Silver City Church

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in America and across the world. Scripture says the same is true spiritually: ever since Adam, the leading cause of spiritual death has been a bad heart. In the sixth beatitude, Jesus offers the one thing that can fix it, a new heart, and with it the greatest promise in the Sermon on the Mount: “they shall see God.”

In this message, Pastor Zachary C. Hill walks through three key words in Matthew 5:8: heart, pure, and see. We look at how Scripture uses “heart” for the whole inner core of a person, why purity in the Bible always works from the inside out, and why seeing God is tied to faith, not just eyesight. Tracing the promise of a new heart from Moses through David, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel to its fulfillment in Christ, we see that a pure heart is never something we manufacture. It is a gift, and Jesus is the One who gives it. We close by looking to Christ in three directions, back, present, and future, as we wait for the day faith becomes sight.

In this message:

Why heart disease is the best picture of spiritual death

The Bible’s view of the whole person, body and spirit together

Heart: the center of a man in Scripture

Pure: clean from the inside out, and why only God can cleanse us

See: seeing with the eyes of faith now, and the beatific vision to come

Old Testament promises of a new heart fulfilled in Christ

Application: look back, look at the present, and look to the future

Scripture referenced: Matthew 5:3-10, Psalm 24:3-4, Psalm 51:10-11, Proverbs 4:23, Proverbs 20:9, Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:25-26, Mark 1:41, John 19:34, 1 John 3:2-3, 1 Corinthians 13:12, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Hebrews 10:22, 1 Peter 1:8, Revelation 21:4, Revelation 22:4

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church. We’d love to have you join us.

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📖 Study guide and reflection questions for this passage: https://www.silvercityky.com/blog/matthew-5-8

⛪ Visit us: silvercityky.com

#Beatitudes #SermonOnTheMount #PureInHeart #ReformedTheology #ExpositoryPreaching #BibleTeaching #Sermon #GospelOfGrace

What does it mean to say “Christ is Lord” when it comes to government? This week Brother Bryson Amyx leads us through Westminster Confession Chapter 23 and the question of what God has ordained civil authority to do, and where a Christian’s obedience to it begins and ends.

We work through the Confession’s four sections: God ordains civil magistrates under Himself, armed with the sword to defend the innocent and punish evildoers; Christians may serve as magistrates and, in just and necessary cases, wage war; the magistrate may not take over the church’s ministry of word, sacrament, and keys, yet has a duty to protect peace and truth in the church; and the people are bound to pray for rulers, honor them, and obey their lawful commands for conscience’ sake. Along the way we wrestle honestly with the gray areas: how well our government defends the innocent, what makes a war just, what a Christian soldier or officer does when ordered to act, how church and state relate, and what to do when tax dollars fund things we believe are wrong. The thread running through every question is the same: Christ is Lord over every sphere, including this one.

Scripture referenced: Romans 13:1-7, Acts 5:27-29, 1 Peter 2:13-17

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church.

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Why does a confession that spends chapters on election, the law, and adoption stop to talk about oaths and vows? This week Brother Bryson Amyx teaches Westminster Confession Chapter 22 and makes the case that it matters far more than it first appears.

We define our terms: a lawful oath calls God as witness and judge of what we assert or promise, while a vow is a promise made to God Himself. From there we work through the Confession’s guardrails: swear only by God’s name, with reverence; take oaths only in what is good, just, and within our power to perform; accept lawful oaths imposed by lawful authority, whether in government, church, or home; and keep our word even to our own hurt. Using real examples from court testimony, church membership, marriage vows, and everyday promises, we ask why we treat a sworn lie as serious but a broken promise to our kids as trivial, and how the idols of power, comfort, control, and approval drive us to deceive. The chapter ends where all of it must: with the gospel, and the Christ who took an oath and vow upon Himself in the covenant of redemption, to His own hurt, and frees us to be people of truth.

Scripture referenced: Deuteronomy 10:20, Psalm 24:3-4, Hebrews 6:16, Matthew 5:37, Judges 11

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church.

Subscribe for weekly teaching, verse-by-verse Bible study, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

How does a story that begins in famine, death, and bitterness end with a baby in a grandmother’s lap and a name in the line of the Messiah? In this final message in our series on the book of Ruth, guest speaker Brother Aaron Caldwell walks us through Ruth 4:13-22 and the quiet, astonishing way God redeems.

We watch the women of Bethlehem bless Naomi, no longer Mara, and see how the fires of loss were not destroying Ruth and Naomi but forging them into the lineage of King David and, ultimately, Jesus Christ. We look at the sovereign grace that weaves a Moabite widow and the son of a Canaanite prostitute into the genealogy of the Savior, and ask what it means to live by remembrance rather than forgetfulness, like Elimelech. We close with a searching look at fear and faith: why faith does not need to see the whole plan, only to trust the God who holds it, and why expecting what God never promised steals our joy.

In this message:

The Lord as author of life, and worship in the valley

Naomi’s blessing and the meaning of “more than seven sons”

A lineage of grace: Ruth, Rahab, and the line of Christ

Remembrance from Deuteronomy 6 and the warning of Elimelech

Obed, the servant, and the Servant King

Fear that drives inward vs. the fear of the Lord that drives upward

Faith that acts on what God has revealed and trusts Him with the rest

Scripture referenced: Ruth 4:13-22, Deuteronomy 6:4-12, James 1:2-3, Philippians 4:11-13, Philippians 2:8-9

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church. We’d love to have you join us.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly sermons, verse-by-verse Bible teaching, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

📖 Study guide and reflection questions for this passage: https://www.silvercityky.com/blog/ruth-4-13-22

⛪ Visit us: silvercityky.com

#Ruth #BookOfRuth #ReformedTheology #ExpositoryPreaching #BibleTeaching #Sermon #GospelOfGrace #Redemption

Jesus doesn’t preach the Sermon on the Mount with a list of tidy instructions. He speaks in riddles of a sort, proverb-like statements meant to be turned over and pondered. So what does it look like to meditate on a beatitude like “blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”?

In this message, guest speaker Pastor BJ Newman of Little Miami Fellowship walks us through the seventh beatitude by starting where the Sermon itself starts: with Psalm 1 and the call to delight in God’s Word day and night. We look at what “blessed” really means in Scripture, not merely happy, but a life adapted to God’s design and bearing fruit, and then spend our time in the heart of the text: mercy as compassion in action. We work through how mercy and justice relate, why God’s law is itself merciful, and why this beatitude must never be read transactionally. We don’t earn God’s mercy. We show it because we are His children, and like Father, like son.

In this message:

• Why Jesus teaches in proverb-like riddles meant for meditation (Psalm 1)
• What “blessed” actually means: Hebrew ashre and Greek makarioi
• Mercy as compassion in action, and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10)
• How mercy and justice relate, in the church, the home, and the legal sphere
• God’s law as a revelation of His merciful character (Exodus 34:6)
• You will receive mercy: sonship, not transaction

Scripture referenced: Matthew 5:7, Psalm 1, Luke 10:36-37, Exodus 34:6

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church. We’d love to have you join us.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly sermons, verse-by-verse Bible teaching, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

📖 Study guide and reflection questions for this passage: https://www.silvercityky.com/blog/matthew-5-7

⛪ Visit us: silvercityky.com

#Beatitudes #SermonOnTheMount #Mercy #ReformedTheology #ExpositoryPreaching #BibleTeaching #Sermon #GospelOfGrace

If we’re saved by grace and given the law to delight in, how are we supposed to worship God when we gather? Do we improvise, or has God told us what pleases Him? This week Pastor Zachary Hill leads us through Westminster Confession Chapter 21, the chapter that gave rise to the Directory for the Public Worship of God, and the question at its heart: how does God want to be worshiped?

We unpack the regulative principle of worship, the conviction that God, not our imagination or preference, sets the terms of corporate worship, and compare it with the normative principle, along with the ditches on either side, from hyper-liturgical extremes to irreverent entertainment. We walk through the elements of ordinary worship the Confession names (prayer, the public reading and preaching of Scripture, conscionable hearing, singing, and the sacraments), why Christ alone is our mediator, and what it means to hear and sing with an engaged mind instead of zoning out. We close with the Lord’s Day: why Christians gather on the first day of the week, what Sabbath rest is really for, and where the Confession’s strict treatment of recreation deserves a closer look.

Scripture referenced: Deuteronomy 12:32, Philippians 4:6, Acts 20:7, 1 Timothy 2:5, Genesis 2:23, Zephaniah 3:17, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Psalm 24, Psalm 95, Isaiah 66, Hebrews 4, Colossians 2

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church.

Subscribe for weekly teaching, verse-by-verse Bible study, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

Every one of us has felt hunger and thirst. Few of us have ever come close to starving. But Jesus takes the most basic function of the body and points it at the deepest need of the soul: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

In this message, we reach the hinge of the Beatitudes, the point where being emptied (poor in spirit, mourning, meek) turns into being filled. We look at three dimensions of righteousness, given, lived, and coming, and press into why so many of us are spiritually bloated and starving at the same time, gorging on career, validation, and entertainment while our souls waste away. Using John 6 and Jesus’ rebuke of the crowd that wanted more loaves instead of the Bread of Life, we ask a convicting question: do you want the meal, or just the toy?

In this message:

Why hunger and thirst are the one experience every person shares

Righteousness given, lived, and coming

Jesus’ own hunger and thirst for righteousness in the wilderness

Spiritual gluttony and drunkenness — feeding on good things made into gods

Daily manna vs. rotting manna

Application: wanting Jesus vs. wanting His benefits

Scripture referenced: Matthew 5:3-10, Matthew 4:3-4, Matthew 6:11, Matthew 13:45-46, John 4:13-14, 34, John 6:26, 35, 66, Romans 3:10, Romans 8:16, Isaiah 55:2, Isaiah 61:3, 10-11, Luke 15:22, Genesis 3:6-10, Exodus 16:20, 2 Peter 3:13, Proverbs 23:20-21, Deuteronomy 21:20, Esther 4:16, Psalm 34:8, James 2:10

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church. We’d love to have you join us.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly sermons, verse-by-verse Bible teaching, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

📖 Study guide and reflection questions for this passage: https://www.silvercityky.com/blog/matthew-5-6

⛪ Visit us: silvercityky.com

#Beatitudes #SermonOnTheMount #ReformedTheology #ExpositoryPreaching #BibleTeaching #Sermon #GospelOfGrace

If we’re saved by grace and not by keeping the law, does that mean Christians can do whatever they want? This week we open Westminster Confession Chapter 20 and work through the scope of Christian liberty, freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the law, bondage to this present evil world, the dominion of sin, the sting of death, and the grave, along with free access to God as His child, obedience flowing from love rather than slavish fear.

We look at why this liberty is never liberty from the law as God’s standard, but liberty into it, why God alone is Lord of the conscience, and how to tell the difference between open-handed matters of Christian freedom (food, drink, clothing, disputable traditions) and matters where Scripture speaks plainly and leaves no room for private revision. Using a comparison between the American and French Revolutions, we talk through what happens when liberty of conscience gets twisted into either tyranny over others or outright rebellion against lawful authority, and where Christians today can find themselves pulled toward either extreme.

Scripture referenced: Galatians 3:13, 1 Peter 2:16, Acts 5:29, James (the law of liberty), Psalm 119, 1 Thessalonians (living peaceably)

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church.

Subscribe for weekly teaching, verse-by-verse Bible study, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

Meekness gets confused with weakness more than almost any other virtue in Scripture. We picture the pushover, the quiet kid who never speaks up, the man with no backbone. But Jesus calls Himself meek, and He’s also the one who turned over tables in the temple. So what is meekness, really?

In this message, we work through the third beatitude and recover meekness as self-mastery, not self-erasure, the ability to govern one’s own passions so that boldness and zeal get aimed at the right things. We look at two opposite ditches on either side of meekness: grabbing, like Eve reaching for the fruit or Napoleon conquering half of Europe out of fear of being forgotten, and apathy, like Adam standing silent while sin unfolded in front of him. And we ask what it means to inherit the earth, an inheritance never earned, only ever given through a death, the death of the King who was gentle and lowly in heart.

In this message:

Why meekness is not weakness, stoicism, or self-abasement

Thomas Watson and Matthew Henry on meekness as self-command

Jesus as the perfect embodiment of meekness

Two ditches: Eve’s grasping and Adam’s passivity

What it means to inherit, not seize, the earth

Napoleon’s reported deathbed reflection on the kingdom of Christ

Scripture referenced: Matthew 5:3-10, Matthew 11:29, Matthew 23, Matthew 6:4, John 11:35, John 2:15, Mark 14:36, Isaiah 53:7, Isaiah 61:7, Isaiah 66, Psalm 2:4, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 3:1-10, Romans 4, Romans 8:32, Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 1:11,14, Titus 3:7, 1 Peter 1:4, 1 Peter 2:23, Revelation 21:27

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church. We’d love to have you join us.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly sermons, verse-by-verse Bible teaching, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.

📖 Study guide and reflection questions for this passage: https://www.silvercityky.com/blog/matthew-5-5

⛪ Visit us: silvercityky.com

#Beatitudes #SermonOnTheMount #ReformedTheology #ExpositoryPreaching #BibleTeaching #Sermon #GospelOfGrace

If believers aren’t saved by keeping the law, why does Scripture spend so much time on it, and why does the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, read like a love song to it? This week we finish Westminster Confession Chapter 19 by working through the law’s three uses.

We look at the law as a mirror, exposing sin and driving us to Christ; as a restraint, curbing wickedness both in believers and in civil society; and as a guide, the use the Reformed tradition considers principal, showing redeemed people how to live in grateful response to the Father who saved them. Along the way we compare how Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions handle these same uses differently, and talk through why “saved unto the law” is not the same thing as “saved by the law,” and why a heart with the law written on it comes to delight in it rather than resent it.

Scripture referenced: Matthew 5:17, James 2:10, Psalm 119, Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36, Isaiah 49

Silver City Church is a confessionally Reformed congregation devoted to the gospel of grace, the authority of Scripture, and the ordinary means God uses to build His church.

Subscribe for weekly teaching, verse-by-verse Bible study, and Reformed theology applied to everyday life.