Category: Self-examination / Self-observation

Hosea 14:1-3 Coming Home [repentance] Pastor Richard Caldwell Jr

Well, as you are well aware if you have been with us throughout most of this study of Hosea, most of the message of Hosea is a message of judgment. It is a message of warning. It is the Lord through the prophet bringing his people face to face with their sins and the Lord calling upon them to recognize the gravity of their sins and the truly destructive nature of their sins. This is the main message of Hosea. And yet what we cannot miss in the book, what is unmistakable, what appears interspersed all throughout the book is also the certain knowledge of God’s love, God’s amazing patience, his grace, his mercy, because throughout the book you have the Lord calling these people to repent. Don’t just recognize that you have sinned. Don’t just recognize where it all leads, but recognize it so that you are rescued from it. Turn from it. Turn to the living God. Receive his forgiveness and submit your life to him. Obey him. That is the purpose of the book. That is the goal of the book. [opening lines of the sermon copied from PDF]

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Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own… Albert Barnes’ Commentary

This post uses the commentary of Albert Barnes to consider Philippians 3:9 “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” This topic is foundational to the Christian life, Romans and Galatians are about it. From my own struggles, and writing about the false teachings that pervade the 21st century church, I am certain that most Christians do not understand this doctrine sufficiently well, such that they are certainly relying only on the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. If you cannot say with certainty that you do, then take a few moments and get some helpful insight.

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Combat Between the Flesh and the Spirit – Puritan Christopher Love

This post contains 3 videos: a video short, a 17-minute excerpt of the full sermon from which the short came; and the full-length sermon. The Puritan Christopher Love addressed the matter of the Holy Spirit’s work in sanctifying the believer. He focused on two aspects: what the Spirit does to dissuade a believer from sinning; and what the Spirit does to sanctify the believer after he has sinned. Every Christian needs to understand this matter as well as possible such that he/she is receptive to the Spirit’s workings. Highlights are provided for the 17-minute excerpt; a link to some posts in this blog about Jonathan Edwards addressing these matters, but Edwards was not as thorough as Love.

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Unity of Old and New Testaments [Part 2]

The purpose of this series is to show that Bible covenants cause the Old and New Testaments to have unity. The Old and New Testaments, are the revelation of One God to a people He is calling out of this world. One can easily see the truth of that statement if he/she looks at God’s plan of redemption via the covenants He entered into with mankind in order to restore him, to redeem him. Excerpts from John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion will be used to support my purpose statement.

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Poverty of Spirit – Matthew 5:3 – a definition

This post contains one commentary explanation of poverty of spirit from Matthew 5:3; it also contains a brief excerpt from two other posts about Jonathan Edwards, the excerpts are extremely relevant to the Matthew 5:3. One of those posts gave glimpses into his struggle for obedience; the other into his analysis of what constituted a truly born again person as opposed to a false convert.

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Christian Affliction… Being Exercised… Blessed Fruits — C H Spurgeon

C H Spurgeon’s three sermon points were: the outward appearance of our trials; blessed fruitfulness of trials; and those exercised by trials. It is a 45-minute sermon that mentioned points I had never heard on this topic. The section about being exercised is very beneficial to know if you are in the midst of trials. All Christians will eventually be there. There are sermon highlights, and several term definitions.

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Transgender Wedding Controversy… Alistair Begg… Clarity

This post contains a video that looks at several aspects of the Alistair Begg counsel regarding a transgender wedding: it opens with a brief intro about the issue at hand; Alistair Begg’s counsel; the American Family Association Response to Begg’s counsel; John Piper’s response and his biblical counsel for that situation; and a conclusion. The beginning times for each section of the video are provided for those who only want to hear a portion; also, links to source video.

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Give Sin a Name: Things Unseen with Sinclair B Ferguson

Pastor Sinclair Ferguson began a new podcast titled, Things Unseen in 2024. Each episode is 4-6 minutes in length. This post contains the episode of 1-19-24 and a link to the other 14 messages he has thus far aired. I got my post of yesterday, John Newton’s hymn, via a reference he made to search the hymn. Ferguson’s most recent several podcasts have been about character types of Christians that Newton identified in a little book he wrote. Each character flaw will remind you of Christians you are in the midst of, perhaps, yourself. Ferguson’s purpose seems to help Christians identify their own flaws for future prayer….

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