Subtopic: “ Let Us Not Lose The Book” 


Sermon notes By Pastor Arthur H. Coleman Sr for Sunday March 23, 2014 


Text: 2 Chronicles 33:14-15;18-19;21 “And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hil-ki’ah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. (vs15) And Hil-ki’ah answered and said to Sha’phan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hil-ki’ah delivered the book to Sha’phan. (vs18)Then Sha’phan the scribe told the king, (Josiah) saying, Hil-ki’ah the priest hath given me a book. And Sha’phan read it before the king. (vs19) And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent(tore) his clothes. (vs21)Go, enquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Ju’dah , concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.” 

Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” 

PREMISE 

The Pulpit Commentary, Vol.6, Pages 419-420 “Judah had been concerning itself, had been “careful and troubled” about many things, but it had not thought it worth the while to multiply copies of the “Law of the Lord”, of its own sacred books; so negligent had it been that one is accidentally discovered in the ruins of the temple. Of what great and guilty negligence are we capable! We may be spending our time and strength, we may be exhausting  ourselves and endangering our health and life in all kinds of unprofitable occupation, in fruitless labour or in amusement which begins and ends in itself, and all the time may be neglecting that one study or that one habit in pursuit of which “standeth our eternal life.”There are many men in Christian countries who expend the substance upon, and occupy their very life with, horses, or dogs, or guns, who do not afford even  a few hours a year to the serious study of the will of God as revealed by his Son and recorded in his Word. The treasure which cannot be estimated in gold or silver lies untouched, as much buried from sight and use as if it had been hidden in some crypt of the temple. It may not be our deeds, but our negligences, that we shall most fear to face in the great day of account. 

In that book of the Law of the Lord there were instructions and admonitions which, if duly heeded, would have ensured abiding peace and honour to the inhabitants of Judah. These had been waywardly and fragrantly disregarded. And now the time for employing them had well-nigh gone. What was left was the sad opportunity of verifying by bitter experience the truth of its threatening. This was the alternative now open to Judah. Let us take care lest, by our disregard of the promises, we bring upon ourselves the warnings of the Word of God. “If we will not be ruled by the rudder, we must be ruled by the rock.” If we will not take advantage of the gift of the gracious laws and the gracious overtures of God, we must “show forth” the severity of those righteous laws which attach suffering and shame to vanity and guilt.” 

Subtopic : “Walk The Walk To Talk The Talk

Sermon Notes by Pastor Arthur H. Coleman Sr. For Sunday November 10, 2013

Text :1 Peter 2:19-23 “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. (vs20) For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. (vs21) For even hereunto  were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (vs22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (vs23)Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:”  St. Luke 24:45-48 ( Christ appears to the Eleven) “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. (vs46) And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: (vs47) And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (vs48) And ye are witnesses of these things.”

PREMISE

The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Pages 84 &95-96, Comment on 1 Peter 2:21 “ Christians Are Called To Imitate Christ “. “Christians are called to suffering; the cross is the badge of their profession; without the cross they cannot be disciples of the crucified Lord. This was the meaning of your calling, St. Peter says; you knew it when you became Christians; you must not forget it in the hour of trial. Christ suffered for you; he left behind him, when he ascended into heaven, an example for you to imitate, a sketch for you to fill up in detail. Try by the grace of God’s Holy Spirit to renew the likeness of God in your hearts; look to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Model; copy one by one the features of that Divine loveliness; fill up the portrait, little by little, touch by touch, looking with fixed attention on the great Original. And , to change the figure, follow him; he goeth before you. Climb the steep ascent of heaven, stepping in the very footprints of the Divine Guide. He will lead you safe. But there is only one way--- the way he trod himself, the royal way of the most holy cross”. 

Subtopic: The Power Behind Our Faith

Text: Jeremiah 32:26-27 “Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,(vs27) Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything to hard for me?

1 Chronicles 29:11-12 “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.(vs12) Both of riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all.”

St. Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”


Premise

The Pulpit Commentary, Vol.11, Pages 52-53, A comment on Jeremiah 32:27. “We are not called to worship mere power. To do so would be to renounce the rights of conscience. We worship God, not because he is almighty, but because he is supremely good and morally great. But starting from this position, we have to take account also of the omnipotence of God. This omnipotence of God shows: 1.The utter vanity of all resistance to the will of God. In view of this obvious inference, the more strange, then, that it is so little acted upon. We need to feel it as well as to believe it. 2. This should lead us to trust that God will overcome difficulties which to us appear insurmountable. The restoration of Israel appeared impossible; the salvation of the world seems too great and difficult to be realized. But if  “with  God all things are possible”(St.Matt.19:26), how can we fix any limit to the ultimate triumphs of redemption? “The mercy of the Lord endureth forever;” then God will always seek the recovery of his lost children. “Is there anything to hard for me?” Then, in spite of present unbelief, impenitence, wild wanderings that leads us further astray, may we not believe that he will find his children at last? 3. These considerations should lead us to seek the help of God’s strength in our weakness. How foolish for the sailors to weary themselves toiling in vain at their oars against the tide, when if they would spread their sails the strong wind would carry them swiftly on! How foolish of us to toil on only in our natural power and with mere earthly means, when there are heavenly influences of omnipotence ready to help us if we will seek them!

Subtopic: " It's Time to Sober Up"

Text Titus:11-14: "For the grace of God that bringeth  salvation hath appeared to all men, (vs12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (vs13) Looking for that blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (vs14) Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works".

St. Luke 21: 33-36 : "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (vs34) And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting,( grossly excessively amount of something) and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.(vs35) For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.(vs36) Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man". 

Eph.5:15-21 "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,(vs16) Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (vs17)Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. (vs18) And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (vs19)Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; (vs20)Giving thanks alway for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; (vs21)Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."


Premise

The Pulpit Commentary; Vol.22, Page 229, a comment on Eph.5:18-19 "1. THE NEED OF SOME STIMULUS FROM BEYOND OURSELVES. (vs17-18.) This is apparent from the fact that everyone needs excitement, as it is called, to keep him moving--- something to "interrupt our quiet and ordinary state of mind with some more lively feeling, which makes us live more consciously and in a manner quicker than we do in common." We all feel this. Now, this goes to show that we are not self-contained, no matter how much we desire to be so, but we need a helping hand from outside our own personalities. Withhold food, and we perish. Withhold all stimulus from us, and we go of necessity to pieces. The whole question comes to be, therefore, where we shall get our required stimulus.

2. THE STIMULUS OF WINE IS ATTENDED WITH DANGER.(vs18) This is an inspiration which come through sense. Now, all of us need a stimulus through our senses. Food is a stimulus. A well-digested meal makes life move faster and quicker than fasting would. But this effect caused by drinking wine inspires a "riot"(Revised Version)  which is inconsistent with that unity of the Church for which the gospel calls. We should abstain from such a dangerous stimulus as this, for its effect has been hostile to the unity of spirit. But we might extend the precaution here to all those excitements of a sensual nature which exhaust and retard the spirit. As A.T Roberson says "Wine is but a specimen of a class of stimulants. All that begins from without belongs to the same class. The stimulus may be afforded by almost any enjoyment of the senses. Drunkenness may come from anything wherein is excess--- from over-indulgence in society, in pleasure, in music, and in the delight of listening to someone who has skill in public speaking, nay, even from the excitement of sermons and religious meetings. The prophet tells us of those who are drunken , and not with wine, (Isa.29:9-10, Jer.23:9-10)." Commentator Arnold, in the same way, bases upon this passage warnings against excess of bodily exercise, excess of intellectual exercise, excess even in our hours of work, excess, in a word, so far as it operates against Christian sober-mindedness.

Text: St. Luke 22:41-44 "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, (vs42) Saying, Father, if thou be willing , remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but let thine be done.(vs43) And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.(vs44) And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground".

Premise

The Pulpit Commentary, Vol.16, pages224-225, a comment on St. Luke 22:42(latter clause) "Self-Surrender. "Not my will, but thine ,be done." These words are suggestive as well as expressive. They suggest to us---- THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF SIN. Where shall we find the root of sin? Its manifold fruits we see around us in all forms of irreligion, of vice, of violence. But in what shall we find its root? In the preference of our own will to the will of God. If we trace human wrong-doing and wrong-being to its ultimate point, we arrive at that conclusion. It is because men are not willing to be what God created them to be, not willing to do what he desires them to do; it is because they want to pursue those lines of thought and of action which he has forbidden, and to find their pleasure and their portion in things which he has disallowed,--- that they err from the strait path and begin the course which ends in condemnation and in death. The essence of all sin is the assertion of our will against the will of God. We fail to recognize the foundation truth that we are his; that by every sacred tie that can bind one being to another we are bound, and we belong to him from whom we came and in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We assume to be the masters of our own lives and fortunes, the directors of our own selves, of our own will; we say, "My will, not thine, be done." Thus we are radically wrong; and being radically wrong, the issues of our hearts are evil. From this fountain of error and of evil the streams of sin are flowing; to that we trace our origin.