Luke 18:35-43: The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus
OUTLINE The knowledge of faith The desperation of faith The asking of faith The consequences of faith INTRODUCTION It has been said that Christ’s miracles of healing various disabilities is a deliberate illustration of how Christ heals our spiritual ailments. Christ raising the dead illustrates how Christ is able to give new life; Christ casting out demons illustrates how the devil’s domination of us is overcome; the healing of leprosy shows how Christ can cure the unclean incurables; the healing of lame shows us the liberty we experience in Christ to live for God; the healing of deafness shows...
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Luke 18:1-8: The Parable of the Persistent Widow
INTRODUCTION Prayer is something that every Christian does, but nobody does well. Prayer is the native tongue of faith, but we trend towards doubt. Prayer is the hearts’ expression of love to God, but we are often cold towards God. Prayer is the outlet of holy desire, but we are full of sinful desires. We struggle to pray and we struggle to pray well. This could be because of sin in our lives that we withdraw from God’s searching gaze. This could be because of the business of life where the urgent drives out the important. It could be...
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The Doctrines of Grace: Perseverance of the Saints
We come now to the teaching known as the perseverance of the saints. It has been known by other names, the preservation of the saints, once saved always saved, or eternal security. Some of these forms of teaching are associated with teachings we would disagree with, and others depending on how they are defined we would count as biblical. We are happy with perseverance of the saints because it best describes the NT teaching that all those who God elects and draws to Himself are saved, and because the work of grace within them is real they will persevere....
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The Doctrines of Grace: Irresistible Grace
Imagine with me a set of twins, they have both grown up in a good home where parents have loved them, they have both grown up with Christian parents who have instructed them in God’s word and taken them to church every Sunday. They are of equal sporting ability and both of average intelligence. However, when the Gospel is preached to them, one of them believes and the other does not, why? What has caused these two brothers to differ? The typical answers to this question would be, ‘it was their upbringing’, but they have both come from good...
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The Doctrines of Grace: Limited Atonement
Limited atonement, as has been pointed out by many is an unfortunate name for this point. The name is certainly misleading in terms of what is meant by it. It in no way means that the power of Christ’s sacrifice is limited in its power to forgive sins. Christ’s sacrifice is certainly sufficient for all of our sins, and we reject the notion that we need to add anything to His atonement. What is meant by this phrase is that God was particular in who this redemption was accomplished for. And so it has also been called particular atonement....
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The Doctrines of Grace: Unconditional Election: Part 3
The main reason why people reject the teaching of God’s free sovereign and gracious election, is not so much because God is sovereign in showing mercy, but that He is sovereign not only in election but reprobation as well. Many can see the logic of God’s sovereign mercy for the elect, but the other side of election, the dark side, the side of reprobation, this is the main reason why people reject the teaching altogether. Some will accept single predestination, that God elects to have mercy on some; but will not accept what is known as double predestination, that...
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The Doctrines of Grace: Unconditional Election: Part 2
Most people do not realize this but the doctrine of God’s sovereign grace in election is brought up by Paul in Romans 8-9 to give assurance of salvation. Paul wants to ground the faith of suffering Christians whose lives feel like they are spiralling out of control and implying God does not love them or is too weak. He grounds their assurance by showing how all things including suffering are working together for the good of those God is calling according to His purpose. Paul then reveals that God has a plan that began in eternity past as He...
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The Doctrines of Grace: Unconditional Election
I became a Christian in my late teens and had not been brought up in the faith. I came cold to all things Christian and was dependent upon my youth pastor and pastor and bible study leader to guide me in things. Quite early on I heard about these terrible people called Calvinists who taught terrible doctrines like ‘born to burn’ and ‘once saved always saved.’ That they believed in an arbitrary God who was sitting in heaven with a flower pulling out petals saying, ‘elect, reprobate, elect, reprobate.’ I was told about this terrible teaching that would stifle...
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The Doctrines of Grace: Total Depravity
Imagine with me two different religions, but both are called Christianity. One flows from man’s reason, not that Spirit illuminated Bible taught reason but reason driven by man’s sinful self-confident ability to rationalise everything out to the nth degree. The other religion is based upon God’s revelation recognising that our sinful minds need to be taught truth because it is our natural tendency to suppress it. At the centre of the first religion is man, we will call this anthropocentric religion. At the centre of the second religion is God, this we call theocentric religion. In the middle of...
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Romans 16:21-27: Doxology
Introduction: What distracts you in worship? Is it the heat? Maybe it is the sounds of people cutting their grass. Maybe you are distracted by the sounds the kids make, misspelt words on the slides, or maybe it is something at work or at home that enters your thoughts and derails you. As we come to the end of Romans we come to the doxology. But Paul is like us he gets distracted. He begins in the traditional way, ‘Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel….’ And then Paul loses it, the gospel...
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Romans 11:34-36: Soli Deo Gloria!
Outline From Him Through Him To Him Introduction I come to this text with a deep sense of my inadequacy at trying to explain the immense profundity of the portion before us. In many ways that is the point of the text. This particular portion is especially important to me and it is the text used as the subtitle on our church website, ‘For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.’ I can think of no better way to respond to the gospel we have just spent 11 chapters...
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Romans 11:11-15: God’s Mysterious Ways
Outline Salvation in justice Sovereignty over sin Introduction God works in mysterious ways, or God’s ways are not our ways are familiar statements that help us to remember that there are mysteries bigger than our ability to understand. This section of Romans 9-11 is full of the complexities of these mysteries, God’s distinguishing love, God’s unconditional election, God’s sovereignty over unbelief in the hardening of unbelievers. Well today we continue to be faced with profound mysteries. We have two mysteries facing us from these verses; that God brings salvation from justice, and that is sovereign over and uses sin...
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Romans 11:7-10: Sovereign Hardening
Outline An explanation of the hardening A description of the hardened Introduction No sober-minded Christian would deny that God is sovereign. Every Christian would affirm that God is sovereign, all powerful and actively in control in the world today. But there are three areas where there are differences of opinion between believers. Christians differ over what extent God controls nature; the extent of God’s control over evil, and the extent of God’s control in salvation and damnation. The verses we are presently studying are driving us into the heart of the differences about who is in control when it...
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Romans 11:6: Unconditional election
Outline Not works By grace Introduction The verse that casts its shadow over the whole of Romans 9-11 is 11:36, ‘For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.’ This is Paul’s grand conclusion and to conclude anything different is to have misunderstood his argument. Every part of our salvation is from God, ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD,’ Jonah 2:9. It comes from Him, is done through Him and all runs to Him so that He is the only one who can be thanked for every part of our salvation....
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Romans 11:5: God’s Remnant
Outline A key for interpretation A philosophy of history A defence of grace Introduction Today we are going to study one of the most important theological topics in the bible, the remnant. This little word with its pedestrian meaning of ‘leftovers’; residue; a surviving group; a part, trace or member remaining; remains; the leavings, etc. is a vital teaching in the bible. A word that usually has negative connotations has some wonderful light to share with us today. Paul brings in this word in 11:5 to help us understand God’s dealings with Israel, ‘So too at the present time...
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Colossians 1:28: Healthy Churches Have Gospel-Grounded Identity: Part Two
Outline Faith Sanctification Church Glorification Introduction Healthy Churches have a Gospel-grounded identity. What we are hoping to show today is that in order for a church to be healthy, it must be grounded in the gospel, and in particular to see its identity grounded in the gospel. To try and get at this topic I would like us to read Colossians 1:28-29 together, ‘Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.’
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