Reformed & Expository Preaching

The Lord offers Israel a series of options regarding sacrifices that might relieve them of the coming exile. You would think that Israel, with a sacrificial system, could offer the Lord enough sacrifices to turn away the foreign army. You can almost imagine the people thinking about going to the temple, pooling resources, and making the priests work overtime to gather together enough to avoid impending doom. This is possible until the Lord asks them about child sacrifice. Does the Lord really want them to sacrifice their children? If there is not enough then what can appease this Holy God? How can we please such a sovereign, mighty, and holy God as mere fallen creatures?

Our confession uses strong language that we are to be baptized once. This means that we do not agree with other traditions that will baptize someone a second time because they do not see infant baptism as being a valid baptism. Why do we believe in one baptism? What is the bigger picture of this baptism? How do we as Reformed people see baptism as something for children and adults? Why are we not Roman Catholic even though we baptize infants?

Many times when we think of peace we think of things in our lives going well for us right now. However, this peace is still working out despite Christians who are tragically being martyred and it was working out when saints were martyred. How can we find peace in all circumstances of life? How do we find peace when we are among the nations in a dispersion and living in terms similar to Jeremiah 29 rather than the book of Joshua? Where is our peace ultimately?

Many times people will say that the sacraments are a sign of our faith. We might not think that it is important to see that sacrament is a sign of God’s faithfulness verses the sign being a sign of my faith. Ultimately we need to look discussion in light of the covenant of grace. Did Abraham receive the sign because of his faith or because of the Lord’s faithfulness? In other words does the sign point to Abraham’s faith or does it point to the promises of God and His faithfulness? What does Paul say in Romans 4:11 regarding the sign that was given to Abraham?

Micah 5:4 is a wonderful prophecy about the accomplishment of Christ’s work. There is no doubt that Micah is promising the ultimate victory of the Lord through humiliation. If victory is promised then how can this humiliation be a horrible thing? It would seem not that horrible because at the end of the story is the exaltation of Christ. So, if the Lord is exalted then what can be so bad? If this is just Micah presenting the gospel then how can the gospel be so difficult to embrace?

I believe that God has chosen His people before the foundations of the world. This is something that is rather risky for a preacher to believe because if God chooses His people then what is the point of preaching? I mean really, if God just does what God desires then why preach? Why care about the people who do not know the Lord? So, why do we preach if God chooses HIs people anyway?

Micah has warned that Israel is facing exile. Israel is going to be marched away from the promised land. This does not sound fun nor does this sound like there is opportunity for any rest. So, what can be a positive outcome of this prophecy? What is the ultimate reversal and the declaration of rest? How should we view ourselves in light of these promises?

One of the basic accusations against the Reformed faith is basically along the lines that if we make grace too free or too gracious then people will be lethargic in the Christian life. Is this true? How can a free grace view of redemption account for Paul’s letter to Titus where he exhorts us to train ourselves in godliness? How can we account for all men being saved? How can a system that believes that God’s grace is only applied to the God’s chosen elect account for Paul’s language of training and stating all being saved?

I hope that we can agree that the ultimate splendor of Jerusalem was not the buildings, but ultimately that the Lord dwelt in the midst of the city. If you were an Israelite in the ideal times of Israel it must have been reassuring to see the temple and know that the Lord was in Israel’s midst. This is not necessarily a bad desire, but when can this desire be sinful? When can the Lord withdraw His presence from His people? Why would the Lord withdraw His presence from us? How can that ultimately be a good thing for a time no matter how tragic and painful it might be?

If Christ is in heaven how can He know our struggle? If Christ is in heaven it seems that He is too distant to care. So, how do we know that Christ is not too far away to care about our struggles here?