James tells us not to bless God with our tongues while we go on sinning with our tongues. You are coming now to sing, to pray, to say amen, to fellowship with the saints. This means you must pay attention to your words. You have frequently heard that you are not to impute motives when …
Ezra Nehemiah 10
Introduction: Times of reformation are not times when sin goes away, when no recurring temptations present themselves. Rather, history reveals periods of reformation as those times when the sin was dealt with as it should have been, often at great cost. Reformation is not like a figure skater gliding smoothly across the ice; it is …
An Evil Heart of Unbelief
As we consider the remainder of the third chapter of Hebrews, we must remember what we have already learned about the house of Christ. He is the Lord over the same house in which Moses served. We see the importance of understanding this as we consider the duty of repentance under the New Covenant. Therefore, …
DeeplyGrieved.com
In this series, I was planning on addressing a rule of thumb approach for sorting out situations from a distance. You are not the judge, jury, or executioner, but you do read various blogs, and you see scandals and gaffes processed on the evening news, and you read the newspaper. What are you to do …
And I Delight In Statute Law
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Before a youth can cleanse his way, What can he try to do? By taking heed to all the Word, By seeking God with all his heart, And from His law not wander off. God’s Word is hidden in my heart, That …
Please. Come In.
Once there was a man with gifts in accounting, but it has to be said that he became intolerable. He, of course, did very well at his job, which was an accounting job, but his problem was that he could not be made to understand that all of life was not like that. He thought …
Apostle and High Priest
In this next portion of Hebrews, we see a wonderful unity, where the writer ties together heaven and earth, Old Testament saints and New Testament saints, and Christ and Moses. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who …
Cannot Be Outfoxed
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for Your kindness in watching over us. This last week has seen many enemies trying to do their worst, and we praise Your name for the fact that they did nothing but advance Your kingdom. We thank You, sovereign God, and we rejoice that we serve the one who …
Billions of His Brethren
Christ is not ashamed to be our brother. He is not ashamed to share completely in our humanity. Further than this, He was not ashamed to be identified with us in our sin and folly. This is what He did throughout the course of His ministry. He began at the baptism of John by identifying …
Ezra Nehemiah 9
Introduction: Integrity in leaders is not something that makes safeguards unnecessary. Integrity in leaders is manifested in the first place by their insistence on safeguards. This desire for manifest integrity and accountability is seen clearly in how Ezra behaves in this chapter. The people of Israel are under the law of God, all of them. …