Why the Law of God? (LD 44; Phil. 3:12-16)

We are a people who will always struggle in sin on this side of glory. One would think that we would never want to hear about the Lord's holiness. This is something that would potentially discourage us from pressing forward in the Christian life. However, we are exhorted in Paul's writings to keep pushing forward. The law of God is a good, it is the Lord's righteous standard, and so we lay out why the Lord's law is something that we should continually hear and be exhorted to conform to the Lord as we walk in Christ.

#expositorypreaching #lawofGod #christianstruggle #sanctification

God is Mercifully Wise (Job 11)

Men have scheduled their time to meet with Job and encourage him.  We have heard two of the counselors and now we have the opportunity to hear from a third counselor. The counselors have not successfully encouraged Job in the Gospel. Job is one who has claimed his own self-righteousness before the Lord claiming that he can hold God accountable.  Is this new counselor going to be the voice of reason who lays out the gospel?  Is there going to be someone who understands that Job is not fighting against God?  Will this speech help Job understand that God is not His enemy, but the very strength of his life?

Sojourning Under the Sun: Sabbath Surrender (Genesis 48)

This is the first part of our consideration of Jacob blessing his grandsons.  The family of God has not performed so well in terms of morality.  There are a lot of discrepancies within this family in terms of their calling before the Lord.  The rivalry between Cain and Abel is repeated, there is outright immorality, the Lord strikes dead some of the covenant children because of their wickedness, and Jacob fails to consistently lead the family in a Godly direction.  What do we do with this?  What are God’s people beginning to realize about the Lord’s Sabbath?

Established in Heaven (James 5:7-11)

James greets the church as sojourners through this world as James greets us as saints in the dispersion.  We are a people who are to see ourselves as a guaranteed a land, but we are not in that land.  There is no doubt that living life under the sun is challenging, and we can be tempted to give up on the sojourn.  We, like Israel, might wonder if the Lord is coming to fulfill his promises.  How do we know that the Lord is fulfilling His promises?  How do we know that the Lord will bring us into the promised land?  How does this impact our lives today?

Judging Wisely (James 2:14-26)

The reality is that we desire to make the Lord’s standard something that will comply to our standard.  It is not an easy thing to realize that we are a sinful people in need of the Lord’s redemption.  His redemption has to cleanse us from the core of our being so that we see the fruit of His power.  So, how are these fruits manifested?  What figures in covenant history have demonstrated a life ordered by the principles of the Lord?

The Epiphany of Fighting (1 Timothy 6:11-16)

Paul has exhorted Timothy and the church to live a peaceful and quiet life before the Lord in this letter to Timothy.  This would seem to imply that we do not fight, but seek peace at all costs.  However, Paul exhorts Timothy now to fight.  How can Timothy seek peace and fight at the same time?  What is the point of this fighting?  Or is this fight something else and we are just imposing our view on the fighting?

The Absurdity of Struggle (Matthew 26:36-46 (LD 44; COD Head 5 Art. 4)

The Christian life is something that ebbs and flows with ups and downs.  There are times when we face tests and struggle to persevere through those tests.  There are also times when we face temptations in the weakness of our flesh making it challenging to persevere through this life.  How do we keep a proper perspective on heaven?  How do we keep our focus on the goal of heaven and glory?  Where do we find our strength and power?  What can we learn from Christ interacting with his disciples?