First Baptist Church of Phillipsburg Sermons

Psalm 73

Truly God is good to Israel,    to those who are pure in heart.2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,    my steps had nearly slipped.3 For I was envious of the arrogant    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For they have no pangs until death;    their bodies are fat and sleek.5 They are not in trouble as others are;    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.6 Therefore pride is their necklace;    violence covers them as a garment.7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;    their hearts overflow with follies.8 They scoff and speak with malice;    loftily they threaten oppression.9 They set their mouths against the heavens,    and their tongue struts through the earth.10 Therefore his people turn back to them,    and find no fault in them.11 And they say, “How can God know?    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”12 Behold, these are the wicked;    always at ease, they increase in riches.13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean    and washed my hands in innocence.14 For all the day long I have been stricken    and rebuked every morning.15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”    I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

16 But when I thought how to understand this,    it seemed to me a wearisome task,17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;    then I discerned their end.

18 Truly you set them in slippery places;    you make them fall to ruin.19 How they are destroyed in a moment,    swept away utterly by terrors!20 Like a dream when one awakes,    O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.21 When my soul was embittered,    when I was pricked in heart,22 I was brutish and ignorant;    I was like a beast toward you.

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;    you hold my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel,    and afterward you will receive me to glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you?    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail,    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28 But for me it is good to be near God;    I have made the Lord God my refuge,    that I may tell of all your works.

Psalm 72:1-19

Give the king your justice, O God,    and your righteousness to the royal son!2 May he judge your people with righteousness,    and your poor with justice!3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,    and the hills, in righteousness!4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,    give deliverance to the children of the needy,    and crush the oppressor!

5 May they fear you while the sun endures,    and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,    like showers that water the earth!7 In his days may the righteous flourish,    and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

8 May he have dominion from sea to sea,    and from the River to the ends of the earth!9 May desert tribes bow down before him,    and his enemies lick the dust!10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands    render him tribute;may the kings of Sheba and Seba    bring gifts!11 May all kings fall down before him,    all nations serve him!

12 For he delivers the needy when he calls,    the poor and him who has no helper.13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,    and saves the lives of the needy.14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life,    and precious is their blood in his sight.

15 Long may he live;    may gold of Sheba be given to him!May prayer be made for him continually,    and blessings invoked for him all the day!16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;    on the tops of the mountains may it wave;    may its fruit be like Lebanon;and may people blossom in the cities    like the grass of the field!17 May his name endure forever,    his fame continue as long as the sun!May people be blessed in him,    all nations call him blessed!

18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,    who alone does wondrous things.19 Blessed be his glorious name forever;    may the whole earth be filled with his glory!Amen and Amen!

Psalm 71

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;    let me never be put to shame!2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;    incline your ear to me, and save me!3 Be to me a rock of refuge,    to which I may continually come;you have given the command to save me,    for you are my rock and my fortress.

4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;    you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.My praise is continually of you.

7 I have been as a portent to many,    but you are my strong refuge.8 My mouth is filled with your praise,    and with your glory all the day.9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;    forsake me not when my strength is spent.10 For my enemies speak concerning me;    those who watch for my life consult together11 and say, “God has forsaken him;    pursue and seize him,    for there is none to deliver him.”

12 O God, be not far from me;    O my God, make haste to help me!13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;    with scorn and disgrace may they be covered    who seek my hurt.14 But I will hope continually    and will praise you yet more and more.15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,    of your deeds of salvation all the day,    for their number is past my knowledge.16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;    I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.18 So even to old age and gray hairs,    O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might to another generation,    your power to all those to come.19 Your righteousness, O God,    reaches the high heavens.You who have done great things,    O God, who is like you?20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities    will revive me again;from the depths of the earth    you will bring me up again.21 You will increase my greatness    and comfort me again.

22 I will also praise you with the harp    for your faithfulness, O my God;I will sing praises to you with the lyre,    O Holy One of Israel.23 My lips will shout for joy,    when I sing praises to you;    my soul also, which you have redeemed.24 And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,for they have been put to shame and disappointed    who sought to do me hurt.

Hosea 12-14

Ephraim feeds on the wind    and pursues the east wind all day long;they multiply falsehood and violence;    they make a covenant with Assyria,    and oil is carried to Egypt.

2 The Lord has an indictment against Judah    and will punish Jacob according to his ways;    he will repay him according to his deeds.3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel,    and in his manhood he strove with God.4 He strove with the angel and prevailed;    he wept and sought his favor.He met God at Bethel,    and there God spoke with us—5 the Lord, the God of hosts,    the Lord is his memorial name:6 “So you, by the help of your God, return,    hold fast to love and justice,    and wait continually for your God.”

7 A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,    he loves to oppress.8 Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;    I have found wealth for myself;in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”9 I am the Lord your God    from the land of Egypt;I will again make you dwell in tents,    as in the days of the appointed feast.

10 I spoke to the prophets;    it was I who multiplied visions,    and through the prophets gave parables.11 If there is iniquity in Gilead,    they shall surely come to nothing:in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;    their altars also are like stone heaps    on the furrows of the field.12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram;    there Israel served for a wife,    and for a wife he guarded sheep.13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt,    and by a prophet he was guarded.14 Ephraim has given bitter provocation;    so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him    and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds.

13 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;    he was exalted in Israel,    but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.2 And now they sin more and more,    and make for themselves metal images,idols skillfully made of their silver,    all of them the work of craftsmen.It is said of them,    “Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”3 Therefore they shall be like the morning mist    or like the dew that goes early away,like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor    or like smoke from a window.

4 But I am the Lord your God    from the land of Egypt;you know no God but me,    and besides me there is no savior.5 It was I who knew you in the wilderness,    in the land of drought;6 but when they had grazed, they became full,    they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;    therefore they forgot me.7 So I am to them like a lion;    like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.8 I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;    I will tear open their breast,and there I will devour them like a lion,    as a wild beast would rip them open.

9 He destroys you, O Israel,    for you are against me, against your helper.10 Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?    Where are all your rulers—those of whom you said,    “Give me a king and princes”?11 I gave you a king in my anger,    and I took him away in my wrath.

12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;    his sin is kept in store.13 The pangs of childbirth come for him,    but he is an unwise son,for at the right time he does not present himself    at the opening of the womb.

14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;    I shall redeem them from Death.O Death, where are your plagues?    O Sheol, where is your sting?    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

15 Though he may flourish among his brothers,    the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,    rising from the wilderness,and his fountain shall dry up;    his spring shall be parched;it shall strip his treasury    of every precious thing.16 Samaria shall bear her guilt,    because she has rebelled against her God;they shall fall by the sword;    their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,    and their pregnant women ripped open.

14 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,    for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.2

Hosea 6 – 11

Hosea 2:14 – 4:19

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,    and bring her into the wilderness,    and speak tenderly to her.15 And there I will give her her vineyards    and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,    I will answer the heavens,    and they shall answer the earth,22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,    and they shall answer Jezreel,23     and I will sow her for myself in the land.And I will have mercy on No Mercy,    and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;    and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

3 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

4 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,    for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,    and no knowledge of God in the land;2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;    they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.3 Therefore the land mourns,    and all who dwell in it languish,and also the beasts of the field    and the birds of the heavens,    and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

4 Yet let no one contend,    and let none accuse,    for with you is my contention, O priest.5 You shall stumble by day;    the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;    and I will destroy your mother.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;    because you have rejected knowledge,    I reject you from being a priest to me.And since you have forgotten the law of your God,    I also will forget your children.

7 The more they increased,    the more they sinned against me;    I will change their glory into shame.8 They feed on the sin of my people;    they are greedy for their iniquity.9 And it shall be like people, like priest;    I will punish them for their ways    and repay them for their deeds.10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied;    they shall play the whore, but not multiply,because they have forsaken the Lord    to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,    which take away the understanding.12 My people inquire of a piece of wood,    and their walking staff gives them oracles.For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,    and they have left their God to play the whore.13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains    and burn offerings on the hills,under oak, poplar, and terebinth,    because their shade is good.Therefore your daughters play the whore,    and your brides com

Hosea 1:1 – 2:13

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

2 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—    for she is not my wife,    and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face,    and her adultery from between her breasts;3 lest I strip her naked    and make her as in the day she was born,and make her like a wilderness,    and make her like a parched land,    and kill her with thirst.4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,    because they are children of whoredom.5 For their mother has played the whore;    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,    who give me my bread and my water,    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’6 Therefore I will hedge up her[i] way with thorns,    and I will build a wall against her,    so that she cannot find her paths.7 She shall pursue her lovers    but not overtake them,and she shall seek them    but shall not find them.Then she shall say,    ‘I will go and return to my first husband,    for it was better for me then than now.’8 And she did not know    that it was I who gave her    the grain, the wine, and the oil,and who lavished on her silver and gold,    which they used for Baal.9 Therefore I will take back    my grain in its time,    and my wine in its season,and I will take away my wool and my flax,    which were to cover her nakedness.10 Now I will uncover her lewdness    in the sight of her lovers,    and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,    her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,    and all her appointed feasts.12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,    of which she said,‘These are my wages,    which my lovers have given me.’I will make them a forest,    and the beasts of the field shall devour them.13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals    when she burned offerings to themand adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,    and went after her lovers    and forgot me, declares the Lord.

Esther 9-10

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples. 3 All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful. 5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. 6 In Susa the citadel itself the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, 7 and also killed Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha 8 and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha 9 and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha, 10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, but they laid no hand on the plunder.

11 That very day the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was reported to the king. 12 And the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” 13 And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day’s edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.” 14 So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. 15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

16 Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder. 17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness. 18 But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. 19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

20 And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, 22 as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

23 So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. 24 For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them. 25 But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26 Therefore they called these days Purim, after the ter

[Esther 7-8] Our salvation is through our Deliverer, not our defense

[Esther 5-6] God is sovereign over the sequences of your life