Reformed Theology
God Never Leaves a Job Half Done — 1 Thessalonians 5:24
September 25th, 2016 at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker 1 Thessalonians 5:24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.[1]English Standard Version There are no greater promises in the Bible regarding our salvation than a verse like this. That He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. I…
Read MoreDespise NOT Prophesying — 1 Thessalonians 5:20
August 21st, 2016 at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not despise prophecies.[1][1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. Everybody on this planet hears the voice of God speaking to them about His glory. Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky…
Read MoreWhy Does the Apostle's Creed Profess Faith in Pontius Pilate? — Luke 1:1-4
Reverend Anthony R. Locke June 27th, 2010 at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker Luke 1:1-4 Apostle’s Creed Series 10 English Standard Version 1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of…
Read MoreWhy a Trinitarian Benediction? — 2 Corinthians 13:14
Reverend Anthony R. Locke May 30th, 2010 (Trinity Sunday) at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker 2 Corinthians 13:14 English Standard Version The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The Trinity is one of those distinctively Christian doctrines that…
Read MoreIs My Bible Reliable? — Psalm 119:89-96
Reverend Anthony R. Locke March 20th, 2011 www.FirstPresTucker.org at the First Presbyterian Church of Tucker Are English Bible’s the Word of God? Psalm 119:89-96 Do I hold in my hand the Word of God? English Standard Version 89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all…
Read MoreA Place Prepared for the Devil — Revelation 20:7-10
What is the Lake of Fire? The Sea of Fire is a place so big, that there are no shores. No islands of refuge. No stable footing and no reachable surface. There is sulfur. Gunpowder is made with sulfur to increase the heat and explosive nature of the compound. Sulfuric acid has lots of sulfur. Sulfur boils at 850 degrees.
Ancient civilizations understood that volcanoes have lots of sulfur in the magma. The Old Testament tells us that God rained down brimstone, which is a synonym for sulfur, on Sodom and Gomorrah. 
So God is asking for us to imagine a sea of boiling sulfur into which the Devil is cast and sinks. That’s not a comforting thought, unless you hate the Devil.
And this experience of the Devil is permanent. There’s no end to his torment. He is lost under the billowing waves of God’s wrath. He will forever feel like he is burning up. He will forever feel like he is drowning. He will be forever lost to God’s love.
Read MoreThe Powerful Legacy of William Tyndale
A hundred years ago a comet made of frozen gas entered our atmosphere and made impact in Russia, in a swampy forest in western Siberia. When an ice comet travels through Earth’s atmosphere, the friction melts and atomizes the frozen gas into a trail of flammable vapor that spreads from the Earth’s crust all the way back to the highest parts of our stratosphere. When the explosion happens on the surface of the earth, the fire ball has the potential to reach thousands of miles high with the explosive power of a thousand atomic bombs.
The shock wave from that explosion flattened 80 million trees over 800 square miles. The center of the impact left all the trees standing straight up with no branches.
The fireball stretched back into the outer atmosphere, as high as there is burnable oxygen to ignite the trial of gas left in the wake of the comet’s path. This produced so much light that a day later Londoners could read their newspapers under the night sky.
The comet struck at 7:17 am on June 30, 1908. Just over a hundred years ago.
But the energy from that event pales in significance to another explosion that happened 500 years ago in London, an explosion of light that set the world ablaze, and still shines today. That light is the glory of the Son of God shining forth from the pages of Holy Writ. That light wasn’t shining very well for a thousand years before Tyndale.
Read MoreWhy Does the Apostle's Creed Think Pontius Pilate is Central to our Faith? — Luke 1:1-4
When the early church pieced together the Apostle’s Creed, they were using the baptismal formulas previously in use by the actual Apostles. We don’t know which Apostle coined each phrase of the Apostle’s Creed, but one of the twelve was baptizing converts in the name of Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate.
Which begs the question, “why are we confessing anything about a secular Roman governor?” This morning I am going to explain why Pilate’s name is in the creed, and I am going to suggest that it is necessary for a sound faith.
During this time period in Rome there were mystical religions that taught a variety of strange ideas. These false religions didn’t claim their teachings were real in a historic or scientific sense, but their teachings were spiritually real.
Lots of Christians understand their own faith within this context. My sermon will try to convince you otherwise.
Let me illustrate this with a true experience of mine. I visited a seminary in the late 1990’s where I considered enrolling. Before I enrolled I wanted to discern what kind of an education I would receive so I asked a professor this question. “Do you think the virgin birth really happened historically or is it just spiritually real?” The teacher knew what I was asking. I wasn’t being a smart-aleck. I was trying to size up the orthodoxy of the school.
Read MoreJesus told Mary, "I am Not Yet Ascended" — Didn't He Already Go to Heaven?
Jesus makes two ascents. Take a moment to think this through. There are two events when Jesus ascends into Heaven.
First, after His death on the Cross Jesus immediately ascends into the congregation of the saints in heaven. Jesus told the thief hanging next to Him that they were both going to heaven.
This answers the question, “Where was Jesus during the three days His body was in the grave?”
The second ascent is recorded in the Bible in Acts 1:3-11. This is called the Ascension.
The difference is that in the first ascending of Jesus in Heaven He does so as a Man. He joins with the saints for three days without a resurrected body. He then goes back and forth to heaven for 40 days with a resurrected body.
The Ascension is different entirely. In the Ascension God answers Jesus prayer in John 20:5 “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
This is why Mary couldn’t cling to Jesus and keep Him for herself. He wasn’t yet fully ascended.
Read MoreGod CAN'T Leave Your Salvation to Chance
God can’t keep Himself from knowing the future and determining it’s outcome. It’s an unstoppable consequence of His sovereign power and omniscience.
And don’t begrudge God’s electing love. Don’t criticize God’s sovereign mercy which saves.
Without God we won’t come to faith. God makes the difference. We should thank Him, not criticize His choices.
Christians need to stop grumbling about election.
Read More