CMC Sermons & Devotionals: Recent Episodes
Christ Memorial Church
These are the latest messages from Christ Memorial Church in Vermont, a gospel-preaching church reaching the greater Burlington area since 1992. Find more at cmcvermont.org.
Ever mindful of Jesus’ promise of His presence in mission success, let us link arms with our brothers and sisters in Christ, persuading all of Jesus’ good news.
The apostles assert without caveat that Jesus is the Christ, the king and judge of the world, and that all must repent and believe in Him. Let us assert the same truths, no matter the response.
Join us this month as Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs examine what it means for a Christian to live under the law when the Bibles says that Christians are free from the law.
By means of proclaiming the way of salvation, God’s household is built-up and Satan’s household is plundered. That was true in Philippi, and it’s just as true in Chittenden County, Vermont!
Jesus directs the word’s advance, overcoming conflicts and weaker brother barriers to plant and strengthen churches in more places. If CMC follows his lead, we will consider gospel advance and church-strengthening more important than our differences with one another.
For the early church and for us, clarity on the faith-alone gospel is necessary to fuel unifying love and unhindered mission.
Amid the fiercest opposition and persecution, God’s word—and its fruit: more and more Christians—progresses unimpeded. CMC, will we live like we believe that the word of God can’t be conquered?
As we approach America's 250th Birthday, Pastors Mitch & Craig examine the Christian's relationship with government, and how we are to interact with our civil authorities in light of our mandates from our heavenly authority.
The word of Lord that was preached in Pisidian Antioch still confronts each of us: receive Jesus with joy leading to life or revile Him with scorn leading to condemnation.
In His greatest sign and wonder, the LORD Almighty delivers His people through the judgment that falls upon His Son, a display of power great enough to overcome hardened hearts.
The LORD’s purpose to deliver His people from slavery through His mediator is assured, despite apparent setbacks – whether in Egypt or in our own lives.
The LORD, I Am, will accomplish His people’s deliverance from affliction through His servant Moses, who typifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is the relationship between Christians and the advanced technology we now have available? Do computers and artificial intelligence pose any threat to us or to our faith? How should we view them, and how ought we to use them or avoid their use?
The LORD’s compassion for His people is seen in His provision of a Mediator through Whom He rescues His people from oppression and slavery.
The LORD’s glory is displayed to Egypt and Israel by salvation through judgment, a salvation that results in His glorious presence among His people—all of which foreshadows the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we desire to walk humbly with our God and obtain eternal life, then we must resist the seduction of pride and boast only in Jesus Christ.
If we’re to live eternally, the ultimate biopsy of our character taken at the end of the age must reveal consistent Christian practice
For Christians, what is the value of reading books other than the Bible? What are some books that most all Christians ought to read? What are some of the books that have most helped or influenced our two hosts?
To be empowered for godliness by the all-powerful Savior, be content with what the world regards as weakness.
An encouraging gospel ministry is not outwardly impressive but marked by perseverance in the transforming proclamation of Jesus amid suffering.
The New Covenant Gospel of Jesus Christ validates itself by transforming believers from glory to glory.
Today Craig and Mitch welcome the CMC Youth Group and answer several of their burning questions.
Rooted in God’s faithful love of His people through Christ, Paul models faithful love to the Corinthians and to us
Christlike affliction is supremely valuable because it leads to the hope of your eternal comfort by directing you away from self reliance and enabling you to trust in God who raises the dead.
It is eternally dangerous to assume that we will never be persuaded by a false gospel, and so we must reject false gospels and false gospel teachers while being diligent to keep a sincere and pure devotion to Christ and His gospel.
A church poised to launch a daughter church must be especially vigilant to maintain the Spirit’s unity, which requires forgiving as we’ve been forgiven by God in Christ.
What things must a Christian do? Why must a Christian go to church? What does it mean if a Christian doesn't do what they must do? Let's explore some imperatives of the Christian life and find out what the Bible says they mean.
The salvation of God comes to pass through the Servant of the Lord, who suffers unto death in the place of sinners, and is exalted to rule in blessing forever.
Loving, humble servitude is the only reasonable response to a God who so loved a wicked and ungrateful world that He sacrificed His only begotten Son and who promises an eternal reward to those who go and do likewise.
The Servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ, humbly brings justice to all peoples, a justice that was demonstrated when God both judged and forgave His people’s sins at the cross.
God is faithful both to establish and guard believers, working in them the steadfastness of Christ, with the result that His people work hard in obedience and do not grow weary in well doing.
Christ will not return before a great falling away led by Satan’s man of lawlessness. You will not fall away if you stand firm and hold to the gospel truth.
If Christians are set free from sin, what is their relationship with it? Is sin something a Christian ought to be thinking about and watching for, or is it just something in the rearview mirror as one moves forward with Christ? This podcast explores the dynamics of a true believer's new status and abilities in Christ, and how that is lived out with respect to sin.
The righteous judgment of God should strike mortal fear in the heart of every unbeliever but a peace that passes understanding in the hearts of God's people, for that judgment is their salvation.
Theme: If we are true followers of the God of peace, we will live as peacemakers, evidenced primarily toward fellow Christians in our local church.
Because Christians belong to the day and are headed for salvation, they must live sober lives of holiness until Jesus’ sudden return in judgment.
Theme: Because those who die in Christ will participate in the resurrection at Christ’s return, Christians encourage each other in the face of death.
What is the Church's relationship with the world supposed to be? How should Christians participate in the world, or should they stay out of it as much as possible? What does God require us to do, and what does He forbid?
Take your cues from God himself and please him, by walking in holiness, which looks like sexual purity and is grounded in love.
Theme: Paul’s ministry among the Thessalonians is clearly from God, which means his words and example must be heeded by them – and by you!
Theme: The Christian’s election unto eternal life is a reason for offering thanks to the Lord because of its marvelous results.
Theme: The effective motivator for continuing and excelling, amid persecution, in the genuine faith is a holy obsession with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ
Since my children are born lost, how do I raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? What is the relationship between the parents' responsibility for their children and the church's responsibility? What is a good way forward?
Jesus Christ is the glorious image of God, and through faith in Him, God’s glorious image is being restored in you, therefore glorify God by enjoying Him now and forever.
Theme: Without the transformation into Christlikeness, the mission of the church will fail.
Theme: When you’re clear what a sinner needs to be saved from— sin, death, and hell—you’ll be clear about the things that are and aren’t in line with Christ’s mission
Theme: You gladly sacrifice for the planting of a church when you are convinced that hell is real and only the gospel of Jesus Christ can rescue sinners from its terror.
Mitch & Craig are joined by Music Pastor Caleb Abernathy to answer an important question: Does there need to be an order to worship? And why? Listen as they explore the reasons behind CMC's order of worship on Sunday mornings.
Theme: Life between the time of our spiritual exodus and our full entrance into the promised land means a life of hope-tempered sacrifice—like launching a church plant requires.
Theme: We are planting a church because churches are both the necessary result of and the necessary context for obedience to the Great Commission. What’s your role to play?
Theme: In the Book of Genesis, God has given us an anticipation of every big idea that comes to full flower in the life, death, resurrection, and return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: The only wise and faithful way to face death’s certainty is with resurrection hope—it was for Jacob, for Joseph, for Jesus, and it is for you.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
This week we took a short break from Genesis to hear from guest preacher Aubrey Sequeira.
Theme: Though from the whole of Jacob’s sons will come a mighty nation, from only one son will come the One Who will reign eternally over all the nations.
Theme: Just as Jacob went down into Egypt in the hope of Israel being raised by God’s promise, so Christ went down into death on the cross for our sins in hope of resurrection – and his resurrection is our hope, too.
Theme: Joseph is alive from the dead and eager to save his estranged family from death, revealing the mercy of the resurrected Christ which His people must also show to one another.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: To rescue his brother from death, Judah offers himself as a substitute, foreshadowing the work that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah would do for His brothers on the cross.
Theme: It’s easy to be discouraged by the many disappointments in life until we fix our hope fully on the happy ending God has planned for His people.
Theme: The favored Son of God remains faithful in righteous deed and spiritual words of life and death while He suffers undeservedly for our redemption.
Theme: Righteous faith so values Jesus Christ, the promised seed, that it doesn’t play it safe in the church; therefore, take bold risks for His sake.
Theme: Joseph’s rejection by his brothers turns our gaze to the Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of His Father, Whose brothers reject Him unto the cross.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: God’s purpose of election is confirmed in the blessedness of Jacob and the cursedness of Esau, which leads us to respond to God with pleas for mercy and praise for grace in Christ.
Theme: Simeon and Levi’s sin didn’t lead the LORD to break His covenant promises. Because of Christ, the sin of God’s people won’t render Him faithless either.
Theme: No obstacle will finally stand in the way of God’s plan to get you home to the Promised Land where God dwells with His people in Christ.
Theme: Even when His chosen people experience hardship in exile, the LORD is fulfilling His promise to redeem them from their woes and make of them a mighty nation.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: In Christ alone, God comes down to sinners who cannot go up to Him, and promises to be with them until he brings them home to Himself.
Theme: God faithfully protects the blessing, so that it is given to the elect offspring, therefore you can marvel at His sovereign ability to secure the blessing for you.
Theme: The covenant promises God made to Abraham remain in place despite sin and conflict, and those promises resolve in the Son of Abraham Who serves the bread and cup of salvation to the nations.
Theme: According to His unsearchable mercy, apart from any deeds, God elected Isaac and not Ishmael, Jacob and not Esau, to inherit the salvation promised to Abraham. The Lord's salvation still comes by His unsearchable mercy.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: Jesus’ inescapable path to resurrection and glory was suffering and death. We can endure our inescapable suffering and death by remembering that resurrection and glory await Christ’s people, too.
Theme: Jesus, as King of the Jews, enters His capital city on a humble donkey, executing judgment on faithless Israel and their empty, proud religion.
Theme: Abraham’s provision of a bride for Isaac foretells God the Father’s giving to His Son a bride, the church, whom the Son lovingly receives and rejoices in.
Theme: Those who share Abraham’s unwavering faith must seek the heavenly country, heedless of its cost, while awaiting its final arrival.
Theme: Saving faith, which is unwavering trust in God’s salvation promise, grows to prove itself through sacrificial obedience.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: Go all in on the God Who keeps His promises to His people—promises to save, love, and provide abundantly through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: Nothing—not even your sin—will stop God from keeping His promise that the Seed of the Woman would come to crush the serpent and undo the curse.
Theme: Because this world is soon to pass away in Sodom’s fiery judgment, we must repent of worldliness and embrace the One whose intercession averts the wrath to come.
Theme: God’s salvation covenant obligates his people to live blamelessly before His face and to embrace his hopeful sign of cleansing – all fulfilled by Christ and given to believers by faith alone, as a gift.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: Abram and Sarai’s faltering belief in God’s promise results in the birth of Ishmael from Sarai’s slave, a birth with terrible consequences for Israel and Ishmael.
Theme: The certainty of your justification, given in the New Covenant, calms your soul through faith in Jesus Christ.
2024 CMC Men's Retreat talk by guest speaker Jim Hamilton.
Jim Hamilton is Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, KY. His theme is based on his book Work and Our Labor in the Lord.
2024 CMC Men's Retreat talk by guest speaker Jim Hamilton.
Jim Hamilton is Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, KY. His theme is based on his book Work and Our Labor in the Lord.
2024 CMC Men's Retreat talk by guest speaker Jim Hamilton.
Jim Hamilton is Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, KY. His theme is based on his book Work and Our Labor in the Lord.
2024 CMC Men's Retreat talk by guest speaker Jim Hamilton.
Jim Hamilton is Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, KY. His theme is based on his book Work and Our Labor in the Lord.
Theme: The LORD demonstrates that His salvation promise to Abram and his Seed stands through every threat, so cling to it in faith.
Theme: God's promises to Abram are made ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ, and through Christ, to His people, the church.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: A church member is a Christian, one whose life is centered on the Lord Jesus, His church, and the advance of His gospel.
Three Homilies from the Gospel of John
John 6:38 - Jesus Came to Do the Will of His Father
John 10:10 - Jesus Came to Give Abundant Life to His People
John 12:46 - Jesus Came to Give Light to Those in Darkness
Theme: Jesus was born in Bethlehem not to be enthroned as king, but to die in humble service as the ransom for His sin-enslaved people.
Theme: Jesus Christ’s rescue of sinners justly separated from God necessarily divides people as it cuts across humanity like a sword.
Theme: The Father sent His Son Jesus to the world to offer perfect obedience, to be crucified, and to be raised from the dead, destroying Satan’s God-opposing works.
Theme: God has promised to save His people from their sins by His Son, and the Bible’s covenants reveal that God never fails to keep His promises.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: Despite the redo of Noah’s flood, darkness still hovers over the earth, but Light is coming.
Thanksgiving Service 2023- Mitch Kimbrell delivers a sermon written by Charles Spurgeon on the theme of offering thanks and praise to God.
Theme: Because the seed is desperately needed, God promises to protect and preserve his coming, so that you can be rescued from his wrath and his church can be built.
Theme: Mankind is judged with deadly destruction, but God saves Noah and his family, a salvation that heralds the Father saving His people through His Son.
Theme: To a world characterized by death and rampant wickedness, God ensures rest from sin's curse by keeping His promise through His servant.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Theme: The seed of the serpent are marked by sin and exile from God while the seed of the woman enjoy covenant relationship with the LORD—even when they suffer bloody death at the hand of their brothers.
Theme: Adam’s sin brings the judgment of death into God’s good world, setting the stage for the promise of the serpent-crushing seed of the woman who will bring mankind back to life with God.
Theme: In the creation of Adam and Eve, the Lord God reveals His intention to lovingly care for His image-bearers in the context of covenantal relationship.
Theme: God the Father, through His Son and by His Spirit, created everything from nothing, thereby revealing that He is able to bring life from where there is no life.
Theme: The Lord promised that the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, would crush the serpent's head and be the fountainhead of a great nation. That seed is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who in His life, death, and resurrection undoes the curse of sin and brings rest and blessing to His people.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
Through the victory of Christ, God has and will cause His people to have victory over their enemies and to experience the blessings of covenant faithfulness.
Only the new covenant sealed in Jesus' blood, which is prophesied by the old covenant renewed by Joshua at Shechem, can deliver God's people from their sin
God will graciously and thoroughly fulfill His every promise to give His people the inheritance through the greater Joshua, Jesus Christ.
The Lord is leading his people to complete victory and rest, making peace with and defending those who seek him by faith, but bringing certain destruction to all who battle against him in unbelief.
Pastors Mitch Kimbrell and Craig Combs (and their occasional special guests) talk about all the things they can't get to on Sunday morning in a wide-ranging conversation that can often find itself in a pleasant detour along the way.
You can find the new CMC Audio (Sermons) Podcast here (for Apple Podcasts) and here (for Spotify). If your feed does not support hyperlinks they are spelled out in full below.
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cmc-audio-sermons/id1542779452 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1S8KWFKkRdquODAv8YlmWg
You will either be faithfully devoted to the Lord and experience His blessing, or you will be devoted to the Lord in destruction and experience His curse.
Those who will possess the land of promise are those—Jew and Gentile—whom the Lord has saved through judgment and has brought into covenant relationship with Himself.
The hope that belongs to Christ’s Church is future glory, when the life of Christ will be ours to the fullest extent.
The all-glorious God has revealed Himself to His Church so that she might respond to Him in delighted devotion.
The church's ethic is love for God and for each other because love is the fulfillment of God's law and because God is making us like His Son, Who is love.
The Word of God is the Church’s food because the same word that brings us to life in Christ also guides us through the life of faith in Him.
Jesus Christ leads his own church according to his Word through the leaders and servants he chooses – who all seek to be like him in godliness and humility.
The Lord Jesus Christ has given to His church two signs of the union that all His people have with Him and each other through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The humble receive Jesus and His message as good news and are saved, while the proud reject Jesus and are condemned.
Seeing and beholding the glory [beauty] of Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection is critical to growth in holiness and believing that Christ is the centerpiece of all of Scripture is the key to strongly beholding Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ has demonstrably been resurrected from the dead and has visibly ascended to heaven where He empowers His people by His Spirit to proclaim His name to all nations.
Those with eyes opened to know the Risen Christ, the Savior the Bible has always promised, now have living fellowship with Him – a truth that makes the heart burn!
Announced by angels and in fulfillment of His own prophecies, the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead.
The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and buried to bring all His people—Jew and Gentile—with Him into His Kingdom.
Jesus was despised and rejected by men and sentenced to death as the Substitute for those deserving of despising, rejection, and death because of their sin.
Jesus and His disciples descend into the darkness of temptation, but Jesus emerges as the obedient Son, fully qualified to save His people at the cross.
Jesus Christ the King has served his people as our Passover lamb, by whose death believers are spared from judgment and granted access into the promised kingdom of God.
A watchful readiness is the only proper Christian response to the Savior’s teaching about His return, which will come suddenly.
Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Scriptures, will make you a son of the resurrection through faith; therefore, put aside hypocrisy and trust him sincerely by giving up all that you have.
The whole Bible proclaims that the Lord Jesus Christ would conquer death by His resurrection, which ensures the resurrection of His people.
Through the first Adam’s sin, death came to all who are in him. Through the second Adam’s death, life came to all who are in Him.
God’s long-promised salvation for all peoples comes with authority at the hand of his crucified and risen Son, Jesus Christ, to whom everything is due.
The nature and timing of Jesus’ reign is unexpected by many and it is rejected by the Jewish religious leaders, so make certain that you are rejoicing in him with the proper allegiance of faith.
Jesus brings kingdom salvation to the most unlikely sinners who receive Him gladly, but He rejects those who proudly refuse His lordship.
Having faith at the arrival of the Son of Man is evidenced by persistent and hopeful prayer for His return.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of Man Who established the Kingdom of God in His first advent and will return to setup His Kingdom forever.
The faith that gratefully receives Jesus’ cleansing salvation produces persevering service for fellow disciples.
The Law has warned us that sons of the Kingdom selflessly live for God’s eternal comfort, not temporal pleasures, through faith in Christ.
The faith that secures your eternal dwelling looks like stewarding your wealth in order to shrewdly prepare for the coming judgment.
Following Christ by faith alone is all or nothing...only those who make Christ all, even unto death, will avoid final humiliation and loss.
Those who recognize that they are spiritually poor, crippled, lame, and blind, and humbly trust in the Savior for saving grace, will feast eternally at Christ’s banquet table.
If our church is going to grow so as to continue to plant, replant, and revitalize locally and beyond, we must be committed to heralding the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Throughout the Scriptures are promises that Emmanuel will come again to save, judge, and reign, and His people are marked by love for His return.
The presence of God, lost to us in sin, has been restored to believers through the coming of Jesus Christ, whose saving work conquers sin to secure life in God’s presence forever.
The promise of Emmanuel is the promise of light to deliver sinners from the darkness of sin and death, a promise designed to stimulate trust in the merciful, covenant-keeping God.
The Kingdom of God is steadily gaining ground, and those who are not willing to receive the King of the Kingdom will be shut out into eternal judgment.
Those who do not repent from their sins and believe on Christ will be cut down by Christ.
Jesus’ coming to culminate His kingdom is near at hand, so be ready now for His return.
The Father has given to His children everything by giving us citizenship in His heavenly kingdom. Therefore, we can live generously and without anxiety about our earthly needs.
Jesus asserts his power over darkness by confronting religious unbelief with the light of his gospel and he arms you to mightily advance his kingdom.
Genuine disciples demonstrate their love for God by listening to His Son and by asking of Him as children of the heavenly Father.
Jesus reveals that a “neighbor” is any member of the New Covenant community, a status demonstrated by showing love to other members of the New Covenant community and thus inheriting eternal life.
The Kingdom of God comes near in gospel proclamation, and those blessed by God to see receive it in faith...they urgently follow Jesus at all costs.
God’s promised salvation, always intended for Gentiles and Jews, has now been accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and must be proclaimed to all the nations.
Because God’s mission is to fill the earth with His glory, the church must have a holy obsession with proclaiming God’s glory in the gospel of His Son.
The incomparable transcendence of brotherly love helps believers to keep love as the overarching goal and driving force of their lives.
If Christ Memorial Church is to continue to bear gospel fruit in the decades to come, we must be clear on what the Bible says and does not say about being born again.
The Church must be committed to the Bible as the only guide for faith and life, because it is the very Word of God which gives life in Christ.
Those whom Christ has redeemed eternally by His blood have been rescued from covenant cursing and have been rescued to covenant blessing.
Through the obedience of Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, God restores the royal seed and redeems his people; a redemption ultimately accomplished in Jesus Christ, our great king.
Ruth’s plea for redemption is eagerly answered by her redeemer, and so also for all those who call in faith on the great Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
From the mundane to the hopeless events in life, God is providentially at work revealing your need for a redeemer. Therefore, trust in God’s ultimate Redeemer, Jesus Christ; the one who can deliver you and give you hope in whatever situation you face.
The Lord’s divine providence orchestrates seemingly hopeless situations to bring about redemption and a Ruler for His people.
We must celebrate the victory of our delivering king, who reverses fortunes through his death to save his people from their enemy.
Because of his high exaltation, Jesus Christ is able to establish your welfare and peace by completely destroying all of God’s enemies, therefore join him in the fight and triumph in him.
The enemy of God’s people is defeated, a defeat that prophecies of Christ’s death and resurrection and elicits gladness and joy from all who have been rescued from that enemy.
Esther’s portrayal of redemptive history (both the already and not yet of our redemption) enables us to enter Jesus’ rest by faith even amidst massive unresolved tensions, helping us to celebrate the blessed already and anticipate the glorious not yet.
God's people mourn a real enemy, who accuses them with a lawful sentence of death, therefore they are in desperate need of deliverance... and Jesus willingly died to secure that deliverance.
Even when the people of God seem most defeated and the promise of God seems most questionable, God is sovereignly working all things together to raise up deliverance for His people through Jesus Christ.
God causes his covenant promise of salvation in Christ to stand through His sovereign reversal of fortunes.
The surefire antidote to apostasy—and a means by which God will keep those who are His sons and daughters—is a holy obsession with the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplished by fixing your eyes on Him where He can be found.
The life of acceptable worship is a sacrifice of praise, marked by ongoing love and faithful suffering, and energized to persevere by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Those who hear—and persevere in hearing—God’s Son with the ears of saving faith will escape God’s fiery, all-consuming destruction and will dwell eternally in His unshakable kingdom.
As those who have experienced the profound joys and privileges of the New Covenant, Christians must strive together for the peace and holiness that flows from their privileged place.
Enduring faith in Christ is painful, but that pain is God’s discipline designed to make us holy and thus prove we are his sons.
The faith that results in the preservation of your soul lays hold of God’s as-yet-unseen promises concerning Jesus Christ and is the faith possessed by all the saints of all the ages.
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead secured the forgiveness of sin, the freedom from sin-slavery, and the eternal life for all who would believe on Him.
God’s rescue of Israel through the Passover and the Red Sea is a foretold promise of Christ’s salvation – he redeems his congregation by blood and frees us from bondage!
You must endure in faith in Christ so that you don’t fall into the living God’s wrathful hands and thus suffer God’s eternal vengeance and judgment.
Remember, Jesus has opened our way to God as our great high priest, so let’s endure together in faith, hope, and love.
Only the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (the only offering God desires) makes believers holy forever and grounds their standing in the New Covenant with all its benefits.
Through Christ’s high priestly sacrifice of Himself in the heavenly Holy of Holies, He saves His people, cleanses them, and gives them sure hope in their final salvation though Him at the last Day.
On the real Day of Atonement, Christ entered into the true Holy of Holies with the only blood that purifies a conscience, His own blood, and was made fit to be mediator of the New Covenant that promises its partakers an eternal inheritance.
Old Covenant tabernacle worship, with earthly types of heavenly things still to come, has given way to Christ the high priest who enters the holiest place by his own blood...and brings believers with him to God!
Jesus’ priestly ministry is better in both its heavenly place and covenant promises, so keep clinging to this better priest.
The Son of God is of a superior priestly order and therefore mediates a superior covenant—a covenant by which He actually saves His people to the uttermost. So, trust in Him and His high priestly work alone for your salvation.
We can be diligent to persevere in our faith because God has sworn by Himself to fulfill His new covenant promise to us through our great Melchizedekian High Priest.
While the Lord promises to keep all who have genuinely been born again from ever being lost, the Bible’s warnings not to apostatize are evidence of the Lord’s kindness since they help His people not to fall away.
Those whom the Lord saves inevitably make progress in sanctification while those who profess Christ but never grow past spiritual infancy reveal themselves never to have been in Christ in the first place.
Our great high priest is the Son-King, the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose priesthood is sympathetic and merciful and superior to the Old Covenant priesthood. So, hold fast to Him!
The all-sovereign King Jesus has commissioned His people to fill the earth with those who bear His image by proclaiming the gospel. Are youobeying the King’s happy command?
Praise, regular praise, euphoric heart-felt praise is commanded and critical for a healthy spirituality.
Jesus, born under the law, is declared to be God’s salvation to all nations, therefore all people everywhere will be divided in response to Him.
The birth of the one promised to herald the arrival of the Messiah proved that God was keeping His promise to deliver His people from sin and death. Has God’s work put a joyful song of deliverance on your lips?
No matter the situation, the soul that sees and embraces by faith God’s promise of salvation through Jesus Christ alone can sing a God- magnifying song for His faithful saving acts.
Most of Israel didn’t enter the Promised Land because of faithless disobedience, but entry into the eternal Promised Land remains available today for any who believe on Christ, demonstrated by persevering obedience.
When your profession of faith is threatened by the hardening effects of sin, you must watch out, because only those who persevere with tender-hearted faith will escape damnation and share in Christ.
The house that Jesus, the One greater than Moses, built by means of His death and resurrection is the house that consists of all who hold fast to Him by faith all the way to the end.
The Son, not angels, is the One to Whom all creation will one day be subject because the Son conquered death and the devil through His obedient sacrifice and has become high priest of all who believe. Hold fast to your priest and king!
Since God’s great salvation is now accomplished and fully revealed in the incomparable Son of God, we must continue to pay close attention to what the Son has said to us, lest we drift away from His message to our ruin.
Believers need to bless God for putting us on the path to life in Christ alone, and to seek God for the grace to hold fast to it lest the church drift from that singular path to the harm of souls.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, enjoys a relationship to the Father far superior to that of God’s angels because of His unique sonship, His glory, and His preeminence. Join with the angels in worshipping and serving God’s Son!
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Father’s full and final revelation to mankind. Because of Who He is and what He has done, you must listen to Him for eternal life.
The Lord Jesus Christ far surpasses anything else to which you might be tempted to turn for salvation, so look to Him alone all your life long, or be the object of His terrible wrath on the last Day.
In light of the sure hope of your resurrection to eternal life with Jesus when He returns, you can freely expend every resource now for the sake of the advance of the gospel.
Paul, facing imminent martyrdom, issues final instructions to Timothy about various things laced with a confident hope in God’s final deliverance.
This is part two of the charge given by CMC founder and senior pastor Wes Pastor on the occasion of the installation of our new senior pastor, Mitch Kimbrell.
This is part one of the charge given by CMC founder and senior pastor Wes Pastor on the occasion of the installation of our new senior pastor, Mitch Kimbrell.
The solemn duty of all pastors (and elders) is to proclaim the gospel incessantly, firmly, patiently, and urgently to protect the sheep from losing it and their souls.
To fulfill their ministry amid hardship, church leaders must not forget apostolic suffering and must hold firmly to sacred Scripture which equips them for service.
Immoral and deceptive false teachers are characteristic of this present age, so the church must avoid these people as we await the end when their wickedness will be exposed.
As soldiers of Christ Jesus, church leaders are called to be faithful to the gospel itself and to be holy as befits that gospel.
Our willingness to suffer hardship for the gospel is helped considerably by gaining a better grasp of suffering’s outcomes.
Faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ inevitably brings hardship upon believers, but a faithful God guards what we have entrusted to Him as we suffer to guard what God has entrusted to us.
From start to finish, the call of Jesus Christ is a call to endure hardship and suffering because of the gospel, but God promises to reward all those who answer that call ultimately with eternal safety in His heavenly kingdom.
When the Day of the Lord is completed at Christ’s return, His people will be fully united, fully transformed, fully rescued from all enemies, and living in rapturous joy in the very presence of King Jesus.
Before the day of desolating judgment, humbly seek the Lord Jesus, whose righteous remnant is saved to inherit the earth.
God is threatening to make idolators like you an object of his divine wrath as a burnt offering, therefore look to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ with fear and thankfulness.
On the Day of the Lord, foreshadowed by the Babylonian destruction and exile of Judah and Jerusalem, Jesus Christ will put down His enemies with great power and restore His people with great love.
How did Jesus say that He wants you to read the Old Testament? Pastor Mitch Kimbrell answers that question as we finish our "Seeing Christ in the Old Testament" devotional series.
On the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, will you be stubble or a calf? Find out in this devotional by Pastor Craig Combs from the Book of Malachi.
Jesus said in Matthew 11 that the prophet Malachi wrote of Jesus and the one who would herald Jesus' coming. How did Malachi do that, and what did he say about Jesus? Find out in this devotional from Pastor Mitch Kimbrell in the Book of Malachi.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world and enables us to walk in the same manner as Christ walked.
How does Zechariah teach us about the work of the Holy Spirit? Find out in this devotional from Pastor Caleb Abernathy.
How does a 2,500-year-old prophecy about someone called "the Branch" provide you with encouragement and hope today? Pastor Craig Combs shows us in this devotional from the Book of Zechariah.
Why do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rely on Zechariah so much to interpret the last days of Jesus' life before His resurrection? Join Pastor Mitch Kimbrell in this introduction to Zechariah to find out.
The work of saving faith, peculiar to Christ’s church, is love for God, especially as it is manifested in love for fellow believers.
Are you working to build your own house or the house of the Lord? Check your heart and check out Pastor Eric's devotional from the prophet Haggai.
How does the book of Zephaniah call us to sing with joy? Find out in this devotional from Pastor Caleb Abernathy.
How does the Day of the Lord teach you about Christ, and how does the prophet Zephaniah tell you to be rescued from God's wrath on that Day? Check out Pastor Mitch's devotional from the Book of Zephaniah.
Repentance is not only a central component to saving faith, but the key ingredient to walking by faith, for without repentance, there is no real change.
How does a prophecy of judgment that will come to Israel through a wicked nation reveal the justice and mercy of Christ? Pastor Wes mines the riches of Habakkuk in this devotional.
What could a prophecy about the destruction of an ancient empire possibly teach you about Christ's death on the cross and His Second Coming? Pastor Craig Combs answers that question in this devotional from the Book of Nahum.
What is God's disposition toward our salvation? In this devotional from Micah Pastor Caleb Abernathy teaches us God's attitude toward keeping his salvation promises.
The cost of faith is self-denial and the sacrifice of all things in favor of whole-hearted and unceasing devotion to Christ.