Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

We saw that we cannot rely on human wisdom to bring us to God (I Cor 1:18 – 2:16). Human wisdom does not bring people to God. Trusting in Christ crucified does. Today's question, question 3, is related to last week's question. I want to show you that the focus of these principal teachings of scripture, what we are to believe and how we are to live, is Jesus.

Today, we come to the end of First Samuel. Here we have the demise of Saul to make room for David to take the throne. We have seen God preparing David by His grace to be a model of King Jesus. We have seen Saul come to ruin, a man who was never brought to personal repentance and was a king like the nations instead of like Jesus. Here in chapter 31, we see the striking contrast between Saul's demise and David's rise.

Today, we are moving on to Question 2. If you are convinced that your chief end is to glorify and enjoy God (and I hope you are), then you will want to know how to do that! Q. 2 tells us.

Today, I will review 1 Sam 30:1-10, 'David Returns Home ' then, cover the rest of chapter 30.

Last week, we began a new afternoon sermon series on the Shorter Catechism. I did an introductory message to show you that God has called us to confess our faith, therefore faithful churches have always had creeds and confessions. We are to hold to the pattern of such sound words in opposition to false doctrine, false beliefs, that some who profess Christ hold. As those gathered for worship, it is proper for us to confess these articles of faith. So we will do that each week. Today, we come to the First Question in the Catechism. So I will ask the question and then we will confess the answer together. Q. 1. What is the chief end of Man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

People of God, see how much the Lord loves us. He will not allow those that He loves to go on being lukewarm. David did not repent when God rescued him. Gentle measures failed, so now the Lord takes more severe measures.

This afternoon, I am going to start a new sermon series on the Shorter Catechism. It seems like I sense a need for this about every five years. But why do we do Catechism, and what are we trying to accomplish? Five years ago, I emphasised that we are called to do Catechism. I want to do that again, but to emphasise that it is Christ that we are given when we believe the articles of faith. The goal is for us to be rooted and built up in the faith.

My dear brothers and sisters, in this chapter our Lord shows us that He is the One who rescues us when we have become hopelessly entangled with the world through faithless compromise like David was.

Today, since we have the blessing of welcoming nine new members, and of baptising four covenant children, I am going to break from our regular sermon series in Samuel. Those who are joining want to be a part of a church with a biblical confession and practice. That is why they have come. I want to show you today that where you worship, and what church you are a part of, is important because God is those who will worship Him in spirit and truth.

John's great burden in this Epistle is to encourage believers to continue trusting in Christ for ongoing fellowship with God—that we grow in our knowledge of God, in our delight in Him, in our love for Him and for others, in our obedience and in our service. Since faith in Jesus is the vehicle that fuels our growing relationship with God, it is essential for us to have certainty about Jesus—that He is indeed the One who saves us!

This week, we will focus on why our Lord, as a faithful Saviour, rejects Saul.

In 1 John 4, John has much to say about love. In 1 John 4:7-12, we saw how, as those who are adopted into God's family, we have the perfect conditions for love—a new nature from God and new environment in His house. In 1 John 4:12-19, we saw how our security increases as we mature in love. Today in 1 John 4:20 – 5:5, we are going to see still more about love. Here, we are given a reality check about our love, and then we are sent to Him for help. It is a tremendously helpful passage! Let's dig in.

I am so thankful for the realistic picture the Bible gives us even of the heroes of the faith like David. It shows us their godliness as well as their sin. This is helpful for our walk. But this is not the best part. The best part is that the Bible shows us how God's grace intersects with their lives. This helps us to trust Him and love Him better. Today, we see David in a time of weariness. He pursues relief in a sinful way.

This week, we are going to look at one of the effects of "maturing love:" It makes us secure. A child who grows up in a loving family becomes more and more mature in that love and more and more secure about his place in that family. He knows that He belongs there. Our reading today is 1 John 4:12-19. As has often been the case in our study of 1 John, we have a transitional verse that was included in last week's reading: verse 12.

In 1 Sam 26, we see David, God's anointed king, having to deal with Saul all over again. Back in chapter 24, King Saul had been pursing David to destroy him in almost exactly the same way until one day when he entered a cave, unaware that David was hiding there and was forced to confess when David spared him that David was righteous and he was wicked. He left David alone for a while after that (chapter 25), but in 26 he is at it all over again

Today in First John, we are covering chapter 4, verses 7-12. In the last three sermons we looked at evidences that we know God. The first one was that we obey God as God. The second is a subset of the first… we love our brothers—other Christians. The third evidence is that we follow those who preach the truth. This week, John shows us from whence love comes—the source of it.

Today, the sermon will be a little different. We are going to look at the subject of Polygamy. We have David's Polygamy set before us in our text, 1 Sam 25:39-44.

1 John 3:24 is a transition from commandment keeping as an evidence that we know God to having the Holy Spirit as an evidence that we know Him.

Our gracious Lord is so wise and faithful in bringing about His purposes and kingdom. Last week, David glorifies God by refusing to take vengeance on his enemy, but this week, God is glorified by restraining David from taking vengeance.

Suppose you have two people who profess to believe in Christ. But one practices righteousness and the other does not. Last week, we saw in 3:4-10, that John says the one who doesn't doesn't know God. Suppose, however, that both of these individuals practice righteousness in the ways I just described, but one of them does not love his brother? That also is inconsistent with a true Christian profession. That is our topic this week in 1 John 3:10-23. Verse 10 is a transitional verse from the sign of practicing righteousness to the sign of brotherly love.

Revering God is a rare commodity in every age. David is a refreshing exception of someone who truly revered God. Let's take a look.

The characteristic we are looking at this week in 1 John 3:4-10 is one that, until you look at more closely, might be unsettling. "If You Know God, You Don't Sin."

God has a pattern He frequently follows of sending us to the wilderness for training. When you get down to it, this present world is a time of wilderness training for believers. This does not mean we should be hard and without compassion. Christ isn't (Hebrews 4:14-16). In 1 Samuel 23, we have David being trained in the wilderness with the men God gave him.

John is continuing to exhort us to abide in Him—to go on with the real Christ whom we know through the gospel—but adds the blessing of sonship. We are God's children.

God has been very kind to give us His word. It is like no other writings. He speaks to us. Today we have come to 1 Samuel 22 where we have a contrast between Saul and David. Saul shows us where we are headed if we put our life in our own hands—David shows us where we are headed if we put our life in God's hands!

Today, in our sermon series from 1 John, we come to 1 John 2:18-27. It relates to last week. Last week, in v. 12-17, John told us that those who know God don't go after the world. This week, in v. 18-27, he tells us that those who know God don't go after antichrists.

Today in our sermon series in Samuel we come to chapter 21. This the continuation of the account of David's rise to the throne. To the onlooking world, it certainly does not look like he is being raised up to reign! Presently, King Saul is trying to kill David. David is a fugitive, trying to avoid death. We see David brought to desperation, but we see God at work in times of desperation.

In our Sunday Afternoon Services, I have been preaching through the First Epistle of John. John explains that He has written this letter so that the reader might learn of Jesus Christ and have fellowship with Him and with the Father. John is especially concerned in this letter to help us know that we know Him. Today, John declares to us as believers that we do know the Lord

We often speak about covenants in the church with good reason. Without covenant promises from God, we could not be sure of His intentions toward us. In our text today, God gives us a beautiful picture of how covenants work.

In the passage we are looking at today, John shows us that if, in fact, we do not keep God's commandments, it shows that we have not come to know Him. We are still in the darkness.

God's way of making Christ known to us is through the word of the Apostles. So John and the others spoke and wrote that we might know God whom they know, that we might have fellowship with them whose fellowship is with Jesus Christ.

Last week we saw how God gave Goliath, the Philistine giant into David's hands. The focus of the story in the Bible is not to bolster self-esteem, but esteem for God! David was disturbed that God's name was being dishonoured. His trust was in God. Today, in 1 Sam 18, we see how God begins to raise up David as a faithful leader. We learn God's way of raising up leaders to bless His church.

Our new sermon series on Sunday afternoons will be from 1 John. I plan to preach twelve sermons in this series. The telos or purpose of this book is to instruct us about knowing God. Today, in the first four verses, we see that John tells us how we know God. This is a very important topic to me personally. I did not come to know God in a saving way until I was in my third year of university. In 1 John, John speaks specifically about what it means to know Him. He opens his letter by telling us how we can know Him. His answer is that it is through the Word of life revealed.

Many people who know next to nothing about the Bible know this story. It charms and encourages them. If David can conquer and overcome, so can they. The story is constantly misapplied to be about self-esteem. It is about God-esteem.

Today I am going to finish up our Mountains of Bether Sermon Series. For the final sermon in the Mountains of Bether series, I wanted to present the great barrier that is described in the Song of Songs itself. It is the barrier I am going to call: Ignoring Christ. Let's go to our scripture reading, where we see this barrier of ignoring Christ. Remember that in this Song, Jesus is the Husband and we, the church, are His bride. Listen and see what happens when we ignore Him and His gracious advances.