A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The brilliant comedian W. C. Fields had a reputation as a womanizer with a fondness for alcohol. He was not known as a religious man, but as his death approached, he began to study the Bible. When a friend asked him what he was doing, Fields replied: “I’m looking for loopholes.” Looking for loopholes. When it comes to God’s Word we all do it, though most of us gathered here today are not nearly as forthright in admitting our self-justification as Fields is reputed to have been in this case. But Jesus won’t have any of it. In our Gospel for today He continues to teach us about the Law. God’s Law remains God’s Law. God hasn’t relaxed it, softened it up, or dumbed it down so that you might be able to keep it. God’s Law is not something you can keep. It’s there to show you what you should be doing, what you fail to do, and how much you need Christ and His forgiveness. We ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:7-9 (ESV). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A teacher asked her students to draw a picture of what they wanted to be. Little hands got busy. Pictures emerged of cowboys, doctors, sports figures, nurses, and so on. As the teacher looked around the room she noticed one little girl just sitting and dreaming. She walked over and asked how the picture was going. The girl responded, “I’m having a hard time drawing what I want to be.” “What is it you want to be?” asked the teacher. “I want to be happily married, but I don’t know how to draw that.” In this day and age, with so few good role models available, it’s no wonder that the little girl was having a hard time. There are so ma...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A farmer had a wonderful, faithful dog. It was a fine animal in every way—strong of body and of heart. The dog’s coat was shiny and well groomed. It was gentle—forgiving of the toddler who inadvertently stepped on it tail or purposely pulled its ears, but ferocious in defending the barnyard from uninvited visitors. Whenever any of the family came outside, the dog would come to them eagerly bounding, its tail wagging so vigorously that its entire hindquarters moved with it! But, the dog had a secret—a dark, ugly secret. It lived a double life. For you see, it acted one way around its master, and another way when it thought that no one was watching. Each night, after the last of the lights in the farmhouse were extinguished, the dog would leave its station and...

To listen to this sermon click here. Or here. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The Sixth Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.” Christians get a little embarrassed when it comes to discussing human sexuality. In fact, if we took a poll here it might be interesting to see how many of your parents talked to you at any length about anything having to do with sex. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you never had that talk at all. And that’s a shame—because everybody else is talking about it, aren’t they? Our society, our televisions shows, our advertisements—they are all obsessed with sex. For Christians to ignore that and fail to present what God has to say about our sexuality is to leave an open door for the devil. So today, we will examine God’...