Providence Community Church

Following the first explicit reference to the concept of 'covenant' in scripture, Moses documents the relationship of Noah to his Lord and Savior. This arrangement is built upon special and direct revelation. The Word of God is presented clearly and emphatically to God's servant. In receiving the Word of God regarding hope for his people, Noah assumes the calling of prophet. Furthermore he goes to...

The revelatory and significant miracles of Jesus have reached a crescendo in John's gospel in chapter 11. The resurrection of Lazarus has been preceded by... The wedding in Cana where water became wine (chap 2), The woman at the well encountering the prophet/Messiah (4), the remote healing of the officer's son whose fever fled at the 7th hour (4), the healing of the invalid crippled some 38 years...

We come to a beloved Psalm in our series today. Psalm 91 is a familiar text, often memorized and, much like Ps 23, has become iconic of the Psalter itself in the minds and traditions of many. While there are great benefits to familiarity of a text like this, our sentimental connections with certain portions of scripture can also present challenges. It may serve us well to probe deeper than our imm...

Our passage today features the Apostle Paul from two dispositions. First, his consummate command of logical argumentation. Wearing his lawyer hat so to speak. Secondly, we witness his personal and passionate concern for those whom he has poured his life and teaching into. For Paul, ministry was never an abstraction or mere scholarly/ intellectual exercise of superior powers of persuasion. He argue...

Genesis documents a precedent establishing record of the relationship between God's knowledge and His power. These attributes of God are referenced repeatedly in the text with language indicating that God saw and spoke concerning the state of affairs at the time of Noah. This assessment then unfolds in actual historical events as the record of Noah's legacy continues. God sends animals to Noah, Go...

This chapter in the Genesis saga is introduced with the poetry of another Lamech – this man from the elect line of Seth. His contribution of faith in the narrative stands in stark contrast to the ancestor of Cain. Where as evil Lamech celebrates his tyrannical exploits to his multiple wives as a god unto himself – Lamech (the father of Noah) hold's out hope for deliverance from the curses of sin t...

We noted recently from Galatians 4 that a Biblical philosophy of history might be summarized by the phrase: “time measured by the progress of redemption”. Here in the beginning pages of Genesis we find Moses – the world's first great historian - recording the history of early man with reference to this organizing theme. Thus events signaling hope for fallen mankind to be reconciled to a Holy God a...

Book four is introduced with the first and only song written by Moses in the Psalter. A fitting location for this piece of poetry unrivaled in its beauty and depth. Isaac Taylor recognized Moses' philosophical and poetic genius surpassing that of the classical greeks on account of his possessing: “A heaven descended theology”. Consider additionally the experience of Moses providing context for Psa...

Galatians chapter 4 contains 2 illustrations to emphasize the distinction between justification by faith and works enabled salvation. These pictures also illuminate the difference the gospel fulfilled effects in the experience of the believer. Verse 21 introduces the analogy of 2 children representing differing covenant realities, while our text today expands upon the guardian/child relationship p...

Matthew Henry sums up the closing verses of Psalm 89 in a sentence all believers can appreciate: “Sometimes it is not easy to reconcile God's providences with his promises.” The anguish of Psalm 89 can be understood realizing the weight of what was at stake. The horror of apparent covenant dissolution flooded the hearts of those witnessing the collapse of the failing Jewish state, and with it, the...

As noted in our first sermon on Psalm 89. This song of Ethan the Ezrahite is laid out according to three major themes: 1.) Praise for Yahweh (1-18). 2.) Recounting of covenant terms establishing the hope and identity of the people of God (19-37). 3.) A lament and appeal to the covenant promises given the sufferings and hardships plaguing the nation of Israel (38-52). Verse 19-37 establish, accordi...

Psalm 89 closes the 3rd book of the Psalter. It serves as a great example of a book three Psalm featuring prominently 3 major themes. First: (1-18) Praise and adoration for Yahweh – the great and only covenant keeping God. Second: (9-37) A recounting of covenant terms that establish the hope and identity of the people of God. Third: (38-52) A lament and appeal to this covenant promise given advers...

The central purpose for Paul's letter to the Galatians resurfaces with each argument he deploys. The church had begun to entertain the idea that salvation was not exclusively secured by grace through faith in Christ alone. Paul writes emphatically, persuasively, and authoritatively to dispel this idea. The apostle is aware that if such a notion is tolerated to any degree within the confessing chur...

Our text today features principle personas and legacies characterizing the fallen human experience. These patterns are so basic to post-fall life that they appear immediately in the history of mankind. Until the conditions responsible for these issues no longer plague the human condition, we should expect this pathological corruption to present itself through the course of history in a yet un-resu...

Missionary Heart (Guest Speaker Fred Cressman)

Many consider Palm 88 the darkest of all the laments in the Psalter. The last word of the song, in fact, is 'darkness' – describing the loss of all common sources of joy in this veil of tears. Like Job, even Heman's (the Ezrahite author) closest friends can be counted on to desert him in his desperate hour of need... more precisely, in his desperate life of affliction and sorrow. In the context of...

The heart cry all the way back to Adam and Eve of hope in a future Son has carried forward through millennia to this moment in our text. The faithful held out hope in the covenant promises of God. They were waiting, as it is stated in the case of Simeon, for the consolation of Israel. They were waiting, as it is stated in the case of those who heard and believed the testimony of the prophetess Ann...

Guest Speaker Jason Mohn - 2 Timothy 4:6-8

From Gen 4:1, the heart cry of Eve has expressed hope in a future son. Through the history of the covenant, this cry has echoed rising in clarity and intensity at providential points along the timeline of God's decree unfolding. For many faithful women through the centuries of old, into New Testament Hebrew faith and culture, this heart cry was especially acute for the barren. The wives of the pat...

In our Genesis study, we have noted the hope invested in the cry of Eve in Genesis 4:1 when she exclaims: “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” This moment occurs after the fall and banishment from Eden upon the birth of her son Cain. The Lord had promised, after all, that a future son of Eve would crush the serpent's head. Though Eve's hopes were not realized in her son Cain – far from...

Genesis chapter four opens with a hopeful declaration from Eve – the mother of all living, (3:20) “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” she exclaims. Her hopes that her first-born may be the promised deliverer are short lived however, as he disqualifies himself with the murder of his brother. In this one act, Cain renders Eve's words hollow. Neither he, nor Abel were the promised one. I...

Though the final chapter of paradise closes with notes of devastating sadness and the seal of judgement forever barring unassisted reentry – there are hopeful signs as well. The meaning of these symbol laden historical events is profound, albeit foreign to the untransformed mind, even appearing ridiculous and absurd to the Godless sceptic. The greater revelation of scripture, however, provides key...

William Jay said of prayer: “Prayer is the design of trouble, the evidence that it is sanctified, its solace, and the medium of deliverance from it.” Observations on prayer such as this stem from contemplation of passages like Psalm 86 which incidentally is titled: 'A Prayer of David'. This is the only Psalm of its type in book 3 of the Psalter. If Psalm 86 was the meditative source of William Jay...

Our text today is not only central to the theme and understanding of the book of Galatians, but also to the entirety of Paul's thesis on the Gospel and his personal motivation for ministry. Here we get to the bed rock of the Christian faith and gospel. The Cambridge Bible says of this passage and especially of verse 20: “...this verse strikes the key-note of the epistle, and is a summary of the wh...

The judgements levied by God upon the fall of mankind into sin provide a precise accounting of the nature of man and his relationship to the world. Though so many in our day scoff at the origin account unfolding in Genesis, they can do nothing but illustrate its absolute prophetic accuracy even in their incredulity (unbelief). Genesis 3 continues to lay out for us the architecture of reality all t...