Mid Cities OPC

On Sunday, December 6, 2020, Rev. Robert Mossotti attempted to demonstrate that, contrary to the Dispensationalist doctrine of the rapture of the church, the Scriptures teach that . . . 

1)  . . . Christ's return will be apparent to all (Matthew 24:29-31), rather than secret . . . 

2)  . . . that all of the wicked as well as the righteous dead will rise (1 Corinthians 15:51-52), 

3)  . . . and that those who are taken are the wicked taken in judgment (Matthew 24:37-44), 

4)  . . . and those "left behind" are the saints who have been delivered from their enemies once and for all (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).

On Sunday, November 29, 2020, Rev. Robert Mossotti preached "Baptism Saves You?" from 1 Peter 3:21-22.

On Sunday, November 29, 2020, Rev. Robert Mossotti continued his series critiquing Dispensationalism, discussing the New Heaven and New Earth from Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21.

On November 22, 2020, Pastor Joe Troutman preached, "God's History of Grace" from Joshua 24:1-13.

The mighty deeds of Jesus Christ have washed us clean of sin, and he remembers them no more.

1. From Abraham to Egypt (vs. 1-4) 

"Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. 4 And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt."

Even hard providences are part of his plan. The captivity was not an error, but a blessing. Israel's time in slavery set them up for deliverance. We forget what God does for us because we demand too much too soon.

2. Out of Africa (vs. 5-7) 

"5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out. 6 “‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time."

If you have faith in Christ, this is how he looks at your sin: it is rebellion. This is how he remembers it: Though God could have brought up their sin, he doesn't do it. His focus is not on their performance, but on his deliverance. 

3. The Conquest (vs. 8-13)

"8 Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. 11 And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. 12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. 13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’"

 "Just like Abraham, we were deserving of nothing but judgment before the Lord called us to himself. Because of our sin, the only thing that we deserve is his curse. But God has blessed us. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has defeated all of our enemies. The things of this life that we can be so afraid of, the Lord has already taken care of them for us, and we who are in Jesus Christ, we know that there can be no true harm that can befall us who believe in Jesus Christ." 

On Sunday, November 22, 2020, Rev. Robert Mossotti presented part 3 in his series on critiquing Dispensational hermeneutics, "The Tent of David, Part 3" based on Amos 9:11-12 and its apostolic use in Acts 15:16-17.

“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this." (Amos 9:11-12)

“‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant[b] of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord..." (Acts 15:16-17)

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On Sunday, November 15, 2020, Rev. Robert Mossotti continued his Sunday School series critiquing Dispensationalism, teaching on "The Tents of David, Part 2" from Amos 9:11-12, and Acts 15.

“In that day I will raise up

After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

 “‘After this I will return,

On Sunday, November 8, 2020, Pastor Joe Troutman preached, "Refuge for the Fugitive" from 1 Samuel 21:1-22:5).  

"God is our refuge, and our safety and peace is found nowhere else but in him."  

1. Bread and a Blade (21:1-9)  

Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.  7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.  8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”  

2. King of the Country (21:10-22:2) 

And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,  ‘Saul has struck down his thousands,     and David his ten thousands’?”  12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”  David at the Cave of Adullam 22 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.  

3. Mission to Moab (22:3-5) 

And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me.” 4 And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. 5 Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.  

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On Sunday, November 1, 2020, Pastor Joe Troutman preached "Words of Life" from Galatians 3:1-5 . . . 

"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith--. . . ?

On Sunday, November 1, 2020, Dr. Darryl G. Hart delivered lecture 4 of the DFW Reformation Conference 2020. 

Lecture 4: Are Orthodox Presbyterians Evangelical? 

Dr. Darryl G. Hart is the Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. After earning his BA in film at Temple University, he earned his MAR in Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, his MTS in US Religious History at Harvard, and his MA and Ph.D. in US History from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Hart is the definitive scholar on the life of J. Gresham Machen, authoring Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America (2003), along with Between the Times: the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Transition, 1945-1990 (2011), and Calvinism: A History (2013), among numerous other books on the history of the church, Reformed worship, Evangelicalism and politics. He is an elder at Hillsdale OPC.