Rooted & Unwithered

Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.” Visit bcnewton.co for more resources for knowing and loving God's Word.

This sermon is not a repeat of our dissecting of the Secular Creed. Instead, I am aiming to focus on the actual text of 2 Timothy 3:5 through the particular focus of how it presently applies to secularism in our day. That is by no means the only application of that verse. In Paul’s own day, he was probably thinking about ascetics who thought they were godly through how rigorously they punished the...

Rather than the gospel being an abolition of the law, as many Christians seem to think, the gospel eliminates our debt for breaking God’s law and writes His law upon our hearts, giving to us the freedom to actually choose obedience. Since we no longer have any fear of the condemnation that the law brings, we are free to see the beauty of the law as it reveals the will of our Father. Thus, it is in...

Notice that these are not programs to be implemented but rather a lifestyle to be lived. This makes things both easier and harder. It is always easier to blame Christians as a whole than to become the ideal yourself. However, you do not need pastoral or committee approval to implement these changes; you just need to love your church, love your family, and guard your eyes and heart. For more resour...

We each deserve death because of our own sins. Sin brings death, and Adam’s sin brought sin to all of us as his descendants. Nevertheless, we still justly earn our own condemnation. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Why indeed would the psalmist make this passionate cry if his keeping of God’s statutes were already steadfast? Within this plea of desire, we also find a lamentation. His life does not fully conform to his theology. He knows the  goodness  of God’s commands, yet he still wanders away from them. He yearns to be steadfast, but he ebbs and flows like the tides. For more resources for knowing and lov...

Secularism is very much a religion, and if the sexual revolution that began in the sixties was its equivalent of the Reformation, then we are presently living through its Great Awokening. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Christian, in your flesh, you are incapable of obeying God’s law, and that is why your hope is in Christ rather than in yourself. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

And although the Iliad certainly ought to be read, there is a great danger in not going further into that great conversation. In comparison to the mushiness of our postmodern world, where division is very often actively fostered, the ancient wisdom of Homer can seem like a firm foundation. Indeed, that is certainly why  paganism  is a growing worldview. Yet the hope of mutual shared grief in light...

Sadly, the world’s proclamation that kindness is everything only means that we must affirm all those who continue to drive their metaphorical cars off the broken bridge of their sin. As Christians, we must reject such a mockery of kindness and of love, for it is not kind or loving to pretend that unrepentant sin does not lead to death! Instead, we must imitate our Lord, who never flinched from exp...

In the  New City Catechism’s  brief trek  through the Ten Commandments , we come now to the final two. Unlike the prohibitions against  murder, adultery, or theft , we might be tempted to these final two commandments deal with less severe sins. The reality, however, is that the  Ninth  and  Tenth Commandments  are just as endemic and deadly as the ones we have studied so far. For more resources fo...

Men, brethren, and fathers, you are called to a high and holy calling: your work is full of danger, full of duty, and full of mercy. You are called to the winning of souls; an employment near akin unto our Lord's work,—the saving of souls; and the nearer your spirits be in conformity to his holy temper and frame, the fitter you are for, and the more fruitful you shall be in, your work. For mor...

Like an athlete practices to compete or a soldier trains for war, we must devote ourselves to keeping the commands of our God. Diligence should mark the life of God’s people. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

The dogma that Love Is Love is most commonly associated with the LGBT movement and is a declaration that all love is truly love. Homosexual love is not a subordinate love to heterosexual love. Both are love and should be recognized as such. The simplicity of the statement adds to its appeal. After all, who really wants to be the person who calls someone else’s love a lie? Indeed, it has drawn in o...

Much as  the first three commandments  set our minds squarely upon how we ought to love God supremely with all our being, the three before us in this question focus upon how we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co 

To keep the LORD’s testimonies, to hold onto them with all one’s might, seeking the Him with the entirety of the heart, must naturally lead to shunning all wrongdoing.  For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Scientific consensus is not the same as truth. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

The two commandments before us are unique among  the Ten . Only the  Fourth  and  Fifth Commandments  are not prohibitions. God prohibits idolatry, blaspheme, adultery, theft, and the others because He knows that we will commit such sins when given the opportunity. Likewise, He commands us to rest and to honor our father and mother because He knows that we will not do those things naturally. For m...

The Ten Commandments  are often divided into two tables, one pertaining to the love of God and the other describing how we are to love our neighbor. The most traditional division is between the  Fourth  and  Fifth Commandments . The Fourth Commandment, after all, requires the remembering and keeping of the Sabbath day holy, while the Fifth Commandment demands honor to be given to our parents. Thus...

Opening your home and providing for others is messy business; demanding the government to care for them is less intrusive to our personal lives while still feeling as if we have done  something . For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

Here the first three commandments are fittingly presented together, for these first commandments deal directly with how we are to worship and honor God as the only true and living God. To read this article and other resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit  bcnewton.co To read the full New City Catechism, visit  newcitycatechism.com

The joy of the blessed is to seek Him, for all who seek will find. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

True feminism (if there is such a thing) ought to celebrate the unique joys and trials of women, rather than simply trying to be one of the boys. Women’s rights  are  human rights, for God made humanity both male and female. Should we lose that distinction, women’s rights will be sacrificed in the very pursuit after them. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co

After declaring His purpose for their deliverance from that very mountain, God gave to His people the Ten Commandments. Although the LORD gave many more laws and commands to the Israelites, these ten were especially significant, which is testified by God speaking them directly to the people rather than through Moses and by their being etched into stone and kept in the ark. They received this speci...

Having the ideal Sunday is kind of like having only green lights on the way to work and then being surprised with a promotion: if it happens, we certainly ought to give thanks to God, but we ought also to remember that we should not call it normal. For more resources for knowing and loving God's Word, visit bcnewton.co