Sermon – That… Which Matters Most

Day Six: The LORD’s Day

No great adventures for Sunday, other than LORD’s Day worship.

You can listen to the sermon here.

He Went Up a Mountain — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 23

Just a quick note: this is one of those sermons when I was able to focus in upon the importance of mountains in Scripture. Everything has meaning, and we need to see the symbolism in Scripture. In this sermon, I explain why mountains are so vital. For a hint of it, read the Call to Worship and it will help you see what I mean.

Preparation for Worship: Matthew 21:21-22

Call to worship: Hebrews 12:18-24

¹⁸For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, ¹⁹and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard itbegged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. ²⁰(For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” ²¹And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, ²³to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:27-29 (Note: Simple dichotomy)

AOPG: Isaiah 1:18-19

Old Covenant Reading (read first): Isaiah 14:12-15

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 5:1-2

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – He Went Up on a Mountain

Introduction –

I don’t know if you have notice this or not, but my sermon titles about Jesus have been about Christ’s movements. Some of the titles are as follows: He Departed to Galilee,Jesus was led up by the Spirit, Walking by the Sea, and last week, Jesus went about… Today’s sermon is: He Went Up on a Mountain.

I’ve done this for two reasons. The first is that when I title a sermon, I want to use something from Scripture so that I can avoid the temptation to come up with some cheesy catch phrase. Cheesy titles are a bane to the pulpit because the one preaching is always having to come up with something clever, at least in his own mind. In one sense, that cheapens the word of God, and exalts the pastor for how witty he is.

I don’t want to do this.

But more importantly, by using a phrase directly from the text, I can bring Scripture to bear on the sermon, before I’ve uttered a word. Just by titling the sermon, He went up on a mountain, your minds are already thinking of the movements of Jesus. He is not stagnant in His ministry, but is moving about from place to place, preaching and teaching as many people as He can.

But secondly, the movement of Christ reminds us… that He was indeed, led by the Spirit, departed Galilee, walked by the sea, and went about…

All of these movements were purposely recorded by Matthew so that we would realize how much He moved around. These details help us see the truthfulness of Christ’s ministry.

And none does that more than what we are looking at this morning. Our text reads:

And seeing the multitude, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him, then He opened His mouth and taught them…

You Shall Not Tempt — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 18

LORD’S DAY WORSHIP – JANUARY 19, 2025

Preparation for Worship: Hebrews 3:12-13

Call to worship: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:8-11 (Solomon’s tidbits…).

AOPG: Psalm 85:1-3

Old Covenant Reading (read first): Deuteronomy 6:10-20

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 4:1-7

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – You Shall Not Tempt

Introduction –

Last week we began working our way through the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. In that temptation, Jesus recapitulated Adam in the Garden of Eden.

(Recapitulation is to repeat something in concise form. For the purposes of Christ, He is repeating what Adam went through, without falling into sin. He is doing what Adam failed to do, but under far more severe circumstances).

For Adam had everything he needed to live in the Garden. There was only one thing withheld from Adam in the Garden. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam did not need the fruit of that tree to live. The tree was meant to be a blessing, once Adam proved his obedience.

Instead of living in obedience to YHWH, Adam stretched out his hand, and ate of the one thing God did not give him. He took what was forbidden to him.

At that moment of sin, Adam obtained for the first time in his short life, the knowledge of evil. His heart had become evil. He didn’t believe the LORD, and believed the serpent instead. In that moment, he fell from God’s grace.

Hopefully you see the contrast with Jesus, who is the Last Adam. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He fasted for 40 days. Then at the end of that fast, the devil came and tempted Him in two areas: the first on his Hunger, the second on His Deity.

This wilderness setting also shows us that this is a recapitulation of Israel’s time in the wilderness, when they were without water, and they tested God, instead of trusting Him.

Jesus is not only walking the steps of Adam, but the steps of Israel. The reason for this is because Israel was considered to be God’s son. By this, we mean the entire nation was to be a son to God, and He was to be their Father. Therefore, the true Israel does what is necessary to please the Father. He goes to wilderness, goes through a fast which included water, and please the Father.

Baptized with the Spirit — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 15

Sermon – Baptized with Holy Spirit and Fire

Preached December 29, 2024

Introduction –

Last week, we left off this monumental verse that quotes John the Baptist calling the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. It’s monumental because John is making a theological statement about the leadership, confronting them with their wickedness. They are wicked, because they are in positions of leadership, as shepherds, yet they are not being the shepherds they should be given the blessings of God that have been given to them.

What blessing have they been given?

Well, for one thing, they have the word of God at their disposal. Therefore, they should know the requirements for being in the covenant with God, the blessings and curses that come along with the covenant.

Now, one might hear that and think that it is better to not be in covenant with God at all. But all that means is that the attendant curses of the covenant rest on you continually, while being in the covenant, leads to true blessings.

The Pharisees and Sadducees should have known these things.

But they did not. They have become more a political group than a group that truly shepherds the people.

Yet, when given the sign of the covenant, which they boasted in, they were agreeing to be God’s covenant people. They had in their possession Deuteronomy 27 & 28, which spells out those blessings and curses, and makes it clear that blessings come to those who obey the voice of the LORD our God. The curses come when we reject the covenant, and live in disobedience.

All these things had been given to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but they chose their own way, instead of God’s way.

This is what leads John to saying what he does.

Sexual Immorality — A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 5:1-8

I obviously never published this when I preached it.

After having worked the Corinthian church over for their pride, arrogance, and self-sufficiency, the Apostle Paul then turns to deal with their leniency. The leadership of the fledgling church had failed to deal with a man who had fallen into sexual perversion. But it was worse than that. The leadership not only failed to deal with the man, they actually gloried in his sin.

This sermon deals with Paul’s rebuke of the leadership, and shows that all of the sexual perversions of our day are just as condemned as the man at Corinth. God’s design is clear from Scripture. The only acceptable sexual relationship we have been given by our creator is that between a husband and wife, man and woman. Anything else, is an abomination and an attack on the imago Dei, the image of God.

This sermon was preached August 28, 2022 at Waco Reformed Church.

Wise Men from the East: Gospel of Matthew Sermon 8

King Herod had a really big problem. Allow me to say that again. King Herod had a really big problem. If you will recall from last week’s sermon, I started with similar words: King Ahaz had a real problem.

The problem for King Ahaz was that he was surrounded by two other kings, who were seeking to destroy him and remove him from power.

King Herod’s problem is very similar, but much…, much… more serious.

What was King Herod’s problem? Foreigners. Stinking foreigners from the east. They had the audacity to come into town asking a simple question: “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”

Jesus Is Israel: Gospel of Matthew Sermon No. 1

The following is the first sermon in our series on the Gospel of Matthew. It deals with the reality that Jesus is true Israel. I know many claim to be Israel, as in the modern nation. But as Paul astutely and divinely wrote: not all Israel is Israel. To be the true, and lasting Israel, one must be in Christ, who replaced Israel and the true Son of God.

Next, I also deal with the date that Matthew wrote his gospel. Modern scholarship seems to think that the gospel was written in 60 AD or 70 AD. But this makes no sense. Why would Matthew, who was use to taking notes all the time as a tax collector, and a Pharisees, wait 40 years before writing the gospel. I make the case, along with others, that Matthew wrote the book within a few years of Pentecost. After all, this is when there was the greatest need, with all the Jews coming to know Christ on the Day of Pentecost.

I then turn to the central point of Matthew’s gospel, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.

For more information on Waco Reformed Church, go to our website here, or our Facebook page here, along with our Youtube channel here.

Early on in my pastoral career, I had a crisis of belief. This is not uncommon for pastors, or to Christians everywhere, however, for me, I thought at the time that something was clearly wrong with me.

I was right. There was something clearly wrong with me, and Jesus was working some of that wrong out of me through the crisis.

It was not only a crisis of calling, but also a crisis of understanding. For when I took the pastorate of that small, dying Baptist church, I thought for certain, I had what it took to right that ship, and get it going on the right direction.

This is what seminary does for a fella.

Yet, in that, the LORD continued on in His faithfulness toward me, and one of the things that He took away from me, was my fleshly understanding of His Kingdom.

He did that through one verse.

Matthew 2:14-15

¹⁴When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, ¹⁵and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

It was actually two verses, but verse 15 was the key. “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

What Matthew was doing in this verse is showing that it wasn’t the people who were His Son, but Jesus Christ. If you look at Hosea 11:1, we see where Matthew found the quote.

“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.

Now when you first look at that verse, it seems simple enough. Hosea made the prophecy that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt, and we will see that He does go to Egypt for a time. (This also shows that Jesus makes the same journey as the patriarchs did, and the people during the Exodus. But will get to this in a few weeks.)

When Matthew quotes from Hosea, he knows that his audience will know Hosea 11 and what is found there. It is not just a prophecy about the coming Messiah, but a description of Israel at the time. They had fallen into idolatry, and rejecting the loving hand of YHWH. (Go to the text ).
²As they called them,
So they went from them;
They sacrificed to the Baals,
And burned incense to carved images.

What Hosea 11 actually shows us is that the nation of Israel, was and is not true Israel, Christ is.

Listen to the full sermon.

Baptism for the Dead

Here are some of the things discussed in this sermon:

Just to Be Clear

Since baptism is such a controversial topic…some thoughts on baptism.

First, Doug Wilson writes:

Of course this baptism does not automatically save the one baptized; there is no magical cleansing power in the water. We reject the Roman Catholic notion that saving grace goes in when the water goes on. We deny any ex opere operato efficacy to the waters of baptism. We also deny the modern Protestant reductionism that says that when the water goes on, somebody gets wet.

Let me put it this way: our baptism has meaning. It is used by God in our lives. It is not just an empty ritual that we do because Christ told us to do it. It has a real effect in our lives.

The sacraments do not depend on the godliness of the minister. This refutes the false notion of sacerdotalism, in which it was believed the priest had special powers. The effectual nature of baptism comes from the word of God and the Holy Spirit.

The sacraments confirm the Word, though they are ineffective without the Word, but the word cannot have its full effect without the sacraments. The refutes the notion that the sacraments are sacerdotal as well.

The sacraments are covenantal and relational.

The sacraments are performative acts. They do something. Just like a man saying “I do” in a wedding ceremony. It means something.

Baptism admits a person to the covenant community, regardless of faith. Just as a man who says “I do” is still a husband in a marriage, and may be a faithless husband, so too can one be baptized and be a faithless Christian.

Sacraments bring both blessings and curses, just as they did in the old covenant. Blessing come to those who come to the sacraments in true faith, and curses to those who don’t believe.

The non-elect do not receive what the sacraments signify for blessings.

We deny that the sacraments automatically save. We deny ex opera operato.

We deny Protestant reductionism… that it simply means someone gets wet. Far more than that.

Baptism accomplishes something. “I do.”

The first part of the sermon deals with what was probably meant by being baptized for the dead.

The Ascension According to John, Part 2

All of heaven waited patiently for the arrival of the Son of Man. The angels in heaven watched over Him for 33 years after making the announcement of His incarnation. They sang above the manger and tended to Him in the wilderness after His first victory over Satan. They witnessed His death and burial, announced His resurrection, and finally watched and waited with the rest of the host of heaven for His arrival.

The Son of Man was returning to the Father. Heaven waited.

Before He arrived, John was called up into heaven to witness the arrival. As we saw last week, John saw the Ancient of Days, sitting on His throne. He saw the four living creatures, all worshipping the Ancient of Days. He saw the 24 elders on their thrones, then falling down before the Ancient of Days and casting their crowns at His feet.

He was witnessing worship in the true Temple.

But there was One who was missing.

Did John realize what He was witnessing? Did he understand he was seeing the flip side of the ascension? Did he remember what Daniel had written about the arrival of the Son of Man before the Ancient of Days, and the bestowal of power, glory, and dominion, along with an everlasting kingdom?

Probably so.

Therefore, John continued to look for one like the Son of Man, as Daniel had seen. He saw that the Ancient of Days held a written scroll in His right hand, a scroll with writing on both the front and the back, and the scroll was sealed.

The Ascension According to John, Part 1

Based on Revelation 4.

Now… when it comes to The Revelations of Jesus Christ, which should be the proper name for the book, people have two responses. First, they either ignore it all together, or secondly, they grossly misinterpret it and use it for all kinds of fabricated sensationalism.

In the Reformed circles which I have traveled in, most of the pastors I have known are amillennial who tend to ignore the book all together.

The other camp that abuses the book are those who are Dispensational. Dispensationalists have taken the book, and its central message, and blown it to smithereens by their insistence that the book wasn’t written for First Century Christians under persecution from the Great Harlot. They make the book all about themselves, thinking that Babylon the Great, and the Great Harlot are in action now.

Dispensationalists are futurist, and see the entire book as something that will happen, but has not yet done so. They believe the Revelation of Jesus Christ wasn’t written in the First Century for those in the First Century. They believe that all the events were written for those in the 18^th Century when the first Dispensationalist accurately placed all the events of Revelation in their day, and accurately predicted the coming of the rapture.

NO Wait!, Dispensationalist made a mistake in the 18^th Century, they meant the 19^thCentury, when all the events of Revelation were finally manifesting themselves and the rapture was accurately predicted to occur.

20^th Century! They meant the 20^th Century and had a multitude of books on the topic, predicting the events of the 20^th Century as those in the book of Revelation along with multiple accurate and true predictions of when the rapture would occur.

And here we are in the 21^st Century, and they are making the same false claims and false predictions about the events depicted in the book of Revelation and the rapture.

So then, how are we to deal with The Revelation of Jesus Christ?