Northpointe PCA Sermons

A. The word for that introduces the doxology ("for yours is the kingdom…") grounds and undergirds all the preceding petitions of the Lord's Prayer.

B. The Lord's Prayer itself frames all petition within the glory of God — it begins by orienting the heart upward to God's name, holiness, and kingdom, and all petitions flow from that as means of magnifying him.

C. The scene in Revelation 7 — multitudes from every tribe, nation, and tongue surrounding the throne — illustrates that we are swept up in the glory of God, not displaying our own.

D. If prayer is not doxological, it collapses into complaint and bitterness when God does not give what we ask — unlike Job's Job 1:21 "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

E. A doxological framework properly orients prayer toward God so that whether he gives or takes away, life becomes a witness to his glory; ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) should rightly conclude with Doxology.

A. The word forever accompanying "kingdom, power, and glory" speaks of God's eternal nature, best understood through the biblical category of permanence rather than only in abstract philosophical terms.

B. God conveys his eternal nature concretely through genealogies in Scripture — lists of the dead that testify to the permanence of God's covenant kingdom advancing through the offspring.

C. Christ's answer to the Sadducees in Matthew 22:31-32 demonstrates this: "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — he is not God of the dead but of the living."

D. The covenant reaches its culmination in Jesus Christ — born of a virgin, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) — the yes and amen to the eternal covenant fulfilled in his blood.

A. The word amen that closes the doxology means literally "to be firm, reliable, trustworthy" — it is not a mere formulaic closing but an expression of faith resting on God's promises.

B. The decisive text is 2 Corinthians 1:20: "All the promises of God find their yes in him… that is why it is through him we utter our amen to God for his glory."

C. Mark 11:24 — "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours" — is intelligible only in light of Christ as our amen and intercessor at the Father's right hand.

D. Our assurance in prayer is not grounded in our feelings, emotions, or how much sleep we had — it is grounded in Christ, the amen incarnate, who stands as our surety at the right hand of the Father.

A. The writer of Hebrews rebukes believers who remain on milk rather than growing to solid food — Hebrews 5:12-14

B. 1 Peter 3:15 commands believers to always be ready to give a defense for the hope within them.

C. The goal is to move from knowing the right answer to being able to "show the work" — from Jesus Loves Me to a deep and mature knowledge of the triune God and his church.

A. Fellowship (Greek: koinonia) is not merely shared interests but an organic bond among those united to Christ by the Spirit — 1 Corinthians

B. The early church in Acts 2:42-47 grounded its shared life in devotion to the apostles' teaching, not merely in vulnerability or shared programs.

C. Broken doctrinal commonality breaks fellowship — 1 John 2 shows that those who departed did so because they were not truly of the same doctrinal community.

A. The Apostles' Creed arose primarily to combat Gnosticism — the teaching of secret knowledge that was spreading through the early church like gangrene.

B. 1 Timothy 4:1-3 warns that in later times some will depart from the faith by following deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons.

C. Creeds hold teachers and preachers accountable to the orthodoxy handed down once for all to the saints.

D. The Apostles' Creed is not new doctrine but a summation and clarification of truth already fully revealed — just as the Shema summarized the first commandment and 1 Timothy 3:16 summarized the apostolic witness to Christ.

A. The word "evil" is far broader than our culture or the modern church typically acknowledges.

B. We must reckon honestly with our own evil, not merely with the evil "out there."

C. Sanctification must begin with the recognition that only God is good.

D. Sanctification is therefore not a self-improvement program or mere avoidance of outward evil, but a complete dying of self and conformity to the God who alone is good.

A. "Lead us not into temptation" does not imply that God ever tempts anyone.

B. Yet God may at times withdraw his restraining grace and give fallen man over to his evil desires.

C. The petition asks God as shepherd to lead us away from settings where the flesh will be ensnared.

D. Providential leading alone is not sufficient; the Spirit must also train our desires.

A. The Greek of the petition is better rendered "deliver us from the evil one" — Satan himself, the prince of demons.

B. We need Christ as savior not only at conversion but throughout the entire process of sanctification.

C. We are in constant danger and therefore in constant need of a constant savior.

D. As exiles in Satan's land, we are constant prey; therefore we cry without ceasing: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, in and through Christ our priest-king.

A. Sin is defined in Romans 3:23 as falling short of the glory of God — the Hebrew word for sin means "to miss the mark."

B. Adam broke the law and humanity fell short of God's glory, incurring a debt that must be paid.

C. Christ at the cross hits the mark of God's glory through perfect, active obedience all the way to death.

D. We do not approach God with a payment plan but as those to whom God has come down and written on the certificate: Tetelestai — "It is finished."

A. As sinners we owe God a double debt: the obedience owed to his law, and the penalty for breaking it — illustrated by the demand of Madoff's victims for both full restitution and full legal punishment.

B. Christ's active obedience satisfies the first debt.

C. Christ's passive obedience satisfies the second debt.

D. Tetelestai — "It is finished" — is a commercial term in the Greek perfect tense: an action completed in the past with ongoing and permanent effect; the debt to God's justice is paid in full, now and forever.

A. The parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35 functions as a negative commentary on the fifth petition: the servant forgiven 10,000 talents (roughly 200,000 years' wages) refuses to forgive a fellow servant a minuscule 100 denarii.

B. The key phrase is verse 35: forgiveness must come "from your heart" — not a mechanical or grudging utterance but a genuine transformation wrought by grace.

C. Tetelestai liberates us to love freely.

D. The call to the congregation: daily reckon your full justification in the blood of Christ, so that you are liberated from the law's condemnation and free to love for the sake of Christ's love — "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

A. Boaz goes to the city gate — the ancient courtroom — and assembles ten elders as legal witnesses to bind the transaction publicly.

B. Boaz strategically presents the land deal first, knowing the unnamed redeemer will agree to a favorable price, then reveals the obligation to marry Ruth.

C. This wise love points to Christ's wisdom at the cross — in 1 Corinthians 1:18–25 the cross is the wisdom of God, by which Christ outwits Satan, who thinks he is winning while in fact crushing his own head (Genesis 3:15).

A. The author repeatedly labels Ruth "the Moabitess" — a term of shame and ethnic hostility — to emphasize the shocking kindness of Boaz in taking her as his wife.

B. Boaz's public announcement, "Ruth the Moabitess is my wife," is comparable to embracing a chief enemy; it echoes Christ eating with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes whom no one else would touch.

C. The woman with the discharge of blood in Luke 8 illustrates the same pattern: an outcast touches the fringe of Christ's garment in faith and power goes out from him, making her clean and restoring her to the covenant community — just as Ruth gleaned at the fringes of Boaz's field and is now wedded to him.

D. Christ redeems the scum of the earth, the foolish of the world, to make foolish the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27).

A. The sandal ceremony in verses 7–10 is not merely a peaceful transfer; read through Deuteronomy 25:5–10, it is a rite of public shame upon the man who refuses his levirate duty.

B. The unnamed redeemer's shame before Israel foreshadows Christ being publicly shamed at his trial before the Sanhedrin and Pilate; in Matthew 26:67 they spit on his face — yet he comes to redeem, not refuse.

C. At the cross Christ turns public shame into public triumph: Colossians 2:15 says he disarms rulers and authorities and puts them to open shame; over 500 witnesses see the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:6).

D. The public nature of redemption shapes the church's worship: the Psalter's repeated pattern is rescue followed by praise "in the midst of the congregation" (Psalm 22:22); Sunday worship is the congregation publicly testifying to the redeemer while Christ, by his Spirit, publicly declares, "Behold my bride."

A. The witnesses' blessing in verse 12 — "May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah" — connects Boaz to the royal Judahite line and anticipates the closing genealogy leading to David and ultimately to Christ.

B. Genesis 38 (Judah and Tamar) is deliberately placed after Genesis 37 (Judah selling Joseph) to contrast Judah the kinsman-seller with Judah tricked into becoming a kinsman-redeemer; the experience convicts and changes him.

C. Genesis 49:8–12 establishes that the royal, kingly line will come through Judah — prepared by chapters 37, 38, and 44 to be a substitutionary kinsman-redeemer king.

D. Christ fulfills this pattern as the greater kinsman-redeemer: Hebrews 2:11–12 says he is not ashamed to call us brothers, singing praise in the midst of the congregation; John 8:36 declares that if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.

A. We must be graciously saved from death (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5)

B. We must be graciously saved from the devil (Ephesians 2:2)

C. We must be graciously saved from dreadful wrath (Ephesians 2:3)

A. Everything turns on two words: "But God" (Ephesians 2:4)

B. God saves by uniting believers to Christ (Ephesians 2:5-7)

C. God saves by grace through faith, which is itself God's gift (Ephesians 2:8-9)

A. Believers are saved for good works prepared by God beforehand (Ephesians 2:10)

B. The order must not be confused: we are saved for good works, not saved by good works

A. Naomi's genuine concern for Ruth drives her to action — she desires Ruth to find rest, security, and a husband who will care for her after Naomi is gone, and she sees Boaz as the means to accomplish this (Ruth 3:1-2).

B. Naomi's plan is morally perilous, whatever her intentions.

C. The lesson: sin persists in the hearts of God's saints.

A. Ruth obeys, uncovers Boaz's feet, and lies down; Boaz wakes at midnight to find an unrecognized woman at his feet (Ruth 3:6-8).

B. Ruth's words in verse 9 are unexpected and marvelous: "Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer" (Ruth 3:9).

C. Boaz praises Ruth as a worthy woman and promises to redeem her, but discloses there is one nearer redeemer who must be given first opportunity (Ruth 3:10-13).

D. Ruth represents every wanderer in need of rest (Hebrew: manoah, echoing the name of Samson's father in Judges — an ironic name expressing Israel's chronic restlessness under the tyranny of enemies).

A. Before Ruth departs in the early morning, Boaz fills her cloak with six measures of barley so she will not return to Naomi empty-handed (Ruth 3:14-15).

B. The gift of grain directly addresses Naomi's own self-assessment: "I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty" (Ruth 1:21).

C. Naomi finally receives it; her final word is "Wait" — no more meddling, no more manipulation, no more rushing (Ruth 3:18).

D. Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this picture of fullness.