Understand the Bible

Most of us by nature don’t like to think of God’s anger (or ‘wrath’). But sometimes we are forced to confront it, as in this passage from Lamentations. What is God’s anger, and why is it important for us to think about in our lives as Christians?

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It’s human nature to want to blame everybody else for our problems. This is doubly true in our society today, where everything is psychologised. However, the Bible says that we need to take sin seriously — we need to take personal responsibility seriously. In the first of this sermon series on Lamentations, we take a look into the darkest moment in Israel’s history to see what we can learn.

You can find the Bible Project’s summary of Lamentations here.

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All through Hebrews we have been hearing about the wonderful truths of the gospel - Christ the mediator of a new covenant, and so on. But the final chapter moves on to focus us on what difference these truths should make to our lives — especially on loving one another and honouring our leaders.

The organisations I mentioned were Open Doors and Christian Concern.

You can read more about my book, Confused by Grace (including about where to buy it), on the Understand the Bible website.

Understand the Bible is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

People sometimes accuse the church of turning ‘God Almighty’ into ‘God all-matey’. Christians often struggle to reconcile the holiness of God with the access we have to him through Christ Jesus. This passage from Hebrews helps us to understand how we should approach God.

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Being a Christian is not a walk in the park: in fact, it can feel like a real struggle — whether the opposition is within us or outside of us. This passage helps us to see our struggles in perspective, to help us understand them, and encourage us to carry on the straight and narrow path.

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A lot of people talk about “living by faith” — but what does it really mean? This passage from Hebrews is all about living by faith. It shows us how important it is, what it looks like, and encourages to carry on despite the fact that it’s hard.

The session I did on science and faith can be found on my website.

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Every preacher knows that they have to answer the question ‘so what’ — what relevance do these truths have to do with my life? The author of Hebrews is no exception, and in this passage we turn to how the teaching about Jesus’ sacrifice and ministry as high priest should make a difference to us. He focusses on drawing near to God, persevering despite sin and persecution, and the importance of meeting together.

You can find a free copy of John Owen’s book On the Mortification of Sin here (modernised edition).

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Why did God give the Law, and why did God send Jesus? We can’t understand how Jesus fulfils the old covenant unless we understand what God wants from us in the first place. The answer is summed up in one word - holiness. In this sermon we think about holiness and how Jesus is the fulfilment of everything that God promised for us.

Understand the Bible is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

You can find a free eBook of Holiness by J.C. Ryle on Monergism.

My book, Confused by Grace, can be found here.

If you’re new to Christian circles, you might wonder why there is a regular reference to blood — especially to the blood of Christ. What is it about his blood in particular which is important? In Hebrews chapter 9, we see why blood was so important to the Old Testament sacrifices, and how Jesus came to fulfil it.

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Is the Old Testament obsolete? Some people seem to think so! This passage helps us to understand the purpose of the Old Testament system of sacrifices and priests, and how we should understand it now as Christians. We need to understand that we have something far superior in Jesus to the old covenant.

Understand the Bible is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.