Camak Baptist Church: Recent Episodes
Bryant Neal
“God's people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when he chose his people, that they should be an untried people. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them.” CH Spurgeon
These words by Spurgeon reflect a certain reality that our contemporary culture has a hard time dealing with. God has not promised to take away our struggles or to fix every problem. What He has promised to do, is to give meaning and context to the hardships that we face in this broken world around us. Because of sin, the world around us does not function or work in the way God intended; one day it will once again, but not today. IN the meantime, God has promised to give purpose and hope to the hearts and minds of His people during their times of struggle.
Join us in this message as we see what God has promised to do.
The Christian life is a building up of character. It is more than belief of certain truths, the sustaining of certain religious emotions; it is the continuous working into the warp and woof of our life every good and excellent quality until we arrive at the measure of and stature of the fulness that is in Christ. The apostle exhorts us to train our minds to a high and refined sense of this. It is true that the regenerate are taught of God, and have the Spirit to guide them. But, this is not to supersede the use of their own faculties. The Bible shows us “what is good” in its great principles, but leaves us to find out their illimitable application. The sanctification of men is the true object of redemption (Gal_1:4; Tit_2:14). For this Christ took our nature, was tempted in all points like as we are, and died. And as His salvation is not a common and earthly good, so the holiness to which He moulds us is not a common and natural perfection, but one singular and supernatural.
The meditation and practice of our holiness revolve around a very important point that Paul draws in our text for today's study. A second time we pointed toward the conclusion of the whole presentation set before us in the preceding texts. Before it was “finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” The whole history of conversion with all its preliminary struggles, the terrors and sorrows of repentance, the hopes and fears of faith, finds its issue and rest in this. But here is a second “finally.” There is something beyond the exultation of deliverance through Christ; that is the attainment of a perfect character in Him. As followers of Jesus, we are urged to fix our full and determinate thought upon His perfection at work in us. The word is often used to signify due appreciation, and it bids us here with strong emphasis estimate rightly the place morality and holiness holds in the gospel.
The world around us is a place of turmoil. Every news report, every social media post, almost every human interaction seems designed and purposed to stir the emotions, incite our fears, and instil in us great anxiety. In this message, we examine anxiety, how it affects us, causes us to distrust God, and why God is the only one who can grant us any measure of peace in this world.
When disharmony arises between a spirit-filled person and God, or that person and another, the one who is spirit-filled aches for equity in that relationship to be restored. The struggle that we encounter is that disharmony afflicts our hearts and minds, we seek struggle under the weight of knowing that we are living in the shadow of that broken relationship. We crave restoration, reconciliation. The isolation we feel when our relationships fracture cuts deeply because we love, we care, we hurt. The greater the affection, the greater the hurt. And sometimes, that hurt drives its intensity from the depth of the love that was felt. But, how do we find reconciliation? How do we give up our moral, ethical, spiritual, high ground? Where do we find the security to let down our guard? We find it in the heart of Jesus. We find it in HIs mind. And, we find it in the comfort of His Kingdom. That He is. That our relationship with Him never changes. Join us as We study rejoicing in the mind, character, and nature of Jesus.
People cannot always think alike, not even Christians who share the same fellowship and service. However, there is a Christian way of responding and behaving when these inevitable divergences of thought and attitude arise. When these times come upon us, there is a tendency to draw upon one's own moral or ethical superiority of position, But, as Paul tells us, there is a superiority greater than ours to which we much differ that does not allow us to trouble the great agreement and the dear affection that Christ, our Lord, has bout us to. In the difficulties that may arise between Christians, as between other people, wise and loving friendships may perform the most important services. Our selfishness can compel us to shrink back. Wisdom is needed which consists of loving thoughtfulness and the love which seeks not her own, and is not easily provoked, is much called for.
There are 3 elements to spiritual living. In Philippian 3, Paul challenges believers to have an intimate understanding of all 3 to have a balanced and healthy spiritual life. They are doctrine, practice, and experience. It is easy to fall into a practice and experience that are not based on truth. The Bible warns that many "will have a form of spirituality that lacks power" and that "many will seek teachers to tell them things that make them self-satisfied". It also warns that this world is set up to deceive the people of God; and so, Paul takes time to warn the followers of Christ to ensure that the teachers that they follow are true to the Bible so that, as James says, they will not become driven about by every wind of doctrine. Join us as we examine today's text that gives those who would be spiritual a caution for today.
For most Christians, the whole point of Christianity is to arrive safely at the destination of Heaven when the time comes; and, that is a worthy goal to be sure. But, what if we are missing a vital part of what it means to be an actual follower of Jesus, one who is stamped after His image, with this line of thinking? In Philippians chapter 3, Paul addresses this question with great concern as He explores the upward call of Christ in our lives. But what is this upward call and how does it serve to awaken the people of God to a greater and more meaningful existence in this world as we seek to live in the world, but not be drawn into imitating the world.
Zechariah is quite a remarkable prophet. Prophesying in about 520 to 518. He’s what we call a postexilic prophet. He encourages them to restore their love for God, their worship of God, and to build the temple. He also encourages them by prophesying the Word of the Lord that the Messiah will come.
In this message, we explore Christ as the Great Shepherd who calls, equips, empowers and sends His people into all areas of life to remember His name, live for Him, and to introduce those they encounter to the wonders of His Kingdom. As we will see, we have the good promise of His Kingdom with us as we undertake this journey of faith and responsiveness to His leading.
Crushed, forsaken, abandoned, demoralized. These are just a few of the words that could be used to describe the people of Israel at the time of the return from exile in the days of Zechariah and his contemporaries. God had called them to rebuild the city and His Temple, but due to: opposition, criticism, persecution, and low morale, the people stalled in their work leaving the project undone for many years. People of faith find themselves in s similar position today as the cultural tide has shifted and we find ourselves living in what some would call a post-Christian culture, but others would consider a pre-Christian culture. No matter the view, we still have the mandate to build the Temple of God through reaching people with the Gospel and then training these new people of faith how to live for Him. God has sworn to vindicate His people as He shows that He is sovereign over all opposition, even the greatest of human governments.
In the work that he had before him, Joshua left nothing that had been commanded undone. Joshua was not as concerned as to the channel through which the orders had been concerned, as he was with the source of the commands. He submitted himself to the command. Like Joshua, we to have received our commands; and like Joshua, we must remember that true faithfulness rests upon our living our lives in such a way that they illustrate that we believe that the words God has spoken are true. We must remember the reward that comes through our warfare as we seek to bring down thoughts, worldviews, beliefs, and ideas that stand at odds with the heart of God. Faithfulness brings fruitfulness, resolve and perseverance, and our sanctification.
The feet of the judgements of the Lord are leaden, so that they may be delayed in their coming. The arms of the Lord are iron so that when they come they strike with deadly force. Our hearts are troubled when the justice of the Lord is meted out, but at the same time, they ache to know of its fulfilment. The sin in our lives is the source of this seeming conflict where we cry out for justice and then rebel when God displays His ability to deliver it. This command to slaughter the Canaanites was not given in order that room might be made for the Israelites. God’s eye looked back over the eight or nine centuries in which these children of Canaan had been strewing the short path of their national history with many and aggravated sins. They had been heaping up wrath against the day of wrath, therefore was it that God said, “The city shall be devoted.” Many years later the Divine voice is heard saying to the ten tribes, “They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face.”
What should impress us most about this fifth chapter of Joshua is that, for once, the people of Israel, the leadership of Israel, and the God of Israel seem to be functioning in harmony. The people are no longer getting ahead of God or lagging too far behind Him. God has called His people to a reunification with Him through circumcision and the observance of the Passover. These two things meant to cause the people to remember the God who had called them, the covenant and purpose to which He called them, and the position that they were called to inhabit as His people. But, to assume this purpose in full the hearts of the people and its leadership had to be made ready. When the heart of the child of God is consecrated and sanctified with God, we may count on His presence and help. It is to the separated and obedient servant that the vision of Christ, as Ally and Captain, is given and accepted in its promise and totality.
On the day that the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan River to enter into the promised land, the Lord commanded a halt to their march. It seems strange that on the eve of the people beginning the process of becoming the nation that God had called them to be that He would have them to stop and undertake the act of circumcision. Despite this seeming pause, it was vital for the people to remember who they were as the people of God; His covenant with them; the character of the people that was to be shaped by this covenant; and the purpose of the Kingdom that He would rule. Join with us in this message as we see how circumcision is just as important for believers today.
It's time for the people of Israel to cross over the Jordan River into the land that had been promised to them by God generations before. But, before they would go, Joshua, their new leader, must call them to remember who they are; who had called them into their destiny as His people and to the purpose for which He had called them. God had called them to be an example for the nations around them. What it meant to be restored human beings, as He works to regenerate the souls and hearts of His creation, reclaiming them from the sin that dominated them and controlled their lives, restoring and renewing their minds, outlooks, worldviews, motives, and bringing their thoughts and ways into line with His thoughts and ways. Join the pilgrimage that God has called His people to.
Joshua had been one of two out of the original twelve spies who had entered into the promised land to seek out evidence that the land was as God said it would be. As the land was discovered to be as it should be, the people still refused to enter in and as a result, the Lord kept that generation from entering; with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. During the 40 years of wandering, Moses, Joshua's mentor, as well as the rest of his generation died. With a whole new generation of people to be led, a land promised by God still to be occupied, and the mantle of command placed on his shoulders, Joshua would need encouragement to proceed. God's promise to never leave or forsake Joshua and his people. We as the people of God have as much need for this promise as the people of Israel did. We still have to live out the common life in the character of Christ in our day to day ministrations to our families, work-mates, and associates. The fact is, the truest religious life is that in which a man follows the ordinary calling of life in the spirit of a Christian. Now, are you doing so? If so, you are as much ministering before God in measuring out stocks in the market, or stocking shelves in the store, as Joshua was in slaying Hivites, Jebusites, and Hittites! You are as much serving God in looking after your own children and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts! And you may take this promise for yourself, for the path of duty is the path where this promise is to be enjoyed. “I will not fail you, nor forsake you.”
(Due to a technical problem, this is not a full recording)
God has prepared an inheritance for His saints and given it to them through a covenant established in His Son. This covenant is exceedingly broad and unfortunately most Christians do not conquer all the country that has been made available to them. But, like the Israelites, who settled the narrow bounds of Canaan instead of conquering the whole of the land promised them. There are divine graces which God makes available to us: deeper knowledge of Himself and His ways, spiritual formation. When we come to Christ by faith, we are born again and we perceive new life that develops itself in the beauty of holiness, holiness being the fruit of regeneration. Many believe that they can be saved from the grosser sins, but that they cannot ascend to the glorious heights of consecration and sanctification without which the believer can never attain the stature of a fully formed image of Christ in them.
The people of Israel once had the opportunity to cross over the river Jordan to lay claim to the land that God had promised them. Because of their disbelief, they had been consigned to 40 years of wandering. Now, they again have the chance to cross over and as they prepare to do so, God calls them to be strong and courageous. The land was meant to be their rest, a place where they could be God's people, to grow in the knowledge of Him. That was the true promise. It would require being steadfast in a trust of the One who had made the promise. It would require courage in the face of adversity. We as believers today are called to be God's people, inhabitants of His Kingdom. God will, we trust, ultimately bring s the peace of God which passes all understanding, for we have sufficient faith to prove ourselves as His people and therefore, the Lord will surely bring us in. But it will take a great deal of marching for what may seem, at the present, very small amount of progress.
In the message for today, we will examine an account in the Old Testament scriptures that revolves around 4 men who had spent a great deal of their lives living outside the city walls of Samaria. These 4 men had become infected with the disease of Leprosy. This malady had left the isolated and abandoned from their home, their family, their employment, their purpose, virtually everything that would give life meaning and fulfillment. Living off the scraps thrown to them over the city walls, the would have been seen as barely living. In the same way, we are isolated, alone, without true and lasting fulfillment in a way that makes us live off the scraps of the world. Barely living, though we see ourselves as alive. Join us as we see the story of the Lepers and how they mirror our lives apart from Christ.
How can we actually, practically, face and get through the suffering that has come upon us? Most resources, articles, and books for sufferers today no longer talk about enduring affliction but instead use a language drawn from business and psychology that is geared to encourage people to simply manage, reduce, and cope with stress, strain, or trauma. We are told to avoid negative thoughts, to buffer ourselves with time off, supportive relationships and exercise and to learn to accept things that we cannot do anything about. But all the focus is on controlling your immediate emotions and responses and the surrounding environment. For centuries though, Christianity has gone higher and deeper in order to furnish believers with the resources to face tribulation.
Diversity in suffering does not just include the external factors; but, also includes the internal factors- person's temperament and personality also play a role in how a person responds to suffering, and the lasting effects that the suffering will have on them. This message will describe three ways that a person can respond to suffering and adversity.
As much as we may want the growth, we dislike the fact that suffering constitutes a very important part of our growth; both as human beings, and as followers of Jesus Christ. People who have gone through suffering find themselves aware of their strengths and weaknesses, developing wisdom that combats the naivetes about life and living, and a tempering that resists the fragilities of life. We also know that suffering does not enrich us and deepen us automatically. Fire in the furnace can kill, and gymnasiums can severely injure; and, as an old saying goes, "the same fire that melts wax, can harden clay". This message will help prepare us to handle suffering in such as way that it leads to growth.
In the Bible, a refiner's fire is used as a metaphor to describe times of suffering. A less well-known metaphor is that of a "gymnasium". 1 Peter and Hebrews, as well as several other passages, picture great groups of Christians facing many trials and afflictions. The Bible acknowledges that these times of pressure are painful, but also states that these are great times of training where, under the hand of the Lord, they have the ability to produce a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who are being trained by it. The Greek word for "trained" is 'gymnazdo' and it means to be "stripped naked and exercised. It is in the Lord's gymnasium, that of suffering and hardship, that our weaknesses and deficiencies are revealed and we receive training to be built up as a child of God.
Jesus is quoted in the Bible as saying: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." This is the equivalent as His having said: "Happy is the one who seeks not happiness but righteousness." Happiness is a by-product of wanting something more happiness- to be rightly related to God and to our neighbor. If you seek God as the non-negotiable good of your life, you will get happiness thrown in. If you aim namely at personal happiness, you will get neither. If we focus our lives on achieving personal comfort and satisfaction without centering our lives on God in Jesus, we quickly find that we are left with a fatal lack of self-knowledge and inner emptiness. This applies to how Christians face suffering because it teaches us that we should trust God because He is God and not a personal assistant or a life coach. He is worthy and it is His due, not just because we think that we will get something in return. If we love God and obey Him for His own sake, not ours, it begins to turn us into something strong, great, and wise.
Suffering is at the heart of the Christian faith. From the way Jesus came, and became, like us and redeemed us to also the way we become like Him and experience His redemption. That being in mind, it means that our suffering, despite its painfulness, is also filled with purpose and usefulness. We live in a time which the ancient idea of suffering's "usefulness" is resisted. The fact is "people need adversity, setbacks, and perhaps even trauma to reach the highest levels of strength, fulfillment, and personal development. Romans 5 sums it up: "suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope". The way god infuses purpose into suffering is that He uses sufferings to prepare us for an eternal glory.
God is not only sovereign over our suffering, but He has also made Himself subject and vulnerable to suffering. As paradoxical as this may seem at first, they stand as crucial to grasping the Christian worldview of suffering. As expressed in the message, the only reason why the God of the Bible can be trusted Himself is His own firsthand experience with suffering.
“Contemporary people have a problem is that they think that life is all about finding happiness. Each one tries to decide under what conditions they will be able to be happy and then they work toward bringing about those conditions. To live for happiness means that you are trying to get something out of life. But when suffering comes along, it disrupts the conditions for happiness away, and so suffering destroys all your reason to keep living. Western society has been judged as the weakest and worst at preparing its people for enduring times of loss, tragedy, and grief and its people have become disillusioned and despairing. This introductory message prepares us for the journey that will take place over the next several weeks as we explore Walking with God despite enduring times of suffering.
The inertia of this age, fragmenting outward in every direction, demands a robust commitment to the gospel as the center. Christianity speaks prophetically to every age insofar as it speaks from unchanging gospel. This gospel brings healing and hope in a world of fear. It also confronts every idol and calls everyone to costly discipleship. The gospel of Jesus Christ is comforting (Matt. 11:29-30), but it is not comfortable (Matt. 16:24).
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, (Hebrews 6:1 ESV)
With these words, the writer of the book of Hebrews calls believers into a life of depth, growing awareness of the things of God, lives of Holiness, and understanding of God's ways. "Leaving the elementary doctrines" calls believers to leave the basic teachings, not in disbelief, but in expectation of deeper maturity and intimacy with God. This intimacy is made possible by God, sustained by God, and finds its end in God. God has promised that spiritual growth is possible and is the One who empowers, guides, and fulfills the growth that He makes known. It should be the passion of the followers of Jesus to permit ourselves to be borne strongly onwards towards full growth of spiritual character.
Bible literacy occurs when a person has access to a Bible in a language they understand and is steadily moving toward knowledge and understanding of the text. If it is true that the character and will of God are proclaimed in Scripture, then any serious attempt to become equipped for the work of discipleship must include a desire to build Bible literacy. Bible literacy stitches patchwork knowledge into a seamless garment of understanding. Bible literacy matters because it protects us from falling into error. Both the false teacher and the secular humanist rely on biblical ignorance for their messages to take root, and the modern church has proven fertile ground for those messages. Because we do not know our Bibles, we crumble at the most basic challenges to our worldview. Disillusionment and apathy eat away at our ranks. Young/new christians, in particular, are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers.
Where the Spirit of Christ dwells as a vitalising, formative principle, He finds or makes for Himself a body. Let no man say, “I have the spirit of religion, I can dispense with forms, I need no fellowship with men, I prefer to walk with God.” God will not walk with men who do not care to walk with His people. The hope of our calling is a hope for mankind, nay, for the entire universe. We labour for the regeneration of humanity. We look for the actual ingathering into one in Christ of all things in all worlds, as they are already gathered in God’s eternal plan. If it were merely a personal salvation that we had to seek, Christian communion might appear to be an optional thing and the Church no more than a society for mutual spiritual benefit. But seen in this larger light, Church membership is of the essence of our calling
Evangelism is telling others about Jesus. And it’s more than just mentioning His name – if people are to be saved, then they need to know who Jesus is, what He did for each and every person, and why. The Apostle Paul expressed a burning heart to share the message of Jesus with those whom he said were groping about in darkness. In the book of Acts, Paul is "troubled" as he walks through Athens and observes the "idols" that are spread throughout the city. A sign of the searching of mankind to find fulfillment. Today the "death throes" of the human condition are apparent all around us; the violence, despair, and hopelessness we observe are all symptoms of the emptiness and darkness that we feel in our hearts. It reveals a void that only the hope and the salvation of God through Jesus Christ can fill.
In the church today, there exists three tendencies among evangelicals that pull in different unhealthy directions. One is pietism, which is a “completely inward” Christianity oriented toward “Jesus just wants you to be happy” prosperity.
“Pietism says my Christianity is fully inward and has nothing to do with the way I live in the world,”. It tends to retreat into the self and make no difference in the world. But the other extreme, partisanship, errs by politicizing Christianity according to rigid partisan categories that demand “package” deal alignment: you cannot be a true Christian conservative or progressive unless you tow the party line on every issue. This partisanship tends to shoehorn Scripture and Christian practice into one or the other political boxes.
The third, confessionalism, leans heavily into doctrine and creeds and places one's efforts on knowing just the right words, and phrases to say, to fit into the church lingo and as much a reliance on works for salvation, or the approval of God as in pietistic or revivalist traditions.
“It’s not easy because if you resist the one, you are interpreted to have leaned into one of the others; when in fact, the truth is somewhere in between.
The church faces several challenges in the modern age. The challenge of church regards to the people not growing and maturing to the fullness of Christ is one that has been faced by the people of God since the days of the apostles and leaves the church lacking in its capacity to complete its missions and ministries. The church possesses the ministry of reconciliation and discipleship and without fully formed disciples, the church cannot complete this mission.
In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, we see a massive promise being fulfilled by God. God had promised throughout the Old Testament to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. During His ministry, Jesus taught about the coming Holy Spirit and made the same promise again in Acts chapter 1. The Holy Spirit was present even in the Old Testament, but His work took on a wonderful new tone under the terms of the New Covenant. This message begin an exploration of the events of Pentecost, and their implications for us who lives under the New Covenant. Unfortunately, the last 13 minutes of this sermon did not record, and during that time, we were challenged to remember that during the visions of Himself that God granted a vision of His glory to, it was not His military power, nor His physical strength, nor any other characteristic that we would figure important that drove the observers to their knees. It was His excellence of Spirit, His moral power, His holiness. As Isaiah reflected in his vision, compared to God, he was a man of unclean lips that lived with a people of unclean lips. We were also challenged to remember that we to, as followers of Jesus, and the abode of the Holy Spirit, that we too should be compelled to excellence of Spirit, and moral power, to be motivated for, and empowered to, the works that God has for us to accomplish in His authority.
Asaph is a little-known doubter in the Bible. Not as well-known as Thomas, Sarah, or John the Baptist, but in many ways Asaph has the corner on this subject. He is the doubter of record. He wrote the book on doubt- or at least a psalm about it. Psalm 73 is the record of Asaph's "Dark night of the soul". Charles Spurgeon called it "a great soul battle, a spiritual marathon, a hard and well-fought field, in which the half-defeated become in the end wholly victorious". Asaph shows us the ordinances of doubt; but he also shows us what it takes to settle our feet once again on a solid foundation of experienced faith.
There is one truth that we as the followers of Jesus must face: in this world, we will face rivers of doubt. As long as we're held by time and space, we'll have questions we can't answer. In our lives, we will have situations where we will be standing in the headwaters of the river, and we will have no doubt that the river will empty out into the will of God. The mystery for us is the middle; how the beginning and the end will fit together. All the uncharted rapids and unknown twists and turns are yet to be discovered and explored. It is important for us to think clearly about our doubt. To deny doubt is to deny the reality of the world in which we live. We would be living in Heaven, and we aren't there yet. Through the words of the prophets, God constantly reminds us how we began; and He calls us to remember how we began our journey: with a call to trust in God, and His promises for our future.
It would be easier if someone told us that it’s okay to have doubts. It they had, it would have saved us all a lot of wandering around aimlessly, thinking there was a problem with our faith, or with us in general. That we had somehow missed the faith boat along the way and that God was standing there waiting to pummel us for our unbelief. We thought we were missing something when the signposts started turning into question marks. The truth of the matter is that God doesn’t get angry with us for our doubts, He doesn’t punish us for asking questions. Doubt can be good because it exposes our insufficiency; we need to be reminded just how few answers we really have. We have far less wisdom that we like to think that we do. The truth is: doubt is not the same as unbelief-and any faith that is honest enough to ask questions is stronger than a faith that never thinks at all.
This Sixth Word from the Cross consists of one single word in the Greek - "Finished, accomplished." It was a loud cry that rang out over observing the crucifixion of Jesus. What did this mean? What was He saying was finished? Was he referring to his sufferings, his life’s work? It was those things, but even more. It was the end of an era. The Old Testament contains a long list of prophetic utterances, beginning with the first family of mankind, when God told the serpent in the Garden of Eden that he would "put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel" (Gen 3:15). It was this great conquest that was being enacted. Jesus’ cry was proclaiming his victory over the evil one. In the gigantic struggle between good and evil the Son of Man had suffered grievously but he had finished the work of redemption that his Father had committed to him. He didn’t say "I am finished" but rather "It is finished." It was a shout of victory over sin, death and hell.