Heritage Presbyterian Church

God's wisdom is His ability to use His knowledge and His power to accomplish His purposes in such a way, that brings him the most glory, most benefits his people, and most confounds his enemies. Hallelujah!

Thank you for posting all of Dr Morecrafts sermons! They are a real TREASURE!

In explaining the theme of Psalm 32, Dr. Morecraft quotes from John Calvin that "true happiness consists only in the free forgiveness of sins, for nothing can be more terrible than to have God for our enemy."

Thank you for this. Great series, and this is the best explanation of - and defense of - tithing that I've ever heard!

Excellent teaching

This was such an encouraging sermon and I understood things I never saw before. Such clear delivery and easy to grasp. The Lord be praised for Dr Morecraft

Dr. Morecraft explains that the most powerful way of praying is to pray like David prayed. First, turn revealed truths about God into loving adoration of God. Adore God, that is, tell God things about Himself thatyoulove. Take what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible and turn that into loving adoration of God. Secondly, take the covenant promises of God and turn them into petitions to God to do what He promised. This kind of praying (of turning revealed truths about God into loving adoration of Him, and turning covenant promises into petitions to Him) only flows out of a life of repentance, faith, covenant faithfulness, life in the Word of God, and hope.

To illustrate the point that God will vex the enemies of His church, Dr. Morecraft quotes from William Plumer's Studies in the Book of Psalms: "Of thirty Roman Emperors, governors of provinces and others high in office, who distinguished themselves by their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early Christians, one became speedily deranged after some atrocious cruelty, one was slain by his own son, one became blind, the eyes of one started out of his head, one was drowned, one was strangled, one died in a miserable captivity, one fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital, one died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled his room, two committed suicide, a third attempted it, but had to call for help to finish the work, five were assassinated by their own people or servants, five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle or after being taken prisoners. Among these was Julian the apostate . . . when he was wounded in battle, he saw that all was over with him, and he gathered up his clotted blood, and threw it into the air, exclaiming, 'Thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean.'"

Among other things, Dr. Morecraft discusses the progression in the metaphors from walking to standing to sitting. If you walk with the ungodly, you're going to start standing with them. And if you stand with them, you're going to start sitting in hardness with them and in impenitence and stubbornness of heart. This warning about walking, standing, and sitting with the ungodly reminds us of the increasing grip evil practices and evil habits have on a person; of the increasing paralysis that sin produces. It causes a person gradually to degenerate when sin is left alone in his or her life. Sin is not something to play with. Sin is ambitious; it's always trying to get you to do something that's more evil, and something that's more evil after that. If you walk with the evil people, you will start standing with the evil people. If you start standing with them, then you'll become as defiant in your refusal to live for God as they have been.

As Dr. Morecraft explains, you need to be teaching yourself the Word of God. You should be involved in self-instruction, reading and meditating upon the Word of God yourself. But not in an individualistic way because self-instruction must always take place within the context of the community of the Reformed faith. It takes the Reformed community, existing throughout history, to understand the Word of God. If you're trying to educate yourself in the Word of God, and all you have is yourself and your Bible, that will not be adequate. Your own personal interpretation is not sufficient to work through many of the difficulties and hard places of the Scriptures. You need the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit works in our lives through the community of God's people throughout the ages. Read what the community of the Reformed faith believed through the centuries. As a solitary individual it can be hard to know how to understand some Bible verses. But if they are looked at in terms of 2000 years of Christian community, that will provide a breadth and depth of understanding for self-instruction. This means reading the Bible in the light of great preachers or writers about the Bible throughout history.

Dr. Morecraft explains that when God's blessings are mediated to other people through our mouths, then wise words and power become almost synonymous. (Proverbs 10:11a, "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life"). When we mediate God's blessings to a culture through our mouths, through teaching people what the Bible says about life, then our wise words and cultural power become almost synonymous. God makes the wise counsel of His people powerful, a fountain of life, when they try to teach and convince other people what the truth is. The righteous, therefore, enrich a community when that community takes their advice. God wants each Christian to use his mouth to be a fountain of life in this American culture.

Dr. Morecraft explains that the word "hope" in the Bible is used differently than modern Americans use it. Modern Americans say things like, "it's supposed to rain today, but I hope it doesn't." Hope in the Bible isn't used in the sense of "I hope so" in modern English. The word "hope" in the Old Testament involves at least two elements. First is confident assurance in God's faithfulness to His Word. A Christian has confidence that whatever happens in the future, God is going to fulfill His Word. A Christian believes God's Word to be true and is confident that God will cause it to be true in his life. The second element is expectation. The Christian expects that good things are going to happen in his life and in the lives of his descendants as they are faithful to God. He expects certain good things to happen and he knows they're going to happen because God has promised them. Whatever God has promised he knows will take place. God has His own timetable, but nevertheless the Christian is absolutely confident and assured that He will perform what He has promised, and he expects those things to happen. Therefore, true believers in Jesus can be joyfully and intelligently optimistic about the future whatever it holds.

Amen, brother Morecraft. The earth is most certainly the Lord’s and all its fullness.

Another amazing sermon!

Dr. Morecraft explains that one of the ways that righteousness delivers is by practical obedience to God's law for the sake of Jesus. When you seek to bring your life, inside and out, into more consistent conformity to what God demands of you, not because you're trying to merit salvation, but because you love Jesus, that is a fortress for you. That protects you from temptations, troubles, stumbling blocks in the road that would knock you down if you weren't trying to live for Christ. That is, when you're trying to live a righteous life and obey God's law, there are certain persons you are going to avoid. There are certain places you are going to avoid. There are certain activities you are going to avoid. There are certain thoughts you are not going to dwell on. There are certain forms of behavior that you are not going to involve yourself in. And so by doing that, practical obedience delivers you from all those stumbling blocks, troubles, and temptations in life that cause people who live unwise lives to fall down every day. Righteousness does deliver.