Latest Sermon, Feb 5, 2012: Printable Sermon Outline
LISTEN> Heartbeat Ahead of Time: The Inner Life of Jesus Revealed in the Psalms … Psalm 32: How Known Sinners Can Rejoice
God’s Beauty Regimen Is Not Skin-deep
Have you ever thought about why you hate your driver’s license photo? Don’t you dismiss it as a one-inch-square lie told against your person? You don’t REALLY look like this, do you? Do you find yourself irrationally anxious for the passing of four years simply so you can try for a better photo?
Rationally, though, you know it really does identify you. It’s you, documented under a harsh governmental glare and held accountable to an unflinching official standard applied to each one of us. The unposed you simply feels like the exposed you.
Then why are you willing to show that naked self to the world? It allows you to drive!
It’s because you know that the small shame of that self-exposure will bring the greater reward of freedom. We remember being teenagers—driving represents freedom, zooming across the countryside on a beautiful day. [read on…]
Who are we?
New Life Orthodox Presbyterian Church is a community of people joined together by faith in Jesus Christ, the one sent by the Father to die for our sins. In Jesus, we have… a new Savior and Friend; a new Father in heaven; a new Spirit of love and boldness; a new family in other believers; a new task while here on earth; a new hope for eternity… a new life!
Living as God’s new creation is not a momentary, one-time act, but a life-changing passion. We at New Life are committed to serving Christ—being and making faithful disciples. It is an exhilarating, life-long calling.
We invite you to share it with us.
What is the Reformed faith?
The Reformed faith takes the Bible with the utmost seriousness. It is but another way of saying that “from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11:36). The Reformed faith seeks to maintain the entire teaching of the Bible, rightly understood… (continued at Orthodox Presbyterian Church website—our denomination)
A Brief and Untechnical Statement of the Reformed Faith by Benjamin B. Warfield
I believe that my one aim in life and death should be to glorify God and enjoy him forever; and that God teaches me how to glorify him in his holy Word, that is, the Bible, which he had given by the infallible inspiration of this Holy Spirit in order that I may certainly know what I am to believe concerning him and what duty he requires of me. [Read on…]
Who are those old guys at the top of the page?
Just six of the many people who have preceded us in making an impact for the Christian faith. Although they were fallible humans, their devotion to knowing Christ, promoting His gospel, and teaching it clearly is inspiring to us all in carrying out our own callings.
Learn about them here: Martin Luther (1483-1546); J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937); John Calvin (1520-67); Charles Spurgeon (1834-92); Jonathan Edwards (1703-58); and Augustine (354-430).
Westminster Larger Catechism Question 97: What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate?
Answer: Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works,[r] so as thereby they are neither justified[s] nor condemned;[t] yet, besides the general uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use, to show them how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good;[u] and thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness,[w] and to express the same in their greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of their obedience.[x]
r. Rom. 6:14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Rom. 7:4, 6. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God…. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Gal. 4:4–5. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Col. 2:13–14. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
s. Rom. 3:20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
t. Gal. 5:23. … meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Rom. 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
u. Rom. 7:24–25. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. Gal. 3:13–14. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Rom. 8:3–4. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Acts 13:38–39. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
w. Luke 1:68–69, 74–75. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…. that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. Col. 1:12–14. … giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Rom. 6:14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
x. Deut. 30:19–20. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Rom. 7:22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Rom. 12:2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Titus 2:11–14. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. James 1:25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
[Read the complete Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms here.]
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