This past Sunday Nathan Young concluded his message with this powerful quotation from Michael Lawrence, Senior Pastor at Hinson Baptist Church. It’s a great reminder of how the atonement enables our evangelism. 

Ultimately the end or purpose of Christ’s sacrifice is that we might once again offer our lives back to God as sacrifices, not as payment for sin but as living sacrifices of praise to his glorious grace. So long as we try to offer these sacrifices as payment for sin, to appease God, or to make him happy, we will fail. But when we faithfully teach ourselves and our churches that God is not angry anymore because Christ has paid the penalty something changes. Now these living sacrifices are not offered in fear, but in love. In one sense they are not sacrifices at all.

MESSAGES

Both messages from Sunday are available.

1. Martin Luther: The Progress of a Reformer

• The Progress to Salvation
• The Progress from Roman Catholicism
• The Progress to Building a Heritage

2. What is Justification?

• The Righteousness of God: Why Justification is Necessary?
• The Righteousness of Christ: How Justification is Possible?
• The Righteousness of the Believer: What Justification Does for Us?

BOOKS

1. If you can only read one book this year on church history and the Reformation, pick this one: The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation.*

Burning pyres, nuns on the run, stirring courage, and comic relief: the Protestant Reformation is a gripping tale, packed with drama. But what motivated the Reformers? And what were they really like?

The Unquenchable Flame, a lively, accessible, and fully informative introduction to the Reformation by Michael Reeves, brings to life the movement’s most colorful characters (Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, The Puritans, etc.), examines their ideas, and shows the profound and personal relevance of Reformation thinking for today.

2. If you can only read one book this year to increase your joy and understanding of the gospel, pick this one: Complete In Him.*

*Note: Both books are, or will soon be, available for purchase at church.

3. If you need one book to help reveal the subtle, but vital, differences between Protestant Christianity and Catholicism, this may help: Nothing In My Hand I Bring. (Free download of cover, contents, and chapter 1.)

This past Sunday we started a short series encouraging us to put our hope in God, so that our children would put their hope in God. Here are some helpful resources to that end. 

1. Resources for Adults.

• Knowing God
• The Gospel for Real Life
• The Cross of Christ
• Living the Cross Centered Life

2. Resources for Children.

    Books.

• What God Has Always Wanted: The Bible’s Big Idea from Genesis Through Revelation
• Jesus Storybook Bible
• Big Truths For Little Kids
• The Big Picture Story Bible
• Big Truths for Young Hearts

    Music. 

• J is for Jesus
• A Very Very Very Big God

For additional recommendations you may consult the Recommended Resources available on our website. 

This past Sunday we looked at the Old Testament book of Esther. Here are some resources from that message. 

1. Two resources on a popular level.

We referenced a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers and a film by M. Night Shyamalan called Signs. Neither of these make any claim to be Christian in any sense, but both raise insightful questions concerning the apparently random events in our lives. They are also useful in introducing one to the category of providence.

2. From an old sermon

God’s Providence. C.H. Spurgeon

I believe that every particle of dust that dances
in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or
less than God wishes; that every particle of spray
that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit
as well as the sun in the heavens; that the chaff
from the hand of the winnower is steered as
surely as the stars in their courses; that the
creeping of an insect over a rosebud is as much
fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence;
and the fall of leaves from the poplar is as fully
ordained as the tumbling avalanche.
He who believes in God must believe this truth.
There is no standing point between this and Atheism.
There is no halfway between an Almighty God, who
works all things according to the good pleasure of
his will, and no God at all!

4.The Scroll of Esther as Deuteronomic Theology. Jonathan Matias

Don’t let the title scare you. This brief article provides a valuable literary analysis of Esther, as well as a useful reader’s guide to the book. (Jonathan also pastors a sister church of Emmanuel in Alexandria, VA.)

5.Not by Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God. Layton Talbert

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Last Sunday provided an overview of the Old Testament book of Psalms. Here are some of the resources referenced in that message.

1. Martin Luther’s Preface to the German Psalter (1531)

Psalms is a little Bible. It seems to me as if the Holy Spirit had been pleased to take on himself the trouble of putting together a short Bible, touching the whole of Christianity, in order that they who are unable to read the whole Bible may nevertheless find almost the whole sum comprehended in one little book. 

2. Treasury of David: A Commentary on the Psalms, 3 Vol. C. H. Spurgeon 

Even though it is dated, Spurgeon’s Treasury of David is still the best collection of devotional insights on the Psalms. The link above provides a wonderful online version. For a hard copy, you can go here. 

3. “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” in Wages of Spin. Carl Trueman

This insightful essay reminds us of the harm done to the church by feeding on “a diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns” while neglecting the anguished cries and melancholy themes of the Psalms. Here is an excerpt from Trueman’s essay:

By excluding the cries of loneliness, dispossession, and desolation from
its worship, the church has effectively silenced and excluded the voices of those who are themselves lonely, dispossessed, and desolate, both inside and outside the church. By so doing, it has implicitly endorsed the banal aspirations of consumerism, generated an insipid, trivial and unrealistically triumphalist Christianity, and confirmed its impeccable credentials as a club for the complacent.

At the beginning of each week we will try to post some resources referenced from the previous Sunday’s message. We post the resources because they are helpful, not because they are perfect.

Last Sunday provided an overview of the Old Testament book of Song of Solomon, and here are some of the resources referenced in that message.

1. Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God. C. J. Mahaney

2. Song of Songs (NICOT). Tremper Longman

3. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (NAC). Duane A. Garrett

Two more resources that might be helpful.

1. Sex and the Supremacy of Christ. (Available in audio, book, or PDF format.)
2. The Peasant Princess: A Love Story from The Song of Songs. (An 11-part sermon series by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church that’s very frank, not always the very best exegesis, but, nonetheless, a very beneficial take on the Song of Solomon.)