Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

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.

Since we have three new communicants and three new members that we are publicly welcoming today, I thought it would be a good time to have a message about what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. What is actually involved? Essentially, a disciple is one who comes to follow his master and to be like him. When you come to be Jesus's disciple, He teaches you how to live in harmony with God. He came to restore us to God, and that is exactly what He does.

In our Mountains of Bether Sermon Series, we have been looking at the mountains that stand between us and the Lord with a view to asking Him to remove them. The barriers we have been looking at recently are inattention to the means of grace. This week, the barrier is inattention to the Lord's Supper.

Today, we are going to look at the contrast between two anointings. One is an anointing with the Holy Spirit. The other is an anointing with a demon. Our goal will be to learn about how God anoints His people that we might cherish His anointing with the Holy Spirit—that we might understand it and desire it for ourselves and others; and that we might see the horror of His anointing with a demon and dread it for ourselves and others.

In our Mountains of Bether Series, we look at things that stand between us and our Lord, barriers that He, by His grace, removes as we look to Him, yearning to be closer to Him. Last week, I pointed out the barrier of Inattention to God's Word. But of course, there are other means of grace besides the word of God preached and read. A means of grace, something that God has given us to use that helps us know Him and live for Him. This week, we will look at inattention to baptism.

Today, we will continue our sermon series in 1 Samuel at chapter 16. Here, David is brought forward as the King that the Lord chooses for Israel. David is, as God's Christ (anointed King) an Old Testament type of Jesus the Christ. That means that David is a model of King Jesus. Today, we will look at how God provides David to His people, choosing Him above others.

Today, we come to our 18th message in our Mountains of Bether Series. As believers, we are the bride of Christ. We yearn to have a relationship with Him and the Father that is one of sweet harmony. We grow by the grace of God, that is, by the Lord working in our lives through Jesus by His Spirit. We are not to be passive in receiving God's grace. We are to diligently use the means. The Lord has given us means of grace that we are to use diligently to receive His grace (or divine help) that transforms us in our walk with Him. The primary means He has given us are the Word, sacraments, and prayer. The Word is one of the most important of these. It is by the word that He speaks to us. So today, I want to explore the barrier between us and the Lord of inattention to His Word.

We have just come to a new section as we work our way through First Samuel. For each section we have sung a Psalm that relates to that section: The first section, 1 Sam 1-7, about Samuel, we sang Psalm 113. The second section, 1 Sam 8-15, about Saul, we sang Psalm 21. The third section, we now begin, 1 Sam 16, about David, we will sing Psalm 89. Psalm 89 is a very long Psalm, so we will be looking at it in an overview fashion. It describes the glory of King Jesus and His godly reign that goes on forever and brings perfect peace, but it shows that there will be hard struggles before that peace comes.

Today in our Mountains of Bether Sermon Series, the hinderance in our relationship with God that we are looking at is doubt. Doubt, of course, can be such that it keeps a person from ever coming to Christ—But in this series, we are looking at barriers between us and the Lord that we have after we have been converted. We will do that today.

We have not had our Samuel Sermon series for a couple of weeks. We are presently at chapter 15. I did a sermon about the stumbling block in this chapter that offends many people today—where God calls His people to exterminate the Amalekites. If that is a problem for you, I encourage you to listen to that sermon from April 6. I did that so that I wouldn't burden the sermon I am preaching today with explaining all of that—which I think is an important thing to do in our particular day. The heart of this chapter is about God's passion for His people and Saul's disappointing refusal to engage with Him as a passionate God. In looking at this, it is my desire that you all will see and understand God's passion for His people and that you will all joyfully connect with Him in His loving zeal for us!

This afternoon, we will continue our Mountains of Bether sermon series where we are looking at things that come between us and the Lord. This week, the barrier we are looking at is one of those mountains that we often don't notice—in other words, we are blind to it. It is what I am calling the mountain of false peace. I hope that you do cry out to Him when your relationship is dried up. That is a mark of a true believer.

A word about holy days not instituted by the Lord and God's mercy. Last year, I preached on 1 Corinthians 15:22, and this year we are looking at the whole of 1 Corinthians 15 to consider how our faith is fed with Christ's Resurrection.

In our afternoon sermon series, we are looking at things that come between us and our Lord.We have looked at quite a few of the mountains that He overcomes—and today it is one mountain which has two opposite barriers that we will find to be essentially the same thing: Worry and Overconfidence—one mountain with two aspects. We might call this Mount Self-trust—which produces both worry and overconfidence.

Today in our Samuel Sermon, I am doing something a little different. The passage we are looking at today, 1 Sam 15, has a stumbling block in it—something that makes people offended with God. It reveals His severity in calling for the annihilation of an entire nation. So I am going to read the part that makes people offended, and then I am going to do a topical sermon about how to deal with God's severity.

The Mountain of Bether we will consider today is Envy. For those who have not been with us for this series, the Mountains of Bether are barriers that stand between us and God that Christ overcomes.

The church of Jesus Christ, which is His Kingdom, is made up of two kinds of members: sons (converted like Jonathan) and servants (professing but unregenerate members like Saul).

Today we will continue our sermon series about the things that separate us from God from which Jesus delivers us. According to the scriptures, we are His betrothed bride. One mountain that is especially displeasing to Him is our indifference to one another. Jesus' bride is unique because although she is one bride, one church, she is made up of many members, and Jesus wants us to love one another. We are all brothers.

The Lord has such a personally engaging way of working in our lives as His elect people— One of the tools He employs (and the one we will look at today) is opportunities to trust Him when things are desperate—He sets them up for us and brings them to us. We take the opportunity by stepping out in faith, and when we do, we see Him work and learn of Him and come to love and trust Him more.

This afternoon in our Mountains of Bether Sermon series where we look at things that separate us from God we are looking at 'Lack of Devotion.' This is a Mountain that Jesus our Saviour transforms into a Mountain of Devotion. When I speak of devotion today, I am speak in particular of the devotion to please Him.

Samuel knew that although they were praising God for their deliverance, the thing they attributed most to their victory was that now they had a king like the nations. He wanted to help them to set their hope in the Lord. We will look at his address today that helps the church in every generation to hope in God.

In our afternoon worship service, we are looking at things (Mountains of Bether) that come between us and God and at how Jesus removes them. Today the mountain is "Deficient Praise" whether because it is empty or neglected. We are not looking at all aspects of worship, but specifically at praise: declaring to God and to each other His surpassing sweet excellence as the one who is worthy of all honour and adoration. God rebukes His people for deficient praise in Malachi 1.

Today, we have four young men to present to you as new communicant members. All four of them were baptised in this congregation over a decade ago. This sets before us the two-fold pattern the Lord gave us in the Old and New Testament: He receives our children at infancy when their believing parents present them. He also expects them to affirm His covenant when they are of sufficient maturity. Since these two aspects in a child's life are providentially set before us, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to preach the relationship of baptism and profession of faith.

Today in our Mountains of Bether series we are looking at harlotry and wine (intoxication). Our Scripture reading is Hosea 4:11.

Over the last few weeks in 1 Samuel, we have seen how Israel got their first King. Their request for a king had not been appropriate because it was motivated by a desire to have a king like the nations around them. It was a rejection of God as their king. The Lord called them out for this, but agreed to give them a king such as they demanded. Nevertheless, He made it clear that the king would be under His authority. Some people were not pleased with this and wondered how such a king could save them. The Kings of the nations did not answer to prophets or to God—they were the king! These men asked the question, "How can this man save us?" (1 Sam 10:27). That question is answered in chapter 11.

In this sermon series, we have been looking at some of those mountain barriers that are called Mountains of Bether and at how He overcomes them. Today the barrier we are considering is discontentment.

Today I will be preaching from First Samuel chapter 10, verses 17-27.- Here we have the account of the presentation of Israel's first king!- A great event in Israel's history.But as God's people, we will once again look at this as Holy Scripture written to speak to us and minister to us about our walk with God. We will look at how it applies to us. But first, let's take a moment to remember what led up to this time. A wayward nation. A faithful prophet. Repentance. Drift. A demand for a king like the nations. God's concession.

In our afternoon sermon series, we have been looking at the mountains that are between us and God that Christ overcomes. They are like mountains that stand between us and Him. The Mountain we are looking at today is the Mountain of Deficient Fear of God. Job is commended by God as a man that fears Him. In Job 28, Job tells us about the importance of fearing God.

Last time we saw how God moved forward to give them a king like they wanted. His name was Saul. He was a very handsome man who was head and shoulders above everyone. Though God was going to cause His people to suffer oppression from this king, He was still going to mercifully use him to keep them from being destroyed by the Philistines. In this way, God teaches us that we need a king like Jesus whose whole purpose will be to do what God wants and to lead us and save us to be God's devoted people. By looking at Saul (then David)—we learn important things about our Lord Jesus Christ. Today in chapter 10, we see how Saul is anointed to serve God as King. We learn much here about what it means to be anointed (as Jesus was) to serve.

In the afternoons, we have been looking at mountains that stand between us and the Lord. We are fallen creatures in a fallen world, and even after we have been converted, there are things that hinder our relationship with the Lord. In this series we are looking at how Jesus overcomes these mountains. The mountain that we are looking at today is one that is radically removed at conversion, but that still haunts us, as it were, and that we ask Christ to further eradicate from our lives. It is Self-Righteousness. When you come to Christ you renounce your own righteousness, but some of it still remains in you and sometimes you get a new supply of it!

Last time in Samuel, we came to a new section in the history where God's people demanded a king like the nations to rule them and lead them in battle. God said that they had rejected Him. They were tired of God and tired of being different. To Samuel's surprise, God told him to give them their king. Today in chapter 9, we see God's hand and motives in choosing their king. This is written to teach us how God works in ordinary details to bring forth our leaders.

Today in our Mountains of Bether sermon series, we are looking at Bitterness. In particular, bitterness toward other people who have wronged us (or those we perceive to have wronged us).

First Samuel 8 introduces us to a new section in the book of Samuel. Israel has been governed by judges—now she will be governed by kings. But this is God's living word. It has much more than a historical account of Israel. It has material that is designed to speak to us as God's people in every age (1 Cor 10:11). Here we have the exposure of our true motives for change in the ways that God appointed. Nobody knows your motives. You don't even know your own. Only God knows them. It is very gracious of Him to expose them, even when they are ugly. It is done to help us. We need to listen and take what He says to heart.

In our afternoon sermon series, I have been preaching on things that separate us (Mountains of Bether) from the Lord and how He overcomes them. The main focus here is not on what we must do when we are separated from Him, but on what He does to overcome the things that separate us. Today the barrier we are considering is prayerlessness.

Today for our morning sermon, we are taking up a new Psalm of Focus to sing in connection with our series in the book of First Samuel. In Samuel, we have come to the section about Saul where he is anointed as Israel's first king at the peoples' not-so-worthy request because they wanted a king like the other nations as if, they supposed, this, in itself, would make them secure. But despite the unworthy nature of the request, it was God's gracious plan all along to provide them with a king who would marvellously deliver them from all their enemies—not only enemy nations, but even sin, Satan, and death. Therefore, I have chosen for our Psalm a song that talks about God's king and the delight He has in saving us from our enemies! The Psalm I have chosen is Psalm 21.

As we get into this series, I have noted that there are mountains of significantly different kinds that separate us from Him as believers. Unconfessed sin is quite different than affliction, but both are barriers that He overcomes. Today we look at a mountain that is more of a condition: worldliness. He overcomes it too.

In our morning sermon series, we are working our way through the book of Samuel. This book opens at a time when God's people had drifted far away from Him. Yet, the Lord was beginning to do a great work of mercy and restoration for His people by raising up Samuel as His prophet. Samuel prophecies of the overthrow of the wicked house of Eli the high priest. God shows that He has withdrawn in judgment against Israel. He allows their enemies (the Philistines) to take His ark, the symbol of His presence. He humbles the Philistines and they return the ark, but God makes it clear that He is not restored. Israel sends the ark to be looked after by Gentile servants among them. This is where we pick up our reading of Samuel today—at chapter 7.

The topic in our Mountains of Bether sermon series today is Affliction. In case you have not been with us, the Mountains of Bether are Mountains of Separation. Today's topic falls into a very different category. Affliction is something that is done to us while sin (and failure to confess it) is something that we do. In Christ's hands, both sin and affliction separate us from God initially, but in the end bring us closer to Him.

The prevailing sentiment in the church in North America is that God is casual and easygoing. He has no standards to which He would hold anyone—no holy character that we should fear. We are, almost without exception, not worshipping God, but a graven image. We will look at three things pertaining to this passage. First, how the Philistines were forced to treat God as holy. Second, how the men of Beth Shemesh were taught that they must treat God as holy. Third, at what it looks like for us to regard God as holy.

Last week we started a new afternoon Sermon Series called The Mountains of Bether. The Mountains of Bether are used in the Song of Solomon to refer to the barriers that stand between us and Jesus Christ our bridegroom. In Song 2:17, we ask Him to come to us as He has done in the past—like a gazelle (agility) or a young stag (passion) to get through whatever has come between us and Him. When He does, those mountains that separated us are transformed into mountains of spice—sweet monuments of His all-conquering love that unites us to Himself. This week, we are looking at the "mountain" of unconfessed sin.

When Eli the high priest and one of his son's wives heard the news, they both died. The wife went into labour and bore a son whom she named Icabod with her dying breath, explaining that the glory of God had departed from Israel. She was right. God had removed His glory from Israel. By letting them take the ark, the Philistines supposed that they had defeated and captured God. We can see this today in churches that have a form without godliness and the gospel. Our enemies think they have defeated God Himself and expect God to help them. Today, in chapter 5, we will see what happened to the ark.

Today I am starting a new afternoon sermon series. In this series, we will look at the things that separate us from God and how Christ closes the gap between us and Him as our faithful bridegroom (if we are indeed His bride). There are so many things that have created a distance between us and God, but He deals with every one of them.

With chapter 4 which we take up today, we have the first of three chapters where Samuel is not mentioned except in the very first part of the first verse. What we have instead is an account of the demise of Eli's household and the removal of the ark of the covenant that symbolised God's presence among His people. Brought into focus for our edification is the problem of Ritual without Repentance.