Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

Coming to chapter 7, we have the answer to their question, -Who is able to stand--- What we see in chapter 7 is our Lord's special care and protection of His church. From the earth's perspective, it can look like the church is going to be wiped out, but Jesus is in perfect control.

Today, in our Hebrews sermon series, we are taking up a new Psalm of Focus to go along with Hebrews chapters 12 and 13. From chapter 12 on, Hebrews will exhort us to advance in the life of faith in Christ. For this reason, I thought Psalm 84 would be an excellent Psalm for our Song of Focus. It is the song we sing as we go, expressing our sentiments about God's house. I very much hope that this song will be a source of great encouragement for us as we receive the exhortation from Hebrews 12-13 to go via Christ to God's house.

Today we come to the conclusion of this chapter that prepares us for the challenge we will be given in chapters 12 - 13 to live up to our privileges as believers under the New Testament.

Today we come to the conclusion of this chapter that prepares us for the challenge we will be given in chapters 12 - 13 to live up to our privileges as believers under the New Testament.

Today we will continue our series from the last book of the Bible-Revelation. Two weeks ago, we came to chapter 4 where the Lord presents to John an open door to heaven and says- Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. John saw visions of things representing invisible things including God the Father. The emphasis was on His rule over all, represented by a throne. Also symbolised was His relationship with His church under many details. He was being worshipped by the church as the Holy Almighty Creator who rules over all. Last week, we considered the first seven verses of Revelation chapter 5. We will review what we saw after our Scripture reading.

Today, we are going to take a similar approach looking at bearing hardships- We will look at the examples of the marvellous things that faith enabled them to endure. We will consider how faith can surely enable us to do the hard things we are called to do.

We have been in Hebrews 11 for a while, working through some of the most excellent examples of those who had faith. Last week it was the example of Rahab in verse 31. With verse 32, the writer wants to wrap things up. He says- What more can I say Today, I will read the rest of the chapter, give you an overview of it, and then focus on vv. 32-35a. Notice the beauty of this passage as it speaks so eloquently of our fathers.

Today we are taking up the first 7 verses of chapter 5. In these verses, we are shown how God's plan or decree is put into the hands of Christ, our Mediator, who represents us- It is what we read in Daniel 7. It is what is celebrated in Ps 2, 47, 89, - 110 to name a few.

Today in our study of the letter to the Hebrews we have a very unique example of faith and of what it does in peoples' lives by God's marvellous grace.

As we embark on this new section in Revelation, we see in the opening verses that John is summoned to come up to heaven. But we need to understand that the visions are not visions of material things, but of invisible spiritual things visualised in symbols. What we see here is not heavenly worship, but our own earthly worship from heaven's perspective- we see heaven receiving our worship and ministering to us.

To summarise, these verses teach us that we must trust God to deliver us from bondage to sin, Satan, and the rebellious world -v. 29 from last time-, and v. 30 -today's verse-, that by faith we are able to overcome all opposition -symbolized by the walls of Jericho- to establish God's righteous kingdom in this world.

Today's topic is Jesus' letter to the church in Laodice. In this last of the seven letters, His deep concern for churches and people that are lukewarm is expressed. We see both disgust and tenderness toward them. What a powerful impact this has on all in whom God's Spirit is at work- How can anyone be indifferent to what is in this letter--

Today, I want to look at why Jesus came from a slightly different angle. It is the reason He gives in the Sermon on the Mt.-a sermon about His kingdom. At the heart of this sermon, Jesus declared that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.

Today in our series on the seven churches in Revelation, we come to the sixth letter that Jesus sent. This one is to the Church in Philadelphia. This letter is quite different than the fifth letter that was written to Sardis. The city of Philadelphia was the youngest of the cities to which Jesus wrote. Philadelphia continued to be an influential city until 1390 when it fell to Islaam, but there was a huge change in the mission of the city. It became a Christian centre-

At this time of year, people think about the coming of Jesus. But why did He come-- Even people who go to church and keep Christmas often don't know. You need to know why He came-in fact, everyone does. So I am going to take up this subject today, that you might know, that you might know more fully, and that you might be able to tell others. Jesus often spoke about why He came. He explained it from a lot of different angles. Joel Beeke has a little book that gives 31 reasons why He came. But this morning I am going to focus on what Jesus said in John 10-especially John 10-10.

Today in Jesus' fifth letter, to the church at Sardis, there is something quite different that is dealt with. There is no mention of heresy or immorality, nor of persecution. All who visited saw what appeared to be a healthy, vibrant, faithful, prosperous church. This time, there are no charges of false doctrine of immoral behaviour, no charges of a lack of diligence in deeds of love, forsaking worship or inappropriate worship, tolerating false teachers- Sardis was itself a very wealthy city. It was also well known for its immorality. But the church at Sardis had the prosperity without the immorality. Nevertheless, Jesus has little good to say to this church and its leadership.

For some time, I had planned to do seasonal sermons about why Christ came, but when we set Katherine's baptism for today, I decided to preach on the Magnificat -Lu 1-46-56-. Here we have the wonderful response of Mary to the blessing of conceiving Jesus Christ our Saviour.

This afternoon, we will continue our series on the seven churches in Revelation. Today, it is the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2-18-29. Thyatira was the smallest and least important town to which Jesus wrote. By including them, Jesus shows that He cares for the small as well as the great.