Galatians 5:7-15 - Love Fulfills the Law

In Galatians 5 verse 7 Paul says to the recipients of his letter: "You were running well." He uses an athletic metaphor. You were running your race well. This is not the only place where Paul compares the Christian life to a race in which we are runners. He also does so in Philippians 3. There's also the passage in Hebrews 12 which is parallel.

So, if our Christian life is a race, how do we run? There are two things that stand out in each of these passages. We are to run:

(1) Focused on Christ (faith)

(2) Pressing toward our glorious future (hope)

The Christian life is not about the law. Its focus is not the law. Its focus is Christ. It is about faith in Christ, both in what he did and what he has promised to do. We do not live the Moses life, we live the Messianic life. And that life is manifested in love.

'but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”'--Galatians 5:13b-14

What made the law a bondage to us, at least in part, was that it ran contrary to our nature. What Christ has done for us, or what the Spirit of God has done in us through Christ is to change our heart, give us a new nature. Whereas once our hearts were at enmity against God, now we love God, and of course that love is manifested in love for our neighbor. So rather than serve the law, we serve each other.

We discuss this in more detail, along with a few other things, in our bible study from this passage. The audio from that study is below. Just click the link and it will open up a page in SoundCloud where you can stream that audio in MP3 format. Keep in mind that these are not sermons, but informal bible studies where questions are sometimes asked and discussion sometimes takes place. God bless.

Click here: Galatians 5:7-15 - Love Fulfills the Law



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Galatians 4:1-7 - Adoption As Sons

In chapter 4 Paul continues his theological argument against the Judaizers by using a cultural analogy with which his readers would have been familiar. He is going to compare our position in Christ and in the Abrahamic covenant with Greco-Roman adoption. He takes his cue from the preceding verse:

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.--3:29

Heirs. That's key. We are heirs of the promises made to Abraham. Now taking that concept of our being the heirs of the promises made to Abraham he draws his comparison.

(1) I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything,

Now think about a rich son. He is in a royal household. He is the heir. But as long as he is still a child he is treated (especially by the guardian) no differently than is a slave--although legally he is, or will be, the owner of everything. He has no voice. He makes no decisions. He is made to obey, made to learn, by the guardian. He has to go to bed at a certain time. He has to get up at a certain time. He is not free.

(2) but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 

The day will come when he is set free, but it is not yet. This is where the people of God were before the coming of Christ. They were under Moses, under bondage. This is where we were before Christ, enslaved to the elementary principles of this world.

This is the Bible study I taught on a Wednesday night covering the first seven verses of Galatians 4. Below you will find a link to the audio of the entire lesson. Just click the link and a new window will open up where you can stream the audio on your pc or other device. Take a listen and see what you think. God bless.

Click here: Galatians 4:1-7 - Adoption As Sons



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Mark 3:22-30 - The Eternal Sin

In this passage of Mark's gospel we have a pericope inside another pericope. The first was intended to get us to stop and assess what we think of Jesus--what our relationship with him is. This one is intended as a solemn word of warning. We will take heed to the warning. We will examine it and examine it well, for it is very frightening. Jesus announces that there is a sin for which there is no forgiveness. 

But there is something else that is laid down beside it that we will also take the time to notice, words that are wonderful to a soul in search of forgiveness. So in this story, this sermon, we are brought face to face with both law and grace.

Remember what Mark is doing in this section. He is clueing us in as to what the reactions of the people were to Jesus. The crowds were flocking to him because they wanted something. His family thought he was mad. The Sanhedrin, however, gives a two-fold pronouncement: (1) he is possessed by Satan and (2) his ministry--his healings, his miracles, his casting out of demons--is a work of Satan.

Jesus responds to this assessment in parables--parables that illustrate the absurdity of their findings. The last, especially, is dripping with sarcasm.

Understand that these two charges weren't just an official verdict spoken in Jerusalem. Mark tells us they "were saying" it. In other words, they were spreading it around. 'Don't go to Jesus. Don't listen to him. The miracles he does, he does as a sorcerer, for he is possessed by demons and through the prince of the demons he casts them out.'

It's worth mentioning that his enemies cannot deny the miracles. If there were a way to debunk his miraculous power, they would have. If they investigated claims of healing and found them to be fraudulent, they would have done that. But finding themselves in a position of not being able to deny the signs that Jesus is showing, they choose to attribute his works to Satan. This is important to understand, because after Jesus answers their charges he is going to make a frightening statement of warning and we need to understand that warning within its context.

This is the audio from the sermon I preached from this text on March 26. I hope you will take a few minutes and listen to it. We all need the gospel and we all need to grow in grace. Just click the link below and God bless you.



Click here: Mark 3:22-30 - The Eternal Sin



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Galatians 3:23-27 - The Role of the Law

How do we understand the Mosaic covenant and its relationship to the people of God in the New Testament? That's the thrust of this bible study from last Wednesday night where we covered Galatians 3:23-27.

To try to understand what Paul is saying here we went back and reviewed the covenant of grace in its various administrations beginning with the proto-evangelion in Genesis 3:15 and continuing through Jeremiah 31 and Christ at the cross. But how does Moses fit into that?

Part of the problem in Galatians that Paul has been working to solve is the seeming conflict between the Abrahamic unconditional covenant of grace and the Mosaic conditional covenant of law.

What Paul has done to reconcile these two seemingly contradictory things is to teach us the true purpose of the Mosaic covenant. According to Paul, the Mosaic covenant served a specific and limited purpose within the framework of the Abrahamic covenant. In other words, Moses served Abraham. This is what we talked about last week.

There was never salvation in the law. There was never life in the law. The law condemned us and killed us. And according to Paul that was its purpose all along. In an ironic twist, then, the law becomes grace to us because it shows us our shortcomings, teaches us our true nature, and points us to Christ. And now that we are in Christ we are no longer under the law.

But does that mean we no longer have to obey God's moral precepts? Are the Ten Commandments antiquated and obsolete? We discuss all that, as well as the continuing role of the Law in the life of a believer, in this bible study. Below you will find a link to the audio recording of it. Just click the link, a new window will open on your browser and you will be able to listen to the Bible study from your computer or other device. God bless.


Click here: Galatians 3:23-27 - The Role of the Law


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Galatians 3:10-14 - The Cursed Messiah

There is some evidence to suggest that when first century Christian preachers proclaimed the message of Christ they were met with the response "Jesus is accursed!" from their unbelieving Jewish antagonists. In fact, Paul seems to address this in 1 Corinthians 12:

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.--1 Corinthians 12:3

Was there truth in the accusation and why would anyone ever say it? To understand this we need to understand the Jewish mindset when it came to capital punishment and anyone who was hanged. In Deuteronomy it was famously stated this way:

“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.--Deuteronomy 21:22-23

The idea that their Messiah could ever be hung on a tree was offensive to faithful Jews for this reason. Tell them about a potential Messiah and they might listen. Tell them about a Messiah hung on a tree and they wanted none of it. The very idea was ludicrous. Disgusting. Offensive. So when, for example, Paul preached "Christ crucified," this is what they heard: "Messiah hung on a tree," "Messiah accursed." No wonder Paul said that his message was a stumbling block to kinsmen. Paul knew about that stumbling block firsthand. He himself had railed against the idea until he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. It was then that he understood. Jesus was, indeed, cursed--cursed for us, cursed in our place. Or, as he puts it in Galatians 3:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.--Galatians 3:13-14

And this is the crux of his argument in this part of chapter three. The law brings a curse, not because of any flaw in the law, but because of the flaw in us. We sinned and brought upon ourselves the curse. Jesus redeemed us from that curse by being cursed for us.

This is the Bible study we did on this passage on Wednesday, March 8. I hope you will take the time to listen with us to what the word of God has to say. Just click the link below and be blessed.



Click here: Galatians 3:10-14 - The Cursed Messiah



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Mark 3:1-6 - Jesus Confronts His Opposition

The narrative here at the beginning of chapter three closely follows that of the end of chapter two. While recognizing that Mark does not necessarily write in chronological order, the events in the last five pericopes are probably more or less chronological as the opposition to Jesus increases incrementally in each one. In a strictly chronological sense there may have been other incidents that took place in between these stories, but Mark has grouped these five to show us the steady increase in opposition to Jesus.

And if Jesus had wanted to he could have avoided much of this. He didn't have to, for example, provoke the scribes earlier in chapter two by saying to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven." He did it deliberately. He makes no attempt at secrecy when he reclines at table with tax collectors and "sinners." He had to have known they were being watched as they plucked grain and ate it in the field on the Sabbath.

And now in this incident Jesus once again deliberately provokes his opponents. There is nothing about this healing which couldn't have waited until the next day. There is nothing about this healing that couldn't have waited until later on, in private. In fact, this man hasn't even come to Jesus for healing, he just showed up to synagogue on the Sabbath. This entire incident is instigated by Jesus to provoke. But when I use that word 'provoke' I'm not trying to make the case that Jesus just has a mean streak or a chip on his shoulder. His provoking is an act of love. He is deliberately confronting their unbelief and if they were to truly listen to him right now they would embrace him and be saved. But in responding the way they do, with unbelief, they have turned his act of love into a furthering of their eventual judgment.

This is what happens when we are confronted with the truth about Jesus Christ. We either respond in faith or we respond in unbelief. If we respond in faith and embrace Christ we are saved. If we choose, rather, to reject Christ, as the scribes in this story do, we are only furthering the judgment that awaits us. Jesus is the polarizing figure in human history and how we respond to him matters more than anything else in life.

In Mark 3:1-6 we come face to face with men who have already made up their minds about Jesus. They have come to hear him preach on a Sabbath, and they are watching him closely, not because they are listening to his message, but because they want to see if he will say or do something wrong. In fact, because they know he has done many healings they are hoping to see one on this occasion, but not for the good of someone who needs healed, nor even for the simple thrill of seeing something special. No, Mark says this:

And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.--Mark 3:2 (emphasis mine)

What will Jesus do? And what does his response teach us? To find out take a listen to the sermon I preached on this passage. You will find it linked below. My prayer is that your response to Jesus will be one of faith.




Click here: Mark 3:1-6 - Jesus Confronts His Opposition



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Galatians 3:1-6 - Foolish Galatians

As Paul is speaking to Peter at the end of Galatians chapter 2 the screen fades out and when it comes back into focus we see Paul talking to the Galatian readers (or hearers). The transition is seamless. We've left the narrative portion of the epistle and entered the didactic. Here begins his argument for the superiority of his gospel to the law-gospel of the Judaizers. His first argument is an argument from experience:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.--Galatians 3:1 (ESV)

This is followed by a series of rhetorical questions:

Let me ask you only this: 

(1) Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 

(2) Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 

(3) Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 

(4) Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Then Paul concludes this portion of the argument by quoting from Genesis 15 and talking about the faith of Abraham.

just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

What I did in this Bible study was cover these verses thoroughly. We look at the argument Paul is making and what it has to say to us about how we are made right with God. There are implications here for the ministry of the church as well as how we interpret the scripture. I hope you will take the time to listen, to learn, and to grow in your faith. Just click the link below and you can stream the audio. God bless.



Click here: Galatians 3:1-6 - Foolish Galatians



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Mark 1:40-45 - Jesus Cleanses A Leper

We come to an early transition point in Mark's Gospel. His early Galilean ministry has led to huge crowds which hinder, more than anything else, Jesus' ability to accomplish his primary mission. This is because the crowds have not really come to hear and learn and heed his message. For the most part they hound him hoping for him to provide some temporal need or--one can imagine--just to see the show. But Jesus and his disciples are no traveling miracle show.

What takes place in this account (this pericope) serves as a transition from the early ministry to a series of stories that will demonstrate growing opposition to Jesus.

But this story of Jesus cleansing the leper does more than serve as a transition. It also serves to demonstrate the surpassing nature of the salvation Jesus brings. While the law of Moses could describe leprosy and provide for the ritual cleansing of it, the law could not heal it. In the same sense the law of Moses accurately describes our sin and even provided, temporarily, for its ritual cleansing. But the law could never actually take away sin. That's what Jesus came to do. And his healing of this man's leprosy will in many ways point to that.

What this event pictures for us is so striking that it cannot be passed over. Just as Jesus cleanses this leper by touching his disease and making himself unclean, so Jesus cleansed us of all sin by coming down in human flesh and being (1) touched by all the feeling of our infirmities. He was exposed to our dread disease of sin by (2) being in all points tempted like as we are. Then (3) he went to the cross and actually took our sin (our disease, our judgment from God) upon himself so that we could walk away free--free of sin, free of judgment, and welcomed back into the society, the friendship of God. We were outcasts and he became outcast so that we would no longer be. The clarity of the gospel in this passage is remarkable.

Below you will find a link to the audio recording of the sermon I preached from this passage. I hope you will listen to it and take it to heart. This leper represents all of us and what Jesus does for him he has done for us as well. You, too, will find that your sins have been cleansed if you come to Jesus!

Click here: Mark 1:40-45 - Jesus Cleanses A Leper

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Mark 1:29-39 - Three Episodes in Galilee

In verses 21-39 of Mark chapter one we have recorded, more or less, a day in the life of Jesus. If we were curious to know what spending a day with him would have been like, this is it. Mark presents it as typical of his Galilean ministry. Recall where we left Jesus last week. It is a sabbath day and he has already taught the people in the synagogue and healed a man of demonic oppression. Then Mark says they leave the synagogue, walk to the house of Peter and Andrew, and find Peter's mother-in-law sick of a fever. Jesus heals her with a touch. She feels so well that she gets up and serves them.

What does the Bible say about serving that is different from the way it is looked at in our culture? Is being a servant a virtue or something to avoid at all costs? What do our attitudes about this say about us?

That evening at sundown Mark says the whole city came out to see Jesus.

And the whole city was gathered together at the door.--Mark 1:33

They had needs and they wanted Jesus to meet them. So Jesus stays up late into the night healing and casting out demons. Then early in the morning, before daylight, he arises and goes out into a desolate place to pray. The disciples miss him and are a bit confused about what is going on. They find him and tell him that the crowds are looking for him. Shouldn't he get back to this great thing that is happening in Capernaum (they imply)? Jesus surprisingly responds that they need to leave the crowds and move on to the next towns, for that is why he had come out. Proclaiming the gospel is his mission.

This is the sermon I preached from Mark 1:29-39. In it I give a practical verse by verse of what is going on in the narrative, helping us to see it better from our foreign cultural perspective. I also spend some time thinking about the implications of what we've read. I hope you will take the time to listen to the sermon and that God will speak to you through his word. Just click the link below. God bless.


Click here: Mark 1:29-39 - Three Episodes in Galilee



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Galatians 1:10-12 - The Gospel of God

Here's what we've learned so far from Paul's Epistle to the Galatians:

There is one gospel.

That one gospel comes from God.

That one gospel is the primitive gospel of Christ and his apostles.

Anyone who preaches anything contrary to that gospel, be he man or angel or pope or apostle, will be damned.

This last part he repeats for emphasis.

All this begs the question: Is truth important to Paul? Worth contending for? Worth dividing over? No doubt.

We must be careful for not all truth is worth dividing over, but some truth obviously is. When it comes to the gospel, certainly, there can be no compromise. Paul's gospel must be ours or we are not Christian. So says Paul.

In verses 11-12 Paul makes some pretty brash statements about the message he preached:

No human would invent the Christian gospel for the Christian gospel robs humans of all glory and praise and lays men in the dust. No one wants to hear a message of how bad they are and how worthless they are and how they are guilty and deserve to be in hell. No one wants to hear that. No one wants to hear that they are such wretches that only God alone could save them and that they aren't even capable of contributing the least little bit to it. People want to earn their heaven and feel like they've  accomplished something--like they're worthy. The gospel is an affront to all such human pride.

And no one wants to hear an exclusive gospel either. They want to make their own terms, not submit to a God who says you come on my terms and my terms only. When we say Jesus alone saves we demand that people come to Jesus on his terms and that those who do not are damned. That's offensive to the world. How dare we condemn all those sincere people?

No human would have invented such an offensive message. And yet here it is. It is the message we have been given. Paul says, "It's not my message. Nor did I get it from men. It came from God.

If what Paul says is true then the gospel Paul preached must be our gospel, because it is God's gospel.

Below you will find a link to the audio of the Bible study we had on Wednesday, December 28. Just click the link and take a listen to see the importance of centering our lives and our church ministry around the gospel of Jesus Christ.



Click here:  Galatians 1:10-12 - The Gospel of God


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God Became Flesh - A Christmas Sermon

Many wonderful passages in the Bible came about as a result of controversy. The Epistle to the Galatians, for example (quite possibly the first New Testament book that was written) came about as a result of controversy. Think of a wonderful passage like this one:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.--Galatians 4:4-5

Were it not for controversy that verse would not have been written. The same is true for our text this morning. The First Epistle of John came about through controversy. Written toward the end of the first century, the writer (who does not name himself in the book at all, but whom tradition names John the Apostle) is writing because of error which has crept into the Church.

The error he addresses was an early form of Gnosticism known by the name of Docetism. It was the idea that Jesus had not really come in the flesh, but that he had been some sort of spirit-being. The reason for this divergence was because of the influence of Greek thinking in Christian circles. It was believed by many Greek thinkers that everything physical or material was inherently bad and that only that which was spiritual was good--because the 'spiritual', to them, was a higher mode of being than the 'physical.'

When this thinking infiltrated the Church it manifested itself in this way: people began to deny the humanity of Christ. He wasn't really human, you see, because that would have made him physical and material and that was bad. He must have been just a spirit-being who only appeared in human form, but wasn't actually human.

John saw this as an insidious error that, in effect, destroyed the heart of the gospel. God indeed became human, he affirmed. God took on flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. We apostles are witnesses of these things. Theologians call this concept--that God became flesh--the Incarnation of Christ.

The Incarnation is what Christmas is all about. John wrote in his gospel:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.--John 1:14

Below you will find a link to the sermon I preached on Christmas morning about the Incarnation. The text was 1 John 1:1-4. I hope you will listen and rejoice in the good news that God became flesh one dark night two millennia ago that he might save us from our sin.



Click here:  1 John 1:1-4 -- God Became Flesh



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Galatians 1:6-9 - A Warning of Apostasy

Something important is missing from this epistle. There is no prayer of thanksgiving after the salutation.

There is no description of their state of grace or who they are in Christ. There is no thanksgiving given for what Christ has done and is doing in them. For those who are familiar with Paul's letters the absence of this thanksgiving is remarkable. It is the only one of his epistles from which it is missing.

This is because the Galatian churches are descending into apostasy.

There is a mistaken notion in some of our modern American churches, evangelical and otherwise, that it is somehow wrong or ungraceful to ever question the salvation of individuals who profess to be believers in Christ. Yet, in the first century this was done all the time. Questioning the genuineness of the professions of faith of the Galatian churches is what Paul is doing right now.

Not only that, but because we preach a gospel which produces an eternal salvation, and because we believe rightly in the eternal security of the believer, we have de-emphasized the threat of apostasy as if apostasy is impossible. 

Understand that apostasy is impossible for those who are genuinely in Christ. Nevertheless there are genuine warnings throughout the New Testament of the dangers of falling away from Christ. Those warnings are important and deserve to be emphasized, not dismissed or downplayed. The warnings are given to all professing believers, or those who 'claim' to be Christians. It is clear that not all those who claim to be Christians genuinely are.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’--Matthew 7:21-23

The worry that these Galatian churches have abandoned the gospel is what has prompted this passionate epistle from Paul. He is making his plea to them to come back to the genuine gospel and thus to come back to Christ.

False professors are a fact. They have always been around and always will be until Christ returns. That is one reason why we emphasize the gospel so much in every worship service even when we have no visitors. It is also why we should strive to maintain the integrity of the church roll, looking for outward signs of apostasy from the faith and seeking to restore such ones. But those who will not be restored should be removed.

Moreover we should always be checking ourselves.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.--1 Peter 1:10-11

Some do leave the faith. What are we to make of that, especially in light of what we believe about eternal security, or as it is more properly called, the perseverance of the saints? John writes:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.--1 John 2:19

Special note should be taken that these specifically to whom John refers left the faith over theological matters. They departed from the faith theologically. In other words, they questioned, then doubted, then rejected essential Christian doctrine. In 1 John that doctrine concerned the nature of Christ, specifically his humanity. In Galatians, that apostasy is a departure from the gospel, or what has come to be termed as 'justification by faith alone,' as we shall see as we go further into the Epistle.

God has entrusted us with a sacred message. We dare not mishandle it. We dare not change it in any way. In this sense, maintaining the purity of the message becomes just as important as proclaiming it. The gospel is God's. We must be very careful to preach it in all its fullness and all its glory and all its simplicity, not 'paring down its rough edges' (as Spurgeon put it), not encumbering it with extra-biblical garbage, not changing it in the slightest.

The gospel is that God came down in Christ to save us. It includes all the truth about Christ and what he did. All who believe that message and embrace Christ are saved. Those who reject it are not.

Below you will find a recording of this informal Bible study which I taught at the Winnsboro Reformed Church three nights ago. I hope you will take the time to listen, investigate for yourself, and be confirmed in your faith. Just click the link below. God bless.



Click here:  Galatians 1:6-9 - A Warning of Apostasy



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Psalm 40 - Glad News of Deliverance

Psalm 40 was a joy to prepare and preach because it is so full of Christ and the gospel. From beginning to end it is a song of deliverance. The psalm was fitting to be preached during this time of year--the Advent season--because that is what Christmas is all about. It is about our salvation. It is about our deliverance. And this psalm speaks of Christ's obedience to the Father and his taking on flesh to come give himself on the cross to deliver us. The psalm even points to the resurrection--and our resurrection in Christ, both spiritually and one day, physically.

Here is a short excerpt from the middle of the sermon:

"Have you ever thought about how patient God is? See him in his might and his majesty. I know that's not possible now, but try to imagine it. Here is this magnificent God, the all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe. See him as he delivers small, insignicant David. Why does he do it? Well, because he loves David. Let that sink in. But then contemplate this. Why does he love David? Because that's who he is.

Here we have a whole world of people created in the image of God who care nothing about him, know nothing about him, care nothing about seeking him. Why should he stoop to deliver David? Why should he stoop to deliver any of us? Especially in light of the fact, as we shall see, he is rescuing David from some trouble that David has gotten himself into by his own sin. But he does. And he stooped to deliver you. And he stooped to deliver me. And that is his plan.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the LORD.

And here we are faced with the cross again. Why do we make much of the cross? Why are we always talking about sin and forgiveness and death and resurrection? Because the cross is the centerpiece of God's glory. It is the work of redemption and it is the place where our redemption took place. When God delivered Christ from the cross by raising him from the dead he delivered us as well."

Psalm 40 reminds us that we are to make much of Christ and the gospel. I hope that you will. I hope that it will become the focus of your life. And if you don't know Christ and you haven't experienced his grace, may he turn your heart today toward him. O taste and see that the Lord is good!

(Below is the link to the sermon.)


Click here to listen:  Psalm 40 - Glad News of Deliverance


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Psalm 22 - The Psalm of the Forsaken

I preached two sermons from this psalm. Both are short. The first was twenty minutes, the second was twenty-two. The first sermon covered the first twenty-one verses and the second one covered the last ten. Both are linked below.

Psalm 22 is an amazing account of the crucifixion of Christ, written through David's experience of feeling forsaken of God. It starts out with Christ's famous first cry from the cross and ends with a proclamation of the world-wide future effects of what he accomplished there. I called the two sermons "The Agony of the Forsaken" and "The Victory of the Forsaken."

I hope that as you listen to the sermons the Spirit of God will work graciously in you, turning your heart toward him, and inspiring true worship. God bless you.

Sermon 1: The Agony of the Forsaken

Sermon 2: The Victory of the Forsaken

Psalm 14 - Depravity and Hope

"The fool hath said in his heart there is no God."--Psalm 14:1a KJV

The classic anti-atheist verse, right? Or is it? What is the Psalm really talking about and what does it say about our human condition? Is there hope in it anywhere?

This is the first sermon I delivered as pastor of the Winnsboro Reformed Church--preached on Sunday, May 1, 2016. Psalm 14 is a classic law and gospel psalm, declaring our guilt and then pointing us to Christ. To listen to the sermon just click the link below. It will take you to a page with an audio recording which you can either stream or download for listening later. God bless and may you be blessed by God's great grace.

Here is the sermon: Psalm 14 - Depravity and Hope

Isaiah 12 - God Is My Salvation

One of the most beautiful hymns to be found in the Bible is not in the book of Psalms at all, but rather in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 12 is recorded the great hymn to be sung by God's people in the day of their redemption, when God redeems them and turns them and saves them. It is known as the great hymn of God's salvation and looks forward to a time then future. Though they were about to suffer the consequences of their rebellion toward God, Isaiah gives them this glimpse into the future when God's anger will be turned away and God will comfort his people.

Is God right to be angry? What should we think about that? Is sin worth getting angry over? And if God loves sinners anyway, doesn't that mean that sin is not that big a deal? How is God's anger appeased?

I ask and answer these questions in this sermon and, although I do not even come close to doing justice to this great passage, pay attention to the Scripture itself and not the poor job I do of expounding it. Below is the link to the audio.

Click here: Isaiah 12 - God Is My Salvation

Motive II

“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:15-16 ESV)

Not just love for God, and not just love for neighbor, but love for Paul himself motivated the Christians in Rome to proclaim Christ. Paul declares that it is the knowledge that Paul was in prison for the defense of the gospel and love for Paul that motivated these believers, emboldened them, to proclaim the gospel.

Think about that for a moment. What does the one have to do with the other?

There's nothing like persecution to make us stop and take inventory of what we believe and whether or not it is really worth believing. Anybody can be a Christian when being a Christian is popular. Anybody can give an opinion when that opinion is the popular one. But when being a Christian becomes unpopular, or when being a Christian can get you thrown in prison or even killed, then we stop and count the cost and make decisions about whether or not Christ is actually worth it. At this point many just stop being Christians. 

When the gospel is popular then telling the good news actually can make us beloved. But when the gospel message becomes unpopular or even hated then we have to ask ourselves whether it is really worth telling. When speaking about Christ can get us thrown in prison or even killed, then only those of us who really believe the message and are sold on its value will still proclaim it.

And that's where Paul finds himself. To him the message must be proclaimed at any cost. Think about it. Everyone in the whole Imperial Guard, and presumably in Caesar's own household as well, knows that Paul is imprisoned "for Christ." The fact that Paul is willing to suffer imprisonment for Christ is a powerful witness to the truth and value of Christ. Anyone can make a truth claim, but Paul is willing to die for his. That's powerful stuff--not just for unbelieving Romans, but for believing ones as well. His testimony of faithfulness through persecution speaks volumes about the value of his message to unbelievers and believers alike. No wonder his imprisonment has emboldened so many to preach Christ!

And there are some of the more timid brethren who, for one reason or another, may have otherwise remained silent who will now speak up about their faith. Why? Out of love for Paul himself. How can they watch him suffer for what they, too, claim to believe and not take up his cause? So, seeing his faith and faithfulness, they add their voices and thus add credence to his faith and message.

In the news almost daily we hear of fellow Christians around the world who are suffering for their faith. They speak a different language, they wear different clothes, they have funny-sounding names, but they worship and love the same Christ. They are brothers and sisters. Men are beheaded. Women and children are raped and sold into slavery. Whole villages are plundered and pillaged and burned, hundreds and thousands are murdered for the crime of being Christians. How shall we love them? How shall we show our fidelity to their cause? Seeing them martyred for their faith, do we dare remain timid about ours? It is time to speak. It is time to be bold. It is time to proclaim Christ no matter the cost. Love for Christ, love for the world, and love for the persecuted Church demands it.

Motive

“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:15-16 ESV)

The motive for proclaiming Christ is love--love for Christ and love for our neighbor. The best way to fulfill the Royal Law is to proclaim Jesus.

The Royal Law is so-called because it is the Law given by our King. James coined the phrase in his epistle (James 2:8), calling it the Royal Law because it was emphasized by Jesus himself. Witness this passage from Mark's Gospel:

“And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” “Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31 ESV)

The Royal Law should be our motive in all that we do. It should shape our thinking about our lives, our purpose. It should dictate how we interact with the world around us. Love for God and neighbor should be our most compelling feature, our distinguishing trait.

We cannot genuinely love God without loving what he loves and purposing what he purposes. We cannot say we are passionate about God until we are passionate about what he is passionate about. To love God is to be passionate about his glory in Jesus Christ. To love God is to wish to see Jesus honored and exalted above all else. We cannot love God without proclaiming Christ to all who will listen. Do we love God? Then we must speak.

Neither can we claim to love our neighbor and be silent about the one who left heaven to save our neighbor from destruction. Sin destroys, but Christ is the sin-destroyer. When Paul says that some preached Christ "out of love" he was pointing out that love for our neighbor compels us to tell him about the only one who can rescue him from eternal calamity. The best thing we can ever do for anyone is point him to Christ.

Love is not always easy. Sometimes love requires us to do and say things that others do not like. Sometimes love is tough, hard to take. But genuine love speaks the truth and is honest about our needs. If we are to love our neighbor we have to be honest about sin, about God's holiness, about the destructive nature of sin, about the cross and what it took to save a fallen race. We have to be willing to point out things that the world does not like to hear. Sometimes love for God means offending fallen men. If the truth offends then we must side with the truth anyway. Love for our neighbor requires us to tell him the truth even if he does not want to hear it.

This is not a license to be rude or divisive. It is simply pointing out that some of what Christ claimed and preached was considered rude and divisive even by the people who heard his message in his day. Preach it anyway.

Lord, help us today to love you and love our neighbor so much that we cannot help but proclaim the wonderful news of the God who came down, became one of us, that he might save us. Help us to love so much that we will not be afraid to tell the truth of Christ even if it offends hardened ears. May love motivate us.

Gospel Advancement

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, (Philippians 1:12 ESV)

What is our chief concern in life? What is most important to us? What is our reason for being here?

For the Christian, the answer to these questions is not that difficult. One famous Christian document (the Westminster Shorter Catechism) asked and answered that question in this way:

Q. What is the chief end of man?

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

We have already noted in this epistle two things that are important to our discussion about the correct answers to these questions. One is that Paul has already expressed thanksgiving that the saints at Philippi (and we) are members of the Fellowship of the Gospel. Whatever else we are in life, this is our most important distinction. The second is when he prays for them to be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. He does so, as he explicitly states, for 'the glory and praise of God.'

With those two things in mind, and with our question and answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism thrown in for good measure, let's see how we can attempt to answer our questions.

Q. What is our chief concern in life?

The glory of God.

Q. What is most important to us?

The glory of God.

Q. What is our reason for being here?

To glorify God.

The question then remains to be asked, how shall we do that? How shall we glorify God? The answer to that question will be found when we can answer another question that is equally if not more important than this one. What has God done in this world to glorify himself?

The answer is Immanuel--God manifested in the flesh. The answer is the cross. The answer is Christ crucified. The answer is Jesus crucified, risen, and coming again. The answer is the Kingdom of Christ. The answer is the GOSPEL.

Our chief concern in life should be Christ's kingdom and the advancement of that kingdom through the gospel. What should be most important to us is living, loving, and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Our reason for being here in this world is for the Fellowship of the Gospel. Our chief concern should not be our health or our wealth or our prosperity or our liberty or anything else other than the glory of God through the gospel. When any of those other things takes the place of Christ and his kingdom and the gospel as our chief concern, then we are in danger of becoming idolaters, at least in our minds.

Oh, there is certainly room in our thinking for other things. We should be concerned for our families, our communities, our business, our responsibilities, yes. But none of these things should be our chief concern. Our chief concern should always be for the gospel and its advancement.

And that is what Paul is concerned with here in our verse above. 'Don't worry about my well-being,' he might as well write. 'Worry about the gospel and its well-being.'

We could take a cue from Paul. How is the gospel today in your world? Are you living it? Are you proclaiming it through your words and actions? Is your worship centered around it? Are you concerned first and foremost for its advancement? 

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, (Philippians 1:12 ESV)

What is more important? For Paul to be free from prison? Or for the gospel to be advanced? What would be more important for you?

The Fruit of Righteousness

And it is my prayer . . . filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9a, 11 ESV)

We are approaching the end of Paul's opening prayer for the Philippians and we notice something curious that maybe you've never thought of before. He is praying for them that they will be "filled with the fruit of righteousness". He wants them, like good fruit trees, to bear righteous fruit. He wants their lives to be distinguished by righteous living.

All of that seems pretty elementary so far. After all, aren't we, as Christians, supposed to live like Christ? If we claim to be righteous, shouldn't that be evidenced through actual, practical righteous living? There's nothing extraordinary in this, is there?

But it's not the request that is curious, it is the nature of the request, or perhaps better expressed this way . . . it is the manner in which he expects his prayer to be answered that maybe you've never thought of before. Paul asks for them, in his prayer, that they might be filled with the fruit of righteousness "that comes through Jesus Christ."

He is not praying that God will give them the strength to be righteous in and of themselves, nor is he praying that their own, inherent, righteousness will somehow come shining forth. No, he is praying that an alien righteousness might somehow manifest itself in their lives. He is not praying that they might live righteously, but that Christ might live righteously through them.

We are saved by a righteousness that is not our own. We live by a faith that is not our own. We manifest daily the fruit of a righteousness that is not our own. We are, from beginning to end, a product of the grace of God.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV)(emphasis mine)

So, instead of lacing up your boot straps each and every day and praying, "Lord, let this be the day that I live for you to the very best of my abilities. Use me today." Try this. Try confessing your inability and your need for Christ. "Lord, I am incapable of living for you today. I cannot possibly be filled with the fruit of righteousness--I am too sinful. By your grace may Christ live through me. And the life that I live today, may I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."

That's a prayer that is pleasing to God. That's a prayer that he will answer. It's not a magic formula. No, it's a daily dying to self and living to God. It is the gospel in action in our lives. We do not just live because of the gospel, we live each day in the gospel and of the gospel.

Any righteousness of our own is nothing more than a filthy rag. Discard it. Come to Christ with your need, not your ability. Ask him to live through you today. Be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.