Lord’s Day Sermons — 9/10/23

[clawrence9008]

Please feel free to let us know what your pastor preached on in his sermon today and what you took away from it for edification and application for your Christian life. Also if you are a pastor, please feel free to let us know what you preached on today!

AM: My pastor continued his series in Colossians today with a rich sermon on Col. 1:15-17. This week and next week he is going through the “Hymn of Christ” in v. 15-20 and drawing out “12 mind-blowing, heart-stirring truths about Jesus” (6 this week, 6 next week). He discussed Christ being the image of God, the firstborn over all creation, the creator of the universe, the goal of all creation, existing before all creation, and the sustainer of all creation. This sermon was a tremendous feast, and I could tell both in his preaching and during worship that his heart was aflame for the exalted Christ in this passage. Woke up this morning feeling very depressed (as I still feel to some degree) so I am hoping that meditation upon Christ’s excellencies will give me strength. Exhorted us to exalt Christ in our worship for how He is incomprehensible and yet still loves us. He ended the sermon with a quote from Robert Murray M’Cheyne, which I think will be encouraging to you all:

“For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh.”

Young adult class: The young adult class started today and we started a video series by J.D. Greear on Ephesians. Covered Eph. 1:1-14 and discussed predestination (the biblical view of it!) and how this passage gives us assurance, hope, and boldness in evangelism.

 

[Poimen]

I preached on Romans 9:6-13 "God's People Separated by God's Promise." That is to say, not only are God's people divided from the world but they are divided between themselves according to God's free choice. I thus concluded how God's special or effectual promise of salvation cannot fail because of this eternal election of his forever people.

 

[Ploutos]

I'm glad to see this thread again and I hope this will be a continuing weekly feature. It challenges me to come into the sermon with ears and mind open so that I have something to share or discuss (whether here, or with my wife, or elsewhere).

The pastor this morning preached on Daniel 2. One helpful point that he made was that apart from Christ, no amount of earthly power or attainment will give us peace and prosperity. He drew a connection between Nebuchadnezzar's insecurity and anxiety and the ever-mounting insecurity and anxiety of our society today despite our tremendous prosperity.

A lot more was said about the text, but that is one point that stuck in my mind as helpful as I find in my own life that prosperity is just within my grasp enough to tempt me toward dreams and thoughts of self-made sufficiency and security apart from Christ.

 

[JP Wallace]

I preached this morning form our series in Matthew's Gospel - the second clause of the Lord's Prayer "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven".We considered what the the kIngdom of God is especially in it's expression in the Kingdom of Christ, then we contrast what the kingdom is like in heaven with how it is on earth, and then we thought about how to pray this prayer - by praying that God would bring more and more people, and institutions to know him, love him and serve him as the great King, and then secondly by praying that God would more and more destroy the antichristian values and institutions in this world, frustrate their evil plans etc.

In the evening I preached the second in our series in Proverbs - Wisdom for Everyday Life, on the subject of the Danger of Bad Company and Bad Influences. We looked at two proverbs and their meaning first of all 13:20 and 22:24,25, then we thought about some biblical examples of the truth of these principles - Lot's wife, Rehoboam, Joash and Solomon himself. We then thought about how to practice these principles - by first of all taking every possible opportunity to be among the wise the godly and under their influences, chief of all communing with Christ in His Word and in Prayer regularly and frequently and then secondly, by using every unavoidable time in the company of the foolish and ungodly to be salt and light to them, commending Christ in Word and deed.

 

[pgwolv]

In the Adult Bible Class, we covered the first part of Chp 8 in the 1689 LBCF, on Christ the Mediator. We looked at the Author of redemption; Christ's offices, mission, and ordination; Christ's incarnation; the qualifications of the Mediator; the historic description of the execution of His office as Mediator; and the accomplishment of His role as Mediator. This led to a look at the different aspects to the Atonement: propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, sacrifice, and conquering of death and the devil. Finally, we looked at Rom 8:30-34 as an indication of the doctrine of particular redemption.

AM: James 5:13-18. We looked at the means of grace for those who are suffering (prayer), those who are cheerful (praise), those who are sick (prayer), and those who are sinful (confession and prayer). Prayer secures God's guard in place, which is the peace that transcends all human understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). Regarding anointing with oil, we saw that it is a symbol of the healing power of the Holy Spirit. When the elders anoint a sick person with oil, they are saying that healing is of God alone, and that that healing may come via miracle, medical treatment, or both. An interesting point that our pastor made was that, just as we pray in thanksgiving before we eat our food, we ought to do the same with medicine, as it is a means of common grace. All good things are ultimately derived from the cross of Calvary; without it we would all be in hell. He also pointed out that, among the means of grace, we have the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord's table, which are both means of His special grace to the saved; and we have means of common grace, such as confession of sins to each other, food, medicine, etc., which are not ordinances.

PM: Genesis 12:10-20. Despite Abram's glorious beginning, this passage shows his fallibility as a man. This section details a famine; Abram's faltering, fear, folly, and fortune; the ensuing fiasco; and God's faithfulness. Abram showed a lack of faith in moving to Egypt owing to the famine without consulting God; God had led him to the promised land and could have provided for him despite the famine (a la Proverbs 3:5-6). However, before we are harsh on Abram, we must realise that we often falter for far less of a reason than famine. The worst thing about Abram's deception was that it placed the God-ordained messianic line in jeopardy. But God, in His faithfulness to His promise, ensured that His plan would not be thwarted, and used this incident to demonstrate His sovereignty. We also see that Abram was granted a fortune by the Pharaoh because of the deception, a clear indication that prosperity is not a sure sign of God's favour. Finally, we see that God's intervention spares us from the full consequences of our mistakes. We are where we are, not because of who we are, but despite of who we are and because of who God is (Psalm 103:10-13). If we would only reflect on this, we would glorify God as we ought.