Redeemer Church of Waterford

At the end of Romans 9 Paul concludes that Israel is not saved because 1) they heard the gospel, and 2) they understood (with their human reasoning) the gospel, and 3) having heard the gospel and understood it, they rejected it. In light of Israel's rejection of the gospel, Paul asks if God has cast away His people because of their unbelief, to which he responds: "God forbid!" or "May it never be!...

In our studies of the meaning and significance of the Lord's Supper, we come now to what is admittedly the most difficult text in all of the New Testament which relates indirectly to the Lord's Supper (John 6:53): "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you." To determine what Jesus means by these words, we must set them in the context of everything th...

The Apostle Paul delivers to us what he has received concerning the Lord's Table, a revelation which can be divided into three parts: The Ordinariness of the Table: Bread and Wine The Ordinance of the Lord's Table: "This Do" The Order of the Lord's Table: Taking, Blessing, Breaking, Giving

The heart, which is the seat of our emotions, is most vulnerable to the attacks of Satan. Doubts, fears, anxieties, worry are the fiery arrows which our adversary the devil shoots into our hearts. The author of Hebrews gives us our defense: "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace." What does it mean for the heart to be established, and then how is the heart established with gr...

The Lord's Supper must not be isolated from all that Jesus did and taught during his earthly life and ministry. In recording the ministry of Jesus, Luke includes 7 different meals which Jesus shared with various groups of people during his ministry. In these seven meals, Jesus reveals to us who can eat and drink with him and what they receive from him when they eat and drink with him. From these m...

In Romans 10, Paul asserts that even though the gospel was preached to Israel through the Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles, Israel has not obeyed the gospel. Why has Israel not obeyed the gospel? He offers three alternative explanations: 1. They have not heard the gospel. 2. They heard the gospel, but they did not understand it. 3. They both heard and understood the gospel, but rejected it.

The Lord's Table is set in the context of the life of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. The Lord's Table is set in the context of the life and ministry of Jesus and the meals he shared with various people. The Lord's Table is set in the context of the life of the gathered community of followers of Jesus in four communal acts every time we gather (Acts 2:42): 1. The Apostle's Teaching 2. T...

When Jesus inaugurated the Last Supper, he said to his disciples, "With desire I have desired to eat this supper with you." Do we desire to eat with Jesus at His table as much as He desires to eat with us? Maybe if we understood the nature and the meaning of the Table, and the reality that when we partake of the Lord's Supper we are not only in the presence of one another, but in the presence of G...

The word "remembrance" in Jesus's words in Luke 19:20 would call to the disciples minds that for more than 1500 years the Jewish people had been remembering their liberation from Egypt by the strong arm of God by means of the annual Passover meal. But in using that word, Jesus is changing the object of their remembrance as well as fundamentally changing the nature of the meal itself. What does it...

We have been considering the word of the Lord which came to Ezekiel which is nothing less than the revelation of God's plan to rescue, redeem, and reconcile to himself His wayward people - the gospel of our salvation. But what is God's ultimate intent of saving us? It is so that we might be the ultimate display of his glory and grace to our unbelieving family, neighbors, and colleagues. How then d...

Only the Lord can open the heart of a sinner to hear and comprehend the gospel. Lydia is a beautiful example of one such sinner who had an interest in "religion," but when she heard the gospel through Paul's preaching, her heart was opened and her life was made new.

What is the ultimate end for which God saved you? What has God saved you FOR? "Then shall the heathen know that I am the LORD," these same heathen who had mocked God and his people in verse 20. God has saved you so that HE might be sanctified IN YOU in order to silence the mocking unbelievers.

How do we reconcile the truth that God loves the world with His statement in Romans 9:13 (Malachi 1:2-3) that he hated Esau?

The words of Psalm 40 in their historical context are those of David, the anointed King of God's people. In their prophetic context they are the words of Jesus, God's Messiah, the Savior and King of God's redeemed people. In their spiritual context, they are the words of every believer who has made the Lord their trust, but in a special sense they are the words of a man who has been separated by G...

We can logically conclude that the basis for God choosing Isaac over Ishmael was due to the illegitimacy of Ishmael's conception and birth with Hagar and not Sarah. But how do we explain God's choice of Jacob over Esau given they were both legitimate, both the children of the same parents (Isaac and Rebecca), both conceived at the same time, both born at the same time? On what basis does God choos...

The Apostle Paul in Romans 9 is dealing with the question: "If Israel - Abraham's seed - are God's chosen people, why have so many Jews rejected Jesus? In light of the Jews' rejection of Jesus, Paul anticipates the question: "Has the word of God failed" because God promised to save the Jews and yet the Jews have not been saved? Paul's answer is "they are not all (true) Israel who are of (ethnic) I...

John Newton, the composer of "Amazing Grace," was asked by a friend how he could know he truly had communion and fellowship with God. In Newton's reply he pointed to several realities, the first of which we focused on in this message: Communion with God presupposes union with God through faith in Jesus Christ. John Newton's full letter is linked below.

What is the result of salvation? The salvation which is in Jesus Christ is a full and abundant salvation, and there is literally no end to the blessings which it offers to us. It is a place of fulness of blessing, of all-sufficiency, of final satisfaction.

What does it look like to cry out to the Father by faith in Christ through the strengthening of the Holy Spirit for real power and real love that really is for you right now in this moment?

In the opening verses of Romans 9, the Apostle Paul, himself a Jew, has lamented Israel's rejection of the gospel (vv. 1-3) in spite of the privileges they enjoy as God's chosen people (vv. 4-5). In verse 6 he anticipates a question from his readers: Since God made covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would make of them a great nation, and since the vast majority of Jewish people...

Of all the benefits and blessings we receive through the gospel, the highest and most glorious of all is reconciliation with the holy God whom we have offended and alienated by our sinful rebellion against Him.

In Romans 9:4-5, the Apostle Paul highlights eight unique privileges that belong to ethnic Israel as the chosen people of God. These eight privileges are not only for those Jews who have believed on Jesus, but belong to all of those who are descended ethnically from Isaac and Jacob, though not an indication of their final salvation.

Every Christian knows the frustration of trying their best to not sin and to obey God. How are we able to live this Christian life? How are we able to keep the statutes and commandments of God and walk in his ways? The answer rings loud from our text: "I will put MY spirit within you, and I will CAUSE you to walk in my statutes..."