Reformation 500 Conference: To the Glory of God Alone
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Reformation 500 Conference: Faith Alone
Outline Justified By faith alone Introduction Justification by faith alone is said to be the belief by which the church stands or falls. Luther is credited by his students as saying, ‘if that article stands, the church stands; if it fails, the church fails.’ John Calvin spoke of it as the ‘main hinge upon which religion turns’ and ‘the sum of all piety.’ Sadly, if you ask many Christians today what justification means, they don’t really know. It has been said that where the formal cause of the Reformation was an argument about authority; the material cause was over...
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Reformation 500 Conference: Why the Reformation Still Matters
Outline Why bother with the Reformation? What was the Reformation? Why it is still relevant? Introduction: Why bother with the Reformation? We are approaching the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther nailing up the 95 theses, which have been named as the catalyst that started the Reformation. You may be asking the question, why does this matter, why should I give up my time to think about something old that happened 500 years ago? If you are a Baptist, an Anglican, a Methodist, Brethren, a Congregationalist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Independent, amongst many others in the Protestant stream, you exist...
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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 11:28-32: God’s gifts: Part Two
Outline Christ and the priesthood Introduction We are talking about what many people think will happen to Israel in the future. There are many who think that there will be a literal temple with literal priests and literal sacrifices. We have begun to show that this is impossible. Using our key for interpretation that all the promises are yes in Christ, and a view of God’s promises that sees their fulfilment as larger than anticipated we have shown that the church is the foretold temple of Ezekiel. Today we continue to address these matters and will be looking at...
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Ephesians 6:17: The Sword of the Spirit: Part Two
Outline The sword that dispels darkness The sword that answers temptation Introduction ‘The word,’ acts 6:4; ‘the implanted word,’ James 1:21; ‘the prophetic word,’ 2 Pet. 1:19; ‘the word of God;’ ‘the word of Christ,’ Col. 3:16; ‘the word of His grace,’ Acts 14:3; ‘the word of truth,’ Ps. 119:43; ‘the word of righteousness,’ Heb. 5:13; ‘fire,’ Jer. 23:29; ‘hammer,’ Jer. 23:29; ‘sweeter than honey,’ Ps. 19:10; ‘lamp,’ Ps. 119:103; ‘meat,’ Heb. 5:14; ‘milk,’ 1 Pet. 2:2; ‘water,’ Eph. 5:25; and ‘sword’ Eph. 6:17. These are just a few descriptions of the word of God, the Sword of the...
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Covenant Grace Baptist Church: What’s in a name?
Outline Covenant Grace Introduction These are the words of Juliet to Romeo in Shakespeare’s famous play: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The original play was about two lovers from warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets, the point of the line is to show how names are irrelevant when the substance remains the same. If that is the case why did we change the name from Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church to Covenant Grace Baptist Church? Let’s make a few things clear. We are not renaming ourselves...
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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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