By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, …
Continue reading The City That Has Foundations | Hebrews 11:8-22
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because …
Continue reading Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please Him | Hebrews 11:4-7
Let your steadfast love comfort meaccording to your promise to your servant. Psalm 119:76 ESV As we have already seen, the psalmist is clearly writing from a place and time of affliction. His enemies encircle him like wolves, taunting him. Yet, like Job, he has not cursed God; rather, he has pointedly declared his absolute …
Continue reading Let Your Steadfast Love Comfort Me | Psalm 119:76
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JdQsZpRhSguoT7EL6Zzyx?si=dcYo3aeeTCOhKcZJSvCX4A The New City Catechism is divided into three parts. The first part focuses upon God the Father, creation, the Fall, and God's law. The second part concerns Christ, redemption, and grace. The third part instructs us on the Holy Spirit, our restoration to God, and our growing in His grace. Although this is the …
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3 …
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6aB9296UvJlkSJY3wAumXK?si=F0AoM0wmS7qHqeENoENHDg Since Question 6 our catechism established God's law and our inability to keep it as God requires, forcing us to conclude that we are, in our very nature, sinners and idolaters. Our present question follows logically and ought to be of the utmost importance: will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? …
Continue reading Question 18: Will God Allow Our Disobedience and Idolatry to God Unpunished?
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you …
Continue reading We Are Not of Those Who Shrink Back | Hebrews 10:32-39
A few weeks ago, my wife reminded me of an experience early in our marriage that set the stage for my love of catechisms. We were speaking with a husband and wife who were Jehovah's Witness in our home, and the wife shared her testimony of why she left her Methodist upbringing to join the …
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4M3WQ8BtkuGKoDfZLplB9I?si=FNEWPYbrTViwoH7JThg9Ng This question is a subdivision of the previous but is also a further explanation of the first part of Question 9. The First Commandment (which reads, “You shall have no other gods before me”) is, at its core, God denouncing idolatry, condemning it as sin. He will not have us trusting in created things …
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two …
Continue reading If We Go on Sinning Deliberately | Hebrews 10:26-31
B. C. Newton 