Tri-Annual Singing!
June 20, 2026
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Category: Subject Index
Study Material Categorized by Subject
Invitation: One Way to Salvation
Invitation delivered by: Josh Cox
The world tries to convince us that there are many ways to reach heaven. In this lesson, Josh reveals the one way to be saved.
Mining the Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
The apostle Paul suffered through many dangerous and difficult circumstances in Asia. He was persecuted in Lystra (Acts 14); there was a plot against his life in Macedonia (Acts 20:3); he fought against wild beasts in Ephesus (1 Cor. 15:32). Here he refers to one, or perhaps all of those troubles, stating that the “sentence of death” was in him, and that he “despaired even of life.” A more complete list of what Paul suffered is given in 2 Cor. 11:22-29.
Paul wished to share the information regarding his struggles with the Corinthians, that they might know of his trust in God, as the one “who raises the dead.” Paul knew that his life had been spared many times by providence, God having a further purpose for him. Even on the occasion where he was left for dead (cf. Acts 14:19), his life was spared.
Paul also attributed his rescue from peril to the petitions made for him by others (11). In thanking them for their prayers, he shows us the power of prayer too, and encourages us to pray for others.
Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner
God hates sin. There is no doubt concerning this, as the scriptures use that very term to describe God’s attitude toward various sins. For example, the sin of idolatry. Deuteronomy 16:21-22 records, among other admonitions in that context, “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God. You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.” Likewise, in Malachi 2:16, it is written, “‘For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,’ Says the Lord of hosts. ‘Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.’”
In the News: Desire the Word!
From time to time it is difficult for me to decide what to write for my frequent “In the News” articles. Sometimes there is so much to choose from in current events, that it is hard to decide what to write about. Other times I struggle to find anything that I feel would help those who read my articles.
Sermon: The Human Heart
The heart, as the term is described in scripture, encompasses the intellect, emotions, conscience and will of man. As such, it must be kept pure. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Sermon: The Resurrection Day
The sermon examines four things we can expect at the Day of Resurrection:
- To hear Christ’s voice commanding death to give up its captives
- The dead to be raised incorruptible
- Individual judgment of our lives on this earth
- It to happen in the twinkling of an eye
In the News: 41 Years of Roe v Wade
This week I came across a powerful video on YouTube, titled, 41 Years of Roe v Wade. It was produced by the Texas Alliance for Life, and consisted of 41 different women, born from 1973 to 2014, each giving a statistic or fact about the fight for unborn lives since that time. The video can be found with a simple search using the title, or by typing in the following URL:
Here are a few of the points made in the video:
Drops of Dew
Deuteronomy 32 records the song that Moses spoke to assembled Israel just before his death. Joshua took over as leader of the people, as they crossed over the Jordan and at long last entered the promised land of Canaan. There is a beautiful sentiment expressed in the opening words of the song:
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, o earth, the words of my mouth.
Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
For I proclaim the name of the Lord:
Ascribe greatness to our God.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.”
(Deuteronomy 32:1-4)
Notice that Moses characterized his speech, where he proclaimed “the name of the Lord,” as words of freshness and revival, likening them to rain and dew.
Dew, (tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces during the night, as water vapor condenses) has always been portrayed as beautiful and rejuvenating. In the very beginning, God used such to water the ground, “but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground” (Genesis 2:6).
Invitation: Paul’s Concern
Invitation delivered by: Stan Cox
In 1 Thessalonians 3, Paul expressed concern regarding the Thessalonians, who were suffering persecution. Interestingly, his concern was not for their safety, but for their faith. It was his hope that they would be established “blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:1-13)
Mining the Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
In this text, the apostle expressed thanks for the blessings the Corinthians had received from Jesus. These blessings to which he referred were the spiritual gifts such as tongue speaking, prophecy, etc. With these, the “testimony of Christ was confirmed” in them (vs. 6). This is a primary purpose of such spiritual gifts. They not only equipped each one who received them, they also confirmed the teaching that each one imparted to others.
Paul, as did the rest of the New Testament writers, commonly looked forward to the coming of Jesus Christ (7). From His departure, recorded in Acts 1:9-11, the emphasis has ever been upon his eventual return. The angels affirmed that He, “will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
In these introductory words, we see a foreshadowing of admonitions to come. Paul’s mention of spiritual gifts as blessings that enrich in verses 4-7 presage his admonition of their abuse of such gifts in chapters 12-14. His continual references to Jesus (9 times in the first 9 verses) serve to center the Corinthians minds upon the Christ, rather than their own divisive tendencies to inappropriately elevate mere men (cf. 1:10-15, 3:1-6).
From the Preacher’s Pen: We Will Be Judged
In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul wrote of the hope of heaven, contrasting it with our life here on earth. He said, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.”
It is an interesting picture, putting off this tent (our frail and mortal body), and replacing it with an eternal one. Paul was confident that he would obtain that promised life, and so stated in verse 8, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
People today speak of their confidence, placing all of it in “the finished work of Jesus Christ.” They state they are confident, not because of what they have done, but what Jesus has already done for them, assuring them the hope of heaven. They view any suggestion of responsibility on the part of man to be a form of legalism, and a trust in works of merit.
Paul looked at it differently. He recognized what God had done for him, and his confidence was in God (see verses 5-7). However, he still understood the necessity of obedience, writing, “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (9-10). As we recognize what God did for us in sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, let us acknowledge that our final standing will, in part, depend upon what we have done while living our lives on earth.
“Sinful Nature” VS “Flesh”
There is a song that we occasionally sing, Amazing Grace, that was written by a man who believed the Calvinistic concept of inherited depravity. When he wrote the words, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…”, he meant something other than what the scriptures teach concerning sin, grace and redemption. However, because he used scriptural language in the text of the song, we may sing it with a good conscience and an honest heart because we take the words to mean what is taught in scripture rather than what was intended by the author of the song. If the language he had used had clearly indicated his incorrect views, we would not be able to use the song.
Sermon: Punctuation
Punctuation marks such as the period, comma, exclamation point, question mark, quotation marks and the asterisk are used to illustrate Biblical precepts.
(Inspiration for the lesson taken from chart created by Ron Adams, which appeared in the December 2013 issue of For Your Consideration).
Sermon: Paul’s Success in Thessalonica
Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica was a great success. As indicated in his writing in 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul attributed that success to diligent and gentle instruction from the word of God.
Invitation: The word of the Lord may run swiftly
Invitation delivered by: Stan Cox
The invitation discusses Paul’s prayer request to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3. An application is made to the phrase, “that the word of the Lord may run swiftly”, and the understanding that men who reject the faith are “unreasonable and wicked.”
