OUR God's Law [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 5:1–5]

How are we to receive God’s law? Deuteronomy 5:1–5 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we are to receive the law from our covenant God, through our covenant Mediator. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

The Law's Limitless Joy and Life [Family Worship lesson in Psalm 119:89–96]

Where can true and lasting delight be found? Psalm 119:89–96 looks forward to opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that true and lasting delight can only be found in the Lord, by means of His Word. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Freed by Love to Love the Law [Family Worship lesson in 1John 4:21–5:3]

How good are God’s commandments? 1John 4:21–5:3 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s commandments are such blessings as are designed to foster assurance that we are His.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

True Love [2024.04.17 Midweek Sermon in Romans 13:8–10]

True love is unto God first, defined by God's law, and determined by God's providence.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Law Fulfilled and Love Defined [Family Worship lesson in Romans 13:8–10]

What debt may a Christian conscientiously leave outstanding? Romans 13:8–10 prepares us for the sermon in the midweek prayer meeting. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the only debt that we should leave outstanding is the debt of love. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Married for the Lord (and Refusing to Divorce Against Him) [2024.01.28 Morning Sermon in Matthew 5:31–32]

Marriage is for Christ, so Christians mustn't end their marriages. A lesson in Jesus's hermeneutics, showing that God hates adultery and divorce because He loves godly marriage, godly seed, and the glory of His Son!

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Hearing the Law from Jesus’s Mouth [2024.01.14 Morning Sermon in Matthew 5:21–26]

Jesus is not only the Lord Who thundered the law at Sinai, but the King Who has kept the law for us and is conforming us to it, and the Judge Who will make sure that only those who find His kingdom a heaven may at last enter.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

The Great Danger of the Last Days [Family Worship lesson in 2Timothy 3:1–5]

What makes for dangerous times and dangerous people? 2Timothy 3:1–5 looks forward to the second serial reading of in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the great danger of the last days is the danger of Jesus's Name on our lips without Jesus's life or power in our heart. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Solving the Puzzle of Remaining Sin [2023.06.21 Midweek Sermon in Romans 7:13–20]

When a believer experiences his remaining sin, he realizes what he was apart from the Spirit, he realizes that He is now in the Spirit, and he realizes that the sinfulness of his former nature still dwells in him.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Who Can Perfectly Keep God's Commandments [Shorter Catechism Q82 Simply Explained]

Pastor walks his children through Westminster Shorter Catechism question 82—especially explaining and applying how Adam could have kept God’s commandments but didn’t, the last Adam did perfectly keep them in His people’s stead, and the last Adam’s people genuinely but imperfectly keep them now, and will perfectly keep them forever.

Q82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word and deed.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

A Crowning Achievement of God's Gospel: Christ Succeeded Where the Law Couldn't [2022.10.26 Midweek sermon in Romans 3:27–31]

The faith, by which alone we can be justified, is also the only way that genuine law-keeping is ever produced.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Shutting Our Mouths to Drive Us to Christ Alone: the Law's Role in Our Justification [2022.09.28 Midweek sermon in Romans 3:19–20]

The law's role in our justification is to close our mouths, judge us before God, and convince us of sin.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Theology Simply Explained — WSC44 Prefacing the Ten Commandments into Its Place

Pastor walks his children through Westminster Shorter Catechism question 44: What doth the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us? The preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us that because God is the LORD, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Three Displays of God's Glory as the Measure of God's Wrath (and Grace!) (2022.07.13 Midweek Sermon in Romans 2:12–16)

Whether one is a heathen, a Jew, or a Christian, what he knows abundantly declares that his sin is inexcusable, and the wrath that it deserves is unendurable. But the one who knows Christ alone as his atonement and righteousness knows that God's grace to him is even greater.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

How Great Is God's Wrath! (and Grace!) (Family Worship lesson in Romans 2:12–16)

How do we know that we will be judged and how immense that judgment will be? Romans 2:12–16 looks forward to the this week’s midweek sermon. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that on the day of wrath, the secrets of our hearts will be judged against the standard of that glorious Jesus Christ Who is offered to us in the gospel. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

“Of Good Works” part 4, WCF 16.2.1, What Good Works Are (2021.10.10 Sabbath School in James 2:8–24)

In this Sabbath School class, we began the second paragraph of WCF 16, here examining James 2 in order to understand that good works are according to God's commandments and function as the fruit and evidence of living faith.(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Christianity Is Incompatible with Confidence in the Flesh (2021.05.30 Evening Sermon in Philippians 3:4–7)

The Lord intentionally chose as an apostle a man who had more ground for confidence in the flesh than any of us could have—to be the one who warned us that there is no ground (negative ground! loss!) at all for confidence in the flesh.

Careful to Maintain Good Works by God's Grace in Our Past, Present, & Future (Family Worship in Titus 3:3–8)

How can you maintain good works without becoming a legalist? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. In these six verses, we learn that God’s grace to us in our, present, and future provides a bevy of reasons that Christians “must constantly affirm that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain Good works.”

Day of Worship 7, The Reformed Application of the Law: Applying the 4th Commandment Jesus’s Way (2020.11.08 Sabbath School)

When we apply the fourth commandment in the way that Jesus taught us to apply all of the commandments, we realize that the Isaiah 58 understanding of the Sabbath had always been, and always will be, the proper understanding of how to apply the fourth commandment to heart, speech, and behavior.

God's Marvelous Patience with the Church (2020.11.07 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell Herald)

Hopewell Herald – November 7, 2020

Dear Congregation,

I've been in Old Testament narrative a lot lately, so humanly speaking, it wasn't hard to guess what was happening when officials from the counties that contain Atlanta saw that the vote wasn't going well and suddenly said, "y'all just look so tired... wink wink... just go home... wink wink... get some rest... wink wink... and we'll see what the total is in the morning"

And, humanly speaking, it wasn't difficult to guess what was happening when NC, PA, MI, and WI followed suit. Knowing man from God’s Word fosters a certain, biblical incredulity.

Because the Bible is honest about what men are like, it gives us a healthy suspicion of men. Our Lord Jesus entrusted Himself not to men, because He knew what was in them (John 2:24). Especially when it comes to the rise and fall of earthly rulers, these OT narratives teach us that while not all conspiracy theories are true, the fact of conspiracy is a Bible truth rather than a mere theory, especially as touches resisting the reign of Christ (Psalm 2:1–3).

But one of the things that OT narrative also teaches us is that it's utter folly to consider the rise and fall of earthly reigns in a merely “humanly speaking” manner. These reigns do not rise and fall upon the success and failure of the conspiracies.

World history is guided especially as a function of God’s response to the purity or impurity of His church on earth. It is especially the purity of worship (first great commandment) and execution of righteous justice (second great commandment) with which the Lord is concerned, and especially as touches His church.

To put it bluntly: an honest reading of the Bible will bring you to the conclusion that all those Reformed distinctives—no images, the necessity of weighty/reverent worship, consecration of the entire Lord’s Day—that take a hammering in (ostensibly) Reformed credentials exams for pastors (across multiple denominations now) are actually the things that God cares about the most. The sins with which He is most furious. The things for which we most needed Christ to die.

It is not true that, as one famous pastor recently claimed, pride in the heart is not as bad as murder in the hand. But, when we read God’s own responses in Scripture, we find that lawlessness (5^th commandment), murder (6^th), perversion (7^th), theft (8^th), falsehood (9^th), and coveting (10^th) are less offensive to God than Sabbath-breaking (4^th), blaspheming (3^rd), or creativity in worship (2^nd).

It is for the violation of those first-table sins that He gives men over to the second table sins. It is time for churches like ours to be honest and to repent. He has given us over to second-table sins on a large scale, and the church’s response has been to begin by indulging unbelievers in the church for generations (seeker-oriented, or nominal-friendly worship), until those unbelievers became our preachers, and actually began scrupling those first table sins in their Presbytery exams.

We are right to think that it is a calamity that a post-Christian nation’s “election” may go to the candidate who can lie, cheat, and steal the best. But, we must not allow this to blind us to the fact that what is happening in the churches is a much greater calamity. Huge chunks of the church are papist (antichrist), mainline liberal (pagan), and charismatic (spiritist/new-age/superstitious).

But of them to whom much has been given much is required. There is a real sense in which the decline in the Reformed, Presbyterian churches is the most calamitous of all. That part which ought to have been the most sound has descended for generations into those things which God most hates.

How astonishing has God’s patience been! Yes, alas, how far America has fallen. And even more, alas, how far the churches have fallen—and especially the Reformed churches! But, let us consider Him who yet bears with us, and who has even granted some measure of reformation to our own congregation.

And let us rejoice over His patience, and be stirred up to greater love to Him who has so loved us, and greater joy and peace in His patient persistence and powerful grace toward us!

God’s Word is brutally honest enough to enable us to think plainly about what is going on in the world. We can smell the dishonesty a mile away (and not think, by the way, that those who are most skilled at it are the only ones engaged in it).

But how tragic it will be if we use this characteristic of Scripture only as a window to the world and forget that it is a mirror for the church (cf. James 1:19–25). This is a far more important use of Scripture.

And if we do not make use of it now for humiliation and repentance before God, the calamity that is coming will make the calamity of American politics pale by comparison, in its comparative smallness.

Looking forward to rendering unto our patient and powerful God that glorious worship which is His due,

Pastor