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Sexual Purity
This Sunday we will continue our considerations of the moral exhortations in the final chapter of Hebrews. While some of us can’t relate directly to last week’s admonition to care for prisoners who suffer for their faith, we fully understand what it is like to live in a society obsessed with sex and materialism (the topics for this week and next week).
In Hebrews 13:4, our author encourages us to honor marriage in a culture which defiles relationships and sexuality.
The foundation of the marriage covenant is God’s covenant with us. Our marriages are to picture the relationship between Christ and His church.
Sex itself is not evil. Sex within marriage is precious. The abuse of God’s gift, however, calls forth God’s judgment. The key to sexual purity is faith that God is most to be desired, and that He will satisfy our needs in His way and His time. Also, through faith, those of us who haven’t been pure in the past can experience grace, forgiveness, and transformation.
Love One Another
Last week we completed the theological argument of Hebrews. This week we have come to the final chapter of Hebrews which is full of practical exhortations. We will take three weeks to consider verses 1-6 which admonish us to love, to sexual purity, and to contentment (freedom from money-love). Virtually every religion would claim to promote love, fidelity, and contentment. Christianity, however, approaches morality in a unique way. The most important moral issue is not love for fellow-man, but love for God. Also, our love for one another is grounded upon the love God has shown us in Christ. His love is our example and enablement.
This week’s sermon may not, like the earlier section of Hebrews, blow you away with deep doctrinal truth. Instead you will be reminded of our duty to love each other and how in particular to express love through hospitality and caring for those who are suffering.
Breakout Session - Avoiding Hurt: Courtship for Older Singles
Breakout Session - Knowing God’s Will
Session 3 - Hope’s Satisfied Heart
Breakout Session - God’s Call to Singleness
Breakout Session - Finanical Challenges
Session 2 - Hope Worships a Sovereign Lord
The Great Quake
If you have lived long in California you have experienced at least one earthquake. Most earthquakes do very little damage. Even the most severe quakes typically cause damage in a limited area. The Bible records several earthquakes, each of which displays the power of God and the instability of our life on earth.
In this week’s text, the shaking of the ground when God gave the law at Sinai foreshadows a final great shaking which is spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, including Haggai. At the Lord’s coming everything which is inconsistent with the holiness of God will be shaken apart and removed. All that will remain is God’s unshakable kingdom, with us as his co-regents.
This truth should motivate us in at least two ways: First we should be thankful that, because of Christ, we belong to the kingdom which cannot be shaken. Such thankfulness should produce a life devoted to holy service to God. Also we should heed the warning that those who refuse to listen to God will not escape judgment from Him Who is a consuming fire.
The end of Hebrews 12 is the climax of the theological argument of the entire book. Chapter 13 contains concluding practical exhortations, greetings and a benediction.
Is Jesus’ Tomb Empty?
You are probably aware that the Discovery Channel recently aired a special entitled, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, in which James Cameron (the director of “Titanic”) and Simcha Jacobovici claim to have found the ossuary in which Jesus’ bones were placed. They try to combine a bit of Indiana Jones, CSI (with DNA evidence), and the Da Vinci Code (with claims of Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene). They claim the statistical likelihood that they are correct is 600 to 1 in favor of their having found Jesus’ tomb. While Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have no religious agenda, the implication of their claim would be that Christianity is a fraud.
Have they really found Jesus’ body?
What would be the implications if they have?
Why do Christians believe Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead?
What are the implications to you if He has?
Biblical Restoration
Galatians 6:1 - Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
Recent Sermons
Consecrated to God
This week I am diverting from our studies in 2 Samuel and will be expounding Romans 12:1-2.
I plan, on certain Sundays over the next few months, to preach through Romans 12 with a special emphasis on our love and devotion for one another in the body of Christ.
Because our love for one another springs from our devotion to the Lord, Paul starts Romans 12 by exhorting us to be living sacrifices who are not to be conformed to the world.
Of course the foundation of our devotion to the Lord is the sovereign mercy which He has shown us in Christ — which was the subject of the first 11 chapters of Romans and forms the basis of Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:1.
Portrait of a Godless Culture: An Appeal to Repent of Sinful Boasting
We will be doing a fairly rapid overview of the first nine chapters and then drawing some application from near the end of chapter nine, where Jeremiah writes, “Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.” (9:23-24).
Jeremiah’s theme leading to these texts is that of judgment: A judgment precipitated by the sinful lifestyle and arrogant living of the kingdom of Judah. The modern day parallels to our own day are truly amazing: Truly there is “nothing new under the sun.”