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Justification (and peace and acceptance) by faith – audio sermon
The Bible teaches that Christians are “justified by faith” just as was the first Jewish patriarch, Abraham. Before the law of Moses was written, God declared Abraham righteous for his faith (and resultant obedience) and made a promise of acceptance and blessings to him in which Christians under the New Covenant enter into by faith as well. The Christian life is to be a delicate balance of conditions of heart. Martin Luther once offered his doctor’s cap to whoever could reconcile seemingly contradicting passages from the Epistle of James and Paul’s Romans epistle. James seemed to say “works” were required, and Paul seemed to say they were not required. This…
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The church, God’s eternal will for His people, and Acts chapter 3 – audio
Here we pick up our study of the Book of Acts in chapter three, but with an overview of the all-important second chapter. As covered last week, this is when the Holy Spirit of God was poured out on Pentecost and the church took off in power. Many things pertaining to the church and the will of God are gone over in a relatively random discussion as the Spirit led. Lord bless you!
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The standard of an authentic Christian life – 1 John 3&4 – audio
Here we follow up on last week’s opener of First John with chapters three and four (and a brief overview of the end of chapter two). Lord bless you!
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Becoming ‘spiritual’ and knowing God’s inner ‘witness’ as your true north
One of the tragic outcomes of the otherwise commendable practice of studying the Bible is those who fail to become “spiritual” and come to experientially “know” God in their daily lives. These are those who read, think about, and possess the knowledge of God’s Word and truth and suppose to follow God based solely on their perception of what is “biblically correct.” Wait! Some of you may be saying. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? Well, yes, and no – sort of, but not really.
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A litmus test of true Christianity – The Epistle of 1 John 1&2 – audio
Actually the entire epistle of First John is a litmus test of the Christian faith, and that was fully intentional. John the apostle was combatting Gnostic and Docetic false teachings and with a shepherd’s heart, he was spurred to pen the epistle for which innumerable others since his day can be eternally thankful. The epistle brings into sharp contrast truths about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He and the apostles expected of authentic disciples. In this study we go on the usual rabbit trails, as we otherwise go line by line through the first two chapters. Lord bless you!
