Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 10/2/2011 You Shall Not Bear False Witness (Exod. 20:16) We are used to thinking of bearing witness as an activity of court cases in which witnesses to an aspect of such cases say what they know. Of course, the commandment extends beyond those situations and refers to every word that we say (or in some situations, the words that we do not say). In fact, words are a focus of several of the commandments: obviously we use words when worshipping God (1-4), children use words when honouring their parents (5), angry words are one way of breaking the sixth commandment, immoral words are a method of breaking the seventh commandment, and persons can use words to enable them to steal. The ninth commandment is also concerned about words, but its focus is on false words. Clearly, the Lord wanted Israel to be a truthful society. Yet in order for a society to be truthful in its actions, its members must also be truthful in character. Telling the truth is more ...

This sermon was preached on 30/1/2011 In a previous passage, Colossians 2:11-12, Paul reminded the Colossians that they had been united with Christ when he died and when he rose from the dead. The doctrine of union with Christ is a key doctrine in the Bible and if we grasp it we will understand many other doctrines. The doctrine has both representational and practical aspects. Obviously, a great percentage of his people did not exist when Jesus died and rose again (they had not yet been born), so what he did for his people then was representational, performed on their behalf. Probably some of the Colossians had been alive when Jesus died and rose from the dead, yet since they were not yet believers Jesus’ work on their behalf was also representational. Sinners enter into the consequences of his representative work when they believe in him. Following on from these verses, Paul refers to several consequences of the death of Christ, the main thrust of his references being the liberty th...

This sermon was preached on 30/1/2011 Very often in the Bible, the Lord uses everyday events to depict his way of working with humans. We are familiar with God being describes as a king, as a shepherd, as a redeemer, and as a metal-worker, to mention a few. In this chapter the Lord is likened to a potter. Jeremiah was commanded by God to go a potter’s house and observe him making a pot or similar utensil out of clay. When he reached there he observed that the potter was working on a piece of clay. During the process, something went wrong, but instead of throwing the clay away the potter continued to work on it until he had made a suitable vessel (vv. 1-4). This incident had many lessons for Jeremiah, and for us. Perhaps the first point to note is the sense of urgency with which the Lord speaks to the prophet when he tells him to arise and go down to the potter’s house. Whether Jeremiah was in bed or merely sitting down cannot be known, but what is clear is that he was to obe...

This sermon was preached on 27/1/2011 You Shall Not Steal (Exodus 20:15) One of the epidemics that is sweeping our nation is that of theft. It has been calculated that 13% of our gross national product is stolen each year. An article I read stated that between 2000 and 2006, shoplifting cost retailers in Britain almost £14 billion pounds. The Treasury is denied millions of pounds by individuals who don’t pay the right amount of tax. Offices lose a lot of money each year because staff pilfer pens and other items of stationery. There are several million people in Britain who work in offices. If each one takes a pen for his own usage each month, the cost to the companies involved is almost £1,000,000 each month. And we can add to pens a whole range of other items. Of course, each individual can say, ‘It is only a small item, and no-one will notice.’ But the cost overall is high, and all of it is a breaking of the eighth commandment. On the social level, the consequences of the...

This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011 It is likely that this verse alludes to a common proverb. Gilead was well-known for its medicinal balm. Reference is made to the existence of this balm in the story of Joseph in Genesis 37:25: ‘Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.’ Obviously, where such medicines could be found would be where expert physicians would also be found. 1. The state of the people The background to the chapter is the invasion of Judah by the Babylonians. This invasion was allowed by God as a punishment of the people for their sins. They had been guilty of a form of idolatry that involved combining the worship of the true God with worship of idols. Probably they regarded this combination as progress in their religious understanding, but the actual outcome was that they lost the knowledge they had been given about the L...

This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011 It seems that the Christians in Colosse were drifting away from a position in which their focus was on the person and work of Jesus. The particular attraction that diverted them is not that important for us (if it was crucial for us to know what the alternative interests were, Paul would have told us). Instead what is important is Paul’s response to their departure, and his response is given in great detail in this letter. The reason why it is vital is because Christians must always focus on the person and work of Jesus and not allow themselves to accommodate, even in a little way, different ideas about how to live the spiritual life. Of course, focussing on Jesus is a wide subject. In a sense, it is like telling a wealthy person to view all his territory and assets. Sometimes such a person can view his possessions from a high vantage point, another time he can view them from a distance and take a lot of them into sight, and at another time he ca...

This sermon was preached on 23/1/2011 It is obvious from the New Testament that Simon Peter was an important person in the development of the early church. In addition to the references to him in the Gospels, he is also a central figure in the Book of Acts (where Luke details the growth of the early church) as well as the writer of two letters (1 and 2 Peter) to churches in modern-day Turkey. It is also generally believed that the Gospel of Mark, although written by the person of that name, was directly influenced by Peter (Mark was him in 1 Peter 5:13). A great deal of information is given about Peter in the Gospels and in the Acts, which suggests that the Holy Spirit, in enabling the authors of these books to write under his inspiration, desires readers of the Bible to learn from the experiences of Peter. So Peter is a crucial person in the biblical story. Who was Simon Peter? The Gospels tell us that he was a fisherman from Bethsaida (John 1:44), who also had property in Capernaum...