Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Already in this statement of praise Paul has mentioned activities by the Father and by the Son. Now Paul in this set of verses mentions the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who have believed in Jesus, who are redeemed and waiting for the fullness of redemption, and who have been elected and adopted by the Father. The apostle also mentions in these verses what happened to those believers before they believed and after they believed, and that it all occurred through union with Christ.  The message they believed Paul reminds the Ephesians of the order of their experience that led to them experiencing salvation: they heard the gospel, then they believed, and then they were sealed with the Spirit. When he refers to hearing the gospel, he is not concerned with how many times they heard it, but with the fact that they heard it in a way that led to salvation. Hearing also indicates that they were saved through an oral presentation of the message. Paul had held daily me...

Paul obviously had to explain to the Galatians what the purpose of the law was. In doing so, he has also to mention some blessings that they received which were not connected to the law as given through Moses. The danger that we often face is that when someone responds wrongly to an issue we assume that the issue is also wrong. It is possible to think that the law has no purpose for believers, but that idea is called antinomianism. False teachers had misled the Galatian Christians regarding the law and one reason for the false message being accepted was connected to the Galatians being bewitched, which implies dark origins of the false message. There is no doubt that the devil was at work in Galatia trying to destroy the gospel work of Paul and Barnabas.  Blessings without the law In this set of verses Paul first gives five arguments to get the Galatians to think about what they have done in becoming zealous for the law, especially its ceremonial aspects, and which had le...

In our sermon today, I would like us to consider the theme of providence. We will look at some of the things that Esther 8 says about providence as well as mentioning other examples of divine providence. No doubt we have many questions about providence. I suspect the basic one is, ‘Can I trust God to do what is right?’ One well-known author of a book on providence, Jerry Bridges, reckoned in his estimation that in times of adversity it is easier to obey God than to trust him. This is what he wrote: ‘The moral will of God given to us in the Bible is rational and reasonable. The circumstances in which we must trust God often appear irrational and inexplicable…. Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God’s revealed will. Trusting in God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries…. We are always coping with the unknown.’ The experience of John Craig Let me tell you some details from the life of John Craig who played an important role in the development of ...

As we know, Paul’s purpose in this letter is to recover the Galatian churches to the true faith. At the same time, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write the letter to help believers in all periods appreciate the spiritual dangers that will arise when one leaves the gospel or adds something to the gospel. Therefore we should realise that it is important to understand the gospel, and Paul in this letter describes several features connected to the contents of the gospel. And we can see that in this section of his letter he is dealing with the doctrine of justification, which is central to the gospel because it certainly details good news. It is obvious that accepting the doctrine of justification by faith required certain outlooks for his readers and it does so for us as well. We can attempt to understand this passage by asking several questions. Who are the ‘we’? Who does Paul have in mind when he uses the pronoun ‘we’ in these verses? He tells us that he means Jews. There are...

In the previous chapter, no mention had been made of the heroine of the story, but in chapter seven she assumes centre stage. Very few, if any, would have expected her to have much influence. And she would not have any if God was not at work behind the scenes and in the scenes. No doubt, several thoughts come to mind as we read the chapter. Here is one that came to my mind as I thought about the details. Does God work in murky situations? The chapter tells us that he does. When we read the account, we see a ruler who likes to drink and an adviser who hates God’s people. Neither the king or Haman believed in God, yet both of them on this day were used by God to fulfil his will. God in his providence led the king to punish Haman, and in his providence he used the instrument that Haman himself had made to punish him. We live in a world that is full of murky situations. Yet while God never approves of the sinful attitudes and actions that are taking place, we can never decide that ...