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Here is another blog article on a lesson learned from Scripture for lay people’s serving in the visible church. In this case, it is a lesson learned from a quiet time reading of the first book of Peter: It is good to take notes from a pastor’s sermons and blog the sermons as a means of articulating the pastor’s wisdom in the Gospel as your own wisdom, and you use your writing skills to give glory and praise by the Gospel foundation onto God your Father. There may be quite a few literary minds in the visible church who would come across this blog and also have questions about how they can use their minds and writing skills and edify their local churches in the Gospel.
One of my favorite reading experiences in the Bible in recent times has been reading through the book of James. This book, like the book of Proverbs, has much to say about language – our fallen human language in our worship of ourselves and our justification of ourselves apart from God, and God’s holy and righteous and justifying language given on behalf of sinners. God has provided His Son Jesus as the only begotten and incarnate Word who speaks on behalf of sinners and their wayward tongues. God has also given the inscribed Word, the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, as God’s testimony of His only begotten Word, Jesus, the substitutionary Word, for sinners.
After a brief hiatus, I return to blogging the sermons of my home church Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA). We continue Scott Seaton’s preaching series on the book of Exodus, regarding our knowledge of God’s clear power and glory and grace in the Gospel message for our resting with God as our Father. For future reference, I will also create a category for Emmanuel sermons that will allow blog readers to more easily access the sermons from searches on Google and other engines.
Scott Seaton’s sermon, “You Shall Know,” was based on Exodus 7:14-24. We are to understand from the story of God’s miracles of the plagues in Egypt on behalf of Israel that these miracles are still practical for our understanding and our resting with God today. The plagues of Egypt show us God’s purpose for our lives, so that we would draw near to Him by faith, resting with God in His covenant promises of grace.
This blog article continues the sermon series from my pastor Scott Seaton of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA) on the book of Exodus, regarding the Lord’s use of weak and deficient believers to serve the Lord’s purposes. I should also note here that I plan to blog other sermons that Scott does down the road on other books of the Bible or other topic series for his church Emmanuel.
“ . . . ‘And as for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even. And whosoever beareth aught of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. The carcasses of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean. And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whosoever toucheth their carcass shall be unclean until the even. And he that beareth the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean unto you.’
. . . The defiled remained unclean ‘until the even,’ . . . even after washing their clothes. The washing of the clothes plainly represents the cleansing in the blood of Jesus. The pollution is washed away by Christ’s death, applied to them by the Spirit. But why, then, remain unclean ‘until even’? . . . [In] truth it is not till next morning that his complete deliverance is apparent to all. It is at the resurrection-morning – after both evening and night is past – that it is undeniably evident that all effects of yesterday’s defilement are gone. He can now enter the dwelling of the righteous; he can go up to the sanctuary; he can stand in the holy hill.
This blog article continues the sermon series that my pastor Scott Seaton of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA) is doing through the book of Exodus, on God’s reassurance and covenantal grace in the Gospel for His believers. I write about the sermon from yesterday; but next Sunday, I will in all likelihood not be able to copy down notes from the sermon for blogging the sermon. I have to do hall patrol for the nursery and children’s classrooms of Emmanuel as part of my community group’s hosting of the worship service of Emmanuel. Yes, that means I get to wear the little orange chest belt that kindergarten patrols use to help kids cross the street at Barrett Elementary School. We at Emmanuel are truly dedicated to our city!
“ . . . It would be hard having so many fears not to be angry with people, circumstances, and God. . . . Suppose one’s life is filled with this kind of haunting insecurity and nagging guilt. It’s easy to want to find emotional relief and comfort in bodily pleasures, and for men this often means sexual fantasies, etc., which can confirm him in his judgment that he is worthless. . . . He just thinks insecurity, and the key to his thinking is found in his whole mind-set which even plans as though he were an orphan. To replace this mind-set is entirely possible. I do it almost every day in my whole life. But what I do is different in one crucial way: I reject this negativistic thinking as unbelief and claim my relationship with God as my Father through faith in Jesus Christ.
I go to the Gospels and read and read until I find myself full of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I read Hebrews 11, which tells how the people of faith passed through many dark times. Though they have my weaknesses, they also show me how faith can triumph. Personally I do not see anyone as a special case with special problems.
This blog article continues the sermon series that Scott Seaton, my pastor at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Arlington, is preaching from the book of Exodus, concerning God’s character and identity and gracious promises for His believers. I have thought to blog this sermon series using both my actual notes taken during Scott’s sermons and the audio recordings on the sermons whenever these recordings are available from Emmanuel.
It is my personal pleasure to include here a sermon by one of my ruling elders, Jamie Johnson, on life changes and crises and contentment in Christ for my home church, Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (PCA).
“Plans Change,” Jamie Johnson (Gen. 45:1-20)
Jamie preached this sermon as a sort of “guest pastor” while our actual pastor and lead elder Scott Seaton was away playing Battleship with his fellow elders at our denomination’s General Assembly. We plan on one more week of the rack for Scott; then we may let him back into the pulpit again.
“ . . . ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord; but the prayer of the upright is his delight.’
Wicked men may abound in the external acts of religion, as if they intended to compensate the defects of the inward man. By this means they flatter themselves into dangerous and presumptuous hopes of the favor of God, and sometimes gain a name among the godly, who are neither qualified nor authorized to search the secrets of the heart.
