“ God can be rough on us ” Dr. Morecraft explains that God gave Lot a very strong command to get out of the city, but Lot hesitated. Therefore God had His angels grab Lot and his wife and daughters by the scruff of the neck and pull them out of the city kicking and screaming. God can be rough on us, not because He's mean or unloving. When we don't give heed to God's commands, He knows we are putting ourselves in a dangerous place, so sometimes He has to grab us by the scruff of the neck and pull us out of where we should not be. God deals roughly with people if they don't give heed. He does it not because He is angry but because He is compassionate. He wants to remove them from danger.
“ How to handle slander ” Dr. Morecraft explains that slander is a vicious thing, and that was the kind of persecution that David was having to deal with. But when you defend yourself against slander, you sound guilty. Therefore, the proper way to handle slander is to follow David's example: 1) Trust in the name of the Lord; 2) Pray for God's justice. Ask God to bring His justice to bear upon the slanderers.
“ God chastens His people ” In explaining that God chastens His people, Dr. Morecraft quotes from William Plumer's Studies in the Book of Psalms: "Many a man's soul has been saved by the destruction of his body with wasting disease. . . . God loves his people too well to let them wander on in sin, and drop into hell for the want of a little needful and wholesome severity."
“ To love God's name ” In one part of this sermon, Dr. Morecraft quotes from William Plumer's Studies in the Book of Psalms to explain what it means to love God's name: "To love God's name is to love him and all, by which he has made himself known. All the righteous have this love. All of them think upon God's name, cherish it, glory in it. To hear it lightly spoken of gives them pain. To hear it blasphemed shocks their sensibilities. But when it is honored, extolled, praised, they are happy. They delight in God's name, titles, attributes, works, word, worship, ordinances, and people."
“ The Psalms road to salvation ” Dr. Morecraft explains that you can lead somebody to Christ from the book of Psalms if you know what you're doing. These are the four spiritual laws of the book of Psalms: First, only God is righteous. Secondly, all human beings are unrighteous. Thirdly, the God of grace and mercy is the only source of salvation for sinners. And fourthly, the God of grace saves sinners by giving them the very righteousness He requires of them.
“ Pray like David prayed ” Dr. Morecraft explains that the most powerful way of praying is to pray like David prayed. First, turn revealed truths about God into loving adoration of God. Adore God, that is, tell God things about Himself that you love. Take what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible and turn that into loving adoration of God. Secondly, take the covenant promises of God and turn them into petitions to God to do what He promised. This kind of praying (of turning revealed truths about God into loving adoration of Him, and turning covenant promises into petitions to Him) only flows out of a life of repentance, faith, covenant faithfulness, life in the Word of God, and hope.
“ The Lord will vex the enemies of His church ” To illustrate the point that God will vex the enemies of His church, Dr. Morecraft quotes from William Plumer's Studies in the Book of Psalms: "Of thirty Roman Emperors, governors of provinces and others high in office, who distinguished themselves by their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early Christians, one became speedily deranged after some atrocious cruelty, one was slain by his own son, one became blind, the eyes of one started out of his head, one was drowned, one was strangled, one died in a miserable captivity, one fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital, one died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled his room, two committed suicide, a third attempted it, but had to call for help to finish the work, five were assassinated by their own people or servants, five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle or after being taken prisoners. Among these was Julian the apostate . . . when he was wounded in battle, he saw that all was over with him, and he gathered up his clotted blood, and threw it into the air, exclaiming, 'Thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean.'"
“ The progression of sin ” Among other things, Dr. Morecraft discusses the progression in the metaphors from walking to standing to sitting. If you walk with the ungodly, you're going to start standing with them. And if you stand with them, you're going to start sitting in hardness with them and in impenitence and stubbornness of heart. This warning about walking, standing, and sitting with the ungodly reminds us of the increasing grip evil practices and evil habits have on a person; of the increasing paralysis that sin produces. It causes a person gradually to degenerate when sin is left alone in his or her life. Sin is not something to play with. Sin is ambitious; it's always trying to get you to do something that's more evil, and something that's more evil after that. If you walk with the evil people, you will start standing with the evil people. If you start standing with them, then you'll become as defiant in your refusal to live for God as they have been.
“ Learning from the best Christian books ” As Dr. Morecraft explains, you need to be teaching yourself the Word of God. You should be involved in self-instruction, reading and meditating upon the Word of God yourself. But not in an individualistic way because self-instruction must always take place within the context of the community of the Reformed faith. It takes the Reformed community, existing throughout history, to understand the Word of God. If you're trying to educate yourself in the Word of God, and all you have is yourself and your Bible, that will not be adequate. Your own personal interpretation is not sufficient to work through many of the difficulties and hard places of the Scriptures. You need the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit works in our lives through the community of God's people throughout the ages. Read what the community of the Reformed faith believed through the centuries. As a solitary individual it can be hard to know how to understand some Bible verses. But if they are looked at in terms of 2000 years of Christian community, that will provide a breadth and depth of understanding for self-instruction. This means reading the Bible in the light of great preachers or writers about the Bible throughout history.
“ Wise words and cultural power ” Dr. Morecraft explains that when God's blessings are mediated to other people through our mouths, then wise words and power become almost synonymous. (Proverbs 10:11a, "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life"). When we mediate God's blessings to a culture through our mouths, through teaching people what the Bible says about life, then our wise words and cultural power become almost synonymous. God makes the wise counsel of His people powerful, a fountain of life, when they try to teach and convince other people what the truth is. The righteous, therefore, enrich a community when that community takes their advice. God wants each Christian to use his mouth to be a fountain of life in this American culture.
“ Biblical hope ” Dr. Morecraft explains that the word "hope" in the Bible is used differently than modern Americans use it. Modern Americans say things like, "it's supposed to rain today, but I hope it doesn't." Hope in the Bible isn't used in the sense of "I hope so" in modern English. The word "hope" in the Old Testament involves at least two elements. First is confident assurance in God's faithfulness to His Word. A Christian has confidence that whatever happens in the future, God is going to fulfill His Word. A Christian believes God's Word to be true and is confident that God will cause it to be true in his life. The second element is expectation. The Christian expects that good things are going to happen in his life and in the lives of his descendants as they are faithful to God. He expects certain good things to happen and he knows they're going to happen because God has promised them. Whatever God has promised he knows will take place. God has His own timetable, but nevertheless the Christian is absolutely confident and assured that He will perform what He has promised, and he expects those things to happen. Therefore, true believers in Jesus can be joyfully and intelligently optimistic about the future whatever it holds.
“ Righteousness does deliver ” Dr. Morecraft explains that one of the ways that righteousness delivers is by practical obedience to God's law for the sake of Jesus. When you seek to bring your life, inside and out, into more consistent conformity to what God demands of you, not because you're trying to merit salvation, but because you love Jesus, that is a fortress for you. That protects you from temptations, troubles, stumbling blocks in the road that would knock you down if you weren't trying to live for Christ. That is, when you're trying to live a righteous life and obey God's law, there are certain persons you are going to avoid. There are certain places you are going to avoid. There are certain activities you are going to avoid. There are certain thoughts you are not going to dwell on. There are certain forms of behavior that you are not going to involve yourself in. And so by doing that, practical obedience delivers you from all those stumbling blocks, troubles, and temptations in life that cause people who live unwise lives to fall down every day. Righteousness does deliver.
“ Your words reveal your heart ” As Dr. Morecraft explains, the words that you speak reveal what's in your heart. A man speaks out of that which fills his heart. The nature of your conversation, what you talk about, its tone, its tenor, its content, reveals what's really filling your heart. And if your heart is filled with evil, it's going to show itself in the way you talk. And if your heart is filled with righteousness, it's going to show itself in what you say. The mouth of the righteous person flows with wisdom because his heart, his mind and his life are being held captive by the word of God. What he says is backed by divine authority. And in his efforts to use his mouth to bring people into submission to the living God, to His word and authority, you see wisdom flow forth and you see other peoples' lives change.
“ Vexed by an evil culture ” Among the points made in this message, Dr. Morecraft explains that God knows how to rescue His friends. If the culture in which you live refuses to repent and continues in its perverted way, don't worry and lose sleep about it (what's going to happen to me and my family?), as the culture hurdles towards God's judgment. God knows how to rescue the righteous out of a wicked America. Being a righteous minority in a majority evil culture tests the minority. That's one of the ways God uses the majority of unbelievers to test the believer: what does it do to your soul? Do you pray that your family will be protected? Does it torment you that the culture in which we live is in such rebellion against God? A righteous man in a grossly perverted, wicked culture will feel his soul to be vexed.
“ Stand up and stand out ” Dr. Morecraft explains that during times of spiritual declension, when false teachers have the upper hand and are influencing the majority of people, the fewer the true Christians, the more important and the more accountable are individual Christians. If you are a small minority of faithful Christians that believe the true prophets in a culture where most people believe the heresies of the false prophets, you are going to stand out. If you are a true Christian in this culture, people are going to talk about you behind your back, they're going to make fun of you, they will try to marginalize you, they will say you are bigoted. For the church's sake, for the truth's sake, and for your children's sake, stand up and stand out. To whom much is given, much is required, so you must stand firm. And you get the strength to stand firm from Christ.
“ Humble before the Lord ” Among the points made in this message, Dr. Morecraft explains that those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God will be exalted by Him. They won't be exalted to positions of political or financial power, but to positions of spiritual and moral power and honor. That's what Christians are supposed to desire in this life, not in order to boast, but because it pleases God.
“ The purpose of prayer ” Dr. Morecraft explains that prayer, in God's plan, is His predestined means to accomplish His predestined ends. That is, there are some things that God predestined before the world began that He would not do for people unless they asked Him to do it. God's not dependent upon our prayers, but we sure are. Some things God won't do for you unless you ask Him. "You have not, because you ask not" (James 4:2).
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