Romans 12:9: Hate-Filled Christians
Outline God’s hatred Our hatred Introduction If I say the phrase, ‘hate-filled Christians’ we would probably think of some of the bigoted pastors who have featured on the news. For example, Steven Anderson, one reporter writes on his response to the 49 people gunned down in a Florida club last year, ‘The fundamentalist Christian pastor of an Arizona church is being condemned after he celebrated the deaths of 49 people at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando in a hate-filled rant posted on YouTube. Just hours after American’s worst mass shooting came to an end, Steven Anderson, pastor at Faithful...
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Jeremiah 2:1-3:5: God’s view of sin
Outline The nature of sin The deceitfulness of sin Introduction How would you feel if your husband or your wife committed adultery against you? This is probably one of the most difficult betrayals to come to terms with. That thought as painful as it is, helps us prepare to understand the nature of our betrayal against God, except we are worse. In our sins against God we have not merely committed adultery, we have gone off and become prostitutes not merely adulterers. This is the message of Jeremiah’s first sermon to Israel in Jer. 2:1-3:5. 3:1, ‘…you have played...
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1 Samuel 31: Suicide
Outline God’s plan Saul’s sin Introduction Today we are going to be looking at one of the more underappreciated gifts, the gift of encouragement/exhortation. Romans 12:8 reads, ‘the one who exhorts, in his exhortation.’ The Greek word here occurs 107 times in the NT and has been translated in various ways, beseech, comfort, desire, pray, entreat, console. The word for exhortation in this text is literally paraklese, this may sound familiar to you because when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit He promises the Parakletos. This means the one called alongside. The Latin translation of this is cum forte, the...
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1 Samuel 28:3-25: Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
Outline Saul’s sin The unforgivable sin Introduction One of the saddest characters in the bible is King Saul. He seemed so promising and started off well, but then revealed a heart that was not really concerned about God but himself. We are approaching the end of Saul’s life. The end of the book of Samuel is a little like a Quentin Tarrantino movie, it breaks off from one story to follow another, but the sequence of the stories are not chronological. For example, 1 Samuel 29 which records the account of David being rejected by the Philistine army, and...
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Ephesians 4:25: Our Debt of Truth: Part Two
Outline Putting away falsehood Speaking the truth Introduction Imagine a world with no lies and no liars. Imagine how the politicians would speak as they propose the best ways to make a better country, think of the nature of their promises, how they would represent their opposition, and describe the true problems we have. Think of the newspapers and how they would be unbiased in their reporting, the normal leftist leaning reporting that demonises the non-liberal would discuss the really important issues in fair ways presenting both sides. Advertising would stop using the language of worship for trivial things,...
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Ephesians 4:25: Our Debt of Truth: Part One
Outline Putting away falsehood Speaking the truth Introduction Imagine a world with no lies and no liars. Imagine how the politicians would speak as they propose the best ways to make a better country, think of the nature of their promises, how they would represent their opposition, and describe the true problems we have. Think of the newspapers and how they would be unbiased in their reporting, the normal leftist leaning reporting that demonises the non-liberal would discuss the really important issues in fair ways presenting both sides. Advertising would stop using the language of worship for trivial things,...
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1 Samuel 13: Saul Sins Away the Kingdom
Outline Jonathan Saul Samuel Introduction Which is worse to lose all your earthly possessions, lose your health, your reputation and all things earthly, or to sin against God? One of the repetitive features of the OT narratives is that no matter how serious the problems were the characters of the Bible were facing, you will find that God sees sin as more serious than any other catastrophe that can happen to us. Sin is what brings the judgement of God upon us, sin is what makes God our enemy who is stronger than any earthly trouble we could face....
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Judges 11:1-12:15: Jephthah
Outline Jephthah’s ascent Jephthah’s politics Jephthah’s parenting Jephthah’s problem-solving Introduction The book of Judges is the story of man’s ever deepening sinking into sin. Judges uses the various generations and rulers appointed to show what life without God looks like, it is a degrading picture of compounding wickedness. The book of judges started off with promise, there were judges who were godly men who led according to God’s principles and who brought about peace throughout the land. With each generation we have watched the repetitive cycle of sin, punishment and God raising up a deliverer repeat in a weakening...
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Judges 8: Gideon the sinner
Outline Sinful conflict resolution Sinful justice Sinful rule Introduction One of the most dangerous temptations we face is success. When we succeed and people begin to approve of us we can get an inflated view of our own importance thinking that our thoughts, plans, ideas, opinions and contributions are more important than anyone else’s. When things go well for a preacher he may get the idea that God is blessing him and not blessing the gospel and that he can do no wrong. We often overlook the character flaws and even the unbiblical teachings of someone who is bringing...
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Revelation 9:20-21: Hardness of heart
Outline Theodicy Idolatry Introduction The puritans used to say that our worst enemy is not the devil but ourselves, and the worst judgement we can receive is to be handed over to ourselves. This is the judgement of God upon those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness in Romans 1 and the judgement of God in Revelation 9:20-21, ‘The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or...
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Revelation 2:1-7: Ephesus: Part Two
Introduction: Gordon Macdonald was a successful and famous Christian writer and speaker who fell into adultery. After being restored he wrote a book and in it he gives an illustration of the Christian life. The Christian life is like a yacht, you can have a spotless yacht, new sails, fresh varnish, bright upholstery, polished brass fitting and still sink if you do not pay attention to the condition of the yacht under the water line where the eye does not see unless we deliberately go inspecting. Ephesus was like a yacht, to the casual observer it looked to be...
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Colossians 3:1-4: Our fight against sin: 3 truths that will help us
Outline: The reality of a new relationship to sin; The reality of a new citizenship; Assured reality of final victory
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Proverbs 14:14: Backsliding in heart
Introduction: One of the greatest spiritual battles facing the Western Christian is the fight to stop being a backslider in heart. In other parts of the world like Northern Iraq where ISIS is beheading children, the great struggle is for faithfulness and patience in the face of aggressive persecution. In the West we have the opposite problem; we struggle against ease, pleasure, comfort, excess and the other conveniences of modern life. And so we must conclude that one of our greatest dangers is the innocuous unseen danger, not of cancer, but backsliding. As Christmas approaches and we are inundated...
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Church Discipline 3: Romans 7:21-25: Our Battle Against Sin
Introduction: If I had to ask you to name the 5 top misunderstood doctrines in Christianity what five would you choose? I can imagine you would choose teachings like election, reprobation, regeneration, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, the baptism of the Spirit, but did anyone pick sanctification? Sanctification, that doctrine which can be quickly summarised as, the process of God making us holy, I believe is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in Christianity today. On the one hand we have the perfectionistic teachings that believe in the removal of a sinful nature at baptism, or those who believe...
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Church Discipline 2: Luke 15:11-32: Restoring the repentant sinner
Introduction: Last week we looked at the issue of church discipline. In my studies in this area I have found that there is a real zeal for sermons, studies and articles on this issue. You can find a lot of material about the proper processes to follow, but something I have not seen much on is what do you do with someone who repents, how do we restore the repentant? There are some indications of what to do in verses like Galatians 6:1-3, ‘Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in...
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Church Discipline 1: Matt. 18:15-20: When to administer
Introduction: When is church a true church? The doctrine of the church was something that was wrestled with at the time of the Reformation when Luther broke with Rome. It emerged at the end of the Reformation a doctrine of the church that had three marks. A church is a biblical church when it has these 3 basic ingredients, the proclamation of the true gospel, the faithful administration of the baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the church discipline. If you had these 3 you were considered a church. Whether you met in a building or a home, whether...
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