Category: Sermons (Page 3 of 16)

Jude 5-19 (ESV)

By Discerning the Teaching of the Past

5: Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

6: And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

7: just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

By Hearing the Warnings of the Present

8: Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

9: But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

10: But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

11: Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

12: These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;

13: wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

By Embracing Our Future Hope

14: It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,

15: to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

16: These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

17: But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

18: They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

19: It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

Philemon (ESV)

Love Gives Rest

1: Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker

2: and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

3: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4: I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,

5: because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,

6: and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

7: For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Love Makes Demands

8: Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,

9: yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—

Love Produces Change

10: I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

11: (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)

12: I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.

13: I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel,

14: but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

15: For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,

16: no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Love Pays Debts

17: So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

18: If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

19: I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

Love Makes Demands

20: Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

21: Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

22: At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

23: Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,

24: and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

25: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Isaiah 12 (ESV)

Gratitude

1: You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

Trust

2: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

Joy

3: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Proclamation

4: And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

Singing

5: Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.

6: Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 11:10-16 (ESV)

The Church Gathered and Universal

10: In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

11: In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

12: He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The Church Unified and Triumphant

13: The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

14: But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.

The Church Preserved and Unconquerable

15: And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.

16: And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Isaiah 11:1-9 (ESV)

A Righteousness Applied

1: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

2: And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

3: And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

4: but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

5: Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

An Enmity Canceled

6: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

7: The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8: The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

9: They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 10:20-34 (ESV)

A People (20-27)

20: In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21: A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22: For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
23: For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24: Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.
25: For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.
26: And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.
27: And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.

A Mountain (28-34)

28: He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;
29: they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30: Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!
31: Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32: This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33: Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.
34: He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

Ruth 1:1–18 (ESV)

1: In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

2: The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.

3: But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.

4: These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,

5: and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

6: Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.

7: So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

8: But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

9: The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

10: And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”

11: But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?

12: Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,

13: would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

14: Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15: And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

16: But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

17: Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

18: And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

Luke 18:18–27 (ESV)

The Rich Ruler’s Question

18: And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

19: And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

20: You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”

21: And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”

A Call to Surrender

22: When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

23: But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

The Difficulty of Wealth

24: Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

25: For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

26: Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”

27: But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

Isaiah 8 (ESV)

Two Enemies, Two Waters

1: Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’

2: And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

3: And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz;

4: for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5: The Lord spoke to me again:

6: “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7: therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,

8: and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

9: Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered.

10: Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

One Message, Two Audiences

11: For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:

12: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

13: But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

14: And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15: And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

16: Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.

17: I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

18: Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

19: And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

20: To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

21: They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.

22: And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

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Isaiah 7 (ESV)

A Promise

1: In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.

2: When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3: And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.

4: And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.

5: Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,

6: “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

7: thus says the Lord God: “‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.

8: For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

9: And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’”

A Sign

10: Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz,

11: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

12: But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”

13: And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?

14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

15: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

16: For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

17: The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”

18: In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

19: And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.

20: In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

21: In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep,

22: and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.

23: In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.

24: With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns.

25: And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

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