It is not a coincidence that Christ teaches on divorce in the passage immediately following His instruction on lust. And although Christ taught in this section that we should be willing to remove any member which stumbles us, He teaches here that there is one member which is not to be removed. “”Furthermore it has …
Resurrection Life
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Great God of wonders, God of our risen Lord Jesus, God of the new creation, we worship You now in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. You gave the breath of life to our father Adam, and You gave new life and …
Rejoicing in Lent
Every Lord’s Day, we mark the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Every Lord’s Day we mark the glory of the resurrection. We do this on a grand scale annually, with our celebration of Easter, but we must not forget that each Lord’s Day does the same thing. (And let us leave aside for the …
Treachery
As God writes the story of His covenant people in the world, with this Table at the center, we see that traitors and treachery are an important element in the story. All four gospels have the story of Judas, which is certainly one indication of its importance. When Jesus talks about the Table of the …
The Heart of Lust
As Jesus applies the law of God in this sermon, He continues the same pattern. Obedience to the law is not merely a matter of external conformity; it is a question of heart loyalty. Put another way, the well-respected and pious tend to think about sins. The godly are constrained by the teaching of Christ …
True Harvest
Our Father in heaven, we thank You for this weekly day of Pentecost, the ancient Jewish festival of harvest, and our festival of the evangelistic harvest-the time when You began bringing into your barns the countless souls that have been saved since that first Pentecost Sunday. We thank You for establishing Your new covenant Church …
First Century Newspapers
21. It seems that the history of the first century is very important in the study of this debate. That is certainly correct. 22. What are some of the more important historical details? Obviously, this is simply a brief answer. But the purpose of this is to enable us to see that there is at …
Election by the Father
In Whom? We must begin with the understanding that election cannot be understood apart from Christ. Christ is the Elect One, and all those whom God choose to give to Him are therefore elect in Him. Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XIII
Introduction: In looking at the differences between masculine and feminine, and in considering the respective duties of husbands and wives, we have been assuming that differences between the sexes exist. But what are those differences, and how can they be understood together with what the Scriptures teach us about our equality in Christ? The Text: …
Big and Little
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 34 Radical individualism wants to believe that those who are faithfully living together in community are actually sowing seeds of discord in community. But life together does not mean overlooking everything. One of the basic principles of life together in …