It seems a long time since I have posted – and the fundamentalist blogosphere is quiet also, at least the part of it that I frequent. Maybe we are losing our energy for blogging? Perish the thought! I still have lots on my mind, just no time to say it all.

In our ministry, we are taking extra time with one of our senior saints just now. The Lord appears to be taking her home very quietly. Most of her family is unsaved (though some profess salvation). We are finding this time to be a precious occasion of ministry for us and our people as we gather around the hospital bed and visit with her family. May the Lord be glorified in this!

I would like to share with you our sermons from last Sunday. You can find the audio and notes on our church site.

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A good day for us today, with a full Sunday school. Two families who are somewhat sporadic both came today, which expanded our ranks. We work and pray for spiritual stability and consistency here!

Here are the summaries:

The Righteousness of God (Rm 1.17a)

Our subject turns now to the reason the gospel is the power of God unto salvation: because in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed – not God’s righteousness as such, but the righteousness that is from God through Christ. God’s righteousness is a massive mountain of truth, an impossible barrier for sinful man, but that barrier melts away when righteousness from God comes to us by faith.

Christian Fellowship (1)

We begin a brief interruption of our Basic Theology series to look at the topic of Christian fellowship as taught in the Bible. This topic is largely misunderstood today, reduced to a bare notion of social interaction (coffee, lunch, potluck dinners). While the social interaction is a great blessing of church life, it flows from our fellowship, it doesn’t define it.

Note: this message was prompted by a discussion at a friend’s blog, EX vilis CATHEDRA “Together for What?” by Champ Thornton.

The Compensation Offering (Lev 5.14-6.7)

We continue our series in Leviticus for our Communion service. Our passage covers the fifth and last type of sacrifice prescribed in Leviticus. This is what the KJV calls a ‘trespass offering’. There are several unique features to this offering, but the main idea is that the sinner has defrauded God (or man AND God) and must not only be atoned for but also make restitution. The NT Christian has had his debt of sin paid, but his relationship with God still demands reparation, restitution, or compensation be made to restore the losses our sins have caused to our human relationships. Thank God that in Christ we are enabled to put such things right.

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I trust that your Lord’s Day was a spiritual blessing to you as well, hearing faithful preaching of the rich word of God.

Our latest sermons are up on our church website. For audio, follow the links over there.

To the Jew first (Rm 1.16d)

Why does Paul mention ‘to the Jew first’ in his theme verse of Romans? How does this add new information to his great central theme? If it is just a matter of history, as some commentators suggest, why is it significant here? The reason is startling at first, but a great glory in contemplation of the privileges into which all believers enter when they receive the truth of the gospel.

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Do you know how the date for Resurrection Sunday is calculated? It is the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 20. You can find a more detailed explanation elsewhere on the web, but that sums it up.

As many other churches, we had visitors in our services this Sunday. One was returning for a second time. It was a great blessing to minister the word of God to these folks. We hope that some of them at least will respond in faith to the gospel.

In addition to our own sermon summaries, I have an ‘extra’ offering in this post. At the recent Northwest Regional meeting of the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship, the president of Maranatha Baptist Bible College, Chuck Phelps, was the keynote speaker. He gave us permission to broadcast one of his messages, on music, on our website. The link will appear below.

Now for the sermon summaries:

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After months of tweaking, our new church site is up at our old location. For our sermon summaries, I’ll just send you a link to our podcasts there. To explore the whole thing, start here:

Grace Baptist Church of Victoria

Let me know if you find any errors! I am sure there are some, I am quite klutzy. I would say my keyboard is depraved, but we all know that would be a lie.

We hope to have more on the site as time goes on. You will see some sections are still a little sparse. We have plans for them, but now I can finish my next project, our evangelism website. I’ll let you know when that is live and ready to go.

Now for the 3.9.08 sermons:

To Everyone who Believes (Rm 1.16c)

Since God’s power for salvation is available to everyone who believes, it is essential that we know what it means to believe. What kind of belief constitutes saving faith? What assurance will we have as we look honestly at our own works, whether the degraded works of the flesh or fleshly pride of moralism, if we do not know the one cure to both?

The Interpretation of the Bible (supplement) (Mt 2.18, Jer 31.15)

Last week I felt I was a little unclear. I left us all confused about the difference between direct prophecies and typical prophecies. So before concluding our lesson on The Interpretation of the Bible, I offered a little supplement dealing with Matthew’s remarks on the killing of the infants in Bethlehem (Mt 2.18) and Jeremiah’s prophecy which Matthew says is fulfilled in this incident (Jer 31.15). How can we say that Jeremiah is fulfilled in Matthew when the two passages are clearly talking about two different events?

The First and Hardest Lesson on Prayer (Mt 5.44; Lk 6.28)

Putting the Lord’s teaching on prayer into chronological order reveals a startling beginning. Lesson 1: “Pray for them that despitefully use you.” What? Couldn’t we work up to that? But this is where the Lord starts his teaching as recorded in the Sermon on the Mount. This is the way of spiritual life and it is a key to godliness.

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All right, that’s it for now… back to php and web-site tweaking…

Romans 1.16 is a glorious passage. We are in message #2 on it this week. At least one more week to go…

The Power of God (Rm 1.16b) || Audio

The gospel can be summed by a clear set of theological facts. But the gospel is much more than a mere collection of facts. It is much more than bare orthodoxy. It is the power of God unto salvation.

Read the notes as you listen.

more…

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Our theme for this Sunday came to us from Rm 1.16a, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel . . .” On a day when almost half of our congregation was out with illness, I found myself praying, being very dismayed. It is one thing to preach the gospel before a larger appreciative audience. It is one thing to preach before a hostile audience. It is still another to preach before a weak, shrinking congregation. This was a time when I knew When to Pray.

And still, we are Not Ashamed, and God gives grace to enable us in our extremities and time of need. I believe the Lord gave his grace for the messages on this day and those who were out profited from them.

The summaries and links are below:

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We had a good crowd Sunday, 47. A few regulars are becoming not so regular, so this week will mean a little looking out after wandering sheep. Sometimes this means compassion on the sick, but other times it means something more. Some wander so far, they never come back, no matter how well you work to be a good shepherd.

Here are the sermon summaries, in a brief form similar to what we will be putting up as podcasts in the near future. Note that we are now formatting the messages in the smaller 16kbps size.

The Obligation of Christian Ministry (Rm 1.14) || Audio
The obligation of Christian ministry is to all – Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise … the good, the bad, and the ugly. All Christians share this obligation.

Read the notes while you listen.

The Canon (2) || Audio

In which we discuss the evidence for the canon of the Old Testament.

Read the notes as you listen.

The Readiness for Christian Ministry (Rm 1.15) || Audio
What is necessary for readiness? A heart for others, a will submissive to the Lord’s direction, and a mind filled with the gospel.

Read the notes while you listen.

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Our Sunday included our Annual Business Meeting. Last year was a good year from the offering perspective. We are trusting the Lord for about the same this year, which would put us about 70% of the way to being fully self-supporting. For that we are very thankful.

We are also faced with some challenges this year. Our building has settled significantly on one end, the result, we think, of some construction in behind us. The problem is going to cost us some cash to resolve, but we think we have a reasonable handle on it.

Our biggest challenge is evangelism. Our people are committed to new outreach endeavours and to increasing our support for missions. We are delighted in their spirit.

Now for our sermon summaries…

The Objective of Christian Ministry (Rm 1.13) || Audio || Notes

Paul’s objective in his ministry plans is to ‘have some fruit among you’. Paul is after spiritual fruit. That is the point of preaching. It is the result of any ministry of the word. It should be the expectation of all ministration of the word — including that of any faithful Christian in their ministry in church and home.

The Canon (1) || Audio || Notes

During our Bible study time we began a discussion of the Canon and how it came to be recognized. In this session, we consider some preliminary notions including these questions: if one of Paul’s lost letters were to be found, would we consider it inspired? what about the Lord’s writing in the dust – was it inspired?

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BTW, we now have new software for manipulating our sermon files. Now our sermon files are smaller. Hopefully the quality is not so degraded as to be unbearable. Let us know if you notice a difference.

Our Sunday morning message focused on the theme of the Christian and his role in the local church. For the afternoon, we looked back at Leviticus for our communion service.

The Ministry of Christians to One Another (Rm 1.11-12) || Audio || Notes

Our proposition: “Christians, gathered in local churches, are God’s agents for the purpose of strengthening one another’s spiritual life.”

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