Sermon Video: The Endgame of God's Grace - Ephesians 1:7-10

What is the ultimate goal and purpose of God's grace?  There are many amazing purposes that lead to this conclusion, among them the adoption into the family of God of the redeemed, but the endgame of God's grace is unity.  Unity of everything under Christ to God.  At present, everything suffers from disunity, even the world itself.  The final triumph of God's grace will be the full reunion that restores the original created order and purpose of God.

Sermon Video: The Tower and Israel's 70 neighboring nations -Genesis 10:1-11:9

Sometimes it is difficult for us to connect with the purpose behind why a particular portion of scripture was included in the sacred text.  Lists of names are probably high on that list, and so too is the story of the Tower of Babel given how often it is misunderstood.

These two episodes in chapters 10-11 of Genesis are there to set the stage for God's work in calling Abram in chapter 12.  The 70 nations show the diversity that God had to choose from, emphasizing as always that salvation is God's grace not human effort, and the Tower of Babel illustrates this principle in action.  The builders of the tower, a ziggurat, had hoped to invite God (or a god) to come down from heaven to dwell with them, a stairway from heaven (not a prideful stairway to heaven).  This is a noble thought, but a misguided one.  Humanity cannot solve its own sin problem.  We need a savior, and it needs to be on God's terms and according to God's timetable.

Sermon Video: To God be the glory forever! Romans 11:33-36

At the end of a three chapter journey wading through the causes and costs of the rejection of Jesus by the majority of his fellow countrymen, the Apostle Paul reflects upon the wisdom of God's redemptive plan which was able to not only overcome that rejection, but ultimately bring all Israel to redemption after the salvation of the fullness of the Gentiles, by composing a short hymn of praise to God.

Sermon Video: The New Covenant - Hebrews 10:14

The superiority of Jesus, his person, his life, and his sacrifice is the central theme of the book of Hebrews.  Here in Venango County, PA, our ministerium has been dealing with a challenge from an unorthodox organization, the First Fruits of Zion, whose Torah Clubs are promoting the belief that Jesus did not fulfill the Mosaic Covenant.  To them, the Law of Moses remains binding on all of God's people, and always will be.  Hebrews 10:14 is one passage of scripture among many that demonstrate the falsehood of this teaching.  The sacrifice of Jesus is superior, in every way, to anything in the Law of Moses, and this is by design.  The purity of Christ's priesthood, the power of his sacrifice, and the tenacity of its application to all of us who put our faith in him is a core tenant of the Gospel.  The New Covenant established by Jesus' blood was built upon a new foundation, for it is the ultimate manifestation of God's redemptive work among humanity, fully and finally.

Sermon Video: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:31-32

"It sounds too good to be true."  Maybe that's what your heart says when you hear the wondrous Good News that God loves you and his Son died to set you free from sin.  "That might work for some people, but not the likes of me."  Maybe that's what trauma and disappointment have taught you to think.

Rest assured, God knows your heart, he knows you need reassurance, encouragement, and hope.  So here it is: When you are on God's team, how can you lose?  Since God was willing to sacrifice his Son (being Trinitarians as Christians are, that always means he was willing to sacrifice himself because Jesus is God too) to save us, there is zero reason to think that God won't finish what he's started, and that includes his work in each of us who have come to know Jesus by faith.

Sermon Video: The Purpose for which God works all things - Romans 8:28-30

Romans 8:28 is an oft misunderstood piece of scripture, in part because it is often quoted or considered apart from its context, especially vs. 29-30.  So, what is the 'good' to which God is working all things?  Paul defines this in vs. 29: "to be conformed to the image of his Son."  What is God working throughout human history to accomplish?  Christ-like adopted children.

Human failings, tragedies and sorrow, and evil itself, all  are not 'good', and God doesn't want you to pretend that they are.  What they are, however, is NOT capable of derailing God's purpose in your life.

Sermon Video: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:6-8

What is the value of one human life?  What would you be willing to risk, or lose, to save it?  God answers this question definitively from his point of view in that Jesus Christ was willing to die on behalf of the ungodly.  That is, Jesus came to die, not for family or friends, not for the good or the righteous, but for those who were powerless to change their own hopelessly sinful state, a group that happens to include all of humanity.

What did God prove by putting forth and accomplishing this plan of redemption?  How powerful, how effective, and just how amazing his love is, no wonder John would later write that "God is love".  Stand in awe of God's love for lost sinners.

Sermon Video: Peace with God, Romans 4:23-5:2

Having established both the forgiveness of our sins, removing God's wrath, and our justification, making Christ's righteousness our own, both through faith in Jesus Christ, now Paul turns to the implications of these profound changes of status by highlighting one of the most important: we have peace with God.

Gaining peace with God is far more valuable than we understand, in part because most of humanity does not recognize that it is currently at war with God, a hopeless path.  Also, peace with God is a cause worthy of profound celebration as it will create positive change throughout our lives, both present and future.

Sermon Video: In Him we have redemption - Colossians 1:12-14

The 4th of Paul's examples of what it means to "live a life worthy of the Lord" (The first three were: bearing fruit through good works, growing in the knowledge of God, and being strengthened by his power) is the one that he chooses to expound upon: giving joyful thanks to the Father.  We have, as followers of Jesus Christ, ample reasons for ongoing gratitude toward God, here Paul chooses to focus upon how we became disciples of Jesus in the first place: God rescued us from darkness and brought us into the light.  All of the verbs that Paul uses to describe our redemption are passive and past tense.  In other words, it is something which God, and he alone, accomplished, and it is something that has already happened.  In addition, Paul reminds us that the mechanism by which God rescued us was the payment of our sins (redemption) by the Son, which made the forgiveness of our sins possible.  In the end, we have every reason to continue in joyful thanks to the Father.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Our Christmas Gift from God

Christmas is the time that we give gifts to others, our children in particular, more than any other time of the year.  At Christmas many of us give gifts to people beyond our family, and devote more to charity as well.  This enthusiasm for giving gits is appropriate at Christmas, for it was at the original advent that our Heavenly Father gave to humanity the beginning of a gift that would surpass all others, even our gifts of life.  That gift was the redemption of our souls, and the renewal of our relationship with Almighty God, given to humanity by grace through faith in the person of the child born of the Virgin Mary, the God-Man Jesus Christ.

Having recently passed the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, it is also appropriate for us to remember that God's gift was given to humanity: Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone"), Sola fide ("by faith alone"), Sola gratia ("by grace alone"), Solus Christus or Solo Christo ("Christ alone" or "through Christ alone"), and Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone")  What God gave to us, beginning at Bethlehem and culminating at Calvary and the Empty Tomb, is a truly free gift.  It can be no other, for it was a work solely of the trinity, with God the Father planning/directing it, the Holy Spirit assisting in it, and Jesus carrying it out in the flesh.

A gift is not a gift if you pay for it, nor is it a gift if you earn it.  Our salvation in Jesus Christ, is and always will be, a gift from God.  As Paul explains in Ephesians 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

This Christmas, as you give and receive gifts, remember to thank God not only for the material blessings which we have received, but primarily for the far more important spiritual redemption which has been offered to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.  The gift of God is available to all, may the Spirit of God call those who have not yet received it to accept this one of a kind gift, and may those who have already received it always remain grateful for the bountiful love of God.

Sermon Video: The fulfillment of God's plan for Ruth and Naomi - Ruth 4:1-22

What is the cost of redemption?  In the climax to the story of Ruth, Boaz and another potential kinsman-redeemer discuss the cost of redeeming the land of Elimelech.  At first, when it seems like a sweet business deal, the other man is interested, but when Boaz reveals that the land will not permanently pass to the one who redeems it because he will also acquire the obligation to marry Ruth and produce and heir to continue the line of Elimelech, the other man suddenly changes his mind; the cost was too high.  Boaz, because of the high value that he places upon Ruth, gladly steps in and fulfills the role of the kinsman-redeemer.  God subsequently blesses, Ruth and Boaz with a son, Obed, who is symbolically placed upon the lap of Naomi to show that he will inherit from Elimelech.  At the end of Ruth, we also learn that Ruth will become the great-grandmother of King David, thus also including her in the line of the Messiah.
Two important lessons jump out at us from the finale of Ruth. (1) The high cost of redemption for Boaz reminds us of the much higher cost paid by our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus, to redeem us from our sins.  Jesus paid it all to redeem humanity, paid with his life, but also gained for himself and for God's glory from among the Lost countless ones who trust in him unto salvation. (2) God was still willing to bless Naomi, even though she had earlier lost her faith.  The will of God was at work in Naomi's life, even if she didn't realize it, even through her darkest moments.  Naomi may have given up on God, but God never gave up on her.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: Boaz notices Ruth - Ruth 2:8-23

In this third message, of five, from Ruth, we find Boaz conversing with Ruth after he takes notice of her hard at work gleaning in his fields.  Boaz offers Ruth multiple, small, and ongoing kindnesses in response, he says, for her devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi, the widow of his kin Elimelech.  Ruth responds to these offers of help with humble gratitude, prompting even more steps taken by Boaz to help Ruth (and Naomi) in their time of need.
When Ruth returns home at the end of the day, with much more food than expected, Naomi is awakened from her depression and bitterness that had engulfed her since the death of her husband and sons by the kindness shown to Ruth and herself by a seemingly random neighbor who turns out to be Boaz, a kinsman-redeemer of Elimelech's estate.  Whether or not Boaz will be willing to fulfill his legal obligation under the laws of the kinsman-redeemer remains to be seen, but Naomi at least has begun once again to hope.
The kindnesses offered by Boaz were not, in and of themselves, all that costly to him, nor was he legally obligated to give any of them.  And yet, as a man of God, a man of character, Boaz chooses to go beyond the letter of the law to fulfill the spirit of the law; Boaz chooses to live by grace.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: "my righteous servant will justify many" - Isaiah 53:7-12

In this second message on Isaiah 53, the suffering and death of the servant of God is given further detail and explanation.  Isaiah reveals that the servant of God will be “assigned a grave with the wicked” but be “with the rich in his death”.  This odd combination will be fulfilled by Jesus when he is wrongly convicted of being a blasphemer and a revolutionary and yet still placed in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea.  Such fulfillment of O.T. prophecies occurs throughout the Gospel account of the death of Jesus because the entire life of Jesus is part of the grand plan of redemption set forth by the Father before the creation of the world. 

            In the end, it was the will of God and love for mankind that held Jesus to the cross, it was our sins upon his shoulders that caused his Father to look away until it was finished, and it was his blameless life that kept death from being able to hold him.  Isaiah also speaks of the “descendants” of this servant, cut off from the living, yet prospering and rewarded.  This seeming contradiction is fulfilled when Jesus rises from the dead, no longer scorned, he now is due honor and glory from the Father.  No longer bereft of those to carry on his name, he now his spiritual descendants who have joined the family of God in his name.

            As the journey to the cross through Isaiah comes to a close the question of why has been clearly seen.  Why the cross?  The ultimate answer is this: there was no other way.  Sin had to be paid for, rebellion had a cost, and only the Son of God, sinless in life, was capable of dying in our place.  

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video 

 

Sermon Video: We Can't Save Ourselves - Isaiah 64:4-9

Continuing along the rode through Isaiah that explains the need for the Cross, we come to Isaiah’s explanation as to why the people of God cannot repair the damage caused by their sinfulness on their own. Isaiah begins by reminding his audience that there are no other gods to turn to, that only God has shown care for those who follow him. The lack of other options beyond God makes sense when connected to the end of verse five where the lack of commitment to the Law of God shows that the descendant of Abraham are truly in trouble because of their disobedience. Isaiah asks, “How then can we be saved?”


That the answer to Isaiah’s question is, “we can’t do it ourselves, we need God to save us” is made painfully clean when Isaiah shares three metaphors that explain the inability of even God’s people to rectify the situation themselves. The first, that we are all “unclean” connects to the Law’s designation of some people as being temporarily unclean, a status that could be changed, but on that prevented fellowship until it was solved. That the entirety of God’s people could be designated as “unclean” despite their many sacrifices is a sobering thought that explains the seriousness of the damage done by sin to the relationship with God.

The second metaphor is even more shocking, Isaiah says that, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. That righteous deeds could be nullified because of the impure hears of those doing them is another illustration that this is a relationship with God that we’re talking about; God isn’t just some cosmic good vs. evil meter, our hearts matter too. The “filthy rags” of the NIV (and most English translations) are literally a Hebrew euphemism for a woman’s menstrual cloths. In other words, Isaiah actually said, “all our righteous acts are like bloody tampons”; point taken.

Lastly, Isaiah compares God’s people to leaves that have fallen from the tree, shriveled up, and blown away. There is no hope for that leaf, its days are over; so too are we hopeless unless God rescues us.

The last portion of the passage is an appeal to God as our Father, Creator, and Judge to save us despite our sin, to remember that he is the one who initiated the relationship, and appeal to God’s mercy. Why did Jesus have to walk to Calvary, because mankind had wandered away from God, and we don’t have the ability to walk back on our own.

To watch the video, click on the link below: Sermon Video

"the world was not worthy of them" - Hebrews 11:38a

That was the conclusion of the writer of the book of Hebrews after listing all of the persecution faced by the servants of God.  It raises an interesting point.  We know that this world remains very much in God's interest, he created it, he sent his Son to redeem humanity, and he intends to renew this world (Rev. 21:1) at the culmination of history.  Certainly, God has gone to a lot of trouble for this world despite the clear fact that the people who inhabit it have often proven themselves to be anything but God-like.  There have been times when optimism for our civilization has overshadowed the darkness lying underneath, but just as it does in Lord of the Flies the Beast within always rises up with another massacre in mockery.
Does this world deserve the saints who have bled and wept for it?  The writer of Hebrews is correct that it does not.  Just as we were in no way deserving of the blood that Jesus Christ poured out for us at Calvary, so too the mercy and love shown by those who follow him.  Then why does God commend it, encourage us to give more to this world?  For the same reason that God rescued Noah despite the utter evil of the world in his day, the same reason that God sent Jonah to Ninevah, the same reason that God saved a murderous Saul on the road to Damascus or John Newton after a life of slave running:  In Newton's own words, Amazing Grace.  Grace, undeserved mercy and love, is the basis for our relationship with God.  If not for God's willingness to stoop down and rescue humanity, the darkness that threatens our world each day would reign supreme.  You see, the world may not be worthy of them, but it still needs them desperately.

Sermon Video: "The Year of Jubilee - Leviticus 25

What do Jewish regulations about the Sabbath, land ownership, and workers' rights have to do with the Church today? The answer, it turns out, is plenty. The principles of justice and second chances that underpin the celebration of the Year of Jubilee are certainly needed in our world today. In addition, the return of land during the Jubilee to its original owners helped to balance wealth and poverty in Israel as well as allow those who fallen on hard times to redeem their families land and start over...


This sermon is the last to be given to the people of the First Baptist Church of Palo, my first pastorate, and as such ends with a personal message of thanks and prayer for the future ministry at Palo.
 
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video