“ The fear of the Lord ” Among the matters covered in this sermon, Dr. Morecraft explains that the fear of the Lord is loving, adoring, worshipful submission to Him from the heart. You understand how small you are, you understand how big and glorious He is, and out of that understanding grows this awe, and this fear, and this desire to worship. Disaster and heartbreak will come, but when you fear the Lord you have God Himself as your shield and nothing will separate you in time or eternity from His love for you. So even in times of danger you will experience His rich blessings for your life. The fear of the Lord leads to life and all the blessings of life worthy of the name, so that one may rest secure, not worrying that he will be destroyed by evil.
“ Laziness is a sign of moral degeneration ” Dr. Morecraft explains that laziness is where someone has no initiative and no perseverance. A lazy person does not take the initiative, either in material things like everyday chores, or spiritual responsibilities. Laziness casts the lazy person into a deep sleep. That means he's totally unconscious of what's going on around him. He has no perception of the real world in which he lives. Instead, he lives in a dream of his own imagination. And as a result, all of his decisions are aimed at making himself happy. Laziness also makes the lazy person hungry because none of his appetites or desires are fulfilled due to his neglect. In other words, the lazy person is a slave to his feelings. What he feels like doing he will do if it doesn't require too much effort. Laziness is a sign of moral degeneration because the lazy person is only concerned about himself and his own feelings, not doing God's will.
“ Grief over a foolish child ” Dr. Morecraft explains that grief over a foolish child can destroy a parent's life. How can you keep from being destroyed by grief over a child that is a fool? You must live in Philippians 4, reading it and meditating upon it, day after day, week after week, with the prayer that God would bring your child home. You must believe in the sovereignty of God; that God has foreordained everything that has come to pass and has a purpose in everything that happens in your life, even the foolishness of your child; that God has a purpose for you, however painful it might be, and God has a purpose for your child and other people that you might not even be aware of. And somehow or another, He is going to turn that tragic situation out for His glory and for the benefit of other people. Only believing in the sovereignty of Almighty God can prevent you from being anxious about your foolish child. God does what He pleases, and causes all things to work together for good to those that love Him. He has a purpose in every tragedy that takes place in our lives.
“ Finding good ” Among the points made in this sermon, Dr. Morecraft explains that if you get wisdom and if you give heed to understanding, you'll preserve your life and you'll find good. And the most comprehensive use of the word "good" is found in Romans 8:28. Everything in the life of the person that loves God will work together for his good and his benefit and for God's glory. God causes all things, all the time, to work together for good to those who love Him. Or as Proverbs 19:8 puts it, to those who get wisdom and keep understanding, they will find good because God will work everything in their lives together for their good and for their benefit.
“ Walking in integrity ” Dr. Morecraft explains that it's better to be poor than it is to have all the wealth in the world, if when you're poor, you're walking in your integrity. To walk in integrity means to behave and to speak in a way that's consistent with what you profess to believe. We're never going to be perfect in this life, but we must seek to live like sons and daughters of God. It also means that whatever we say will always be consistent with our profession of faith. The Lord will bless the godly poor person, even in his poverty and affliction. The poor man that walks in his integrity is secure in God and sleeps well because he doesn't find his security in the material things of this world and investments; he finds his security in Almighty God and faithfulness to Him (Job 4:6, "Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?") God blesses all those who fear Him. A poor person who walks in his integrity is far better off than a rich person who trusts in his own riches. Money does not add to our security if we're trusting in the living God and walking in our integrity.
“ You cannot outgive God ” After discussing matters related to obtaining a godly spouse, Dr. Morecraft explains that people who worship their riches are miserable in the depths of their hearts and their lives. Usually they hold onto their money with all their might to protect their god, in hopes that some day that god will protect them. They are slaves to their money. In contrast, the liberated thinking of the Christian toward wealth is: the more bountifully I sow, the more bountifully I reap. And the more sparingly I sow, the more sparingly I reap. Now, that does take faith because sometimes it doesn't calculate correctly on a computer. It takes faith to believe that.
“ The power of speech ” Among the matters covered in this sermon, Dr. Morecraft discusses the good, wholesome benefits of good speech, and the deadly effects of evil speech. What we say to impact other people in some way, sooner or later impacts ourselves either for good or evil. Our words are like food people feed on. As they feed on that food, it influences their behavior, which influences their destinies. Whatever a person says to another person, whether beneficial or harmful, he himself will feed on it and be affected by what he said to the other person. Or to put it in more familiar terms, words come back to bite you. The point is this: be careful what you say.
“ Enduring sickness ” Dr. Morecraft explains that the strength to overcome sickness comes from a true knowledge of the Word of God. Everything we need to know to get through this life is in the Word of God. It contains everything pertaining to life and godliness. And that comprehensive knowledge that comes from the Word of God is power. If this knowledge consumes you, and you seek to live in terms of it, it has a power in your life that enables you to endure sickness when other people are falling apart. And it preserves you from a broken spirit.
“ Gossip is destructive ” Dr. Morecraft explains that gossip is not simply telling somebody else something bad about another person. Gossip has to do with motive. That is, gossip is cutting down somebody or telling something bad about somebody else to another person with a malicious motive because you want to harm the one you're talking about. You want to bring him down and you want to make him look bad. Proverbs 18:8 describes gossip as "dainty morsels" that "go down into the innermost parts of the body." This must be an important point because Proverbs 26:22 says the same thing again. Abusive speech and gossip are both destructive and they alienate people from each other. But gossip is delicious and it's contagious, and therefore it's more dangerous. In hurting other people, gossip destroys relationships by ruining a person's reputation in the eyes of his friends without him even knowing anything about it.
“ The importance of doctrine ” Dr. Morecraft explains that it's only by divinely revealed truth that a Christian can understand life. Christians should love and delight in doctrine for two reasons: 1) The more we know of divinely revealed doctrine contained in Holy Scripture, the more we know God and the better equipped we are to glorify Him and enjoy Him. 2) The more we learn divinely revealed doctrine, the more we understand how we are to relate to other people, and we build more relationships upon that truth, and influence more people with it.
“ When the civil magistrate becomes a beast ” Among other points made in this sermon, Dr. Morecraft explains that Romans 13 and Revelation 13 are both about civil government and politics. Romans 13 describes the responsibility of the civil magistrate to be a minister of God, to punish the wicked for the protection of the good. In Revelation 13, however, the civil magistrate is described as a monster who's destroying Christians and making it impossible for them to flourish in society. How does the civil magistrate become a beast that persecutes Christians? Christians won't get jobs, and their families won't flourish, if they don't wear the mark of the beast. In Deuteronomy 6:8, God commanded His people to put His law on their hands and foreheads to demonstrate that His law dominates their lives. The point is that in every respect, their lives were to be governed by the law of God. The beast in Revelation 13 says to forget what God said, and instead put his law on their hands and foreheads so that they bear his mark and think in terms of his sovereign authority, otherwise Christians will not get jobs and their families will suffer for it. A civil magistrate becomes a beast when it enforces upon its citizens laws not based upon the law of God.
“ Wisdom is nearby ” Dr. Morecraft explains that the fool fails in living life because he orients himself towards godless and unattainable goals instead of focusing his heart, mind and life on God's nearby and attainable wisdom found in His Word. To feel the bite of this verse (Proverbs 17:24 - Wisdom is in the presence of one who has understanding, But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth), understand that it is addressed to covenant children who bear the sign of the covenant and have been claimed by Almighty God, and have been raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Dr. Morecraft refers to Deuteronomy 30:11-14 and explains to covenant children that they don't have to go off to the far ends of the world and study all the religions and the philosophies of the world and compare them all and try to come to some understanding of things. They don't have to take far journeys and search in various other worldviews and ways of life and try to evaluate them all and then come to some conclusion as to which one is true for themselves. The real way of life and truth and wisdom is closer to covenant children than their breath. It is in the Word of God that their parents read to them, and their pastor preaches to them every Lord's Day. It's that close.
“ Heartbreak caused by the child who is a fool ” Dr. Morecraft explains that nothing breaks a Christian parent's heart like having a fool for a child. He quotes from Volume 2 of Dr. Ralph Wardlaw's "Lectures on the Book of Proverbs" as follows: "For a man who has the affections of nature, and who believes God's Word, to see a son, 'bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,'--the object of his yearning love,--the subject of his early care, of his tears, his prayers, his watchings, his anxieties, his fears, his hopes,--walking in the way of sinners, refusing instruction and admonition, taking his side with God's enemies, living in ungodliness and vice, going on, in all appearance, to perdition, unawed by correction, whether from the parental or from the divine hand, and untouched and unsubdued by entreaty:--O! if there be a drop in the cup of life of pure undiluted bitterness--this is that drop." Dr. Morecraft then lists reasons for failure in raising children, so that instead of raising a wise child, we raise a fool.
“ God is our vindicator ” Dr. Morecraft teaches that if someone does evil to us, we are to wait for God to vindicate us, because that is God's exclusive responsibility, not ours. People have the sinful desire to be vindicated. They want the world to know they did right and were sinned against. That desire for vindication has caused Christians to make many mistakes in their lives. God is our vindicator. If we are ever treated in a thankless and evil way, we must leave it to God, as these passages teach: Deuteronomy 32:35-36. 1 Thessalonians 5:15. Romans 12:17-21. As powerful, dominant and invincible as evil may appear to be, being good and doing good to other people has a power to overwhelm evil and win the victory over it. So don't try to get vengeance in this world when somebody hurts your feelings. Instead, we're to concern ourselves with obeying God and considering the interests of other people, and not worry about vindicating ourselves. Do not return evil for evil.
“ Great Sermon! ” I took Pastor Joe’s recommendation and got C.R. Vaughan’s book called The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and yes it’s very rich, very convicting. It truly is drawn from a deep artisan well of living water.
“ Biblical rebuke ” Dr. Morecraft explains what it means to give a rebuke. A rebuke is nouthetic counseling, where everything from the analysis of the problem to the offering of a solution is exclusively drawn from the Scriptures. There are three basic elements of Biblical counseling involved in rebuke. First is compassion. That is, the reason for the rebuke is love for the person who needs it. Second is confrontation. The person needs help to face the reality of his own sin, and to see that the way of the transgressor is hard. Third is correction, where the person is shown from the Word of God how to get out of his mess and what to do about the sin he has committed.
“ Great Sermon! ” Those who claim to hold to traditional values and to be pro-family need to hear this sermon. There is nothing novel in his assertion that there is a women's role and a men's role and that the line between the two should not be crossed. But not only is it an ancient Christian tradition: it is the teaching of the word of God. The power of women lies in being women; and the power of men is in being men. Women step down when they abandon their unique position as queens of the home; where the support of their husbands and the shaping of the character of their children is to take place. To encourage women to usurp authority over men in the home, the church, and the state in the name of equality threatens the very existence of all three fundamental and vital institutions. Men are being feminized, and women are being masculinized as this evil continues to rot away the social fabric of our country and our world. Pastor Morecraft is, once again, right on target! But sadly, very few will even listen.
“ The role of the mother ” Dr. Morecraft explains that some Christians have erroneously disparaged the role of the mother in relation to the father. In such a view, the woman simply cooks, keeps the house clean, has babies, and does the hard part of homeschooling. But in the biblical view, when it comes to the authority of teaching the children and praying to uphold the family, the husband and wife have a shared authority. The Book of Proverbs has an emphasis on the equal role of the mother in the teaching and raising of children and in what takes place in the home: Proverbs 1:8, Proverbs 4:3; Proverbs 6:20; Proverbs 15:20; Proverbs 30:17. The mother is much more than the one who cooks and has the babies. She shares in the family's decisions and the raising and educating of the children. The Bible affirms a high view of mothers and fathers, not just fathers.
“ Telling the truth ” Among the many points made in this sermon, Dr. Morecraft explains the truth of a controversial position. He warns that immature people will misuse this biblical information. There are some times in which it is proper not to tell the truth and actually tell something that's not true. In Exodus chapter 1, the midwives disobeyed Pharaoh by not killing the Hebrew male babies, and then lied to him about why they didn't kill those babies. God blessed the midwives for that (Exodus 1:20-21). In Joshua 2, Rahab lied to the king of Jericho's men to protect the two Israelite spies. She is listed as one of the great women of faith in Hebrews 11. These are two occasions where God blessed people for not telling the truth. When is it okay not to tell the truth? When a civil government becomes the deadly enemy of your family and your church, you may lie to them to escape their anger and their persecution. Christians should be known for telling the truth. But when it comes to the point where they are at war with the civil magistrate, and the civil magistrate is going to do deadly harm to their family and church, their primary duty is to be faithful to their family and church.
1/9/2022 5:03 PM
