Hypocrites Beyond All Hope of Cure
Sermon Audio:
Hypocrites Beyond All Hope of Cure - Hosea 6:4-11
Sermon Manuscript:
The first three verses of Hosea chapter six, as we discovered last week, provide for all the elect remnant a most hopeful and comfortable promise of the mercy and life which will certainly follow all of God's righteous tearing and breaking down of his people. This sure promise of grace, to which the faithful clung for many generations, finally received its full vindication and ultimate fulfillment on the third day after the death of Christ, the last legitimate Seed of Abraham and true Israel in himself, when, true to the prophecy, God raised him from the dead, and in him, all of his people as well, who had been broken down by exile, plague, captivity, and many other such things. This final confirmation of God's promise of grace was so great beyond all expectation, that even today, we who are in any distress whatsoever, if we belong to Christ, may look to his resurrection and consider it a seal and pledge that God will work everything, even the most difficult of things, for our eternal good, just as the apostle later assures us at the end of Romans chapter eight.
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Breaking Us Down to Bind Us Up
Sermon Audio:
Breaking Us Down to Bind Us Up - Hosea 6:1-3
Sermon Manuscript:
Context of the Prophecy
The prophet Hosea, as indeed all the other prophets in some manner or another, was concerned most especially with the terrible coming exile first predicted by Moses, which would actually be brought about because of the people's hardheartedness and impenitent breaking of the Law; and yet, as strongly as Hosea thundered his threatenings of this fearful judgment of exile against the people, God did not leave them entirely without hope, but by many strong and sure consolations promised to them a later restoration which, however his Law may have been broken, was nevertheless promised by the Gospel, which from the beginning assured the elect remnant of God's free mercy and salvation, and which the Law, coming four hundred and thirty years after, could never abrogate (Gal. 3:17).
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Strangers in a Hostile Land
Throughout the first epistle of Peter, the apostle is addressing a group of believers who are manifestly different from the citizens of the lands in which they find themselves compelled to live, and who are therefore misunderstood, maligned, and persecuted. Although at one time these believers were at home in their places of earthly residence, they have now been vastly transformed by the great power of the gospel. They were formerly not a people of God, but have now become a people (2:10). They had been full of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, but were now constrained as newborn infants to desire something altogether different, that is, the true milk of the Word of God (2:1). In times past they had carried out the will of the Gentiles, giving themselves over to debauchery, sensuality, drunkenness, idolatry, etc., but that time has all passed, and now their former compatriots consider them strange and alien, and mock and slander them, because they no longer do those wicked things (4:-3-4; 1:14). Because of this great change, they who had once been citizens of this world, and loved by their own, and partners with them in this world's lusts, are now exiles and sojourners, whether in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, or any other place they may live (1:1-3). Hence, Peter exhorts them to live in accordance with their new character as temporary pilgrims in this world, and not according to their former futile ways (1:17-18).
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"God's Electing Love in Christ"- Ephesians 1:3-14
EPHESIANS 1:3-14
“GOD’S ELECTING LOVE IN CHRISTâ€
REV. CHARLES R. BIGGS
Part Two in a sermon series on Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians
Last week we learned from the Book of Ephesians that Grace and peace are the two main ingredients for life in the Christian community. Grace and peace should inform our ultimate identity in Jesus so that we can live worshiping and serving God as we are called to do.
Summary statement for today's sermon: Predestination and election (or being chosen) humbles and exalts God’s purposes, power and glory. The path of our apprehension of this Biblical teaching must begin at the foot of the cross. The cross is the realization of predestination and election and the beginning of the response of the true worship of God.
There was a real and radical change of the Apostle Paul by God’s grace from inside-out- -he was a new creation- -with a new identity in Jesus Christ: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God: (1:1b)
“An Apostle of Christ Jesusâ€- No longer, a blasphemer and persecutor of the Church: Not “Saul, a Pharisee of Pharisee, self-righteous, proud, according to the “traditions of the fathersâ€.
“By the will of Godâ€- Not his own idea, but according to Christ’s call.
Paul now encourages the Ephesians who were part of a wicked worldly environment, that there greatest hope is in God’s electing love in Christ.
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"Grace to You and Peace..."
I have been on a short sabbatical this past summer and did not have the time to post. I would like to begin posting some studies/sermons I have been writing on Ephesians.
Study them and use them if they are helpful. May God stand by and watch to perform his Word in you. My first sermon is from Ephesians 1:1-2:
ESV Ephesians 1:1-2: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful(1 )in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you would like to receive these sermons in pdf, then email me at biggs.1@opc.org
Summary: Grace and peace are the two main ingredients for life in the Christian community. Grace and peace should inform our ultimate identity in Jesus so that we can live worshiping and serving God as we are called to do.
In Christ's love,
Charles
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Kiss the Son
I had the opportunity to preach again yesterday, and took the time to manuscript my sermon, "Kiss the Son," from Psalm 2. As follows.
It is a commonly accepted notion, and doubtless true, that the first and second psalms stand together as an introduction to the entire psalter, and provide all the information necessary to interpret and make sense of all which follows. Thus, there is contained in these two psalms every major doctrine that the remaining one-hundred forty-eight unfold so variously and wonderfully, from the lives of so many different psalmists, in so many different conditions. But not only is there a true summary of all the major heads of the psalter; there is contained in the first two, moreover, the very root from which those doctrines all spring, the one immovable foundation upon which the entire house is built. So that, if one were to attempt to interpret the things contained in the one-hundred and forty-eight without first being familiar with the two, he would doubtless cast himself into many needless snares and discover certain foolish and dangerous doctrines, that ought not at all to be derived from the psalms, when they are treated of as they should be.
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John Macarthur - USA Abandoned by God
Christ the Breath of Our Nostrils
I was given the opportunity to preach at my church yesterday (Trinity Church in Minot), in preparation for which, I prepared a "guideline manuscript" -- in other words, I manuscripted the whole sermon, but primarily just to solidify the flow-of-thought, not to read verbatim. I chose my text from Lamentations, a rich, sober, and very beautiful but somewhat obscure passage, that is admittedly more appropriate for Good Friday than Palm Sunday; but in any case, I thought it a fitting prelude to the celebration of Easter Sunday. Following is my manuscript.
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Regeneration v. The Idolatry of Decisional "Evangelism" by Paul Washer
HT: Lanes' Blog
MP3 Library - This Week's Features
Here are 'This Week's Features' we have been working at the Monergism MP3 Library.
We have added the Celebrate Reformation Day to the main page of the MP3 Library. Reformation Day is celebrated on October 31st each year or the Sunday before or after. This day is a great holiday alternative to Halloween. Why not celebrate it by learning the history of this day with your small group, church, friends and family? It's important to cook some German sausage, German potato salad and German Chocolate cake for your guests. The Reformed churches here in Portland usually have a Reformation Day special service and focus on those biblical doctrines that were so important in the Reformation.
We have added sermons to the "Ask Pastor John" folders. One for John Piper and the other for John MacArthur. These folders are designed to be Q & A.
Desiring God Ministries National Conference had just finished up this weekend. Check out all the audio and video sermons from the conference.
We have added new sermons for Joseph Pipa Jr, Maurice Roberts, O. Palmer Robertson, Noel Piper and Carolyn McCulley.
These topics have new sermons: Homemaking, Hebrews: Consider Jesus Series, A Reformed-Charismatic Approach to ... and God Gave Pastors and Teachers Series.
Christian Baptism
I know that many of this blog's readers (and contributors!) don't share my conviction regarding paedobaptism (lit., "infant baptism"); I'm glad we can still get along so well! I used to be an ardent anti-paedobaptist (and I use this term because people on both sides are "credobaptists," thinking that believers ought to be baptized). But after much study and many conversations, the baptism of believers' children is something I've come to believe is biblical (there's no other good reason to believe in it).
As good Christians often disagree strongly on the matter, there is a potential threat to loving unity in the Church. One factor in this is that the Presbyterian (as differentiated from the Roman Catholic) perspective on infant baptism is often misunderstood and caricatured. In the pursuit of civility between brethren who differ on the matter, then, I thought I'd post the mp3 of this sermon that I preached on Acts 2.36-39 at Intown Presbyterian Church (Portland, OR) on August 24, 2008.
It's a sermon—not a systematics lecture intended to answer everyone's questions. But hopefully it will help anti-paedobaptists to understand how their paedobaptist brothers and sisters can desire to glorify God through the baptism of their children.