Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 10/3/2013 As the author of Hebrews continues his explanation of how Jesus is superior to the angels, he now comes to deal with the great difference between the relationship that angels have to Jesus (they are his servants) and the relationship that believers have to Jesus (they are his brothers). In chapter 1, he had shown how Jesus is superior to angels in various aspects of his own experience: his resurrection, his rule, his re-creation of the universe. In chapter 2, he shows how Jesus is superior to angels in ways by which he is linked to his people: he is the guarantee that they will receive their inheritance (the world to come), he is bringing many sons to glory through his sufferings, and he is the Brother of all who trust in him for salvation. The author describes this relationship of brotherhood in the remainder of this chapter, and he does so in three ways. First, he focuses on how Jesus sanctifies his brothers; second, he explains what Je...

This sermon was preached on 10/3/2013 According to the heading David wrote this psalm when he was in the Judean desert, and it is obvious from the contents that he made use of his physical surroundings to describe what he was feeling in his heart. He does not say why he is in the desert, although verses 9-11 reveal he is concerned about his enemies – so he may have been pursuing them or fleeing from them (as when he fled from Absalom). It was written after he had become king, so it does not refer to earlier in his life when he was in the desert and pursued by Saul. In the psalm, David mentions the desert (v. 1), the tabernacle (v.2) and his bed (v. 6) as places where he thought about God. The dry desert illustrates what he feels in his heart when he cannot sense the presence of God. David clearly found this to be a trying experience. His experience was not caused by lack of assurance – he stresses his awareness of his relationship with God in verse 1. What he was aware of was...