by Phil Auxier
The sermon from 7/24/11 entitled Qualified from Hebrews 5:1-10 is now online. In this sermon, I sought to unfold what is an amazing text of Scripture, showing how amazingly qualified Jesus is to not only be our great high priest, but, deeper, to be our Savior for all of eternity. We need this truths as anchors for our souls. I hope you profited from this message.
In the evening, many of our church’s small groups gathered. It was an enriching Lord’s Day. I hope you were blessed.
by Phil Auxier
As a pastor in the Bible church context, it seems that what could be the favorite verse for people in our neck of evangelicalism is something like 3 John 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” It’s truth, truth, truth, always the truth. But, the problem is, often, that our definition of truth is a narrow bit of interpretive secondary issues and not the “truth” that John spoke of at all.
You see, John had personally encountered the “Truth” when He walked on earth. He even quotes Jesus in a verse we love: “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one gets to the Father except through Me.'” We love this verse. But, when we think about walking in the truth, we often aren’t thinking of walking more precisely in the Gospel, we are thinking about moral or very specific doctrinal confines.
Therefore, today, let’s heed those words of that grandfatherly apostle in 3 John. There is no greater joy than to be walking in the truth, than to be walking in Jesus and all the implications that the Gospel has for us. The Gospel changes us. Let’s walk in that joy.
by Phil Auxier
Here are some helpful things I saw on the web this week:
The Resurgence had a good word for wives, as well as some moving reflections of a parent to a blind child.
Someone in church recommended I read Dr. Gangemi’s site and I’ve found the articles fairly helpful in terms of diet, health and that glorifying God in one’s body piece.
And, evidently owling is the new planking. As Jared Wilson said, this is proof that we are officially bored to death.
by Phil Auxier
Prepping for this coming Lord’s Day (7/24/11) and a sermon on Hebrews 5:1-10, I listened to a sermon by Piper entitled He Is the Source of Eternal Salvation for All Who Obey Him from Hebrews 5:4-10. In explaining why this passage is so important, he said at one point:
All hell will rage at you one day with this one message—especially when you are nearing death: your salvation is not sufficient; your guilt remains; condemnation hangs over your head; and the wrath of God is not removed. At that moment you will need truth about the foundation of your eternal salvation. And one truth that will strengthen your confidence in that hour is the truth that you have no ordinary High Priest, but one who has the infinite dignity of the Son of God, and he has therefore become the source of eternal salvation.
I was really excited when I heard Piper say this, because this was exactly why my heart was excited. There is quite simply no Savior like the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope as you think about His perfections, you see how qualified He is to be THE source of our salvation.
by Phil Auxier
Yesterday’s sermon, Clinging To Christ, from Hebrews 4:14-16 is online. The sermon was led by this big idea in this portion of Scripture about Jesus being our high priest and the exhortations to hold fast our confession and draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. It was an encouraging and needed word in my life.
In the PM, we met for corporate prayer praying together for some needs that are pressing in our congregation. We typically do this once a quarter and have found it to be most productive when the Elders lead out with some specific requests.
At any rate, we enjoyed a tremendous Lord’s day and I’m grateful that I got to participate in it.
by Phil Auxier
by Phil Auxier
I was challenged by a recent post on the Resurgence entitled The Decline of the Nuclear Family. Among other things, this post highlighted how the demographics of families have changed and how the church should respond. The point:
Perhaps the most loving, most prophetic thing the church can do is to call men in their 20s to love Jesus, read their Bibles, get a job, to leave their parent’s house, and to love one woman—according to the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the New York Times, no one is doing that.
Creating a culture of manhood is, evidently, not that hard. Let’s call men to this high standard and watch the fruit it produces.
by Phil Auxier
This coming Lord’s Day we will, Lord willing, look at Hebrews 4:14-16 and the amazing picture we are given of our sympathetic high priest, Jesus the Son of God. In reading to prepare for this, I thought Kent Hughes gave an amazing illustration that helps us see just how tuned in Jesus is to us:
His instrument, so to speak, was the same as ours. It is a fact that if you have two pianos in the same room and a note is struck on one, the same note will gently respond on the other, though not touched by another’s hand. This is called “sympathetic resonance.”
Christ’s instrument was just like ours in every way. And hear this! He took that instrument, that body, to Heaven with him. It is his priestly body. And when a chord is struck in the weakness of our human instrument, it resonates in his! There is no note of human experience that does not play on Christ’s exalted human instrument. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” — praise His name!
I hope as you consider the picture we see of Jesus in Hebrews 4:14-16, you too would be humbled by the truth that He’s tuned in to your struggles and the result would be you praising God.
by Phil Auxier
My sermon from 7/10/11, God’s Powerful Word out of Hebrews 4:12-13 is online. I thought we had an amazing morning in corporate worship coupled with some great time examining these familiar verses as we continue to make our way through this book. God’s Word is powerful and this sermon, in particular, pointed us to how God’s Word prepares us for the Gospel.
In the evening, our small group read through Chapter 5 of Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins on The Power of the Holy Spirit. We were encouraged that in the fight with sin, we aren’t left to our devices but have been given God Himself to help us in the fight.
It was a full day, but filled with blessings from our Lord at each turn. I hope you had a blessed day yourself.
by Phil Auxier
…from The Resurgence entitled Let’s Talk All About the Gospel. This interview with Dane Ortlund fleshes out what how the Gospel is seen in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Leviticus as well as helping us have some practical tips to center on the Gospel each day. Enjoy.
