Madison Reformed Church

Deut. 8:7–10  Isa. 65:17–25  Jn. 14:18–24  Rev. 21:1–8  Believers already enjoy the blessings of the New Covenant. But there is still much more to come in what theologians call the "consummation." In this message on Covenant Theology, we learn what Scripture teaches about the final state of God's people, place, and presence.

Gen. 12:1–3  Ezek. 37:24–28  Lk 22:14–23  Heb. 7:20–28  In New Covenant, God has brought about what he had promised all along, by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. And the Holy Spirit takes the benefits of these things that Christ has done, and gives them to the believer. This sermon focuses on three ways in which the New Covenant is new and better than what has come before.

Genesis 5 jumps back in time all the way to Adam (v. 1) and then forward in time as it follows his godly descendants all the way to Noah (v. 28). In other words, ch. 5 tells us why there’s a remnant of godliness in an otherwise wicked world as the flood approaches in ch. 6ff. It is through Adam, through Seth, and through Enoch that God has preserved the faith and true worship. This otherwise obscu...

Psalm 24 is an Old Testament picture of the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. It teaches us that our ascent to the presence of God is only through Christ, the Man of clean hands and pure heart. In this homily to commemorate Ascension Day 2024, we meditate upon what it means to seek the face of Jesus, whose human nature is truly away from us in heaven.

Lev. 26:9–13  Jer. 31:31–37  Jn. 6:45–51  Heb. 8:1–13  In this message, we learn what the New Covenant looked like from the perspective of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The New Covenant is that unfolding of the grand Covenant of Grace in which we live in this age, since Christ has come and the Holy Spirit has been poured out from heaven. And in this covenant, the people are forgiven, the place is...

In this passage, there are two family lines leading to two cities: The city of man is where our earthly citizenship is and the city of God is the heavenly city. And believers must learn to live in both. How do we do that? This passage teaches us to us cling to this faithful God, not only as the way to become citizens of the city of God, but it also to spend our days in this earthly city of man off...

Deut. 17:18–20 1 Chron. 17:1–15 Lk. 1:26–33 Eph. 2:18–22  The Davidic Covenant is the agreement in which God promises an everlasting Kingdom to His righteous King. In this sermon, we apply that description to the three promises we’ve learned in past weeks: People , place , & God’s presence . It’s through this royal covenant that we begin to see that God’s central promise (“I will be your God a...

The story of Cain and Abel highlights the problem of ungodly rivalry  among God’s people. There are, of course, harmless rivalries, like between competing teams. But the rivalry that the Bible speaks of has to do with selfish ambition, and the desire to have or get more than others. In the Church, such rivalries are out of step. We are called, rather, to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper, and t...

What rings true to most people about Genesis 3 is the description of a painful and toilsome life. You can put so much thought and work into something, only for it to backfire. So that part of the story of Genesis 3 checks out immediately in our experience. But what about the rest of it? Today’s passage teaches us that even though we all live our lives in the wilderness outside of Eden, Christ make...

Exod. 24 Neh. 1:7–11 Jn 1:14–18 Heb. 9:18–26 The phrase “the old covenant” shows up in the NT in 2 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 8. It’s important to remember that the Old Covenant actually began at Mount Sinai. It’s an agreement between God and the Israelites, with Moses as the go-between, where God promised a people, place, and his presence if the people obeyed his commandments. This whole set-up sh...

Genesis 15 is one of the most important chapters in the whole Old Testament, but it’s not really in children’s storybook Bibles and many lifelong Christians hardly know about it. Why is that? It's an ancient Near Eastern covenant. But by looking into it, we see the glories of our redemption. In this message on the Abrahamic covenant, we learn that God's promise of a  people, a place, and...

In this passage, the curses that God pronounces against the serpent, woman, and Adam bring us back to the original callings he placed upon image-bearers. We are to be fruitful, but sin now twists this calling. Ecclesiastes calls the result “vanity, and a chasing after the wind.” Paul in Romans calls it “futility.” We try to work, and produce, and live—but the curse brings toil, pain, and eventuall...

This passage is in two parts: God confronts Adam and Eve (vv. 8–13) and God judges them and the serpent (vv. 14–19), but it’s all held together especially by the promise in v. 15: God’s original gospel promise. This passage teaches us that sin not only brings judgment, but leads us to think that we don’t deserve it. But brothers and sisters, Christ has been bruised for our sins. And when we recogn...

Gen. 8:20–9:17 Jer. 33:19–26 Matt. 5:43–48 1 Pet. 2:13–17 In this sermon in our series on the Biblical covenants, we turn to a different kind of covenant—not saving and redemptive, but common and applying to everyone. It was made just after the flood, and so it is sometimes called the Noahic Covenant, which is uninterrupted, universal, and useful to every part of common life.

 In Luke’s record of what happened on the Sunday morning of Jesus’ resurrection we learn the announcement of the resurrection "seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”  In this Easter 2024 message, we find is that our Lord’s rising from the dead calls upon all believe to remember , believe , and marvel .

Gen. 3:14–15  2 Sam. 7:22–26  John 20:1–18  Rev. 21:1–4   In this message we turn to the third overarching biblical covenant, which is typically called the Covenant of Grace. This is one big covenant that develops over history through several smaller covenants. We learn the core promise that the seed of the women will crush the head of the serpent, that this promise develops over the course of the...

The "Get to Know MRC" gatherings are  Wednesdays meet-ups in March 2024 for people interested in the church, but who want to know more before getting into membership classes. WEEK 4 (final): The doctrine of worship Sacraments as "means of grace" and why we baptize the children of believers.

In this Good Friday message, we look at the reactions of two criminals being crucified on either side of Jesus—one hard-hearted, the other repentant. In the end, we find that being with Jesus is all it takes for scoundrels and sinners to make it into Paradise.

The "Get to Know MRC" gatherings are  Wednesdays meet-ups in March 2024 for people interested in the church, but who want to know more before getting into membership classes. WEEK 3: The doctrine of the Church: its institution, its attributes, its leaders Membership in the local church

In this message, we learn the devil's playbook for temptation: Twisting God’s Word. Denying God’s Word. And making false promises.  Whatever it takes to get us to "take and eat." This same devil used a similar strategy against the Lord Jesus Christ, but he has overturned sin and death. And from his fullness, he turns to his people and says, “Take and eat” to strengthen us and to dra...

Gen. 2:8–17 Hos. 6:1–11 Lk 10:25–28 Rom. 5:18–21  In the last couple messages on the covenants of the Bible, we’ve come to recognize that there’s a covenant vocabulary we have to learn. Sometimes a passage describes a covenant without using that word. There are words used, or there are elements of a covenant happening in the passage that show us that’s what’s happening. That’s important to remembe...

The creation of Eve and the first marriage in Genesis 2 challenges all of us with God’s categories for companionship. It teaches us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to find in him the key to a godly union. What is that key? Self-denial, seen in the Savior first, and then followed in obedience to his call.

Deut. 28:1–6 Ps. 40:1–10 Luke 22:24–30 Heb. 10:1–10 A covenant is a “formal agreement that creates a relationship with legal aspects.” (Michael G. Brown & Zach Keele, Sacred Bond , p. 12). In this message, we look at what has become known as the Covenant of Redemption: God’s eternal plan to save, restore, and redeem. It is unique because it is an agreement between the Persons of the Trinity &a...

In this message from Rev. Zac Wyse of Westside Reformed Church (Cincinnati), we open to the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus—the innocent one—is traded for the wicked Barabbas. (Preached March 10, 2024.)

The "Get to Know MRC" gatherings are  Wednesdays meet-ups in March 2024 for people interested in the church, but who want to know more before getting into membership classes. WEEK 1 :  History of the Reformed Churches Why we use creeds & confessions Scripture as our final authority