinthians 2:1-5: Gospel Centred Preaching

Thanks to Ian Goodman for preaching for us this morning. Ian is the pastor of Wilson Street Baptist Church in Timaru. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5: Proclaiming Christ Crucified 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit...


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1 Corinthians 1:18-31 – Preaching the Foolishness of the Cross

Introduction: Do you feel embarrassed about the Christian message?  Are you embarrassed about the exclusive claims that Christ is the only way to heaven? Do you cringe when you have to sound ‘cruel’ by affirming that everyone is a totally depraved sinner?  Do you drop your voice when you say that homosexual lust is a sin and homosexual marriage is an impossibility?   Do you leave out quoting the Bible in your conversations because of how people today think of God’s word?  Have you ever felt tempted to rethink some traditional Christian beliefs on things like hell, the inspiration of Scripture,...


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Partaking in an Unworthy Manner: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Introduction: Paragraph 8 of the Lord’s Supper in the 1689 Baptist confession of faith reads’ “All ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ, so are they unworthy of the Lord’s Table and cannot, without great sin against him, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto; yea, whosoever shall receive unworthily, are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, eating and drinking judgment to themselves.”  It can be dangerous to be in Church sometimes! Not because a rock fall can come down and wipe out the Church...


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1 Corinthians 12:12-13: Baptism into the body

Outline Unity of the Spirit Baptism of the Spirit Drinking of the Spirit Introduction What is baptism?  For some it is a cultural tradition which goes along with your nationality.  For some it is a private devotional moment that becomes subject to personal taste and timing.  For others it is something irrelevant you don’t have to worry about, an optional extra like a fashion accessory.  For some it is baby insurance applied to babies as a type of protection.  There are many things we could say about baptism but today we want to focus on baptism as a command...


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Spiritual Gifts: The Gift of Healing

Outline Modern views Biblical practice Introduction The pastor walked to the front of the stage while the band was softly playing and said, ‘The Spirit has told me that an anointing for healing is here tonight. If anyone wants to be healed come to the front and we will pray for you.’ Sitting in the front row was a girl with a birth defect sitting in a wheelchair. She had been born with five vertebrae missing. Two young men heard the pastor and saw the girl and went to the girl in the wheelchair and prayed for her and...


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Romans 12:6-8: The Gift of Tongues: Part Two

Outline Were tongues languages? Were tongues mysteries in the Spirit? Introduction As we continue with our look at tongues let me begin with a statement. The modern day phenomenon of tongues that is found in the Charismatic church is not the biblical gift of tongues. We have already seen the faulty foundations that this modern practice is built on as we look at how the practice and its teaching began by looking at Charles Parham. Now there are those who agree and say that the gift of tongues therefore is to be distinguished from the tongues that is given...


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Romans 12:6-8: The Gift of Tongues: Part One

Outline The historical roots of modern day tongues The theological justification for modern day tongues The differing nature of modern day tongues Introduction We come now to the gift of tongues. This is not featured in the list to the Romans or the Ephesians but only in the letter to the Corinthians. We find it in the list of supernatural gifts in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 and then again in v28-30. Although this gift is mentioned last in terms of importance in 1 Cor. 12:28, we are going to take it together with prophecy because it is so closely associated...


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1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Holding Fast to the Gospel

Sorry, no recording is available. Thanks to Tim Stanton for preaching this morning; he was back home during his Christmas break from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is currently earning a Master of Divinity. Outline The Gospel Paul Preached The Gospel We Received The Gospel that Enables Us to Stand The Gospel that Saves Us Introduction About a month ago, I was with the youth group and we played a game of tug of war. Unfortunately, we lost. Three times. The objective of a game of tug of war as I am sure you...


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Baptism in Corinth: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Outline Disunity in Corinth Baptism in Corinth Introduction Once again we have the wonderful opportunity to baptise believers. Today we will be looking for some instruction on Baptism from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. Lets remind ourselves of the situation in Corinth and then look at how this text by implication teaches us how baptism was practised in Corinth. The Corinthian Church was born on Paul’s second missionary journey. Paul started out in Philippi where he was beaten and imprisoned, then went on to Thessalonica where he was chased out by the Jews. Paul went on to Athens where there was...


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1 Corinthians 13:4-7: Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.


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1 Corinthians 10:14-22: Communing with Christ

Outline Not a sin offering Not a physical eating Not a mere remembering Introduction People have died for the issue of how Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper. And this is a good thing. It is not good because people are dying but because people are willing to die to uphold biblical truth. Christ commanded His church to remember His death by means of the Lord’s Supper, this is a non-negotiable for His Church. I love to remind us that people died for these truths because we are so lackadaisical. In our politically correct climate we are scared...


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The Spirit Filled Marriage 7: Husbands love your wives

Outline Defining love Describing love Introduction Why do we love? One physicist gives us the evolutionary perspective, ‘Biologically, love is a powerful neurological condition like hunger or thirst, only more permanent. We talk about love being blind or unconditional, in the sense that we have no control over it. But then, that is not so surprising since love is basically chemistry. While lust is a temporary passionate sexual desire involving the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and oestrogen, in true love, or attachment and bonding, the brain can release a whole set of chemicals: pheromones, dopamine, norepinephrine,...


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