Sunday Leftovers (8/3/08)

The eternality of God is one of the (many) truths about God that is incomprehensible to God. Oh, we can understand the words and concepts, but the actuality of the truth is beyond our ability to digest. Thinking about Moses’ psalm, A. W. Tozer wrote this, “‘From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,’ said Moses […]

Self-righteousness, judgmentalism, and confronting sin

I’ve been listening to an excellent pair of sermons this week by Dave Harvey, entitled “The Surgeon, the Scalpel, and the Saint in Sin.” Preaching from Luke 6:27-36, Harvey addresses the question of how to confront a sinning believer without becoming self-righteous and judgmental ourselves. His basic premise is: “The manner in which we respond […]

Sin’s delusion

From Thomas Fuller: Lord, often have I thought to myself, I will sin but this one sin more, and then I will repent of it, and of all the rest of my sins together. So foolish was I, and ignorant. As if I should be more able to pay my debts when I owe more: […]

Cohabitation and marriage

Al Mohler has an interesting summary and brief analysis about the recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau (as reported in USA Today) that there is an increase in cohabitating couples. The summary statistics: In 2007, there were 6.4 million cohabitating, heterosexual couples in the U.S — up from approximately 5 million in 2006. There […]

Idols of the heart

Last week I listened to C. J. Mahaney’s three-part series “The Idol Factory.” I highly recommend the entire series (though I thought the first two were the strongest). A couple of statements about idolatry from those sermons — “Husband and wife — you desire to have a spouse that relates to you with respect, etc. […]

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ

I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast, I’ve stepped over the line; the decision has been made; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I will not look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed; my present makes sense; my […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/27/08)

One of the reasons there is so much confusion about the gospel is that we have misunderstood and misapplied the intent of the gospel. We (in the American church at large) have come to believe that the gospel is all about a decision instead of a lifestyle. Our efforts are predominantly decision-oriented. We encourage people […]

A few more thoughts about sin and salvation

A few years ago I came across the first addendum of sins that the Roman Catholic church added to its official list of sins compiled at the Council of Trent in 1545. Some of the new offenses? Failing to vote. Drunken driving. Forging checks. Charging unjust rents. Paying unfair salaries. Wasting resources (like pampering pets). […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/20/08)

When Jesus said to Mary, “Go to My brothers…” He was saying something not only about His relationship with them, but about their relationship with each other. [Side note: that Jesus was talking not about his biological half-brothers but about His disciples is clear from the fact that Mary went to the disciples.] As they […]

A few more thoughts about sin

As I was preparing for our study last night, I pulled my files on sin, and was going through the quotations and illustrations I have amassed over a number of years about sin and sinfulness. What I found was a large quantity of truths about sin said very succinctly and well. Since there was no […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/13/08)

The seven statements of Christ from the cross serve as a reminder not only of what is important to Christ as He contemplates and evaluates the cross, but they also serve as an anchor for our faith, directing us to the truths to which we must hold fast in defending that faith. For instance, the […]

Baptism at the time of Christ

In response to a question Tuesday night about what the Jews at the time of Christ would have understood and believed about baptism, I did a little theological digging. Information is minimal, at best. The NT says nothing about the Jewish understanding of baptism directly, and the Greek translation of the OT (called the Septuagint) […]

A few more thoughts about the Holy Spirit

As we discussed the Holy Spirit last night, we gave just passing comments to the issue of how the Holy Spirit can be blasphemed. While I do not believe that particular sin can be replicated today, the Holy Spirit can still be grieved today. How is the Holy Spirit grieved? My favorite commentator answers: The […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/6/08)

Yesterday I was attempting to make the point that our understanding of the weight and significance of our own sin is immeasurably weak. In a sermon recently preached at Resolved, John Piper expands that idea by illustrating how the weakness and frailty of the physical creation is designed to demonstrate to us the horror of […]

A few more thoughts on Christology

Last night we spent more time discussing issues related to the cross than I had intended. Our comments surfaced a number of questions and issues that relate to why I have been preaching the sermon series that I have been preaching for the past 3 months. In a simple sentence, the cross and the work […]