Month: February 2017

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Sermon outlines!

For today’s post, I want to alert you to a new Page I added on my blog. It’s the Sermon Outlines page. You can see its link on the Pages Menu to the right. This is a static page (rather than an archiving page) and will therefore need to be changed each time a new post is added.

The purpose of this new page is self-explanatory. I plan to post my weekly sermon outline for your use and edification. These outlines are included in our Sunday bulletin so people can follow along as I preach; but they are also emailed out to the Congregation each week ahead of time (usually by Tuesday) so that people can better prepare their hearts and minds ahead of time for the preaching of God’s Word. Individuals can use them for their own study and parents can use them in times of family worship to prepare the children to listen and best profit from the message.

Hence the outline posted today is the outline for this coming Sunday’s sermon. Feel free to share the outline with your friends; and if the outline is helpful to you, then go to our church’s Sermon Archive site by Sunday afternoon to listen to the uploaded sermon. And be sure to check back each week (by Tuesday) for the new outline!

May the Lord bless your study and use these outlines to feed your soul on the riches of His holy Word.

Your soul’s well-wisher in Christ,

Dr. J

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Getting victory over your sin

Jesus tells us to watch and pray in order that we might not enter into temptation (Mt 26.41). So why does it so often happen that we watch and pray and then still find ourselves falling into sin? The answer is because we’re watching and praying against the sin and not against the temptation. We’re on guard against the sin but not against the temptations which give rise to it.  Continue reading “Getting victory over your sin”

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Watch and pray against temptation

In Mt 26.41 the Lord tells His disciples–and us to “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Yet, how many go about careless of the snares about their feet, careless of the lying beauties before their eyes at every turn, careless of the lusts and lies of their own hearts so ready to lead them astray!

Continue reading “Watch and pray against temptation”

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No longer a slave to sin, Part 2

In yesterday’s post I explained from Rom 7 that in regeneration believers are freed from the dominion of sin as a law over them. They are now placed under the law of the Spirit of life, by which they delight in good (6.17-18) and desire to do good (7.18, 21). And the discovery of the opposition and resistance of sin in them when they would do good (7.21-23) is actually an encouraging sign of grace. Continue reading “No longer a slave to sin, Part 2”

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No longer a slave to sin

I want to explain what Paul means in Rom 7.21-23 by the believer finding sin to be a law within him. Many Christians struggle with the entire passage of Romans 7.7-25, and we can’t take time to deal with it as a whole. But if we can understand what Paul means by the law of sin, it’ll illuminate not only this passage but every letter Paul wrote. If this gets a little foggy at times, just keep reading. It will get clearer, and the payoff is gloriously liberating.   Continue reading “No longer a slave to sin”

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Don’t try to keep the Law of God!

I’ll assume you’re familiar with the story of the rich young ruler in Mk 10.17ff. A young man of means come to Jesus asking “Good Teacher, what must I do to  inherit eternal life?” That sounds all well and good until Jesus responds, “You know the commandments…” “Did Jesus just tell this man he could get to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments!?” Continue reading “Don’t try to keep the Law of God!”

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Keeping the heart

What is the greatest business of the Christian life? According to Prov 4.23 it is to keep the heart. It is the Christian’s chief concern to keep his heart from sin–since this disorders it from godly conduct, and in turn to keep his heart in a godly and gracious frame–since this alone fits it for a life of communion with God and for the doing of all his deeds to the approval and glory of God. Several points can be offered in support of this. Continue reading “Keeping the heart”

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Christianity in practice

We cannot be said to be true Christians until the religion of Christ becomes our animating motive and our predominating principle and pursuit as much as worldly things are the predominating motive, principle, and pursuit of worldly men. Thus no man ought to flatter himself that he is in the favor of God whose life is not consecrated to the service of God. Continue reading “Christianity in practice”

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The wrong fuel

Man persists to do life without God, to press on with life and leave Christianity out of the equation. One denies that God exists and takes life by the horns while another denies the God that is–the God of the Bible–the God of Christianity–and adopts a religion that offers a god more palatable to his liking. Either way, the determination is the same: to do life without God. But how does this work out? It doesn’t. It can’t. Continue reading “The wrong fuel”