2,776 active users! |
|
|
| Providence Reformed Baptist Church |
Stephen Nutter | Minneapolis, Minnesota
|
 |  | 952-484-5295 |
|
This section shows all user comments posted
on all sermons, products, blogs, and events for this broadcaster
|
|
|
 |
|
| · Page 1 · Found: 66 total user comment(s) |
 |
|
|
 5/14/13 6:35 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | |  |  |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 4 (final) ”
4. ITS MANNER. Saving faith has three components: knowledge, assent, and its essence, which is trust. We cast our whole soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Our peace will only be as strong as our faith. The Lord again: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me” (JOHN 14:1). ROMANS 15:13: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Others may not be able to see our faith, but they can see our peace. Our peace is unique because it is in the Lord, and OF the Lord. CONCLUSION. TO THE LOST: there is truth in “Know God, know peace; no God, no peace.” The untranquil heart belongs to he who doesn’t know the Lord. TO THE WEAK IN FAITH: little faith knows little peace. It also slanders God and scatters your faith. Has God ever failed you? Has He ever not kept a promise? Has He ever shown Himself unworthy of your trust? Again, your peace is only as strong as your faith. TO THEY WHO ENJOY THIS PEACE: you may join David in PSALM 84:12: “O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.” |
|
|
| 5/14/13 6:35 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 3 ”
3. ITS PEOPLE. They are called the steadfast of mind. The ancient Hebrew gave the mind a much broader function than the Occidental. The mind was considered to be the whole person. So “steadfast of mind” implies a steady person, leaning his full weight on the Rock of God. David’s psalms reflect such a person. In PSALM 62:1-2, he declares God to be his only rock and salvation. Consequently, “I shall not be greatly moved.” Peace for David was not just an absence of trials, but God’s presence in his trials. True peace is not conditioned upon agreeable circumstances, but upon calmness and serenity in the midst of a storm. Saving peace is covenant love. [On the topic of saving peace, I recommend *A Lifting Up for the Downcast* by William Bridge. –IM] What we have is just a taste of the peace Jesus had as He went through with His Passion for our sake. He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (JOHN 14:27). |
|
|
| 5/14/13 6:34 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 2 ”
For the Old Testament Hebrew, peace meant all of God’s blessings, external and internal. It included a sense of calm within turbulence, closure with the past, acceptance of the future, communion with God, cheerful resignation to His will (*Whate’er My God Ordains is Right*: “Whate’er my God ordains is right:/His holy will abideth;/I will be still whate’er He doth;/And follow where He guideth;/He is my God; though dark my road,/He holds me that I shall not fall:/Wherefore to Him I leave it all.”), and forbade rashness and despair. 2. ITS AUTHOR. Verse 7 tells us that He is upright: He weighs and considers. He is also a leveler: He straightens the paths of righteousness. In verse 10, we read of His majesty. Unbelievers don’t see it because they can’t. The favor and patience the wicked can be shown will not help them see their authors. In verses 5, 11, and 14 we see that He is omnipotent. He not only destroys His enemies, but He blots them from memory. His zeal for His people puts His enemies to shame. In verses 3, 12, and 15 we see that He is ever-gracious. Despite our fallenness, God sees the perfection of Christ imputed to us. In verses 4 and 16, we see that He is our great deliverer. He is utterly reliable and durable. |
|
|
| 5/14/13 6:33 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 1 ”
ROMANS 15:4: We are not to ignore the Old Testament; it was written also for us for our instruction. ISAIAH 26:3 shows the inhabitants of the City of God to be a calm, serene people. If we are not so, then we are living beneath our privileges. The City of Man knows no such peace; we can see it in the news and all around us in the secular world. Isaac Watts, *Our God, Our Help*: “The busy tribes of flesh and blood,/With all their lives and cares,/Are carried downwards by thy flood,/And lost in following years.” In the present verse, we see FOUR CHARACTERISTICS OF CALMNESS AND SERENITY: 1. ITS NATURE. In verse 11, we see the shame of the City of Man, and its bondage in verse 13. But in the City of God, we have “peace squared”. Rather than live for ourselves, we live for God. Verse 12: “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” In ROMANS 5:1, Paul says that peace with God through Christ comes with justification by faith. We stand with it: it characterizes our life. From here to glory there will be problems, but we exalt in our tribulations: they bring perseverance with the grace of hope. In the City of Man, however, we see in ISAIAH 57:20-21 we see the tossing sea of the wicked. |
|
|
| 5/13/13 6:26 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 5 (final) ”
B. EVERY WIFE AND MOTHER NEEDS THE GRACE OF GOD TO BE HOPEFUL AMIDST HER TRIALS. We never need a perfect scenario, but a perfect God. 1. If you would experience help amidst your trials, fix your hope upon the gracious rule of a sovereign God. He knows what is best for you, dear mother. 2. If you would experience help amidst your trials, do not allow your challenges to make you bitter. To do so is to think you know better than God. Trials that don’t make you bitter can make you better. 3. If you would experience help amidst your trials, learn to nurture your hope by frequent, fervent, believing prayer. Our hope deflates when we are not in the habit of prayer. Prayer makes you an overcomer. 4. If you would experience hope amidst your trials, dedicate the object of your hope to the glory of God. Do your goals glorify God, or are they just for you? Do you serve God better with it or without it? Is your hope self-centered or God-centered? |
|
|
| 5/13/13 6:25 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 4 ”
III. ABIDING MESSAGES. A. EVERY WIFE AND MOTHER FACES PECULIAR DOMESTIC TRIALS ORDAINED BY GOD. 1. Do not wish for nor expect that you will be exempt from domestic trials or you will be sorely disappointed and sadly disillusioned. God had one Son without sin but none without suffering, and so will conform you more to Christ in your sufferings; they are tailor-made for you. 2. Expect that you will face trails from the limitations, sins, and failures of your husbands. “I do” must become “I will” because with God’s grace, “I can”. 3. Expect your children to bring difficult if not bitter trials into your home. 4. Do not seek to escape from your domestic trials. “’Till death do us part.” God has given you a husband to live with—to love and serve and perhaps children to be raised for His glory. 5. Because your trials may leave you feeling helpless, you must seek your hope not in different circumstances, but in the Lord. Circumstances and the people in them are never perfect, not even close, but God always is. |
|
|
| 5/13/13 6:24 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 3 ”
God rewards hope sometimes by giving us the desire of our heats and sometimes by granting us the grace of contentment in our situation: a win-win situation either way 2. She refused to retaliate against her rival, but instead resigned her to the Lord. She may have confessed her bitterness, but also asked for the grace to not respond in kind. Because hope is a grace, it is opposed to carnal self-vindication and retaliation. 3. She believed that God could change her present situation if He wished. She didn’t wish for Peninnah to be removed, but for her womb to be opened. Hannah teaches us that â€hope can see Heaven through the thickest clouds’ (Thomas Brooks). B. HANNAH NURTURED HER HOPE BY FREQUENT, FERVENT, BELIEVING PRAYER. Hope is not a static grace but it makes people pray, even to the faith of moving the hand of God (PSALM 55:2, 42:11). Hannah teaches us that hope is kept alive by prayer—persevering, fervent, believing prayer. C. HANNAH DEDICATED THE OBJECT OF HER HOPE TO THE GLORY OF GOD. Samuel had a much better chance of a Godly life under someone like Hannah than near the priesthood of that day. Like God the Father, a mother who first gives her son to the Lord will give Him everything else. |
|
|
| 5/13/13 6:22 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 1 ”
In 1 SAMUEL 1, Hannah used her hope in her trials. Every wife can learn from her hope, as there is no such thing as a perfect husband. I. THE PROVIDENTIAL CHALLENGES TO HANNAH’S HOPE. She was married to Elkanah, a worshipping man in an ungodly time. Though a Levite, he apparently was not a priest. A. HANNAH’S YEARNING FOR THE GIFT OF MOTHERHOOD SEEMED HOPELESS. Elkanah may have married Hannah first, then Peninnah when Hannah couldn’t give him children. In Hannah’s culture, barrenness came with a stigma, seen as God’s judgment. Women with sore providential trials are especially vulnerable to discouragement. B. HANNAH’S DESIRE FOR THE BLESSING OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE SEEMED HOPELESS. Imagine sharing your husband with another woman, whether literally or another in his heart. Coupled with her ongoing barrenness, one can only imagine Hannah’s misery. 1. Hannah’s husband’s marriage to another woman invited family strife. We should remember that whenever we challenge God’s order. Despite the double portion he granted Hannah (verse 5), there is no evidence in the text that Elkanah ever stood up to Peninnah for Hannah. Refusal to trust the Lord’s wisdom—doubting that He knows what is best for us—will surely lead to heartache, if not also to sin. |
|
|
| 5/7/13 7:25 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 4 ”
Coupled with verse 3, we see the doctrines of God’s preservation and the individual perseverance, and how the former is for the sake of the latter. His faith may waver, his besetting sins may keep troubling him, but God keeps us anyway, gently onward and upward. REVELATION 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” 5. THE REWARD OF THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Entrance into the holy City. 2 PETER 3:13: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” PSALM 118:19-20: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD: This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.” This is David, perfectly squaring with New Testament revelation, connecting righteousness to Christ and the righteousness He imputed to His people. REVELATION 22:14: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS: 1. We must first be made right before God before we can become righteous. We typically get this backwards. 2. Jesus’ faithfulness (not ours) is the foundation of our righteousness before God. |
|
|
| 5/7/13 7:24 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 3 ”
1 PETER 2:6-9: the Church, like the Jews, is chosen and peculiar. But as the Jews cast away the Rock of Christ, It became the cornerstone of the Church. How does the Church demonstrate its faithfulness? a) by its faithfulness in worship: engaging heart, mind, and soul in the Spirit, heeding Scripture, and glorifying God. ISAIAH 66:2: The Lord looks through His grand creation to the individual who worships Him. b) by faithfulness to God’s truth. The Bible is God’s sole, written revelation, and is our sole, final authority for truth. It includes testifying to the truth of the Gospel regardless of the world’s objections. c) by faithfulness to God’s commands. Not our will, but His be done. Faithfulness to all His commands keeps us clear of legalism and license. It means living faithfully in Christ Jesus. d) by faithfulness to God’s Church. Christians are members of one another. We are as faithful to the Head as we are to the Body. We must not only practice regular engagement in the Church, but holy engagement. 4. THE PERSERVERANCE OF THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, which means maintaining faithfulness. Note “remain” in ISAIAH 26:2 (or “keepeth” in the KJV): their faithfulness was ongoing. |
|
|
| 5/7/13 7:22 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 2 ”
JEREMIAH 33:16: A prophecy of Christ’s return, in which Jerusalem itself is called “The Lord our righteousness.” Spiritual Jerusalem will itself have imputed righteousness. ROMANS 3:22: the righteousness of God is unto all who believe (without regard to all earthly distinctions) by the faith OF Jesus Christ. 1 CORINTHIANS 1:30: we are in Christ by His doing, not ours. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21: God imputed to Christ our unrighteousness, Who in turn imputed His righteousness to us. Paul speaks of his own example of this in PHILIPPIANS 3:9. ROMANS 5:19: by one man’s sin we fell, and by another’s obedience we are saved. 3. THE FRUIT OF THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. ISAIAH 26:2: the Christian fruit is faithfulness. This term [“eimun” in Hebrew] is used only four other times in the Old Testament: applying to nations as a measure of their righteousness (DEUTERONOMY 32:20), individuals contrasted to the bad (PROVERBS 13:17), the false (PROVERBS 14:5), and the rare individual (PROVERBS 20:6). A Christian’s credibility is demonstrated in his faithfulness to God. He is not just loyal with his lips, but with his life. MATTHEW 21:42-43: Jesus takes the Kingdom of God away from the Jewish nation, who failed to become that faithful nation, and gives it to the Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ. |
|
|
| 5/7/13 7:21 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 1 ”
The City of Man is only strong in its own imagination. ISAIAH 26:2: “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.” This does not refer to the return to Jerusalem from Babylon: the Jews did not satisfy the name of a righteous nation, and the city of Jerusalem did not suit the description of the City of God. Who they are can be inferred from five characteristics of their righteousness: 1. THE NEED FOR THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. It is needed because of legal condemnation before God, something under which we were born, and to which we have added with our sins. In ISAIAH 25:8, we see that God will remove their reproach from all the earth, something we cannot do ourselves. The City of God’s citizens are not natively righteousness. They obtain their righteousness from their Lord. 2. THE ROOT OF THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Defined: Christ’s righteousness. We don’t make ourselves good enough, because that’s not possible. The perfect righteousness that God demands can only come from a perfect Lord. ISAIAH 26:12: “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for THOU ALSO HAST WROUGHT ALL OUR WORKS IN US.” The King Himself has provided the grounds for his people. JEREMIAH 23:5-6: A prophecy of the coming Christ, called “OUR righteousness”. |
|
|
| 5/6/13 6:46 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 5 (final) ”
3. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU HEAR (2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they HEAP TO THEMSELVES TEACHERS, HAVING ITCHING EARS; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Note that “teachers” is plural; a common result of resisting soundness is a resistance to submitting to the teaching and ministry of one trusted pastor at a given time. Richard Baxter offered a twofold measure of good preaching: the matter, which should be clear and distinct, and the manner, which should be lively and convincing. Most Christians have their favorite preachers, but all must always listen for the voice of Christ in any preaching they hear. The Corinthian church were dividing into groups with favorite preachers, and Paul had to sort it out (1 CORINTHIANS 1:10-16). Such an approach is not Christ-honoring but pastor-honoring, and stunts spiritual growth. TO BE CONTINUED NEXT LORD’S DAY. |
|
|
| 5/6/13 6:45 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 4 ”
C. FIVE SUBORDINATE POINTS TO TAKING OUR SOBER RESPONSIBILITY SERIOUSLY: 1. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU HEAR (MARK 4:24: “And he said unto them, Take heed WHAT ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.”) Jesus’ caution immediately followed Mark’s parallel of the Parable of the Sower. The better we hear, the more we will be given to hear. We must avoid an Athenian, indiscriminate hunger of new ideas (ACTS 17:21) and adopt the Scripture-honoring, searching, Berean example (ACTS 17:11). As they were ideal searchers of Scripture, we must be Berean hearers of preaching. 2. BE CAREFUL WHY YOU HEAR (HEBREWS 4:2: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached DID NOT PROFIT THEM, NOT BEING MIXED WITH FAITH in them that heard it.”) People go to church for different reasons. Joshua and Caleb heard for the right reasons, but most of the Hebrews did not, and perished in the wilderness. WHY did the people go out to see John the Baptist? WHY do you listen to sermons? Even in Biblical churches, some attend and “sit through” the sermons because they’re there for reasons other than Biblical edification. |
|
|
| 5/6/13 6:44 AM |
| Ian Migala | from Minneapolis, Minnesota | | | |
|
• Add new comment
|
“ Summary, Part 2 ”
ACTS 14:1: Paul and Barnabas preached to the Jews, but with such holy conviction that Jews AND Greeks were saved. 4. Unsuccessful efforts should not be understood as a measure of the preacher’s ability and faithfulness. Many heard Jesus, the perfect preacher, and didn’t get saved. 5. Such unsuccessful efforts should be understood in light of the preacher’s sphere of operations. The sower does not create the soil: God does. 6. But over time, a faithful preacher should expect that his sowing labors will not entirely be in vain. Good soil is to be found somewhere, and the Bible lists thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hundredfold harvests on such ground, but not zerofold (MATTHEW 13:23). [Also remember that the harvest may be beyond the preacher’s awareness or time on earth. Search Ray Comfort’s inspiring “George Street Testimony”. –IM]. B. OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THE HEARER. 1. All who hear the Word of God preached hear the same good Word. 2. Not all hearers come to preaching with the same interest or go away with the same benefit. The benefit we receive from the good Word is proportionate to our attentiveness and interest. We should be just as eager for understanding as the preacher is for communicating. |
|
|
|
| Jump to Page : [1] 2 3 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
