This Week at Christ Reformed Church (April 11-17)

Sunday Morning, April 17:  Rev. Andrew Compton will be preaching from the Book of Ezekiel.  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  Rev. Compton will be conducting our catechism service, which begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, April 6:  We are going verse by verse through 1 Thessalonians.  We are now chapter 4.  Our study begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).

"God's Relentless Message of Life" -- Ezekiel 33:1-22

Here's the audio from Rev. Compton's Sunday sermon.

Click Here

Thanks, Andrew, for pinch hitting at the last minute!

This Week's White Horse Inn

The Reliability of the Gospels and Epistles

On this program we continue our series on the Resurrection of Jesus. Once again Michael Horton interviews our special guest, Michael Licona, who is a New Testament scholar, historian, and Christian apologist. He is a professor at Houston Baptist University and the author of the excellent work, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach.

The two scholars continue their discussion about the eyewitness character of the four Gospels and unpack a host of issues relating to the historical reliability and early dating of the New Testament epistles. Join us for this broadcast of the White Horse Inn as we continue our series, The Resurrection.

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Know Anyone in the Cincinnati Area? I'm Speaking on the End Times, Saturday, April 16

Here's the info from the conference brochure, sponsored by three local Reformed churches:

Join us as we learn what the Bible teaches about The End Times.  Our speaker is Rev. Dr. Kim Riddlebarger, pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim and co-host of the White Horse Inn, a radio program that brings the theology of the Reformation to the public, in order that Christians "know what they believe and why they believe it".  Dr. Riddlebarger is also a specialist in the field of eschatology, or "the end times", having written A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times and The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth about the Antichrist.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

• 9:00am - "What's a Thousand Years Among Friends?"
• 10:15 - Refreshments
• 10:45 - "The Signs of the End"
• 11:45 - Lunch - a catered lunch may be purchased for $10
• 1:00 - "What does the Future Hold for Israel?"
• 2:15 - Q&A with Dr. Riddlebarger

Childcare is provided for pre-school-aged children.

You are also invited to attend our joint worship service on Sunday, April 17 (11am), when Dr. Riddlebarger will preach on "The Antichrist".

Good Shepherd OPC, Westside Reformed Church, and Redeemer Community Church are congregations that are devoted to the Bible as it is understood within the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition.  We believe that this teaching is not only true but also helpful to the Christian life.

When

Saturday, April 16, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM (EDT) - Add to Calendar

Where

Good Shepherd OPC - 11688 Mill Road, Cincinnati, OH - View Map

Sponsoring churches:

Good Shepherd OPC, Westside Reformed Church, and Redeemer Community Church are congregations that are devoted to the Bible as it is understood within the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition.  We believe that this teaching is not only true but also helpful to the Christian life.

"Arm Yourselves With the Same Way of Thinking -- 1 Peter 4:1-11

The Ninth in a Series of Sermons on 1 Peter

Although you might expect Peter to instruct Christians to fight back against their oppressors, instead Peter directs us to a different kind of war.  Christians must resolve to engage in a fierce battle with sin and not let it reign over us.  This war against sin should be evident in the way in which we relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as those outside the church.  Those in Christ cannot live as the first century Greeks and Romans do, seeking to satisfy every bodily urge with little regard to natural law, and with no regard to God’s revelation of his will in his word.  As we reject pagan ways of thinking and doing, and prepare ourselves to suffer for our faith in Christ, we are called to love our brothers and sisters in the church, to use our spiritual gifts to serve one another, and we are to learn to live in the light of God’s promises which will be fully realized on the day of judgment.

As we work our way through Peter’s first epistle we now come to chapter four.  Peter is writing to a group of Christians in Asia Minor who have been displaced forcibly from their homes by a decree from the Roman emperor Claudius.  These elect exiles were facing great uncertainty about their personal circumstances.  Since many of them are victims of persecution because of their faith in Jesus Christ, Peter is writing to remind these struggling saints of their dual citizenship–in addition to being citizens of Rome, these people also possess a heavenly citizenship with an inheritance far greater than human minds can comprehend.  As believers in Jesus Christ, they have been sanctified by God, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, and called to live holy lives before the watching world.   

Peter concludes his lengthy series of imperatives found 2:11-3:17, with a wonderful indicative in chapter 3:18-22.  The humility and suffering of Jesus provides a once for all payment for sin which remits the guilt for all of those times when Christians fail to submit to those in authority over them, or who seek vengeance upon those who wrong them, or who return the curses and reviling of others, with curses and reviling of their own.  But Peter also reminds his readers/hearers that the suffering and death of Jesus is the way in which God conquered sin, death, and the grave, as well as all those authorities and powers which seek to oppress the people of God.  When God calls believers to positions in life where they may suffer, Christians should not see this as the retributive punishment of God, but as the path to glory–a pathway already taken by Jesus, the savior of, and the example to the Christians of Asia Minor.

As Peter has already stated, Christians are to identify themselves as citizens of heaven, not by a distinctive wardrobe, diet, or by withdrawing from non-Christians.  Instead, we identify ourselves through our profession of faith in the Triune God who sent his son to save us from our sins, and in our holy conduct, which Peter has said, is to be honorable among the Gentiles.  Christians are to be good citizens, wise and compassionate masters or submissive servants, and when married are to be the kind of husbands and wives who regard each other as equals in Christ.  In these ways, we demonstrate our heavenly citizenship to outsiders.

When Christians are called to suffer, or to face the reviling and cursing from non-Christians, or even when we are persecuted for our faith, our suffering is never the final word.  Just as Jesus conquered death and the principalities and powers through his humility and suffering, so will we.  Peter has made clear that at the end of time, there will be a final judgment when all wrongs are made right, and when the bad guys finally get theirs in the end.  On the day of judgment Christians will be vindicated and rewarded by the same God who has called us to suffer, as will God be vindicated when the world is silenced by the realization that God’s ways are altogether righteous and just.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (April 4-10)

Sunday Morning, April 10:  We continue with our series on the Book of Daniel.  We will consider the mysterious handwriting on the wall--God's declaration of judgment upon Beshazzar (Daniel 5:13-32).  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are considering one of the most beloved sections of our catechism, Lord's Day 10 and the discussion of God's good providence (Q & A 27-28).  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, April 6:  We are going verse by verse through 1 Thessalonians.  We working our way through chapter 3.  Our study begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).

"There Is a Man in Your Kingdom" -- Daniel 5:1-12

Here's the sudio from this morning's sermon:  Click Here

This Week's White Horse Inn

The Historical Reliability of the Gospels

On this program we continue our series on the Resurrection of Jesus. For the next three programs Michael Horton interviews special guest, Michael Licona, who is a New Testament scholar, historian, and Christian apologist. He is a professor at Houston Baptist University and the author of the excellent work, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, which will be unpacked in these interviews.

How can we be sure that the various claims about Jesus recorded in the four gospels represent genuine eyewitness reports? How can we be sure that they were written in the crucial eyewitness period? Join us for this broadcast of the White Horse Inn as we seek to answer these important questions and more as we continue our series, The Resurrection.

Click Here

Twenty-Six Political Theses for Your Consideration

Twenty-Six Political Theses
_______________________________

1).  If you pay no federal income tax, you have no right to demand that the top 1% of earners pay more in federal taxes.

2).  If you are not registered to vote, you forfeit all right to complain or pontificate about anything which goes on in the political arena.

3).  If you choose not to vote in any given election, then you must remain silent about politics until the next election rolls around (and you do vote).

4).  Every registered voter should take at least one course, or read at least one book on the US Constitution–its history, and/or the debates about its ratification.  Listening to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or NPR doesn’t count.

5).  Do not vote for any political candidate until you have actually read their political (or professional) resume, carefully reviewed their legislative/administrative accomplishments, and considered any scandals and controversies they have generated, or of which they have been a part.

6).  If you choose a candidate merely because they are telegenic, witty, or capable of a good sound bite, you are part of the problem.

7).  Our current presidential “debates” have more in common with the Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show than they do with real “debate.”

8).  The less cable news you watch, the better equipped you’ll be to make a sane choice when voting.

9).  If any politician wants to reach deeper into my wallet, they better have a darn good reason and an established reputation for finding government waste and cutting government spending.

10).  Every household in America knows what to do in economic hard-times–cut household spending across the board and then earn additional monies to pay down debt (i.e, add a temporary part-time job).  This solution is completely unthinkable to politicians, who, apparently, have never tried it and do not know that such practices actually exist.   

11).  Our government solves its economic woes by turning on the printing press and adding to the money supply, and then (figuratively speaking) opens 10 new credit card accounts to pay existing credit card debt.  John Maynard Keynes is turning over in his grave.

12).  The massive and rapidly growing debt is the greatest threat to our national and economic security, as well as to the American way of life.  Any candidate for political office unwilling to address this crisis head-on will not get my vote.

13).   If any political candidate thinks he or she can manage my life and my family better than I can, they will never get my vote.

14).  Cutting the rate of a proposed increase in spending is not a budget cut!

15).  Do not robo-call me.

16).  Professing Christians are often far-too partisan, and embarrassingly ill-informed about history of the political ideologies they espouse.

17).  Furthermore, professing Christians rarely evaluate those political ideologies to see if they are compatible with their Christian profession.  

18).  Instead of serving as the “world’s greatest deliberative body” the US Senate has become the epitome of partisan politics.  If these people spent half of their time back in the legislatures of their home states (as the founding fathers intended), they would do far less damage to the country because of their partisan factionalism.  Repeal the seventeenth amendment!

19).  The better presidents in our history have had the rare ability to do what was best for the nation without any sacrifice of their personal governing principles.  At the same time, the better presidents were usually willing, when necessary, to depart from their political party’s “sacred” platform.

20).  As defined constitutionally, the office of the President of the United States is that of commander in chief, and therefore is the “President” to all Americans–not just those of his own political party.

21).   The intangible but essential skills of leadership are a requirement for a President as the chief executive–not so much for a senator or a congressperson (who are legislators).  This is why governors (i.e., those with executive experience) are much better candidates for President than Senators.

22).  I don’t want to hear (although I know I will) another clueless celebrity blame mass shootings and acts of terrorism solely upon the 2nd Amendment, especially when these same people frequently utilize hired (and armed) security to protect them from their adoring and/or crazy fans.

23).  There is something terribly wrong with a society which humanizes pets and dehumanizes the unborn human fetus.

24).  You may claim your pet has rights and is a “member” of your family, but if Fido bites me, I’m suing you, not Fido, and I’ll win.

25).  Because far too many of our contemporaries think that sexual gratification is the most important activity in life, our culture is increasingly unwilling to address the havoc brought about by pornography, prostitution, and other deviant sexual behaviors (incest and sexual abuse of children).

26).  Bruce Jenner may change his name to “Caitlyn,” alter his appearance with long hair, make-up, and woman’s clothes, he even may alter his physique with hormones and surgery.  But every cell in his body has a “y” chromosome.  He is and always will be a man in a dress.  Technically, he’s a transvestite, not a “transsexual.”
 

"Safely Through Water" -- 1 Peter 3:18-22

The Eighth in a Series of Sermons on 1 Peter

All of us have consciences which accuse us because we have all sinned against God and disobeyed his commandments.  And so whenever we suffer or are persecuted by those with power over us, there is a little voice within which says to us, “why, of course, you are suffering.”  “God is punishing you because you did this, or because you did that.”  To those first century Christians of the Diaspora undergoing difficult trials, and no doubt, wondering if God has abandoned them because of something they had done to displease him, Peter offers a wonderful word of encouragement, something which can silence the accusatory voice, as well as remind us of the promise that no matter what happens in this life, everything will turn out in the end just as God has promised.  God has given to us a suffering Savior, who has died for our sins.  And God has given us a tangible promise (the waters of baptism) that he will save his people–his elect exiles–on the day of judgment.

We are continuing our series on 1 Peter, and I am again reminded of the difficulties in not being able to preach through a book like 1 Peter in bigger chunks, or ideally, in one sermon.  Our text this time (vv. 18-22 of 1 Peter 3) is the conclusion to the preceding section (vv. 2:11-3:17).  The closing verses of chapter 3 are intended to remind those sufferers whom Peter has been addressing of the meaning of Christ’s suffering on behalf of his fellow sufferers.  Jesus’ perfect humility and suffering as the God-man took him to the cross.  His death saves us from our sins–even those sins we committed when we have responded to those who curse and revile us with curses and reviling of our own.  Our text speaks a word of pardon to all of us who have cursed and reviled our enemies, and who have sought to take vengeance into our own hands, and who have not properly submitted to those authorities mentioned by the Apostle.  In effect, Peter follows his series imperatives–“do this”–with a wonderful indicative–Jesus’ death covers our sins when we fail to comply with those imperatives which Peter has set forth.  And hearing the indicatives, in turn, gives us a desire to obey the imperatives.

In the previous section (vv. 8-17), Peter instructs Christians not curse and revile those who curse and revile us, but rather to return to them a word of blessing.  Christians are to do this because God hears the prayers of his oppressed people and promises that he will deliver us from those who have wronged his people.  Peter understands how difficult this is to do, which is why he offers a word of encouragement from Psalm 34, before reminding us that Jesus’ death removes the guilt of our sin and brings us to God.  In the section of Peter’s epistle we are covering (vv. 18-22), Peter describes the benefits we receive from Jesus’ humility and suffering.  Jesus dies for us and in our place, so that our sins are forgiven.  In imitating the humility of Jesus, Peter reminds us, Christians point their oppressors back to the sinless Savior in whom alone men and women may be saved, and so that Christians may receive better treatment from the hands of their oppressors.
 
In a letter such as this–one closely tied to specific historical circumstances–some background is important to enable us to understand why Peter addresses the issues he does, and so that we can draw proper application in our own circumstances.  Peter is writing to a group of persecuted Christians in Asia Minor.  Although they have been cast from their homes, and are now aliens in their own county, Peter reminds them that they are nevertheless elect exiles of God, a chosen race, and a royal priesthood.  The Apostle knows full-well that his readers are facing very difficult times.  Repeatedly, Peter exhorts these Christian sojourners to endure their trials patiently, and to wait for the Lord to deliver them.  Yet, Peter also reminds them that because they have been set apart by God (sanctified), and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, they are heirs to a glorious heavenly inheritance which exceeds anything we can imagine.  Christians, Peter says, must keep this promise before our eyes, especially whenever God calls us to endure times of trial.  But this is the pattern of the Christian life.  The cross and the crown of thorns precedes the empty tomb and our glorious entrance into the presence of the Lord.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here