The Decalogue Hermeneutic

The next sermon in a series on the Decalogue.



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Daily Fellowship with God Parts 8&9

Continuing on...

8. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things—the likeness of His death and resurrection, (Romans 6:5 ). The death of Christ was the consummation of His humility and obedience, the entire giving up of His life to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we sink down in humility and dependence and entire surrender to God, the power of His death works in us, and we are made conformable to His death. And so we know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the victory over sin, and all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore every morning, “present yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.” He will maintain the life He gave, and bestow the grace to live as risen ones.

9. All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you. Count upon Him to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to increase in you the inflowing of His Spirit. As you wait before God to realize His presence, remember that the Spirit is in you to reveal the things of God. Seek in God’s presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment be spiritual. - Taken from The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

Daily Fellowship with God Part 7

Number 7 of Andrew Murray's reminders on daily fellowship with God.

7. We have not only Christ’s life in us as a power, and His presence with us as a person, but we have His likeness to be wrought into us. He is to be formed in us, so that His form or figure, His likeness, can be seen in us. Bow before God until you get some sense of the greatness and blessedness of the work to be carried on by God in you this day. Say to God, “Father, here am I for Thee to give as much in me of Christ’s likeness as I can receive.” And wait to hear Him say, “My child, I give thee as much of Christ as thy heart is open to receive.” The God who revealed Jesus in the flesh and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him. The Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in thee. Count upon it that this blessed work will be done in thee as thou waitest on thy God, and holdest fellowship with Him. - Taken from The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

Daily Fellowship with God Part 6

Let's return to Andrew Murray's reminders on fellowship with God.

6. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love, and He looks every day for the personal response of your love. Look into His face with trust, till His love really shines into your heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do love Him. He offers Himself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the power of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps close to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him. - Taken from The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

Daily Fellowship with God Part 5

Let us look at number 5 of Andrew Murray's instructions on daily fellowship with God.

5. Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in nothing but His beloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else in those who draw nigh to Him. Enter deep into God’s holy presence in the boldness which the blood gives, and in the assurance that in Christ you are most well-pleasing. In Christ you are within the veil. You have access into the very heart and love of the Father. This is the great object of fellowship with God, that I may have more of God in my life, and that God may see Christ formed in me. Be silent before God and let Him bless you. - Taken from The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

More to follow...

Daily Fellowship with God Part 4

Andrew Murray has so many good things to say on regular, daily fellowship with God. Here is number 4:

4. When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take your place of deepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the Spirit of humility. As a creature it is your blessedness to be nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner you are not worthy to look up to God; bow in self abasement. As a saint, let God’s love overwhelm you, and bow you still lower down. Sink down before Him in humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to His goodness and mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low before God. - Taken from The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

Daily Fellowship with God Part 3

More from Andrew Murray on daily fellowship with God.

3. To this end, let your first act in your devotion be a setting yourself still before God. In prayer, or worship, everything depends upon God taking the chief place. I must bow quietly before Him in humble faith and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: “God is. God is near. God is love, longing to communicate Himself to me. God the Almighty One, Who worketh all in all, is even now waiting to work in me, and make Himself known. “Take time, till you know God is very near". - Taken from the The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

Still more to come...

Daily Fellowship With God Parts 1&2

It is often so easy for us to forget our need for the Lord and to spend time with him daily. The following are good reminders taken from The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray.

1. The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God.

2. The Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the s sun every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong. The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God. - Andrew Murray

More to come....

Our Speech

As we start our week let us be cautious in our speech. We have the power to build up or tear down. Let's take time to think before we speak.

Proverbs 18:21
The tongue has the power of life and death,

and those who love it will eat its fruit. (NIV)

Rutherford on Prayer

Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at Christ’s gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him; and the rather, because he is dumb. . . . Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping. -SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

The Glory of God Shown in Christ's Love to Sinner's

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I’m Thankful for Pain

I’m Thankful for Pain

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True Obedience

The first sermon in a series on the Decalogue by Pastor Scott R. Wright of Redeemer Church (PCA).

A Thanksgiving Thought

This Thanksgiving let us not only thank the Lord for those things we like and enjoy but also for those things we don't. Much of our lives are spent attempting to circumvent situations and circumstances that God has planned for us. John Piper explains that, Untold numbers of professing Christians waste their lives trying to escape the cost of love. They do not see that it is always worth it. There is more of God's glory to be seen and savored through suffering than through self-serving escape. Paul puts in like this: "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). "Momentary" refers to a lifetime in comparison with eternity. "Slight" refers to suffering and death compared to the weight of everlasting joy in the presence of God. This is what we gain if we hold fast to Christ. This is what we waste if we don't. God designs that tribulations intensify our hope for the glory of God" (From Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, page 73).

So as we pray tomorrow thanking Him for all the wonderful Providences we have received in the last year, let us also recall the unpleasant Providences remembering that they, too, draw us nearer to Christ and "our hope for the glory of God."

Union with Christ - Sinclair Ferguson

More on Meditative Prayer

More on meditative prayer can be found here from the Resurgence. Enjoy and be blessed.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:2

O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97

An Escape From...

An escape from suffering would be an escape from the power to sympathise, and that were to be deprecated beyond all things. -C.H. Spurgeon

How very true. How can we know and help and pray for others without knowing the deep hurt that they experience? Let us embrace our suffering knowing that our kind and gracious Lord has more for us than the pains of this life. Embrace it and be enabled to help those in turmoil around you. For as believers we have a hope in this regard:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:1-4

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

The last sermon in a series on the Parables.



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Hold Fast

I urge you by our common faith, by my true and simple love for you. Hold fast to your glory with courage, perseverance, and strength, having over come the enemy. We are still in the world. We are still placed in the battlefield. We fight daily for our lives. Take care in order to profit from these battles and to finish what you have begun to be. It is a small thing to attain something, but it is more important to keep what you have attained. Faith and saving birth makes alive, not by being received, but by being preserved. It isn't actually attainment, but the perfecting, that keeps a man for God. The Lord taught this when He said, "Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Imagine Him as saying this to one who confesses Him, "Lo, thou art made a confessor' sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Solomon, Saul, and many others were able to keep the grace given to them as long as they walked in the Lord's ways. But when they abandoned the Lord, grace abandoned them. - Cyprian (c.200-258).

Packer on Meditation

We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well we may ask; for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously for their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. Its purpose is to clear one's mental health and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one's mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God's power and grace. Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God's greatness and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us - 'comfort' us, in the old strong, Bible sense of the word - as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ. - (Taken from Knowing God by J.I. Packer, pgs. 18-19, emphasis mine.)