Rose City Baptist Church

“This is the regular means of God’s grace: one of the greatest blessings possible is the church! The people of God! In recent chapters David was rescued by God through the faithfulness of Jonathan, and now through the faithfulness of Abigail. In both the first and last chapters of this section (1 Samuel 24 and 26) David has his strong moments. His men are like ‘Let’s kill Saul now!’ and David is l...

“Friends, Christ Alone should be the easiest sola to speak on. Jesus is the only way. But the unbelieving world has to attack it, because of sin, it is the only option available to them. Sinners had to fight against God. And yet…however…notwithstanding…BUT: the greatest attack on the Christian church is never from the outside, but has always come from within. History bears this out, when the unbel...

“As the one who feared the Lord, David did not choose the way of self-realization by getting rid of his enemy by himself. In other words, David didn’t allow himself to disobey God’s commands by interpreting this occasion as a God-given opportunity to commit murder. Rather than to take things into his own hand, David was patient and willing to entrust the matter to God’s good judgement…And so once...

“God is not on your side, but you can be on God’s side. We know if we are on God’s side if we are dedicated to fulfill his purposes, his agenda, and for his glory…God was not on David’s side, per se, but David was on God’s side. He was not expecting God to achieve his goals, but had committed himself to God’s goals, this is why he prays (Psalm 57:2) ‘I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills...

“You see, church, that faith towards God is not merely believing that he exists, or even believing that he can help us in every situation, but faithfully acting on that belief. Living as though what we say we believe is true! ‘I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me,’ (Ps 57:2) even if that purpose does not bring about immediate relief from my discomfort. We exist for th...

“God’s grace is the root of salvation, Christ’s work is the means, and Human Faith is the path by which a person receives it…Sola Gratia: God’s grace is the root of salvation, the grace of God is the start and source of salvation. Which means God’s decision to save is entirely unearned. It is an entirely free gift, given out of His mercy, and not based on any human attractiveness, merit or good wo...

“Abraham has been brought to faith by a faithful God. His deepest trust and belief was in the One who had promised, and not in this son whom God had provided. God’s faithfulness is evident throughout Abraham’s life—even when Abraham is the villain of the story—even when Abraham makes the dumbest move available. Abraham, a primary biblical example of faith, is also our example of the obedience brou...

“…(R)ather than relaxing his command for humans to be perfect, Jesus reiterates the commands of Deuteronomy 18:13 and Leviticus 19:2 in Matthew 5:48  calling us to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And instead of relieving this righteous demand, God makes the greatest provision for purification ever, in Christ. In order to approach the all Holy God, sinners needed to be made sinless....

“…(L)et us respond to David’s testimony, and recall our own: Have we had the opportunity to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good!’ If so, let us remember and bless the Lord at all times, praise him continually and boast in the Lord to one another.”

“The commandments of the Law were perfectly designed by God to teach his people the definition of love. But it was their constant predisposition to keep the external elements of the law without understanding its purpose. Though keeping the law was a serious thing, with a death sentence for rebellion, love and compassion always trumped the external trappings of the law.”

“There must have been at least a moment—after Saul’s gaslighting—where Jonathan felt as though he had betrayed his father and dishonored his mother. And he would certainly have had some desire to claim the comfort, control and glory of royalty for himself. Any one of these emotions could have motivated him to break his commitment to David and obey his father’s edict. Looking to the end of the stor...

Israel Needs an Obedient King (1 Samuel 18-19) Josh Handford Tune in as Pastor Josh preaches from the extended narrative in 1 Samuel 18-19, which is bookended the removal of royal robes: “In this context, the robes represent everything that we desire as humans: control, comfort, and glory. These are things that are uniquely possessed by the king of Israel…Those who seek their own control, comfort...

“When we come to consider the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we tend to think that Christ died so that I can live — and that is certainly part of it. But we also need to understand that the power of the cross is that Christ died so that I, if I am in Christ, am crucified with Christ and have died with him—died to myself and to sin.”

“…(T)he Bible is our first and last word on who God is. It is his very revelation of himself in writing. And it is the supreme source of our understanding of God and man, sin and salvation, Jesus and his Gospel. The reformers call this the doctrine of sola scriptura, or scripture alone. This means the final or highest authority on all matters is found in scripture, rest in God’s word alone, and th...

“This is not a story about God’s people winning the battle. This is about the one who will go out before us and fight our battles. This is about the Lord of hosts, the God of armies who, through his anointed king, defeated the enemy of His people, prefiguring Christ Jesus, who doesn’t just help us to win the battles of life, but first he goes out before us, alone, to win the war. Only then does he...

“One of the main themes of this chapter is the human inability to see what God sees.…It seems that the biblical record deliberately creates the impression that Yahweh prefers to use weak, the lowly, the disenfranchised members of society, to do his most significant work…”

“Saul foolishly sought God’s favor with sacrifices gained through disobedience; an act that belittles God and treats him as not-holy. Such presumption reframes Saul’s partial obedience as total rebellion. We are not immune to such folly. Sin always wants to hide itself from discovery, and so we, like Saul, are prone to relabelling our failures to obey as partial obedience and then calling them a s...

“We are going to face lots of hard circumstances in our lives. But in those moments, I ask you church: what do we turn to? What do we turn to for comfort in those times of trouble? Do you bury yourself in your work? Do you buy yourself a new toy?…All of these things are temporal, they can’t actually heal our brokenness, they can’t save us from our problems…the best they can do is distract us for a...

“In my last sermon we saw God’s sovereignty in creation and in human interaction, God created what he wanted to create, he made what he wanted to make. Then he actively directs kings and countries, individuals and their relationships and interactions to his own ends. And now today, we see that God is sovereign in salvation as well…Paul handles these things conclusively. Saying all stand condemned,...

Nehemiah 4:15-23 Matt Vanderleek Tune in this morning as Matt Vanderleek from City Chapel in Red Deer preaches from Nehemiah 4: “Faith that stands firm is faith that stays busy—watching, praying, and working because God fights for His people… Watch and work - faith is never idle. Faith is not a posture of passivity, it is one of perseverance…. Arm and aim - faith prepares us for a fight. We have a...

“Because of Saul’s unfaithfulness, God will give his kingdom to another; ‘ a man after his own heart’ to whom He will grant an eternal covenant and promise an eternal kingdom. God’s response to human failure, time and again, is to establish and renew covenant with his people on the basis of God’s own faithfulness. This is the awesome mercy of God.”….Why was Saul rejected while David was accepted?...

“I, like Saul, am my own worst enemy. I give myself the benefit of the doubt when it comes to my own thoughts and intentions. We naturally trust in our own plans, sometimes even to the extent that we fail to seek God’s timeless instruction in his word, and fail to seek the timely leading of his Holy Spirit. Like Saul, we add to God’s word what we think are pious behaviors. We can add to the list o...

“Jonathan takes half of Israel’s armory - the One Sword he has - and sneaks out with his young ‘armor bearer’ — You know, he’s carrying all the sling-shots and sharpened sticks; maybe a club — And Jonathan, then, presents the dumbest plan in military history: first they will intentionally give up the element of surprise: ‘we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them.’ Then, th...

“In the last passage, Saul was confirmed as God’s chosen king over Israel, but at the same time the authority of God was reasserted in his prophet. Israel now has a king — but a king who remains king at God’s pleasure. A king who must obey the word of the Lord through his prophet. The Israelite king was rightly king only as far as he was the representative of the King …By offering the sacrifices t...

“The problem wasn’t that Israel wanted a king. The problem was the reasons why they wanted a human king…They wanted a king to bring them influence and status, order and prosperity, safety and security, without having to rely on the unseen work of God and his provision of daily bread…And so when God consents to this idolatrous request, it is our natural human reasoning to assume that God will show...