Category: Easter

What Fellowship Hath Christ with Belial?

~ Sherry ~ 13 Comments

The following discourse was presented as a sermon to the congregation of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Beaver Falls, PA on December 22, 1991. It was not an easy message to preach. It is never easy to re-examine practices and patterns of thinking that have been presumed and taken for granted for a lifetime. It is especially difficult when these practices are associated with intense emotional feelings and are bound up with deep-rooted family traditions. Such is the case with the subject of Christmas. To even call into question the annual celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ is inconceivable for most modern Christians. That anyone would even suggest that Christmas and its festivities have no warrant in the Word of God and should therefore be dismissed from the practice of God’s people seems the height of foolishness to our generation. The question which must be asked is, “Why?”

If the celebration we all know as Christmas is to be zealously upheld by the Christian Church, what is the reason? Do the Scriptures prescribe this annual Holy Day? Did Jesus Himself institute a yearly commemoration of the day of His birth to be kept by His disciples to the end of the age? Do the Scriptures even provide us with the date of our Savior’s birth?

All practices and patterns of thinking must be subjected to the scrutiny of the Word of God. If we are unwilling to lay our personal views on the table beside an open Bible, then we are indicating more than we may think about our openess to conform our lives to the teaching of Scripture. This sermon seeks to examine one of our most cherished traditions by the light of God’s Word. The question of the propriety or impropriety of any practice must always be decided on that basis alone, and never on the basis of subjective emotion. Emotion has often led well meaning people down the wrong road. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. May God grant us the courage and character always to be willing to submit our personal viewpoints, on every matter of faith and life, to the scrutiny of His unerring Word.

Continue reading here.

Yes. Let us…

~ Sherry ~ 2 Comments

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The Nature and Danger of Contemporary Idolatry

~ Sherry ~ 4 Comments

This sermon by Bob DeWaay explains why the second commandment prohibits images for use in worship. God speaks authoritative words through His ordained spokespersons. Pagans create images to represent their deities but God’s people may not do so. Those who do are idolaters. The “host of heaven” are not merely stars and constellations, but spiritual beings under which God put the pagan nations. God’s people are to be directly under Yahweh.

DeWaay does not distinguish between God’s instructions to man for the making of certain images in the tabernacle and the brazen serpent and man’s own inspiration in making images of “Jesus.” My view is that one is practicing idolatry when they bow their heads in prayer to an image of “Jesus” that was created by man which he teaches on at about 38 minutes in, i.e., mental images .

Be Zealous for Truth

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“If we would hold fast that which is good, we must not tolerate or countenance any doctrine that is not the pure doctrine of Christ’s Gospel. There is a hatred that is downright charity: that is the hatred of erroneous doctrine. There is an intolerance which is downright praiseworthy: that is the intolerance of false teaching in the pulpit. Who would ever think of tolerating a little poison given to him day by day? If men come among you who do not preach all the counsel of God, who do not preach of Christ, and sin, and holiness, of ruin, and redemption, and regeneration,—or do not preach of these things in a scriptural way, you ought to cease to hear them. You ought to act upon the injunction given by the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament: ‘Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge’ (Prov. 19: 27). You ought to carry out the spirit shown by the Apostle Paul, in Gal. 1:8: ‘Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed.’ If we can bear to hear Christ’s truth mangled or adulterated—and can see no harm in listening to that which is another Gospel—and can sit at ease while sham Christianity is poured into our ears—and can go home comfortably afterwards and not burn with holy indignation—if this be the case, there is little chance of our ever doing much to resist Rome. If we are content to hear Jesus Christ not put in His rightful place, we are not men and women who are likely to do Christ much service, or fight a good fight on His side. He that is not zealous against error, is not likely to be zealous for truth.” — J.C. Ryle

Christo-pagan Evil

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2 Corinthians 6:14-16

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

1 Corinthians 10:21

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

Grieving God in This Way

~ Sherry ~ 3 Comments

Pastor-at-pulpit_000Ezekiel 6:9 …how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from Me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.

We grieve God’s heart when we mix religious paganism (Christ Mass traditions of men) with our worship of Him. Yes. It hurts Him because He is a jealous God and loves us deeply.

Evil Minglings

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The mingling of that which is of God with that which is of man is a special form of evil, and a very effectual engine, in Satan’s hand, for marring the testimony of Christ on the earth. This mingling may frequently wear the appearance of something very desirable; it may often look like a wider promulgation of that which is of God—a fuller and a more vigorous outgoing of a divine influence—a something to be rejoiced in rather than to be deplored: but our judgment as to this will depend entirely upon the point of view from which we contemplate it. If we look at it in the light of God’s presence, we cannot possibly imagine that an advantage is gained when the people of God mingle themselves with the children of this world, or when the truth of God is corrupted by human admixture. Such is not the divine method of promulgating truth, or of advancing the interests of those who ought to occupy the place of witnesses for Him on the earth. Separation from all evil is God’s principle; and this principle can never be infringed without serious damage to the truth. …Satan’s first effort was to frustrate God’s purpose by putting the holy seed to death; and when that failed, he sought to gain his end by corrupting it.

—C. H. Mackintosh , Notes on Genesis

Wake Up!

~ Sherry ~ 1 Comment