Providence Reformed Baptist Church

This has been such an edifying series pastor. And timely as well! Thank you for your faithfulness. I’d be curious to know your stance on gathering during this COVID-19 epoch.

I sure am looking forward to listening to this sermon tomorrow!

My wife and I are sabatarian but we never had dug deep into understanding the grand significance of this command/gift. I chuckled a little when I saw the question mark next to the title of the sermon. We appreciate you taking the time to ensure we understand His law and gospel. Your preaching has been a big blessing to us!

Again, I am very blessed by this honest and unabashed sermon. The week I went I received a paper with the outline of the sermon. Is there a way I can get that outline for this sermon?

This was just as good listening to the second time! I’m very blessed and convicted by this honest proclaiming of the Law and Gospel. I prayed for your eyes to remain fixed on eternity pastor. I look forward to listening to as many sermons as I can under your profile.

C. RELATIONSHIP TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD [44:15]. Mt 10:32-33, Phil 2:13-14, 1 Pet 3:13-15 – We should not be ashamed to speak about our Lord and to live as worthy of the message before men. Living Christians are peculiar and people will notice and ask about it eventually. They probably notice it most in our keeping of the Lord’s Day. II. TO THOSE WITHOUT CHRIST [51:32]. Lk 11:23 – The only way to be a Christian is to be a disciple. It is not enough to believe the basics about Him. It means taking up the cross and relinquishing the dispositions of our hearts. Is 55:6 – “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.”

In verses 15-18, David describes his brittle, pierced, agonized, humiliated state in an unmistakable picture of the Lord hanging on the cross. Yet he again pleads for God’s presence in verses 19. But does he terminate his faith in verses 20-21? No. The deliverance for which he asks is for his soul: he accepts his fate, but asks to be spared from annihilation. Despite this, he proclaims his witness in verse 22, as Jesus proclaimed it to be finished before He gave up the ghost (JOHN 19:30). LESSONS [39:00] 1. When we feel forsaken and abandoned, we must remember that the Lord walked that road before us. 2. Always pray, and never lose heart. 3. Jesus’ manner of death was designed to draw men near. 4. Christ will see through all that He died for. 5. God’s past faithfulness is a plea for the present. 6. Our ancestral brethren are examples to us. 7. We must not limit ourselves to a confessional relationship with God. That relationship must be rich, vital, and wholehearted.

Jesus too knew man’s history: not only that men had trusted and been redeemed, but that man fell in Adam and needed a Redeemer. B. THE INDIGNITY OF DISHONOR [25:25] PSALM 22:6-8 – man is the crown jewel of creation. Unlike any other creature, we feel the pain of injustice acutely; how much more so does the Creator? But aren’t we supposed to forsake the words of men? In light of JOHN 15:18, we Christians sense the world’s mockery of Christ when we ourselves are mocked. When we sin, we feel the shame of offending God. The disciples fled, leaving Jesus to bear punishment alone. But in the spirit of PSALM 22:8, Jesus didn’t leave His Father. And in the spirit of verses 9-11, Jesus never called for that legion of angels to rescue Him, but only that His Father be with Him. C. THE OVERPOWERING OF ENEMIES WITH ITS ATTENDANT PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS [31:45] In PSALM 22:12, David refers to the warriors surrounding him as bulls: fierce, merciless beasts. Such surrounded Jesus. In verse 14, David describes his utter weakness, the same of which Jesus felt on the cross.

I. THE PRICE OF PEACE, OR THE SUFFERING SAVIOR [10:55] This part subdivides in to THREE CONFLICTS OF FAITH: forsaken by the Father (vv. 1-5), the indignity of dishonor (vv. 6-11), and the overpowering of enemies with its attendant physical sufferings (vv. 11-21), with a concluding consolation in verse 22. A. FORSAKEN BY THE FATHER [12:29] Though only the first two verses are quoted in the New Testament, the entire psalm is a clear allusion to Christ’s suffering. Verse 1 contains Jesus’ cry in MATTHEW 27:46. But did God really forsake His Son? This must be considered from the perspective of Christ as our mediator, with His dual nature in mind. God does turn His face from the man Jesus, leaving Him to bear our sins in Adam. But even then, it was as true as ever that the divine Christ and the Father are one. Even in His cry, the Lord addresses the Father as “my God”. Back in PSALM 22:3 [21:47], David understands his position: though he is in despair, he still knows that God is righteous. In the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord asked for the cup of wrath to be passed from Him, but that the Father’s will be done. David then remembered his own fathers: that they trusted in God, who delivered them. Not only is God righteous, but He has always been righteous (cf. PSALM 77:10).

[starting at 4:28 of the audio] When we hear of “the gospel of peace” or the “gospel of hope”, what is meant by “peace” and “hope”? Both terms necessitate a negative context: peace implies some sort of conflict, and hope implies some sort of despair. But here they modify something specific: “the gospel”. So we must be careful to not modify the holy gospel with worldly understanding. Much earthly peace (“don’t rock the boat”) means distress for those who suffer under the status quo, and much earthly hope (“tomorrow is another day”) is dismissive of unavoidable despair. Neither are worthy of our Lord. The gospel of peace is the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to take our just punishment, and the gospel of hope is the truth of His resurrection and glory, which means our own. In PSALM 22, David’s own suffering is a clear allusion to Christ’s suffering on our behalf. This psalm divides into two parts: the price of peace, or the suffering savior (vv. 1-21) and the fruit of righteousness, or the reigning victor (vv. 22-31), the first of which we will study today.

CONCLUDING APPLICATIONS: 1. CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS BY THEMSELVES SHOULD SOBER AND SANCTIFY US. We don’t crack jokes after a tragedy. God inspired four tellings of the Gospel; He must have thought it worth our repeated consideration. 2. THE DISCIPLE IS NOT ABOVE HIS MASTER. Given Christ’s suffering, why should we expect better? 3. OBJECTING TO A SUFFERING SAVIOR IS A DIABOLICAL DOCTRINE. MATTHEW 16:20-23: though it was understandably hard for him to accept, Peter considered Christ’s coming crucifixion from his own fleshly, worldly perspective instead of from Christ’s. 4. WE NEED TO LOOK UNTO CHRIST. HEBREWS 12:3 states directly that Christ’s sufferings are a source of the Christian strength. 5. ALL OF THIS IS DESIGNED TO STEEL OUR MINDS AND FORTIFY OUR RESOLVE TO PERSEVERE TO THE END.

Since Pastor Nutter is one of my dearest pastor friends whose preaching I have sat under a time or two, I will just have to follow this series, but I don't know why. If you were Urian Oakes 1631 – July 25, 1681 of whom it was said that the hour glass was turned over in a single sermon four times, then I think falling off the wall while listening is justifiable. That would take some surviving. (Sabbath in Puritan New England, Alice M Earle, Page 79)

3.THE GOSPELS. There are fourteen resurrection appearances in the New Testament.4.THE CHANGED LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. They were slow to believe at first. a) so how did they come to believe later? b) They were men of integrity. Note their boldness after the Pentecost, how the Resurrection became the cornerstone of their preaching, how they became martyrs (no one dies for something they don’t believe: neither they nor the martyrs since).5.PAUL. He was called to faith by the resurrected Christ, he preached a resurrected Savior (1 COR 15 is a discussion of the Resurrection); therefore, he testified to the historical reality of the empty tomb.6.EARLY CHURCH. It could have been snuffed out in its early days. By grace, it moved the Sabbath to Sunday. And it knew that a dead savior is no Savior.CONCLUSION: 1) The doctrine of the Resurrection of Christ is founded upon historical facts. Why would He have been made up and died for? 2) The hope of all mankind rest upon the historical fact of Christ’s Resurrection, as is the truth of all His words (1 COR 15:14-15, ACTS 17:30-31). 3. Embrace and confess the resurrected Lord and you will be saved. ROM 10:9-10.

We examine six witnesses to the Resurrection:1.JESUS’ OWN TESTIMONY. He was truth incarnate and without sin. In JN 2:19-20. He told the Jews that he would raise the temple (His body) in three days. In MT 12:38-40, He told the Pharisees to look for the sign of Jonah. In MT 16:21, He explained His Passion to the disciples. He could not have been our sinless Savior without the Resurrection.2.JESUS’ EMPTY TOMB. Though few deny that Jesus existed, His empty tomb is the barrier for unbelief. Schleiermacher’s “Swoon Theory” posited that Jesus appeared to be dead and revived in the tomb. However: a) He died on the cross, b) the women who embalmed Him knew that He was dead, c) the soldiers knew they were guarding a dead man in a tomb from theft, d) could He have escaped the scourging He took? e) how could the guards know what happened if they slept through it? f) the Jews didn’t produce His body. The appeal to allegory, specifically that all of this was merely an awakening of a “Christ influence” cannot explain the empty tomb. As for mass hallucination theories: imagine the Cartesian conundrum if they all hallucinated the same thing! And some say that Jesus was a disembodied Spirit, but this is defied by countless examples in Scripture (people touching Him, etc.).

We will never be the loser for obeying God’s word. When we’re tempted to compromise our faith, we must remember before Whom we will stand on the Day of Judgment. Spurgeon: The peace-at-any-price people have no portion in the Kingdom of Heaven. Bearing the cross is to defy our own will and obey God’s. Annesley: Keep your conscience from being violated and you cannot be miserable; know and do your duty, avoid byways, and leave all effects, consequences, and events to God. Also, avoid spiritual impressions that contradict the clear teaching of God’s word. The leading of the Spirit will never contradict the teaching of the Spirit. ROM 8:4, EZ 36:27. We are not to walk according to God’s secret will, which we can’t know, but by His revealed will, which is the Bible. A Reformed Christian is one who orders his life by the teaching of the Bible. In his prayers, he asks for light in the dark places of his soul and its alignment with the Scriptures. He is humble. He is Reformed, but always reforming by the light of the word and the grace of the Spirit. Christ spoke of the faith in radical terms: plucking out eyes, bearing a cross, dying to oneself daily. This is not legalism, but trampling on our lusts to obey God. MATT 5:6