New Years Encouragement

 Here are Paul Blackham’s wonderful new year’s sermons from All Souls, Langham Place.
Galatians 4:9
Matthew 11:25-30
2 Corinthians 5
1 Corinthians 15:20-26
John 3:1-21
His Matthew 11 is a personal favourite (surprise surprise).
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And here’s my new year’s encouragement to our Wednesday communion service this morning.  A little ten minute sermon.  It’s David and Goliath again.  Here’s my conclusion…
We are the [...]

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Summing up

Let me take this end-of-year opportunity to sum up what this blog has been about…
 
Christ the Truth means Jesus is not just the one Way or one Life, but the one Truth of God.  Truth – all truth – is in Jesus. This means all our thinking about God must begin with Him.  Not some [...]

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Letter to a loser

You’ve gotta read this!
…Ted [Haggard], gentle readers, is now living proof that “it” doesn’t work the way “it” is supposed to work. Ted is now a living demonstration that, darn it, we aren’t fixable. A good church with a kickin’ band? Great shoes and suits? Sermons researched by assistants and delivered with the proper film [...]

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Why the West needs winning.

Thinking about the last post…
Why does Matthew Parris see God as the hope for Africa but not for Europe?
Well his diagnosis of Africa’s problems boils down to this: too much crushing passivity and collectivism.  And so…
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the [...]

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We’ll always have Parris

It’s been a busy week.  I’ve only just read this from the the Saturday papers and now realise it’s all over the blogosphere anyway – nonetheless…
Whenever evangelicals lose their nerve, Matthew Parris (columnist for the Times) can be counted on to set us straight – atheist though he is.
There was this famous piece in 2003, [...]

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David and Goliath sermons

 
Preached on 1 Samuel 17 twice today.  I tried to make them fairly different (for all the twicers).
The morning was a more detailed look at the text (audio).
The evening was a bit more drawing out some implications (audio).
A lot of this first saw light of day in this series: Five Smooth Stones.
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Incarnation and salvation

ok the Christmas clock is against me.
So let me just say that for all the talk about incarnation manifesting the triune glory and incarnation giving coherence and consummation to creation, the biblical emphasis falls overwhelmingly on salvation as the reason for incarnation.  (Though of course the interconnectedness of God’s outgoing being, creation and salvation ought [...]

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Incarnation and Creation

Yesterday we looked at incarnation and trinity.  Today I’ll just make some observations about incarnation and creation.
Christ is “The Beginning”, “The Alpha”, “The First”.  His Person is itself the basis for creation.  He is the One who is eternally Other from the Father and the foundation for all else that is other than Him.  Because of [...]

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Incarnation and trinity

Here’s the first of three sketches of posts:
Incarnation and trinity
Incarnation and creation
Incarnation and salvation.
I’ll try to be brief.
Have you ever heard the history of trinitarian thought taught like this:
Once upon a time everyone was a strict monotheist.  And then the incarnation happened.  And it messed with our heads for the first 4 centuries of the church.  But [...]

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Adjectives for God

Often when we use adjectives for God we reach for the big guns but find that they don’t quite pack the punch we’d hoped.  We say ‘Holy’ and ‘Glorious’, ‘Supreme’ and ‘Majestic’ but the more we Capitalize the Words, The More People Just File Them Away In SPECIAL GOD-SPEAK files, never to consider them again.
I’ve [...]

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Kids Songs

I sometimes post up kids songs.  Here’s a collection I’ve put together for my nephews and neices for Christmas. 
(If you’ve downloaded my other songs, notice an old song not seen on the blog before – the Poison Cup.  I’ve also re-recorded Power and have done the Christmas round in a lower key at the end).  
Anyway, here [...]

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All Age Carols Talk

Preached this last night at Carols by Candlelight.  (audio here)
Lots of kids (there was a nativity).  Readings were Matthew 2:1-12 (the Magi) and Philippians 2:5-11.
I think I managed to say at one point “There was never a time when Jesus and His Father existed.”  Be assured I’m not a oneness Pentecostal.  I meant to say [...]

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Veiled in flesh?

What’s your least favourite Christmas Carol line?
“The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes” gives me heartburn.
But ironically my least favourite line comes from my favourite carol – Hark the Herald:
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.”
Doesn’t this communicate the terrible error that ‘becoming flesh’ obscures the divine glory rather than expresses it?  It seems to [...]

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When were you saved?

Good question.  What’s the best answer?
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A.  …when I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world
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B.  …when Jesus, my Lamb and Priest, ascended to the right hand of the Father.
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C.  …when I called on the name of Jesus x years ago.
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D. … something else?
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Being in very nature God… He humbled Himself

6 Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death–even death on a [...]

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Trinity and unity

Have you ever heard someone say:
“Ah yes you’re emphasising the trinity.  That’s well and good.  But let’s not forget the unity of God.”
And I say…. huh!?
The trinity is the unity of God!!  Trinity means tri-unity.  In that one word (that one doctrine) we have both the oneness and the threeness of God.  God is three [...]

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Trinity sermon part 2

I’ll get round to responding to comments soon.  Here’s the second part of yesterday’s trinity sermon
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Trinity Sermon part 2:  Galatians 4:4-6 (audio here)
…The trinity is the good news that God is love. 
 

 
On the other hand: – the imaginary, solitary, self-centred god is nothing but bad news. 
 
 
 
The difference between these two ideas of God comes out [...]

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Trinity sermon

Seems like a few more people have stumbled onto the blog recently (thanks for the links Dave, Dan, Ed, Paul, others).
I thought I’d bring everyone up to speed with where I’m coming from.  So I’m posting a sermon I preached a couple of years ago.  It’s about the trinity and grace. 
I reckon between preaching, trinity and [...]

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God loves God more than God loves us?

In comments, Ed brought up this claim for consideration:
 God loves God more than God loves us.
I’ll jot down a few thoughts and then make way for Bobby’s comment at the bottom which nails it in about a tenth the space it takes me.  (Which again proves how horribly prolix I am!)
I have two problems with [...]

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Piper’s Theology of Glory

Stephen Murray alerts us to Tony Payne’s reservations about Piper.
You can read Piper’s seven theses about God’s glory here.
In response Payne wonders…
Is Piper’s message so centred on God and his glory (and our enjoyment of God in his self-glorification) that Jesus has become a mechanism by which this takes place, rather than the central focus [...]

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You will

Ok, Dave’s right, blogging’s about the quick post.  So here goes…
The Ten Commandments are written in the indicative.  Did you know that?  There’s a perfectly straightforward imperative mood in Hebrew.  God could easily have  said “You must not murder”.  But God didn’t say that.  He said “You will not murder.”  You won’t.  You’re my special people.  [...]

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Sinning really isn’t the worst thing

Oh it’s bad.  It’s very bad.  It’s murdering your Maker.  It’s cheating on your Lover.  It’s grieving His Spirit.  It’s tearing apart your soul.  It’s bad.  Bad, bad, bad.
But not receiving forgiveness is far worse.  Failure to accept the grace of Jesus dwarfs all other sins in its monstrosity.  To refuse the vulnerable humility of [...]

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Where’s the turning point?

Where’s the turning point in the parable of the two sons?  (Yes, that again).
Is it ‘coming to himself’ in the pig-sty?

If that’s the turning point in the son’s life, repentance will look like weighing things up and choosing obedience.
What’s wrong with that?  Well for one it effectively makes the prodigal his own saviour. 
But aside from this.  Let’s [...]

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A Christmas Round

A Christmas song on Luke 2:10. 
Actually I haven’t heard it sung as a round. I just knocked it out as a last minute addition to a CD of songs I’m sending to nephews and nieces.  I think it works though.  But it might be a bit tricky for kids.  Dunno.  I hope it’s catchy:
Don’t be [...]

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Creation preaches Christ — Creation cannot save

This is in response to Orange Mailman’s question on my last post:
Creation preaches Christ.  Creation cannot save.  I definitely want to uphold both things.  And Romans 10 is a great place to highlight both. 
Verse 14: How can they hear without someone preaching? 
Verse 17-18: Psalm 19’s Word of Christ goes out to the ends of the earth.
Perhaps [...]

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Creation’s voice proclaims… what?

As we’ve been thinking about how to know God (and how not to) we’re basically thinking about the subject of revelation.
It’s common when speaking of revelation to treat two categories – general revelation (God made known through nature and conscience) and special revelation (usually meaning ‘the bible’).  Now of course such a distinction can be [...]

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Christ the Truth

So then, Christ, the Image of the invisible God must be our starting point if we want to know God.  We can’t begin with reason, we can’t begin with religion, we can’t begin with creation.  It is simply not the case that these things provide us with a sub-Christian starting point to which can be added Christian [...]

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How not to know God – creation

Previously on Christ the Truth:
We must begin all theology with the Word of God – Jesus.
This means ruling out other starting points, such as…
Reason
and
Religion
Now we consider creation as another false foundation for theology.  Not, of course, that the heavens are silent about God – they pour forth speech day after day! (Psalm 19).  What I [...]

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How not to know God – religion

So God is known in Jesus alone.
This means He is not known through human reason.
It also means He is not known through human religion.
The Bible often engages with other religions. Never does it assume that such religions have any revelatory insights to offer.
Numbers 33:50-53; Deut 7:1-6; 12:1-3; 29:16-18; 32:15-21; Psalm 96:4-5; 106:35-40; Isaiah 41:21-24; 44:6-26; [...]

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How not to know God – reason

Last time we made the claim that knowledge of God and salvation by God go hand in hand.  Only those who have been saved by God know God.  At the same time, coming to know God is another way of describing being saved by God.
Therefore all those truths we hold so dear about salvation are [...]

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