1689 London Baptist Confession: Chapter 1 Part 2 Talking about God
INTRODUCTION Let me begin by reading chap. 2 para. 1, ‘The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous...
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Luke 18:31-34: ‘Everything…Written…Will be Accomplished.’
OUTLINE Birth Nature Ministry Death, burial and resurrection INTRODUCTION I am a fan of science fiction and fantasy, and a common theme in many these genres is the issue of prophecy. Modern fiction thinking reflects modern world views. It too tries to create stories that don’t have God as the Bible describes Him in them. Often you will have a prophecy about someone’s death and this will spark the various characters into having philosophical dialogues. The main problem presented in these dialogues is this one. How can the future be fixed and our choices be free? A common plot...
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Luke 18;18-30 The Young Ruler
OUTLINE Salvation is impossible with man Salvation is possible for God INTRODUCTION I want you to picture the best human being alive on earth right now. Think of a person who is virtuous, successful, lauded, and loved. Some of you may have pictured a Nobel Prize winner like the late Desmond Tutu who has just died at the age of 90, some may have thought of a family member. No matter who you thought of that person is not truly good, and not good enough to get themselves into heaven. This is the lesson of the next section we...
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Malachi 1:6-14 The Worship God Hates
OUTLINE Dishonoring worship Minimalistic worship Lukewarm worship Compromised worship INTRODUCTION How much worship does God deserve? How much honor, reverence, fear, awe, love, obedience, and sacrifice? The truth is we can never worship, honor or revere God too much. If I as a finite creature gave every moment of time to give a constant flow of heartfelt praise, it would never be enough. If every person in all of creation worshipped God for all eternity, even this finite choir could not give God’s infinite majesty the glory it is due. Enter sin into that equation where we worship as...
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Malachi 1:1-5: Doubting the Love of God
INTRODUCTION The Puritan Samuel Rutherford, in a letter to a man who doubted whether he was a Christian wrote this: ‘We being born in atheism, and bairns (children) of the house we are come of, it is no new thing, my dear brother, for us to be under jealousies and mistakes about the love of God.’1 Having atheist hearts that are in disposition contrary to God we call God a liar instead of believing He cannot lie; we believe God vacillates and changes instead of believing that He cannot change; we believe that God is against us when He...
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Luke 10:17-24: Reasons for Rejoicing
The Christian life can be depressing at times. Ecclesiastes 1:18 gives us a reason why, ‘ For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.’ The more truth you have, the more you realize how bad things are, and that can be depressing. We can get depressed because of the internal love that we still have for sin and the way we continue to sin. We get depressed because we see so much suffering so much of it self-inflicted as people live without God. We are sad because the God we love is not...
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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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Ephesians 4:7-10: ‘…He Gave Gifts…’
Paul is a man who loves to contrast things. In Romans 1-3 he gives us the bad news and the good news, the impossibility of sinners being righteous and then using the word ‘But’ talks about the free gift of righteousness that God provides, 3:21-31. In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul talks about how dead in sin we are, then again in v4 beginning with a ‘But,’ God, by His sovereign grace intervenes and makes us alive in Christ. We have another contrast like this in the portion before us. Paul has been talking about unity, unity, unity, ‘BUT’ v7, diversity....
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Luke 8:22-25: A Lesson in Faith
There is often a big difference between that first faith by which we are saved and the ongoing faith of the Christian life. Because unbelief is more natural to us than faith; because we are prone to feel first and not to think first; because we often walk by sight and not by faith we stumble at those trials that test our faith. We can be grateful then that we serve a Savior who is both the author and the finisher; the founder and the perfecter of our faith. As we come to this famous portion in Luke 8:22-25,...
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Ephesians 3:11-13: The Plan of God
One of the most misunderstood, yet one of the most comforting doctrines that we believe in is the doctrine of God’s decree. Just as a builder does not begin to build without the blueprints, God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe worked out His salvation in history according to an eternal plan/decree. If you will forgive the Freemason associations He is indeed the Great Architect. This plan is freely constructed by God, in other words He did not have to be taught anything or have His arm twisted to make it in a certain way. Everything that...
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Luke 6:12-16: The Twelve Apostles: Part Two
2 Cor. 4:7, ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.’ Paul is talking about the treasure of the knowledge of God in the gospel having been put into the jars of clay of the sinful apostles. He tells us that God delights to use the weak things so that His power is evident. The twelve apostles are a menagerie of jars of clay, each is earthy and ugly, bearing all the imperfections of being made by hand, each item is completely unique from the...
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Philippians 1:12-18: A Godly Attitude
Thanks to Simon Bird for preaching this afternoon. Our apologies for the lack of a recording. Philippians 1:12-18 12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good...
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Habakkuk 3: A Song of Faith
Imagine yourself as the prophet, you know that one of the worst tragedies in human history is coming, a holocaust against your nation in which many will die and suffer terrible atrocities. What do you do? Most of us would pack our bags and run away. Instead Habakkuk writes a song to equip Israel for the coming trial. As a shepherd and teacher of the people, Habakkuk shows the righteous what their own response to God should be in the coming times. The relevance of a song is immense. Many truths that have impacted our lives have been those...
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