Recent sermons updated

I’ve been remiss in keeping up with my “Recent Sermons” page. However, this afternoon I updated it with a list of the sermons I’ve preached during the past four months at Grace Bible Church. You can download or listen to them here.

Jesus Christ learned obedience

The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb 5:8). There has been much debate about what that exactly means. In his recent (and excellent) book, The Man Christ Jesus, Bruce Ware offers two explanations: 1) Although Jesus was a Son, and […]

Sunday Leftovers — He knows our troubles

We know that Jesus did not sin. But we can wrongly infer from that truth that life was easy for Him. It wasn’t. He felt the troubles of life as no other man has ever felt them. And that means that not only has He experienced the trials of life Himself, but that He really […]

A favorite Santa Claus story

What’s your favorite Santa Clause story? Nathan Busenitz tells his favorite story of the real Santa Claus, the fourth-century pastor Nicholas of Myra: Tradition says that Nicholas was one of the bishops attending the great council [of Nicaea]. As he sat listening to Arius proclaim views that seemed to him blasphemous, his anger mounted. He […]

Coping with affliction

Joel Beeke talks about some lessons he learned about suffering from the puritan Arthur Hildersham that he learned while enduring three rounds of the removal of basal cell skin cancer from his face yesterday: Just as my murmuring began to pick up, I came to a remarkable section of the book about the afflictions that […]

Will God’s wrath relent?

Reading a book like Revelation can leave one overwhelmed by the relentless onslaught of God’s wrath. Chapter after chapter devastating destruction pours from God’s throne. It is grievous and wearying. Will it ever stop? Will God’s wrath relent? Will suffering cease? Revelation 10-11 provide some hope for the end of God’s wrath and God’s provision […]

He didn’t repent?

I do not remember a time when I have not been in a church. And in all those years of memories, I have seen and heard many tales of perverse sins, both inside and outside of the church — drug and alcohol abuse, financial misdeeds, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, unbiblical divorce and remarriage, physical assault, abuse […]

It’s about to get quiet

Last night we finally decorated our Christmas tree (as usual, the topper is crooked). When we finished, we did what we generally do. We turned out all the lights except the ones on the tree and enjoyed looking at the beauty. We talked a little bit, but we also were quiet and just looked. It […]

Broken, yet intricately woven

From Emily Armstrong, wife of blogger Aaron Armstrong: I was diagnosed with epilepsy on Friday. My first thought was, “This is very inconvenient.” I asked the doctor how it happened, but there is no apparent cause. It just is. I didn’t do anything to cause epilepsy, nor is anyone else responsible for it. I find […]

Sunday Leftovers: the deity of Christ

From the opening verses of John’s gospel, a number of truths about Christ are readily apparent: Jesus Christ has eternally existed. Jesus Christ has eternally existed alongside God the Father. Jesus Christ is Himself God, with the Father. Jesus Christ is the originator of all things. Jesus Christ is life and is the source of […]

Life in heaven

Throughout Revelation, the reader is given glimpses of life in heaven is like. Among these images is one given in chapter 7 during the interlude between the coming sixth and seventh seal judgments. A large multitude of people who had been redeemed from every nation on earth surrounding the throne of God saying, “Salvation to […]

Needed: Bible Intake

It’s one thing to be unfamiliar with Scripture when you don’t own a Bible; it’s another thing when you have a bookshelf full. No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and […]

The great delusion

There are many confusions about God. There are many truths about Christianity that have been confused and perverted so that too many people are deceived and deluded about the realities of God and His Word. But one delusion stands above the rest: God is love and that means that He could never be angry against […]

Holy, holy, holy

In the year 739 B.C., Isaiah had the vision of God’s throne where he saw angels surrounding that ultimate source of rule and authority. And those angels had one declaratory message: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Is 6:3) More than 800 years later, the […]

He is worthy

We know that God does not share His glory with another (Is. 42:8). But a careful reading of that verse reveals that the Father is not saying that He does not share His glory with anyone else, but that He does not share His glory with another besides His chosen One, His Servant, the Messiah […]