Houston Chinese Church - English

Some of us believe that our sins can never be overcome. We cannot escape sexual addiction. Struggle with self-image persists. Self-pity overwhelms us. We’ve tried self-help counsel. But it doesn’t work. Some of us have waved the white flag. It only makes us feel worse. The only way to overcome sin is the embrace of Christian freedom.

The religious and the irreligious may live vastly different lives on the surface. But dig deep enough and you’ll discover a common bedrock of legalism. Which explains Paul’s concern that Gentile Galatians are on the verge of turning back to their former idolatry – by being more devoted to God’s Law! Today’s text draws a distinction between mere human religion and true gospel freedom.

As I look back at my 40 years of service at HCC, the most important lessons that God has taught me is to be an “I am Second” kind of a person. This is a person known to be a humble faithful servant of God. There are three biblical heroes that I have learned from that exemplified these qualities, namely, John the Baptist, Barnabas, and the faithful servants.

Today’s passage gets to the heart of the gospel Paul preaches. It addresses the Christian’s core identity as adopted sons of God. Until we have a clear grasp of our identity in Christ, we will struggle to comprehend our relationship with God and with fellow man. We will also fail to enjoy the freedom of life under the gospel. So how would you describe your core identity?

The main point Paul has been driving home in Galatians is that the gospel is good news for all. New spiritual life and right standing before God was made available to Gentiles through fain in Christ – without expecting them to adopt Jewish law and customs. But that message prompted accusations of playing fast and loose with Scripture, ignoring commands plainly in the text. And it raised important...

Don’t be deceived by lies. Hold onto the truth. There are many excellent arguments that show that we are not justified or declared righteous by the Law, but we are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul argues that to supplement the work of Christ is to supplant it. There is only one way to be saved and that is by faith in Christ alone.

An embrace of legalism causes us to walk out of step with the gospel. We feel tempted to embrace legalism sometimes, so that we can fit in with the crowd. Legalism can be both spiritual and secular. We memorize Scripture because everyone else does it, but not because it will help me grow in my relationship with God. We purchase certain brands so that we can fit into our friend group though it stre...

People have certain ideas about the gospel. Some believe that good works will result in a relationship with God. Others think that Jesus is a moral exemplar to be imitated rather than our savior. These erroneous ideas reveal a deficient understanding of the gospel. If one believes in such error, it results in an impure gospel. What should we do then when we encounter erroneous ideas about the gosp...

The most powerful stories ever told are often testimonies of God's grace in converting people. The Apostle Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road is one of the best known. His retelling of it in Galatians 1 has its own polemic purpose in the course of the letter, but his testimony also demonstrates important realities regarding the Christian gospel.

The Christian gospel is not a pliable message that can be molded into something new to fit changing times. It has a fixed content that the Church is called to proclaim, protect, and pass down to future generations. But there will always be pressure to amend or adjust the gospel. Either by subtraction or addition. By denying/downplaying central truths of the gospel. Or by requiring certain beliefs/...

Many of us have experienced God’s faithfulness. He provides for us a spouse. He enables us to escape debt. He allows us to enter the school of our choice. These things remind us that God is with us. Yet we find ourselves lapsing over time into sin. Anger. Greed. Grumbling. How do we cultivate a lasting faithfulness after experiencing God’s faithfulness?

God’s people celebrated and dedicated the wall of Jerusalem by worshiping the Lord. To be a people set apart for God, they purified themselves. To demonstrate their love for God, they gave generously. To be consecrated before the Lord, they responded to God’s Word by repenting and turning back to the Lord.

With its walls rebuilt and gates restored, Jerusalem was habitable again. But it was far from desirable. In contrast to the preexilic heyday of Israel, it was more appealing to live in neighboring towns than to settle in the burnt ruins of Jerusalem. But the people of God were challenged back then – just as we are today – to commit, through sacrifice and service, to being a holy city that shines G...

Naturally, as a follow-up to the people returning to God in repentance, the people enter into a curse and oath to walk in God’s law and to do all that he has commanded his people to do. In their covenant renewal they focus on three areas where the people of God have most prominently failed to do: Mix marriages, observing the sabbath, and giving support to the house of God. We’ll see how these play...

After God's word has been read, the Israelites humbly repent in response to that word. However, true repentance is rare in our day because we often harbor too small a view of God, which trivializes our sin. Through this remarkable prayer, we learn how to enlarge our vision of God through repentance. Along with Nehemiah and his people, we discover how repentance stirs us to worship our great God wi...

On that first Easter morning, the three women at Jesus’s tomb were not anticipating a resurrection. They were coping with the loss of their beloved master and merely hoping to honor him with a proper burial. But what they encountered instead aroused a mix of trembling fear and great joy – transforming these women into history’s first evangelists.

The attention has shifted from rebuilding physical walls to rebuilding spiritual lives. Nehemiah and Ezra now work together to ensure that God’s Word is foundational to the reconstituted covenant community. This is achieved by conducting a massive worship service where Scripture is read and studied for hours. It results in mournful weeping due to their covenant-breaking. But it also leads to great...

Completion of the wall was only the first step in the process of reestablishing Jerusalem as a spiritual center for God. Nehemiah chapter 7 is a transitional chapter, where the focus has shifted from the project to the people. The city's physical structure was rebuilt. Now the people’s spiritual lives needed to be rebuilt. They must embrace their identity as children of God and their role in the f...

Once again, opposition to the restoration of the wall, and to God’s city, is faced with opposition from the same adversaries we have encountered throughout Nehemiah. This time, their attacks are focused on Nehemiah himself. In these chapters we see their failed attempts to make Nehemiah stop the good work of God by trying to make him afraid. We’ll also see how Nehemiah continues in the face of fea...

In Nehemiah 4, the builders of Jerusalem’s walls experience unremitting opposition. Enough to demoralize and deter the best of them. But they’re exhorted to remember the Lord. Because when you remember that the Lord fights for you – that your ultimate battle is not against flesh and blood – you can focus on the task at hand. You can remain vigilant but undistracted.

Nehemiah 3 is a chapter we typically gloss over. It’s like reading a genealogy. It’s filled with unfamiliar names and monotonous repetition. But if all Scripture is profitable for teaching, then there must be helpful, edifying truths that we can glean from this ancient record of who worked on what section of the ruined gates and walls of post-exilic Jerusalem.

Prayer and planning complement each other in working out God’s will. While we depend on God’s power and sovereign rule, we carefully organize plans that can further his purposes; while we wait, we prepare. God supplies his people with what they need to accomplish his purposes.

The book of Nehemiah is about the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem after the people’s return from exile. But walls and gates aren’t the only things being rebuilt in this story. On a grander scale, they were rebuilding their ruined identity as the covenant people of God and restoring their ruined mission as his representatives. And what chapter one teaches is that any effort to rebuil...