Sermon B-Sides - Coram Deo Church

The Lord roars, and Amos shoots straight and to the point. God is the judge of all, and all will answer to him. This means nations that don't even recognize his lordship will have to give an account. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the relevance of Amos for our world today, the calling of a normal "Joe" like Amos, and the universal Lordship of Christ over ev...

The golden calf incident in Exodus 32 is a paradigm for idolatry in the Bible. Examining this story helps us understand the nature of idolatry and the ways that we are led into it. The character of Aaron also reveals to us the sinner's tendency to make excuses for sin and blame others for them. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the lessons that we can learn fr...

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase "filled with the Spirit" in connection to some kind of erratic spiritual experience. But in the Bible, that phrase is first connected to the skills necessary to build the tabernacle. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss what it means to be filled with the Spirit in light of the skill and wisdom given to Oholiab and Bezalel to...

The worship of the tabernacle involved a lot of visceral components that people experienced through the senses. Incense, fire, smoke, water, and oil each play their part in the tabernacle. While many of these are shadows that point to heavenly realities, they also point to the creaturely nature of our worship. We may lean into a gnostic tendency to focus exclusively on spiritual things. But the vi...

The coming new creation is one of the big themes of the New Testament. This new creation is so deeply related to our current redemption in Christ that we read that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). But does the Old Testament teach new creation? Are there hints within the tabernacle and priesthood of the new creation that Christ came to bring? In this episode of Sermon B...

Exodus 28 is all about the clothing that the high priest wore when serving in the tabernacle. Examining the details of the high priestly clothing helps us to understand how Christ is our High Priest. This clothing points to Christ's incarnation and mediatorial as our second Adam. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Rusten and Pastor Jon discuss the meaning of the priestly underwear, the mate...

A crucial aspect of the tabernacle construction is its dimensions and geographical order. While we might scratch our heads and wonder why all these details are important, we haven't been left without the keys to understand what they mean. To understand the tabernacle, we need to look back to Sinai and Eden. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss how the tabernacle...

God has a purpose for his people. He didn't just save them from Egypt, he reconciled them to himself and made them a new people that were to live for him and worship him. The number of words and chapters giving the details of God's prescription for the tabernacle speaks to the importance of corporate worship for his people. This is an important lesson for us today. Just like we might de-emphasize...

When God instructs Moses on the construction of the tabernacle, there are details...lots of details. While these things may seem foreign or arbitrary to us, every detail was intentional and spoke something crucial that God's people needed to hear. It is helpful to think of the tabernacle as a kind of word of God communicated through the fabricated objects of the tent and its furniture. In this epi...

How do the covenants of the Bible relate to the new covenant? How is Sinai related to the coming of Christ? Is Sinai a gracious covenant? In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the unfolding nature of God's promises and administrations of his covenant of grace. At Sinai, we see a covenant that is incomplete and unfulfilled. But it is still a gracious covenant that...

God is against partiality in justice. But today, we are seeing an intentional institutionalization of partiality in the law. For example, in many cities, theft is being decriminalized by applying partiality to certain "disadvantaged" groups. This is exactly the kind of partiality that Exodus 23 addresses and condemns. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss why just...

Can you legislate morality? Many Christians answer with a confident "no." But the same people who answer that way would likely not be in favor of repealing laws against murder or theft. If the law doesn't legislate morality, what does it legislate? In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten continue to discuss the relevance of the Law of the Covenant for how we understand civi...

When was the last time you heard a sermon preached on Exodus 21? It contains laws about slavery, laws about justice, laws about capital punishment, and so on. While we tend to ignore or neglect these laws due to a critical posture toward them, the alternative of modern American statism is clearly unjust. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the part of Exodus oft...

What is 'new' about the new covenant? Were there baptisms in the Old Testament? What can we learn from household baptisms? What is baptism a sign of? Is baptism necessary for salvation? In this special episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten answer questions from the Baptism and Unity in the Church lecture held on July 2, 2024. As they consider your questions, they discuss the cont...

The eighth commandment prohibits theft. This means that God acknowledges personal property. God calls us to respect the property of others while being thankful for what God has given us and being good stewards of it. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss ideas like Communism and how they subvert God's law by undermining personal property. They also discuss books o...

The sixth commandment forbids murder. How does this commandment inform our understanding of capital punishment? Or war? In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss why God forbids murder and why he commands capital punishment. They also discuss how Christians can be pro-life and yet for capital punishment or just war. We hope you enjoy, and as usual, if you have any que...

We live in a world of sexual confusion that has largely ignored the the seventh commandment. The results have been catstrophic. In this commandment to not commit adultery we have a world of instruction about what God's good design is for sexuality. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss why God forbids adultery and the implications for this commandment. They discuss...

The fifth commandment reveals God's heart for the family. By God's design, the family is the building block of culture and even the foundation of good government. The basic unit of the family makes a community, society, or nation strong. But a breakdown in the family results in bad and even tyrannical government. Likewise, bad culture and tyrannical government tends to undermine and destroy the in...

The fourth commandment isn't just about rest, it is also about work. After a week of work, God called his people to trust in him by resting from all their labors. This rest was an expression of trust in his rule and reign. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the fourth commandment and consider how we can obey this commandment today. The Sabbath was meant to be a...

What does it mean to "take the name of the Lord your God in vain"? Is this commandment all about language at the construction site? What is the significance of the name of the Lord? In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the third commandment and how we are called to take the name, but not take the name in vain. They discuss baptism as one way in which we take the...

Why did God forbid making graven images? Does this include images of Jesus or Christian art? What about Christian traditions that use images in their worship? In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the second commandment and how it applied during Old Testament times and since the coming of Christ. They discuss Eastern Orthodoxy and their use of images, as well as p...

How should Christians approach God's law? Broader evangelicalism tends to think that the law primarily condemns or that Christians should "unhitch" from the Old Testament law. It tends towards antinomianism (rejecting all law) and legalism (living slavishly like we earn God's favor through law-keeping). But what we see in Scripture—in Psalm 1 and Psalm 19, for instance—is a call to love and deligh...

God meeting his people on Mount Sinai is a grand and terrifying event. First comes fire and smoke, then thunder and lightning, and finally the voice of God. The people were trembling, and for good reason; the holiness of God is dangerous. If anyone touches the mountain, they will die. In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon and Pastor Rusten discuss the Sinai scene, what it means, and how Ch...

Who is Jethro? Is he a pagan priest who comes to faith in Yahweh, or is he a Gentile believer who already knows God? What does Jethro bless Moses with? In this episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor Jon & Pastor Rusten examine some of these questions and look at the history of Jethro and his ancestors. They also discuss covenant theology and the differences between the covenant of grace and the covenan...

How should Christians seek to positively impact their culture for Christ? Instead of only looking to politics, how can Christians work to reform culture in more grassroots ways from the bottom up? How should Christians approach civics and politics? What are Christians to make of "Christian Nationalism" and the different meanings given to that term? In this special episode of Sermon B-Sides, Pastor...