Caring for the Church

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Caring for the Church

The Lord's Day Morning September 29, 2004 I Timothy 5:1-16 “Caring for the Church” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to First Timothy, chapter five. We've been working through this book of First Timothy as part of a larger study of three letters often called “the Pastoral Epistles”: I Timothy, II Timothy, and Titus. We've noted how throughout this letter the Apostle Paul not only gives wise advice and counsel from an old, experienced minister of the gospel–an elder, an apostle, a church planter, an evangelist, a missionary–to a young man who has been one of his church planting assistants and is now pastoring a local congregation in Ephesus. Paul doesn't merely give advice and counsel, however; he sets forth what…

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow: The Christian…

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 65 which is a Psalm about the bounteous God. We’re continuing in our study of the Second Book of the Psalms–that is, that section of the book of the Psalms that runs from Psalm 42 to Psalm 72–and we have come to Psalm 65. Before we read it and hear God's word expounded, let's look to God in prayer and ask for His blessing. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, You give us Your word, first and foremost, to reveal to us Yourself. And so as we think about this passage tonight, which has Yourself written all over it, we pray that we would come away again with a fresh appreciation of the greatness and the goodness of our God. You also give us Your word to show us our Savior. And even in the words of this Psalm, we…

Truth and Love In Life

The Lord's Day April 25, 2004 3 John 1-8 Truth and Love in Life Turn with me to 3 John, as we continue to make our way through these three, little letters of the Apostle John. We have just finished a brief look at the 2nd letter, and today we are moving into that 3rd letter, a letter short enough to be written on one single sheet of papyrus in John's day. It is addressed from “the elder” again, just like 2nd John. This time, however, instead of being addressed to “the elect lady,” a local congregation, it is addressed to one man in a particular local congregation. It's addressed to one Gaius. We don't know who Gaius was. There were many speculations in the days of the Early Church as to who exactly this Gaius was. It's a very, very common name in the Greco-Roman…

Priestly Garments

Exodus 38:21 — 39:31Priestly Garments If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to the Book of Exodus and to the chapter 38:21. We are just three or so sermons away from the end of this book, and tonight we're really at our last long reading. Next readings are going to be shorter, concentrating on some specific aspects of the final couple of chapters of the book. Tonight we're going to pick up in chapter 38, verse 21 where Moses begins to account for the cost of the…

The Progress of Construction

Exodus 36:8 — 38:20Progress of Construction If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Exodus 36. When we get to this part of Exodus, much of this material is duplicated from earlier passages in Exodus. The difference is that the earlier passages, commanding the way the tabernacle was to be built, the way the various pieces of furnishing for the tabernacle was to be built, the way that the courtyard was to be built, was God's instruction to Moses for how it would be done. This…

Gifts and Craftsmen

Exodus 35:20-36:7Gifts and Craftsmen I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Exodus again: Exodus chapter 35, and we’ll begin in verse 20 tonight. It would be easy to get lost in the details of this passage and to be lulled to sleep and to miss the repeated and obvious grand emphases that we find here, so there are several that I want to highlight for you. For one, you’re going to see the enthusiasm and the willingness of the people to give to the work of the building of the…

Sabbath and Construction

Exodus 35:1-19Sabbath and Construction If you’ll open your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Exodus chapter 35. We are moving into the very last section of the book of Exodus and Moses’ record of the building of the tabernacle. And the very fact that the culminating chapters of this book of epic adventures climaxes on the story of the construction of a tent tells you something very important. Let me just say that again, take that in: all the adventure stories of the miracles in…

Worldliness and Riches

James 5:1-6Worldliness and Riches If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to James chapter 5. We've been studying through the book of James for a number of months now, and in particular in the last three weeks we have seen James address the issue of worldliness. If you look at James 4:11, all the way through James 5:6, that compact section in the book of James deals with the subject of worldliness. Last week we noted that James addressed two areas in which he saw…

The Character of the Kingdom, Part 5: God’s…

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 20 . We've been looking at Matthew for a long time now, and we've been in particular thinking about lessons that we learned all the way back in the story of the rich young ruler for two or three weeks now. In the rich young ruler we learn many things, but one thing that came through very clearly was this: either Christ separates us from the wolves, or the wolves separate us from Christ.…

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