BBC Sermon Cast

The book of Daniel is full of mysterious visions and dreams. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream reveals the fate of the coming empires. But the true mystery behind the interpretation of the dream is the timing and nature of God’s kingdom. When Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” who would have guessed that the kingdom would come through the cross?

When mankind exchanges and or suppresses the knowledge of God two things happen. First, people undergo a change of identity from an identity in God as they were created to an identity in themselves. Second, when this happens, they believe the lie that they can serve themselves and the things they create instead of God the Creator.

Christ Jesus holds his church together and is the one who builds her up. Her life and vitality is found in him alone. Peter points to this truth and its implications for us in his first letter.

God placed Adam and Eve in a “very good” (Genesis 1:31) environment in a vibrant relationship with a good God. Ungrateful for what God had given to them, they chose to know evil by eating from the forbidden fruit. The knowledge of evil brought death and the experience of many other negative things. Genesis 3 helps us to see what happened when they chose to know evil—and what happens to us when we choose evil over good.

God calls us to be his people. Being his people means that we will go through every effort to fight against conforming to this world.

As we think about the sanctity of human life, there is great value in asking the question, why does human life matter? Stated another way, why should we value human life? What’s a human life worth? That is the question before us in this study. And to answer that question, we turn to Acts 17:24–31.

Church—pastors and people—teach precisely the gospel entrusted to you and keep it safe from being lost or damaged … for the rest of your lives. The Spirit of God has superintended not only the inspiration of this gospel word to the church, but its preservation through the church.

When we grasp the truth that Adam’s sin became our sin and Adam’s judgement our judgement, we have a deeper and richer appreciation for our justification in Christ.

Question 13 of the New City Catechism and its answer reveal a sober truth about the human condition: No one is able to keep God’s law. Rather, everyone is under the power of sin. Romans 3:9–20 reveals three facts about sin: It is universal (v. 9), extensive (vv. 10–18), and brings judgement (vv. 19–20). Dealing with these facts leads one to a proper appreciation of their need for Jesus, the sinless Saviour.

At the start of a new year, the word of God tells us to do something we are called to since we were brought from darkness into his marvellous light: Run the race set before us, looking to the unchanging Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.