Testifying About the One

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Preacher: Lincon Atherton

Verses: John 1:19-28

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So in just over a week we will be celebrating Christmas. This should be such a joyous time for us. Many of us will wake up, sit in front of the Christmas tree, a cup of tea or coffee in the one hand, a hot cross bun, possible a rusk in the other. Some of us will have the option of sleeping in a little bit later than usual, others, parents, grandparents, you might not be so lucky.

For me personally, there is nothing much better than seeing a child’s face on Christmas morning. When I think of what excitement should look like, that is generally the face that I always picture. I have two younger siblings, and I can distinctly remember their faces when they were younger, opening their presents on Christmas morning. And what always amazed me was the fact that for them, it never really mattered what that gift was. For my brother, it could have been a set of small toy cars, a soccer ball, a bicycle. For my sister, it might have been paint, a doll, a puzzle even. For them, it was the sheer excitement of getting something that they enjoyed. And I believe that we all had the same basic emotions as children...

The Solas of the Reformation - God’s Glory Alone

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: 1 Kings 8:56-61, Romans 11:33-36

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Faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone and Scripture alone are an apt description of Reformation teaching and belief, which reach a climax and summation in God’s glory alone, Soli Deo Gloria.

The glory of God defies simple explanation. Glory describes the essential nature of God. At best we can seek to use human language by way of analogy to grasp its meaning. Old Testament Hebrew speaks of God’s glory as ‘weight’ or ‘heaviness’ in an attempt to describe God’s visible and active presence by way of creation and covenant. In creation the heavens declare the glory of God. In covenant relation with his people a burning bush, a pillar of cloud and fire and the ‘shekinah glory’ filling the tabernacle and temple are material manifestations of God’s glory. When Moses requested to see God’s glory in Exodus 33 he was granted a rear view of comet-like afterburn flashing past him. In short, the glory of God in the O.T. defies adequate description....

The Solas of the Reformation - Faith Alone

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: John 1:1-13, Romans 1:16,17

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Note: There is no audio for this sermon as our sound desk was in for repairs at the time.

Martin Luther was convinced that faith is the key that opens the human heart to the heart of God. Faith is the key which enables us to understand the great Reformation truth ‘Justification By Faith’ or more precisely ‘Justification by Grace through Faith’. Luther was convinced that we would only understand faith in the light of the character of God and the reality of a battle for the hearts and minds of humanity.
Luther, slowly and painfully, saw that the righteousness of God in Romans 1:17 does not simply refer to his justice requiring judgement, rather a new status granted by grace. In Luther’s world there was a division between spiritual people like monks and nuns and secular people in the market place and everyday world. If you really wanted to be spiritual you took the monk’s cowl or the nun’s habit and devoted yourself to God in a monastery. However, Luther’s ‘monkery’ did not satisfy his soul. As part of the Augustinian order Luther was encouraged by his spiritual director to read the works of Augustine to address some of his doubts and an over sensitive conscience. Augustine spoke of a ‘restless heart’ that would only find rest in God....

The Gospel According to Romans - Living Under Grace 9: Christian Security

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses:Romans 8:31-39

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Prior to chapter eight, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit only four times. However, now he more than makes up for the absence. He speaks of the Spirit no less than twenty times in chapter eight. His concern is not so much who the Spirit is i.e. his person, rather what the Spirit does. And what the Spirit does is to impart the life and hope of God that have been the key themes since chapter five...

The Gospel According to Romans - Living under Grace 7: Children of God

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses:Romans 8:1-17

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Roman chapter eight has rightly been described as one of the greatest passages of Scripture, dealing with three foundational truths of the gospel viz. Assurance, Life in the Spirit and Adoption in Christ.

The birth right of the Christian is ‘no condemnation’. The verdict of the final day has been brought forward and declared i.e. ‘righteous’ for those belonging to Christ. The verdict cannot be changed. We face judgement day with complete assurance. What lies ahead for the believer is not a life-or-death assessment of our lives, but the divine disclosure of acquittal...

The Gospel According to Romans - Living under Grace 6: Grace Trumps Law, The “I” of the Storm

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: Romans 7:14-25

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‘Who am I?’ They mock me, those lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine’. The answer to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s poignant probing is crucial as it will determine our values, lifestyle, future and ultimate destiny. It is here that Romans 7 enters the fray. Few passages of Scripture have been more influential in shaping how Christians think about themselves. However, the passage is not so much about the Christian life as about the law, the Torah and its effects upon the believer...

 

The Gospel According to Romans - Living under Grace 5: Grace Trumps Law

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: Romans 7:1-6

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Paul has argued in Romans chapter six that as Christians we have died to sin. He now adds in 7:4 “you also died to the law”. If the law in Psalm 19:7 ff is described as “… perfect refreshing the soul… [and] The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous,” why then are we called to die to something which is inherently good, true and righteous. Paul would argue that the problem is not the law per se, rather sin which is provoked by the law and seeks to control us. Left to ourselves we end up serving sin as master of our lives. Bob Dylan protest folk singer of the sixties and recent Nobel Laureate for literature reminds us...

 

The Gospel According to Romans - Living under Grace 3: Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: Romans 6:1-14

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Thomas Schreiner aptly describes this as ‘one of the most complicated and controversial portions of Romans’. It has also been referred to, tongue in cheek, as a ‘good Baptist chapter for a Presbyterian to preach on’.

I would argue that Paul is not referring to baptism in a sacramental sense i.e. water baptism. Rather he is using it as a metaphor for conversion and new life in Christ. “All of you who were baptised into Christ have been clothed with Christ through the new birth” (Gal 3:27). “Our ancestors were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and the sea” (1 Cor 10:1,2). Moses was their representative head into whom they were baptised. Someone has cheekily observed that the only people who got wet that day were the Egyptians who drowned in the sea! Moreover Mark 10:38 speaks of the impending baptism which Jesus must undergo i.e. his death and suffering on the cross...

The Gospel According to Romans - Living Under Grace 2: Grace Trumps Sin

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Series: Living Under Grace

Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: Romans 5:12-21

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This is one of the more difficult passages of Paul’s letter to the Romans: a series of running contrasts between acts of Adam and the acts of Christ and their respective consequences. N.T. Wright aptly describes it as ‘after the measured sentences of the first eleven verses of chapter five, verses 12-21 is like turning from Rembrandt to Picasso.’ Much of the language is new to the argument of Romans, and the style changes from the exhortation of vv1-11 to the resumption or argumentation in vv12-21. Moreover, Paul starts something in v12, gets side tracked in verse 13 like most preachers and only resumes the argument in v18. That said, the passage is crucial for a robust understanding of sin. However, sin is no match for the person and work of Christ, depicted as the second Adam...

Coming Under Grace - Part 5: A Change of Heart

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Series: Coming Under Grace

Verses: Romans 12:12-29

Paul levels the playing field in respect of God’s evaluation of religious and non-religious people; in this instance Jew and Gentile. He introduces the concept of the law, whether in written form by way of the Torah, i.e. law of Moses for the Jew, or conscience for the Gentile. In itself the law has no ability to save. The gospel, to which the law points, is the means of salvation. Verses 12 to 16 argue that the law is an impartial standard of judgement, illustrating the principle “For God does not show favouritism”...

Coming Under Grace - Part 4: The Patience of God

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Preacher: Alan Cameron

Series: Coming Under Grace

Verses: Romans 2:1-11

Paul was no arm-chair theologian. A pioneer missionary, he was a man of action, first and foremost a preacher of the gospel, particularly among the unevangelized. His special calling was to preach the gospel to the gentiles. Remarkably however, Paul puts the Jews (read religious people) in the same needful situation as pagan gentiles. All are under sin, all need the remedy provided by the saving work of Christ...