Luke 13:1-9: Suffering and Repentance
We come now to what is probably the most important portion in the Bible on people suffering and our response to it. We are all familiar with the classic problem, something bad happens and the questions begin to flow, why did a loving God allow this? Why did the innocent suffer with the guilty? Was it God; or satan; or man; or nature that caused this? This is a very large intellectual problem. The dilemma of a good God and evil existing has a long history. Epicurus a Greek philosopher born in in Greece in 341 BC put the...
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Luke 11:29-36: Evil Unbelief
Perhaps you remember what it was like. Before you became a believer you had a certain set of assumptions about faith and God. We were the arbiters of truth and God had to prove Himself to us. We had confidence in our reason; we were fearless in pouring intellectual disdain upon things so much bigger than us; we were assured of the rightness of our aggression against God. The verdict was out on Him not on us, and the burden of proof for His existence was upon Him not us. This impression is prevalent today, unbelief sits in judgement...
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Ephesians 5:5-7: Living in Light of Judgement
What do all these verses have in common? 2 Cor. 5:10-11, ‘For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.’ 2 Pet. 3:11, 14, ‘Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?’ ‘Therefore,...
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Ephesians 5:3-7: Motivations for Personal Purity
Why should a Christian not have sex before marriage or any other form of sexual sin? Why should a Christian not tell dirty jokes? Why should a Christian not swear? Why should a Christian not be greedy? It is to these questions that we turn as Paul gives the Ephesians motivations to be personally pure. Paul has been speaking to the area of unity, to the area of relationships, and about those sins that we do against each other like lying, stealing, slandering, unforgiveness, etc. But Paul is not only concerned about our unity he is also concerned about...
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Ephesians 4:31-32: Virtues Replacing Vices
How can you tell if someone is a Christian? We will not be able to know 100% because we cannot see the hearts of others but there are several tests you could apply that could make an informed opinion. God knows the heart completely; you can know of your own salvation, but knowing about others will run the risk of error. Firstly, there is the test of orthodoxy. If someone is taught by the Spirit they will believe certain truths and reject certain errors, they cannot deny the Trinity, or the way of salvation for example. Secondly, there is...
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Ephesian 4:30: Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit
If I were to ask you ‘why shouldn’t the Christian sin?’, ‘what makes a sin wrong?’ we would likely hear a number of different arguments. Today many feel that a certain action is inappropriate because it is not culturally acceptable, it is a taboo, it is not a societal norm and this is what makes an action wrong. This betrays a more post-modern way of thinking where we are trying to live with the premise that everyone has their own truth and that our morality is a societal construct. You will also hear the more pragmatic view that says...
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Mark 7:14-23: What Defiles a Person
A big thank you to Ian Goodman from Wilson Street Baptist Church for preaching to us this afternoon. Mark 7:14-23 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding?...
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Ephesians 4:26-27: Putting Away Anger
Anger divides! Take one look at our culture today and notice how anger is drawing battle lines, polarizing and tribalizing groups against each other. We see the sides in the culture wars as the left are pitted against the right. Critical theory has divided society up into minority groupings who now interpret all activity towards them in terms of microagressions. They play into a narrative of victimhood and oppression which must now be met with violent revolution. Cancel culture, trolling, and the mudslinging arena of social media are maelstroms of anger. This anger is nothing new, sinners have always...
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Ephesians 4:17-24: A New Creation in Christ, Part 1: The Old Man
Thomas Watson once said, ‘Dead fish swim downstream; living fish swim upstream.’ As Christians we are no longer dead, we can no longer go along with the world. We are no longer what we were so we can no longer live the way we used to. We have life and cannot live like we do not; we have God and cannot live like we do not. This is the heart of what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 4:17-24. We are in the second half of the letter to the Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 are mostly doctrine indicating what God...
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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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Ephesians 2:1-10: ‘But for the Grace of God….’
‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ This is a well-known statement which recognises that apart from God’s gracious intervention left to ourselves we would be lost. This statement is credited to the martyr John Bradford, once while walking past a gallows and as criminal were being led to be hanged, he looked over at them as said, ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ It is this grateful recognition that Paul is trying to prompt in the Ephesians in 2:1-10. The body of chapter 1 is only two sentences in the Greek, the first...
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Luke 7:36-50: A Forgiven Sinner’s Love for Christ
When do you know if someone is truly a Christian? This can be a difficult question to answer for on the one hand you and I cannot read the heart of another and so will always have an imperfect ability to make a judgement. However, there is also a call in scripture for us to evaluate a person’s credible confession of faith. The true test of someone’s faith is not the amount of religiosity they indulge in, a person can go to church a lot and not be saved; the amount of theologically correct doctrine we have, for some...
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Luke 6:37-42: Thou Shalt Not Judge!
The eleventh commandment is ‘Thou shalt not judge!’ At least in our modern pluralistic context where all religion is now equally irrelevant this is deemed to be a cardinal rule. At times it seems as if the only thing people know about Jesus teaching is that He taught that we should not judge. It is to this section that we turn now in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:37-42. Key to understanding this section is the context. Jesus has divided the people of Israel into two groups, the godly and the ungodly, but here is how the...
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Psalm 51: Coming back to God after sin
How do we come back to God after sin? How do we return to God when we have sinned in a big way, or as a leader, or done a sin again that we committed not to do? One of the most visited portions in my bible, a portion I have wept over more than any other is Psalm 51. It gives me great comfort to know that a man like David who had a heart after God’s own heart, had feet of clay. And that the Holy Spirit inspired him to write a psalm of penitence that shows...
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Jonah 1:4-6: The Storm
Storms have proven to be effective means of bringing people closer to God. It was Martin Luther’s prayer in a thunderstorm that resulted in him giving up his law studies and taking up monastic vows. Louis Zamperini the WWII air gunner who was shot down and was stuck in a life raft for days lost at sea cried out for God to save him in the middle of a storm. John Newton while bailing out water in a damaged ship in the midst of a storm cried out to God for salvation. Jonah is another who God brings closer...
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John 9: Jesus Heals the Man Born Blind
A big thanks to Guy McKenzie for preaching this week when Nick was away. We appreciate it! John 9: 1-7 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As...
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