Sermons

In his youth Solomon turned away from God to chase after power and pleasure. Only as an old man did he see how empty those years had been, and he regretted them. He longed to go back, yet could not, and from that place he lays his own shame bare before those who would come after him as a warning.

Many people treat the church as a hobby, a religion that is nice enough to have. Yet Scripture says that eternal life belongs not to the act of attending church but to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Just as a boat makes headway only when it sits half above the water and half beneath it, so faith stays alive only when it stands unshaken, even while the body remains in the world.

As people grow old, their hands and feet tremble, their backs bend and their hearing dims, until at last they return to the dust. At that moment every person meets the Judge and must answer for how they spent the years God gave them. The word of God is like nails firmly fixed: whoever holds on to it will never fall into darkness.

A child in the mother’s womb grows in a way that only God can accomplish. Whatever the circumstances of its birth, that life is a blessing and a miracle; yet from the moment they are born, all people are sinners on their way to death. Making known the Christ who cancels that debt of sin is the responsibility of those who were called first.

The word to cast bread upon the waters means, even before the sharing of possessions, that the truth is to be spread diligently throughout the world. The world is ruled by the harlot, but only Christ can overcome Satan and give eternal life. So when Christians preach the gospel they may be bold, since what they speak is not their own knowledge but the truth. As Noah proclaimed judgment and built the ark amid people’s mockery, it is enough to sow the seed, trusting that salvation rests with God.

Some ask which of two paths is God’s will, but the choice is made by each person within the truth, and God is the one who helps them in it. Even when the fruit of salvation cannot yet be seen, God’s people should not lose heart or give up, but keep casting the bread of the gospel, sowing in the morning and not withholding their hand in the evening.

At the very moment Abraham is about to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, God’s voice is heard telling him not to lay a hand on the boy. The rich man dressed in purple and feasted every day, while at his gate lay Lazarus, covered with sores and left there to his fate.

Whether Abraham obeyed or not, God had already provided a ram to die in Isaac’s place. To obey is to receive that grace as a blessing and enjoy it; to disobey is to turn the very same grace into a curse. The rich man made a show of his faith in purple and fine linen, yet in truth he was a fool who did nothing to relieve his brother in need, while Lazarus, poor all his life, was carried at his death to Abraham’s side.

God’s purpose is not to make people’s lives go well but to keep them faithful. Since he hears everything, even the grumbling of the heart and the words whispered in the bedroom, the wise are those who are not idle but give thanks and obey his word.

The Assyrian army falls in a single night, and Hezekiah recovers from an illness that should have killed him. Yet the son born to him in the fifteen years God added to his life in answer to his prayer becomes the most wicked king in Judah’s history.

Hezekiah came to credit his healing to his own godliness, and his judgment grew clouded, until he went so far as to open the temple and the treasuries to the envoys from Babylon and show them everything. His son, who did not inherit a faith that was whole, tore down with his own hands the wall of grace his father had kept, leaving the people bitten by snakes and stripped of their safety. The lives of this father and son show that sin frightens us the first time it is committed, but once it is repeated, the fear disappears.

Those who cling to God alone in times of trouble can easily forget that grace once peace returns, and lay claim to their own righteousness. But whoever breaks through a wall is bitten by a snake, and whoever digs a pit falls into it himself. After a prayer is answered, one must take all the more care and live always in thankfulness and humility; only then is there safety within the hedge of the Holy Spirit.

As the year drew to a close, there had been a longing to see many in the congregation brought to the place God intends for them. Yet the word came that this very fretting, with all its disappointment and pain, was itself a form of selfish desire. Diligent teaching and faithful service do not change a person; that is the work of God alone.

It is God who blesses those who hear the Word and come humbly, rebukes those who judge in their pride, and brings judgment on those who have wandered far away. A pastor’s prayer and devotion, like a parent’s sacrifice for their children, is simply what love does; but according to whether that love is taken for granted or received with thanks, God himself answers in their place with blessing or with rebuke. The message, then, was to set personal feelings aside, lay down both the sorrow and the reproach, and entrust each one to God in prayer, calling them by name.

There followed a testimony of receiving the diagnosis of an extremely rare blood cancer and finding, instead, a deep peace. To be called home tomorrow would be a blessing, and to be given more years would be a blessing too; so there was no need to fear, but only to fulfill the calling where one stands. In the light of that word came the hope that the new year would be met with selfish desire laid aside and with trust in God alone.

The world is losing its standards of common sense and morality, and as the laws of the home and the church break down, people are rushing headlong into evil. For forty days Goliath mocked Israel and its God, and no one dared to step forward. Then the young David went out alone to face him.

David did not go out to win a reward. He could not bear to stand by while God was being insulted. So the battle became not David’s war but God’s, and what he had learned guarding his sheep and fighting off lions and bears became courage and wisdom when he faced Goliath. In this way God raises up the poor and powerless wise man to put the strong to shame, yet the world does not heed that wise man’s words and is quick to forget him.

The battle and salvation belong not to sword and spear but to the Lord. We must be poor wise men who speak the truth, even when no one acknowledges it and no one remembers. That experience of faith is the courage and the weapon by which we overcome the world.

Solomon came to understand that the race is not to the swift, nor is the battle always won by the strong. He had possessed wisdom, power and wealth alike, yet in the end he confessed that his own life had been vanity.

Those who run with their eyes fixed only on their ambitions cannot see what lies on either side, and so they lose what is precious. An ambition pursued without the grace of God is like a tree whose roots have rotted: however much strength and power it gains, it is no true victory. Only by forgetting what lies behind and pressing on toward Christ, the goal, as the apostle Paul did, can a person keep to a straight path.

King Nebuchadnezzar, too, was shown the future beforehand in a dream, yet he did not repent. He was driven from his throne and lived like a beast for seven years, and only then did he confess God as the Almighty. No one can know the seasons of life, and so the word preached today calls each person to turn back before suffering comes and to run toward Christ, the goal.

Everything in the world belongs to Jesus Christ, and people are no more than stewards entrusted with it for a time. There was a steward who did not know his master’s will, so he clung to his wealth and turned away from the poor; and there was another who began to give only once he had grasped his master’s heart.

Solomon, too, understood only late that the royal power and glory he had enjoyed had been entrusted to him by God for a season. He came to see on the brink of death that the years he had lived without sharing, treating it all as his own, had been sin. In the darkness of the cave, people think themselves special according to how much or how little they possess; but when they come out into the light of Christ, they find that all such boasting was cause for shame.

The years spent commanding with a king’s authority were as meaningless as a dead lion, while God’s persecuted people lived lives as precious as a living dog, still able to turn back day after day. To meet him, a person must die daily to their own righteousness and lean on the righteousness of God. The sermon calls its hearers to live as good stewards who understand their master’s will and obey it.

In Philippi, Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown into prison for setting free a slave girl possessed by a demon. At midnight, as they pray and sing hymns, a great earthquake throws open the prison doors, and every prisoner’s fetters come loose. They could have escaped, yet Paul stays where he is and holds back the jailer, who was about to take his own life.

What people do when the chance of release comes shows what their faith really is. The earthquake struck prisoners and jailer alike, but only those who had been born again could make an honest and holy choice even in that moment. Only after seeing this did the jailer ask what he must do to be saved.

Told that if he believed in the Lord Jesus, he and his household would be saved, the jailer and his whole family were baptized that same night. Paul preached the gospel, but it is God who brings a person to faith. So the one who proclaims it is not answerable for the outcome; it is enough to be faithful to the calling entrusted to them. Once out of prison, Paul and Silas went back to Lydia’s house, that is, to the church, where they saw the brothers and encouraged them.

The wicked seem to go unpunished and to prosper, while the righteous appear instead to suffer. Because God does not judge sin at once, the wicked sin all the more boldly. Yet however long a person lives, death comes in the end: the body returns to dust, and the soul goes either to heaven or to hell.

God’s delay in judgment is not indifference but patience, as he waits for people to turn back of their own accord. Long life and abundance in this world are not true blessing; the truly long life is to believe in Christ and live in the eternal Kingdom. Solomon himself, for all his power and wealth, was so lonely and empty that he lay awake at night, and only late did he come to see that the years spent away from God had been in vain.

The unfairness of the world must not be allowed to take hold of the heart; the faithful need to cling to the truth that faith in Christ is the only way of salvation. Anyone who lacks discernment can become an instrument of sin without knowing it, but the chance to turn back is only now, while there is still breath. It is in ceasing to trust oneself and leaning on God that a person at last comes to understand deeply both human frailty and the great love of God.

The Bible speaks of a thousand years six times. Depending on how that period is understood, the order of the Second Coming, the Rapture and the Great Tribulation takes on an entirely different shape. Even within the orthodox denominations, differing views on this sequence have long stood apart.

Scholars disagree over whether the Second Coming precedes the Millennium or follows it, or whether the thousand years should be read as a symbol. Premillennialism itself is divided between those who hold that God’s people will pass through the tribulation and those who hold that the Church will be caught up before it begins. Each position has passages on which it rests, and since none can be declared wrong with certainty, they do not brand one another as heretical.

Scripture does not fix that order precisely. What matters, then, is not which theory is correct but whether there is faith in Christ now. Where that faith is present, one can stand before God without fear, whatever comes and whenever it comes.

Even as he was being stoned to death, Stephen’s face was as calm as an angel’s. Solomon, once he became king, ruled his people harshly, and only when he saw himself giving way to the years did he realize that a life of obedience to God is true wisdom. Obadiah, though he served in King Ahab’s court, risked his life to hide a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in caves and so kept them alive.

The face shows the state of the heart just as it is. Solomon’s face, fierce in his pride, became gentle and radiant after he repented. The commands of God, who is King, are not to be kept only when one feels like it; and because human beings are frail creatures who can determine neither what lies ahead nor the day of their death, they must live leaning on the One to whom their life belongs.

Those who obey the Word can discern the right time and the right way, and so they do not fall into misfortune. Obedience must spring not from fear but from faith in Christ, offered freely as an act of devotion. Christians whose sins are forgiven and who have been saved need not dread the end; they are free to live wisely now, giving thanks to God.