Sermon Text: Psalm 73:1-28 Theme: When the envious believer regains a proper understanding of God, he becomes content to possess God alone. Structure/points: As we come to the season of Thanksgiving, we should thank God for all the gifts that He has given to us. But we should also grapple with our contentment with those gifts, especially God’s gift of Himself to…
Sermon Text: Matthew 21:23-32 Theme: The rightly exercised authority of the church and her officers testifies to Christ’s divinely appointed authority Structure/points: What right did the Reformers have to defy the traditions and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, especially when it resulted in chaos throughout Europe? What authority did they have? Their authority, and the authority of the Church, is delegated…
Sermon Text: Psalm 96:1-13 Theme: The divine majesty of the Lord requires His people to lead all of creation in His reverent worship. Structure/points: Because of who the Lord is and what He has done, all of creation will praise its glorious Creator. The assembly of God’s people are the leaders of that worship, the first to give voice to the Lord’s…
Sermon Text: Psalm 15:1-5 Theme: Only a righteous man may enjoy the blessing of dwelling in the Lord’s presence forever. Structure/points: Psalm 15 meditates on the question, “Who can come into the presence of God? What sort of person must he be?” There are traits that distinguish the righteous man from the unrighteous, and the Psalmist wants his readers to long for…
Sermon Text: Psalm 46:1-11 Theme: The presence of the Lord assures His people that He will help them, no matter the sort of trouble they face. Structure/points: Psalm 46 is utterly confident that whatever trouble the people of God may face, the Lord is a refuge and fortress that they may turn to and be certain of finding defense. There is no…
Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 8:1-22 Theme: By demanding that Samuel appoint a king for them, Israel sinfully attempted to rid themselves of the Lord’s eternal kingship Structure/points: The Bible’s perspective on kings over God’s people is somewhat confusing because while some passages, such as 1 Samuel 8, are decidedly negative on the subject, others seem to anticipate that God would appoint a…
Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 7:5-17 Theme: The Lord worked out deliverance for Israel through the mediatorial judgeship of Samuel Structure/points: When Israel sought salvation from the Lord, He proved Himself willing to deliver them from danger. And the person He chose to lead Israel at this time was Samuel. The mediatorial judgeship of Samuel is shown here, and through it, God sent…
Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 6:19-7:4 Theme: Israel needed to repent of how they had sinned against the Lord before they could stand in His holy presence Structure/points: The Lord had brought His ark back to Israel, but that didn’t automatically lead to a restored relationship between God and His people. Repentance was needed first, and in time, that repentance did come. To…
Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 6:1-18 Theme: When the Philistines realized they had offended Israel’s God by stealing His ark, they offered a sacrifice to placate His wrath against them Structure/points: After suffering the Lord’s humiliation of Dagon and a plague sent against them, the Philistines concluded that the God of Israel was angry with them because they had taken His ark. They…
Sermon Text: Psalm 22:1-31 Main Theme: This Psalm directs us to Christ with the most vivid of particularities and the closest of historic parallels, but it also presents David, a predecessor of Christ, as having gone through sufferings as well. Therefore, this ancient song assigns believers of all times both the hope that they will be delivered because of what Christ has…