Providence Community Church

An explicit contrast is drawn in Genesis 47 between the inhabitants of Egypt and the sojourning Hebrews in verse 27. This is a surprising detail given the context and draws attention to the distinctions that God will sovereignly maintain and establish between His covenant people and their international counterparts. I submit that this verse provides a hermeneutical clue as Moses sets up contrasts...

Today concludes 22 months of preaching once a month through Ps 119. Each stanza of 8 verses corresponding to the Hebrew alphabet comprises the greatest of all acrostic psalms and perhaps the most extraordinary hymn in all of history. Even the most gifted of church fathers have found its scope and depth intimidating. Augustine said of this song: “As far as I have been able, as far as I have been ai...

Today completes our Jude mini series comparing & contrasting descriptions of the ungodly vs. admonitions to the holy in verses 16-23. In the interest of equipping the church to triumph over all her enemies, Jude and his fellow laborers wrote to the early believers exhorting and encouraging them to stand against anything or anyone who would seek to diminish or deny the glory, majesty, dominion,...

The time has come to approach the courts of Pharaoh. Naturally speaking, it is hard to imagine a more intimidating set of circumstances for Jacob and his sons save one detail. Facing immanent starvation, this tribe is desperate for provisions and has travelled great lengths to seek refuge in Egypt. “This strategy has not worked our so well in the past”, Jacob may well have thought, remembering his...

The 2nd to last Hebrew letter in the alphabet opening each eight verses of our text in its original language signal the 21st and 2nd to last stanza in the great acrostic song of all literature. The Psalmist, according to the structure of a life journey motif, summarizes the priorities of the spiritually mature and well tempered heart. This is the true hero's epic poem. Who are our heroes of the fa...

The context of Jude's admonitions summarized in key words taken for the title of this sermon are clarifying truths to reinforce the faith of the believer. There is amazing and eternal grace in Christ for the saints, albeit this mercy is weighty indeed. It is salvation from the fiery judgements stored up in the furnace of God's just wrath awaiting final judgement of the unrepentant. Because the sta...

Matthew 13:31-32 records a brief yet descriptive parable of the nature of the kingdom of God: “...the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Just like the tamarisk tree...

The first mention of Beersheba in the scriptures involves Abraham and a covenant established with a neighboring king. Abraham commemorates this event by planting a tamarisk tree as a memorial presumably for future generations, who will appreciate all the more its shade and thereby be reminded of God's faithfulness marked at this location. We might imagine Jacob approaching the region now some 200...

Each of the original Hebrew verses of stanza 20 begin with the letter 'resh' as the testimony of the sufficiency of God's Word marks yet another chapter in the journey of the believing author even through the darkest of trials. While stanza 19's theme rested upon the great summary commandment: (Deut 6:5) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your...

Jude's admonitions to the church continue toward his goal of equipping true believers to identify and oppose any who would seek to diminish or deny the glory, majesty, dominion, and authority of Jesus Christ our Lord. This equipping involves discernment sharpening, and faith building. Jude supplements his brief letter with references and allusions to greater scripture – both Old and New Testaments...

Men who once sold their brother into slavery motivated by resentment, now offer one of their own as a servant to liberate their father's remaining favored son from bondage. A dramatic stress-tested example of repentance indeed. In the case of Joseph, he was abused by his brothers in spite of his innocence. In this case, Benjamin is accused of a crime he did not commit and his brothers defend him a...

Central themes of the Joseph narrative are prominently featured in this text. Now at age 39, Joseph is able to clearly see the precise & sovereign handiwork ordering his life circumstances for the higher good and the glory of God. Suspense has been building in the account toward this moment of resolution, redemption, and reconciliation. The messianic ascendency of Joseph is revealed to his bro...

Each verse of the original Hebrew beginning with the letter 'qoph' serves to emphasize the sufficiency of God's Word as the compelling interest of our souls in the 19th stanza of the great acrostic hymn, Psalm 119. The theme of this stanza rests upon the vow of the author to uphold the summary commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all yo...

These days discernment may be the least popular yet most needed of all spiritual disciplines to stay true to the faith once and for all delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures. Jude's exhortations to his believing readers anticipate the challenges we face in our day which require Biblical understanding, wisdom, and vigilance in contending for the faith. Verses 16-23 of Jude draw distinctions betwee...

In the second half of Romans 3, Paul transitions to the Gospel, and the hope we have in Christ. He declares that justification is by faith alone in Jesus Christ, to all who believe. We cannot be saved by our works, but solely by faith in Jesus Christ, which is given to us freely by God's grace.

Men who once sold their brother into slavery motivated by resentment, now offer one of their own as a servant to liberate their father's remaining favored son from bondage. A dramatic stress-tested example of repentance indeed. In the case of Joseph, he was abused by his brothers in spite of his innocence. In this case, Benjamin is accused of a crime he did not commit and his brothers defend him a...

The righteousness of Yahweh is a six time repeated theme in the 18th stanza of Ps 119 – the great acrostic celebration of covenant revelation. Here each original verse beginning with the Hebrew letter 'tsadhe' extols the sufficiency of the Word of God in spite of the social standing of the author – 'small & despised', and the trials he faces fraught with trouble and anguish inflicted by his fo...

Verses 1-11 of Acts chapter 3 mark the occasion and context of Peter's 2nd sermon in the record of the early church. Elicott writes in his commentary regarding the setting: “The approaches of the temple, like those of modern mosques, were commonly thronged with the blind, lame, and other mendicants (beggars). The practice was common at Constantinople in the time of Chrysostom and has prevailed lar...

In the interest of providing the church with means to discern and oppose anyone or any idea that would deny or diminish the glory, majesty, dominion, and authority of Jesus Christ, Jude's epistle highlights distinctions between the holy and the ungodly, the disruptive and the sincere... enemies and allies within the visible church's scope of operations. Jude understands it is in the enemy of the g...

The record of Joseph's rule and reign continues in chapter 44 as we read of the next step in Joseph's elaborate design to test his brother's heart and character. Joseph's rule is moving men to heart change, restoration of conscience, personal responsibility, sacrifice, honoring of parents, truth, honesty in covenants, sanctity of life, provision, family reconciliation, covenant hope, and successio...

Organized in the original language under the Hebrew letter 'pe', the 17th stanza of Ps 119 continues to extol the glory and sufficiency of the covenant revelation of the Lord. The Psalmist sings of the wonderful testimonies of the Lord, His unfolding words, His enviable commandments, His lovely name, His gracious promise, precepts, statutes, and law. Along with the enduring and sophisticated acros...

In his painstaking though brief effort to provide thorough context for discernment – Jude introduces an anecdote from a well known Jewish extra-Biblical work from the 1st or 2nd century B.C.. In this ancient document, the shadowy Old Testament patriarch is quoted pronouncing final judgement on the unrepentant enemies of the Lord. Though the “Book of Enoch” is not, nor should it be, included in the...

In Genesis 37:8 Moses records the incredulous reaction of Joseph's brothers when they hear of his dream of sheaves bowing before his own. “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” They exclaim. The record continues: “So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.” Unbeknownst to his brothers, in our text today, the rule and reign of Joseph is firmly estab...