Bethel Baptist Church

Unnerving though it may be, our lives, from the cradle to the grave, are marked by change.  Everything surrounding our lives changes.  Some things change rapidly and some things change slowly, but all things are in a state of flux.  It is unsettling to us because we long for stability and permanence.  In contrast to us, the Scripture says, "I the LORD do not change" (Mal 3:6) … "The Glory of Israe...

Originally Presented: Sept 2nd, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 8:18-25 This passage in Romans is filled with both horror and hope.  The horror is the awesome judgment of God on His creation because of sin.  Romans 8:20 says that God subjected creation to futility (cf. Gen 3:17,18).  This is the source of earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and all natural disasters.  The miserable condit...

  Scripture Reading: Psalm 139:1-12 "God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters . . . all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell . . . Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but...

Due to technical difficulties the first 2 minutes of the sermon are missing.  Originally Presented: August 26, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 8:18-25 Among other things, this passage in Romans 8 is intended to be an encouragement to Christians concerning suffering in their lives.  In the first century the Christians in Rome suffered greatly.  This passage was meant to give them, and us, a perspect...

The wisdom and the knowledge of God are not exactly the same characteristic, but are related.  God's knowledge is "that perfection of God whereby He . . . knows Himself and all things possible and actual . . . ." (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology , 66).  God's wisdom is "that perfection of God whereby He applies His knowledge to the attainment of His ends in a way which glorifies Him most" (Berkhof...

Originally Presented: August 12th, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 8:16-25 There is an interesting and significant dynamic suggested in the wording of Romans 8:17.  In that verse Paul links suffering and glory.  Citing that Christians are "fellow-heirs with Christ," Paul says, "if, indeed, we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him."  There are numerous Bible passages which...

God said to Abraham, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless" (Gen 17:1).  The Psalmist declared, "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases" (Psa 115:3).  The power of God is His ability to do everything and anything He purposes to do. In his massive book, The Existence and Attributes of God , Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) wrote: "The power of God gives activity to all the...

Originally Presented: August 5, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 8:12-16 When Romans 8:16 says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God," we must consider as to what that witness of the Spirit is.  There is no question of greater importance than the question as to whether or not we truly are children of God.  What is the witness of the Holy Spirit within us that...

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6:1-7 John MacArthur captures the essence of the holiness of God, in its differing aspects, in the following definition.  "God's holiness is his inherent and absolute greatness, in which he is perfectly distinct above everything outside of himself and is absolutely morally separate from sin" (MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine , 183). God's holiness is that He is utterly unique...

  Originally Presented:  Scripture Reading: Romans 8:14-17 n this paragraph Paul is describing one of the wonders of the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of a Christian.  Having said that those who are led by the Spirit of God are His children (Rom 8:14), he states what is one of the grandest declarations in all the Bible regarding a human being.  By God's Spirit we cry out, "Abba! Father!" (Ro...

 Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6:1-7 If there is one attribute which could be said to be more central than the others, it would be God's holiness.  "If he were stripped of this, he would be a dead God, more than by the want of any other perfection"  (Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God , 2:113).  In Amos 4:2, God swears by His holiness and in Amos 6:8 He swears by Himself. The word '...

Originally Presented: July 22, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 8:9-14 There are four passages in the New Testament, using the words 'dwell' or 'indwell' in which the Holy Spirit is said to live in Christians and two of them are in Romans 8 (cf. Rom 8:9,11; 1 Cor 3;16; 2 Tim 1:14).  There are other passages in which the Spirit is said to be in Christians, but the words 'dwell' or 'indwell' indicate...

Scripture Reading: Philemon 1-25 Of Paul's thirteen New Testament letters, the letter to Philemon may be the most personal.  It is the shortest book in the New Testament and contains no explicit theology or command for its readers.  This warm, heartfelt letter highlights the beauty of forgiveness as it illustrates God's forgiveness of those who seek Him in humility and faith. Paul writes this lett...

Scripture Reading: Colossians 4:10,14 When we compare the 'greetings' section of Colossians with some other passages in the New Testament, a marked contrast comes to the surface.  Two of the men from whom Paul sends greetings to the church in Colossae are Mark (Col 4:10) and Demas (Col 4:14). Their individual stories are a study in contrast.  One story is a sober warning and one story is a beacon...

Originally Presented: July 15, 2007 Romans 8:5-11 There is a great contrast being drawn in this passage between a Christian and an unbeliever.  The repeated word used to describe unbelievers is 'flesh' and the repeated word used to describe Christians is 'Spirit'.  The word 'flesh' here refers to that which is earthly, temporal, and corrupted by sin.  The word 'Spirit' refers to the Holy Spirit. T...

Originally Presented: July 8, 2007  Romans 8:1-4 The subject of Romans 6-8 is sanctification.  Sanctification is the Christian's growth in Christlikeness.  There is a very interesting and instructive dynamic revealed in the wording of Romans 8, which many see as one of the greatest chapters in the Bible.  The Holy Spirit is referred to 17 times in this chapter.  He is referred to only 4 times in c...

Special Guest Speaker: Rev. Greg Hands Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17    

Originally Presented: July 1, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 7:14-25 Romans 7:23 refers to the struggle between holiness and sin that Christians experience within as a war.  Galatians 5:17, Colossians 3:5, and 1 Peter 2:11 say much the same thing.  The battle is real and it is unavoidable for Christians.  One question is, 'How do we fight this war?'  What, exactly, do we do as we fight in this lif...

Scripture Reading: Colossians 4:7-18 Shakespeare wrote: "Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel."  Solomon wrote: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Prov 27:6) and "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Prov 27:17).  Our friends are crucial to the quality of our lives.  With good friends we are helped immeasurably; without...

Originally Presented: June 24, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 7:14-25 One of the most well known sections of the book of Romans is 7:14-25.  As one reads these verses, there looms a very large question.  The answer to that question profoundly affects the way this paragraph is interpreted.  The question is this:  Do the statements of these verses describe the inner turmoil of an unbeliever or of a...

Scripture Reading: Colossians 4:2-6  The Bible has a lot to say about our speech.  "Be quick to hear and slow to speak" (James 1:19) . . . "The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity . . . [it] sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell" (James 3:6) . . . "Every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment" (Mt 12:36). It is...

Originally Presented: June 10th, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 7:7-13 Throughout his ministry, Paul heard objections to his gospel message.  In Romans 6 Paul addressed the objection that justification by faith turns grace into license.  To the question, "Should we continue in sin?" Paul responds (twice - Rom 6:2,15), "May it never be!" In Romans 7 Paul is answering a second objection to the doctr...

Special Guest Speaker: Ken Bresser Scripture Reading: John 4:4-42

Originally Presented On:  June 3rd, 2007 Scripture Reading: Romans 7:5,6 In Romans 7:5,6 there is a contrast being made which highlights the wondrous change that takes place in the soul of a converted person.  The union Christians experience with Christ causes a change in the motivations and affections of the heart.  We see this change briefly described in Romans 6:17 -  "But thanks be to God that...

Scripture Reading: Colossians 4:5 We all have 168 hours per week in which to live our lives.  Subtract non-negotiable essentials like sleep, work, and eating and most people still have around 50 hours per week for other activities . . . shopping, cutting the grass, exercise, reading. The wise person makes the most of the time in his/her life, with the truth of Christ governing what he/she does.  W...