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It is very common for us to tell our children that Jesus Christ died for our sins. The problem is that we are not explaining the background. In many ways it becomes non-sensical or they believe that He died for their sins, but they really do not understand how the death of one person on a tree can pay for the sins of the world. So whenever we are talking about the gospel, we must set the context or the parameters. God is many things: He is holy, He is just, He is merciful, He is compassionate. But all of these attributes exist in God in perfect harmony. This presents a problem: man has sinned and the justice of God demands that that man be punished, but the compassion of God demands that that man be saved.

Sometimes we have a wrong understanding of assurance when we think of assurance as a zero-sum game: "you either have it or you do not." There can be degrees of assurance. There is full assurance and there is assurance that can wax and wane.  I am reminded of the father who had a son who had a demon that the disciples could not cast out. The man pled with Jesus, “If you can do anything, please help.” Jesus looked at the man and responded, “All things are possible to those who believe.” And the man said, “Help my unbelief!” That is the cry of a Christian who is struggling with assurance.  Assurance is a gift of God that comes with a saving faith in Christ Jesus. It may not necessarily be full assurance. Some people get that immediately upon trusting in Christ. The Lord seals it to their hearts through the Holy Spirit and they never struggle with doubts. This is not always the case and there are faithful Christians who have struggled with assurance their whole lives.  There is an element of assurance that resides in saving faith and it needs to be cultivated by us. "Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure...” (1 Peter 1:10) No Christian should ever be satisfied to live with low levels of assurance and we must ask God to help. Believe God over yourself. 

Everyday we break God's commandments because sin came into this world and invaded what God created to be good. When our first father, Adam, rebelled against God, we, in Adam, ran away as well. We all came into this world as sinners and this is why we continue sinning in our lives. This is why we need a Savior. We can try to clean ourselves up, but we cannot stop sinning because it is mixed in our thoughts and in our attitudes. The only way we can get out of this is by trusting in what God has done for us in Christ. We must listen to what God has said about us and His provision to sinners like you and me through His love and mercy. Jesus was born to do what God requires of you and me: live a perfectly righteous life, not once disobeying God's commandments. Christ is the only righteous person that has ever lived yet He willingly agreed to pay for the sins of sinners. It is by His life and His death that sinners like you and me can come to be accepted by God. When you turn from your sin and trust the Lord Jesus, God will accept you and you will come to know God. You will be reconciled and be adopted into the family of God.

In Genesis 1, God creates male and female in His image and commands them to be fruitful and multiple. They are told to fill the earth and take dominion. In Genesis 2, Adam is told to work the garden and we see that it is not good for him to be alone. He needs a helper suitable to him so that they can care for the garden that God has planted. They are to spread the image of God through the whole earth which is quite difficult because of their fall. In Genesis 3, that curse addresses man and the work he is given to do. It also addresses woman and the work she is given to do.

There are various attributes that come to the forefront when considering the doctrine of God. One is divine simplicity. God is not simple so what does this mean? It has to do with the unity of God. God is one. This is traced back to the name "I AM THAT I AM" in Exodus 3. It describes that God is all that He is all the time. He does not have the potential to be anything other than He is. Some would say that this makes God strange to us and that He is like a stone that does not have the potential to move and flow with us in all the changes in our lives. But it really means that God has no potential to be other than He is because everything that He is is perfect. We talk about attributes as ways of describing the one essence of God. The doctrine of divine simplicity simply tells us that God is. He does not have love or have goodness or have truth. He is love. He is goodness. He is truth. More than this, He is not any of these attributes in parts. He is fully love and fully goodness and fully truth. This has wide-ranging implications for the Christian life. This means that God does not have the potential to be more loving or less loving. He simply is love in the infinity of His being.

Just because the knowledge of God disappears from a nation does not mean that worship stops. In Romans 1, we see that man turns from worshipping the Creator to worshipping the creature. People will fashion an idol and continue to worship. This is a scary thing to consider. It is evidenced in the Old Testament and warned against in the New Testament. If you forget the one true God, you won't become an atheist. You will simply be worshipping something else.

The demons know about God's sovereignty, power, mercy, and judgement. They know that Jesus Christ came to die on the cross for sins, rose again on the third day, and sits on the right hand of the Father. They know that He is above principalities and powers. They do not believe that God loves them. They do not believe that God gave His son for them. Belief is a personal appropriation of the work of Christ for us. We are to believe that God died on the cross for our sins. We must believe that He loves us and gave Himself for us. This is substantially different than the belief of the demons.

It is amazing that this word "mercies" is used in a plural form. In Hebrew, to refer to a small body of water, you would say "water." When you want to refer to the ocean or the sea you would say "waters." We often read in the scriptures of the "mercy of God," but we also see the "mercies of God." Mercy itself has to do with pity, but particularly the pity of someone who has authority and is capable with regard to those under his authority that are incapable. We are in constant need of the mercies of God. The greatest revelation of the mercy of God is the cross of Christ which is a finished and accomplished work.

"God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself, is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them..." ~ 1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 2 When we talk about the self-sufficiency of God, we are saying that He needs nothing else. He needs no cause for Himself. He is His own cause. He is not even in need of us giving Him glory because He is glorious in and of Himself. "For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness." Psalm 50:10-12

This is the most important question that a man can ask. How do we break this down for a child? The best way to begin is to think about how we know one another. We might know things about a person without personally knowing the individual. The only way we can know each other is to communicate with one another. In the Bible, God communicates to us. So we go to the Bible to hear what God says about Himself and us. This is how we learn who He is. But there is still a breakdown in this relationship. Something has to be overcome so that we can truly know God. The Bible tells of Jesus Christ. We read the Word of God, learn who Jesus is, go to Him as a sinner, and pray that the Holy Spirit would teach us to know God through Christ. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." - John 17:3

James 2:19 "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" Even the demons believe. Then what is Biblical, saving faith? James is not primarily pointing out that the content of demonic faith is fundamentally different than the content of saving faith. The demons believe in God and tremble. They know Him in His judgment. The difference is not that one impacts you and one does not. The primary difference is that the demons do not view the eternal triune God through the beauty of the Redeemer. Redemption is not for them. They view God and they hate Him. They do not long for and desire peace with God. Saving faith views God through the redemptive labors of Jesus Christ. This love crashes through every wall between us and our Creator.

Scott Brown discusses the topic of marriage in the sermon. If both a husband and a wife keep their eyes on Christ, there will always be hope for your marriage. Marriage is one of the most defining and impactful things that a person will ever embark on in their life. Entering into a marriage should not be something that should be taken lightly. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV) - "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."