http://media.blubrry.com/equipping_you_in_grace/p/www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/servantsofgrace.org/mediafolder/AGodSaturatedLife.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS | Equipping You in GraceThis is sermon #5 in the Psalm series. In this sermon on Psalm 5 Dave preaches on living a God-saturated life, what it means to be used by God, and having a high view of...
Read MoreIntroduction Yesterday June 24th, 2011, the state of New York became the sixth state in the United States to legalize gay marriage. The New York Senate passed the bill earlier yesterday evening (June 24th, 2011) and then Governor Andrew Cumo signed it into law. New York joins Vermont and New Hampshire as the only states to legalize gay marriage through state legislatures. In every other state it has happened through the courts. This bill doubles the number of people in the United States who will have access to same-sex marriage. In this article, I want to explain briefly the biblical arguments against homosexuality and how to minister the Gospel in this climate. Biblical Arguments In the beginning God created man and He created man in His image and likeness. The Lord saw that man was in need of a helpmate and He took from Adam his rib and formed Eve. Adam and Eve then became one flesh and the Lord established the institution of marriage. In Leviticus 18 the Lord gave laws related to sexual practices. These specific laws assume the general prohibition of adultery (Ex. 20:14). Leviticus 18:22 outlaws all homosexuality (Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10). Romans 1:26-27 make it clear that God gave them up to dishonorable passions a reference that goes back to Romans 1:18, 24. God gave them up is...
Read MoreIntroduction Today were going to look at 2nd Peter 1:3-12 and conclude with what we can learn from this passage. In this first main section in 2nd Peter 1:3-12, Peter emphasizes that God’s grace results in godliness. 2nd Peter 1:3-4 His in 2nd Peter 1:3 refers to Jesus Christ. Christ’s power is the source of the believer’s sufficiency and perseverance (matt. 24:3-; Mark 5:30; Luke 4:14; 5:17; Rom. 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:29). The genuine Christian is eternally secure in his salvation and will preserve and grow because he has received everything necessary to sustain eternal life through Christ’s power. To be godly is to live reverently, loyally, and obediently toward God. Peter means the genuine believer ought not to ask God for something more (as if something necessary to sustain his growth, strength, and perservance was missing) to become godly, because he already has every spiritual resource to manifest, sustain, and perfect godly living. “Knowledge” is a key word in 2nd Peter (2 Peter 1:2, 5-6, 8; 2:20; 3:18). Throughout Scripture, it implies an intimate knowledge (Amos 3:2). The knowledge of Christ emphasized here is not a superficial knowledge, or a mere surface awareness of the facts about Christ, but a genuine, personal sharing of life with Christ, based on repentance from sin and personal faith in him (Matt. 7:21). This call “called us to his own glory and...
Read MoreC.J. Mahaney gives five ways that one can preach the Gospel to themselves. First, keep the Gospel the main thing, second, pray the Gospel, third, sing the Gospel, fourth review has the Gospel has changed you, and finally, study the Gospel.[1] Dr. Piper notes that, “The gospel of Christ crucified and risen is meant to be preached to our soul–both in corporate worship where we hear it week after week, and from hour to hour as we preach it to ourselves in the daily fight for joy…The cross must be central in the fight for joy. We must put ourselves under is preaching on the Lord’s Day, and we must preach it to ourselves all day every day”.[2] Preaching the Gospel to oneself is a reminder that the Gospel is more than what initiates one’s salvation. The Gospel is an ongoing activity which the believer must believe and live every day of our Christian lives for, because it makes one more like Christ. The Gospel saves the believer (moves them from spiritual death to spiritual life) and also sanctifies them (progressively becoming like Christ). One doesn’t become a Christian by faith, by cleaning oneself up, by works, by effort, or by trying harder. Christ is the one who clears up the sinner- change happens when the believer clings to and embraces Him in faith. In other words the believer...
Read MoreRunning as a constant motif through Romans 6 is the interplay between what is called the indicative and the imperative. In the former mode, Paul insists that God has himself accomplished our decisive break with sin: “We died to sin” (v.2); “our old self was crucified with him” (v.6); we are “dead to sin but alive to God” (v.11); we “have been brought from death to life” (v.13); “sin shall not be your master” (v.14); “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness” (v.18); “you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God” (v.22). But Paul regularly intersperses his indicatives with imperatives that make us responsible for winning the battle against sin: “Do not let sin reign” (v.12); “do not offer the parts of your body to sin but offer yourselves to God” (v.13); “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members(C) as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” (v.19). the combination of these emphases presents both a theological and practical problem. The theological problem is to combine these two so that we can achieve a coherent picture and at the same time do justice to Paul’s teachings on related topics. No theologian completely ignores one of these emphases or the other, but many focus on...
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