Some Great Free Resources and Some Other Stuff

Rev. Danny Hyde's excellent "welcome" guide for those new to Reformed and Presbyterian churches is available as a free eBook download.  Here:  Welcome to a Reformed Church--Ligonier, or here:  Welcome to a Reformed Church --Amazon

Rev. Hyde's very helpful and informative book is required reading for new members classes at Christ Reformed Church, and I highly recommend it.

John Hendrix at Mongerism.com is offering 7 free eBooks from B. B. Warfield.  Seven Free Warfield eBooks

Modern Reformation Magazine is looking to interview folks who were once on staff at Evangelical megachurches.  "Have you made the switch from a broadly evangelical megachurch to a church in one of the Reformation traditions that does ministry…shall we say, slightly differently?"  Go here to email, or add your comment.  Modern Reformation--Making the Switch Survey

Finally, has the devil got you down?  There's an app for that (h. t. Larry Johnson)!  Shut Up, Devil! App

"I Delight to Do Your Will, O My God" -- A Sermon on Psalm 40

A Sermon on Psalm 40

One of the best-known Psalms among our contemporaries is Psalm 40.  No doubt, this is because the Irish band U2 closed out their concerts for many years with a very moving rendition of it, in which huge audiences sang along with the band.  As written, Psalm 40 reflects the author’s (David) thanksgiving for deliverance from urgent danger.  In light of this sense of immediate need for deliverance of which David is speaking, John Calvin–who was very reticent to speak about himself–describes his conversion as being pulled from the mire of his addiction to the papacy, a direct reference to verse 2 of this particular Psalm.  Calvin goes on to say, “God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life.”  In light of this Psalm’s historic importance, and current familiarity, I thought Psalm 40 would be a good place to begin as we spend the next few weeks surveying select Psalms.

The Book of Psalms was the hymnal of ancient Israel.  The Psalter is also one of the most beloved portions of God’s word, provides Christ’s church with much of its song, and also serves as the foundation for the devotional life of God’s people.  My goal in preaching on the Psalms is to direct our attention to them so as to stir in our hearts a desire to read, study, reflect upon, and sing this wonderful portion of God’s word.  The more we know about the Book of Psalms, the greater our desire to read and sing them as God’s people have done throughout the ages.  

The Psalter is composed of 150 songs which reflect the entire range of human emotion–from despair to jubilation.  Although the Psalter was written by different authors over the course of much of Israel’s history, most Psalms are closely tied to the life and times of David (Israel’s most prominent king).  Many of the Psalms reflect Israel’s worship of YHWH during this turbulent period in the nation’s history.  There are a number of different types and genres of Psalms.  There are Psalms of praise, Psalms of lament (sixty-seven of them), there are imprecatory Psalms (which invoke God’s judgment on his enemies), there are messianic Psalms (which prefigure the coming of Christ), there are “enthronement” Psalms (which speak of God as king and ruler of all), there are wisdom Psalms (which reveal to us wisdom from God), and there are Psalms of trust, (which express confidence in God’s power, and in God’s faithfulness in keeping his covenant promises).  And then, there is the famous “shepherd Psalm,” the twenty-third Psalm.

There are also a number of names attached to the 150 Psalms (i.e., David, Solomon, Moses, Asaph, the Sons of Korah).  73 of the Psalms are ascribed to David (king of Israel).  Twelve Psalms are ascribed to Asaph (who was one of David’s three temple musicians, along with Heman and Jeduthun).  Eleven Psalms are ascribed to the Sons of Korah (who were a guild of temple singers), three are ascribed to Jeduthun (a Levite), two are connected to Solomon, as well as one each to Moses, Heman (a grandson of Samuel), and Ethan (a symbol player in David’s court and thought by some to be another name for Jeduthun).  The remainder of the Psalms are unattributed.  With the exception Moses, the others to whom various Psalms are ascribed are mentioned throughout the two books of Chronicles, so we know certain details about them and their service of YHWH.  Even through not all of the Psalms were written by David, it is reasonable to speak, as many do, of the “Psalms of David” since the vast majority of them are ascribed to David or his known associates.

To read the rest of this sermon:  Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (September 1-7)

Sunday Morning (September 7):  We are continuing our series on 1 Peter, and working our way through verses 13-25 of chapter one  We will be considering the "word" which was preached.  Our Lord's Day worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are continuing with our study of the Canons of Dort.  We are currently in the 3/4 head of Doctrine, and will be discussing regeneration as an act of God.  The catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study:  Resumes September 10 with the closing chapter of Revelation, before we take up a study of the Book of Romans.

Friday Night Academy: The Academy will resume in September of 2014.  Our first class will be a four-week reading/discussion format centering on Dr. Robert Godfrey's book, John Calvin:  Pilgrim and Pastor (Crossway, 2009) and Mike Horton's book, Calvin on the Christian Life, (Crossway, 2014).  If you plan on attending, you may want to start reading now.

For more information and directions, check out the Christ Reformed website:  Christ Reformed Church

"The Salvation of Your Souls" -- 1 Peter 1:3-12

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon:

Click Here

This Week's White Horse Inn

A Christian Among Muslims

There are over a billion Muslims in the world, and, according to many, that number is likely to double over the next twenty years. How are we to reach this group with the gospel of Jesus Christ? What do we need to know in order to be effective in our witness toward Muslims? On this edition of White Horse Inn, Michael Horton discusses these questions with Fikret Böchek, who recounts his fascinating conversion from Islam and his current ministry among Muslims in Smyrna, Turkey.

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Friday Feature -- Today Is My Birthday!

I'm 60 today!  I'm very thankful to be alive and well!  God has been gracious to me beyond words!  Looking forward to celebrating later with family and friends.

ISIS and Islamic Eschatology

As politicians throughout the West debate what to do about the rapidly increasing threat of ISIS, I wonder how much we in the West actually understand about the intellectual underpinnings of the movement.  Here are several articles I found helpful in sorting some of this out.

First, ISIS is driven by Islamic eschatology--an especially virulent apocalyptic eschatology.  As one writer points out . . .

Many Shi'ites from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran are drawn to the war because they believe it paves the way for the return of Imam Mahdi - a descendent of the Prophet who vanished 1,000 years ago and who will re-emerge at a time of war to establish global Islamic rule before the end of the world.

According to Shi'ite tradition, an early sign of his return came with the 1979 Iranian revolution, which set up an Islamic state to provide fighters for an army led by the Mahdi to wage war in Syria after sweeping through the Middle East.

"This Islamic Revolution, based on the narratives that we have received from the prophet and imams, is the prelude to the appearance of the Mahdi," Iranian cleric and parliamentarian Ruhollah Hosseinian said last year.

The entire article can be found here:  The Role of Islamic Eschatology in ISIS

A second factor driving the movement is a new and dangerous combination of eschatological, political, and terrorist ideologies, making the movement difficult to assess even by the jihadists themselves. (Apocalyptic, Political, or Just Plain Terrorists?)

So what is Isis essentially – violent millenarian cult, totalitarian state, terrorist network or criminal cartel? The answer is that it is none of these and all of them. Far from being a reversion to anything in the past, Isis is something new – a modern version of barbarism that has emerged in states that have been shattered by western intervention. But its influence is unlikely to be confined to Syria and Iraq.

Finally, the jihadist movement in Iraq/Syria is beginning to fracture and a "civil war within a civil war" seems to breaking out among jihadists.  (A Civil War Within a Civil War?)

Islamic militants who poured into the embattled nation to help the Free Syrian Army in its bid to topple dictator Bashar Assad are now fighting Assad, the rebels and each other in a barbaric free-for-all. At the center is the split between Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the newly emerged Islamic State, which are fighting each other on the battlefield and in the war for recruits to the cause of Islamic terrorism. 

“The two groups are now in an open war for supremacy of the global jihadist movement,” according to Middle East scholar Aaron Zelin in a research paper published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S.-based think tank.

Throw in the jihadist-led insurgency in neighboring Iraq, which has become intertwined in the insurrection in Syria, and the shifting alliances are becoming for many even harder to understand.

"Praise the Lord" -- A Sermon on Psalm 146

A Sermon on the 146th Psalm

My guess is that almost everyone reading this can recite the 23rd Psalm from memory.  Yet can anyone recite Psalm 146 from memory?  Probably not.  Although not as well known as the 23rd Psalm, Psalm 146 is certainly worthy of our time and study.  Consider the fact that Christians frequently use expressions like “praise the Lord,” and “hallelujah.”  Where do these expressions come from and why are they used?  These expressions come from biblical passages like Psalm 146.  Like many other Americans, Christians are prone to place their trust in great men (politicians, military heros, people of wealth and power), because such people can exercise influence upon over lives and our ways of thinking.  But in Psalm 146, we are reminded not to place our trust in anyone or anything other than God, who is the creator and sustainer of all things.  And then it is our Lord Jesus who alludes to this Psalm when beginning his messianic mission.  So there is much here for us to consider in the 146th Psalm.

As we continue our series on select Psalms, we take up Psalm 146 as a representative of an important group of five Psalms at the end of the Psalter, the so-called Hallel Psalms (146-150).  As we will see, Psalm 146 is a joyful Psalm of praise.  Together with Psalms 147-150, these five Psalms bring the fifth Book of the Psalms (Psalms 107-150), as well as the entire Psalter, to a close.  The five Hallel Psalms are classified as “Psalms of praise,” and are used as daily prayers in most synagogues.  Collectively these Hallel Psalms reflect a sense of joy and delight and although not as well-known as other Psalms (such as Psalm 23, our subject last Lord’s day) this group of Psalms does include Psalm 149 (in which we are urged to “sing a new song”) and Psalm 150 (with its famous refrain, “let everything that has breath praise the Lord”).

So far in our series on select Psalms we’ve covered Psalms written by David, Moses, and the sons of Korah.  We have looked at Psalms used in the temple (for worship), royal Psalms (with messianic implications), wisdom Psalms, and a Psalm such as the well-known 23rd Psalm, often classified as a “Psalm of trust.”  We take up yet another genre (or form) of Psalms–a Psalm of Praise.  This Psalm has been used as the text for several German hymns, and Isaac Watts’ hymn “I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath” is also based upon this Psalm.  The 146th Psalm is a Psalm which directs us to offer praise to the Lord, as well as to exercise great care in choosing in whom we place our trust.

As a so-called Psalm of Praise (and part of a section of the Psalter devoted to praise), this Psalm is often called a Song of Zion (because of the reference to Mount Zion, in v. 10).  It was almost certainly composed for use in the temple.  As with other Psalms (especially those used for worship in the temple), the authorship of Psalm 146 is unknown.  Ancient Jewish tradition identifies Psalm 146 and 147 as coming from prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and therefore to the fact that these Psalms were written for use in the temple after Israel returned from the exile in Babylon, making these Psalms among the most recently written in the Psalter.  There is nothing in these Psalms which ties them to either of these prophets, so it is probably best to consider this Psalm’s authorship as undetermined (unknown).

To read the rest of this Psalm:  Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (August 25-31)

Sunday Morning (August 31):  We are continuing our series on 1 Peter.  We'll be covering the verses 3-12 and Peter's discussion of the salvation of our souls.  Our Lord's Day worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  Ken Samples is leading our afternoon service.  The catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study:  Resumes September 10.

Friday Night Academy: The Academy will resume in September of 2014.  Our first class will be a four-week reading/discussion format centering on Dr. Robert Godfrey's book, John Calvin:  Pilgrim and Pastor (Crossway, 2009) and Mike Horton's book, Calvin on the Christian Life, (Crossway, 2014).  If you plan on attending, you may want to start reading now.

For more information and directions, check out the Christ Reformed website:  Christ Reformed Church

"Elect Exiles" -- 1 Peter 1:1-2

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon, the first in a new series on 1 Peter:

Click Here