Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 26 to 50 of 54 results

Zechariah 3:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... ." I want to tell you before you get saved, you, too, are an orphan sinner with no Father and no Savior. But when you are robed in the righteousness of God, you become an accepted part of His family. That is why we can sing: Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. c. He Was Crowned "And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by." (v.5) Now the turban ...

27. Saved by Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Illustration

David Augsburger

Since nothing we intend is ever faultless, and nothing we attempt ever without error, and nothing we achieve without some measure of finitude and fallibility we call humanness, we are saved by forgiveness.

28. Philippians 3:4b-14

Philippians 3:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... religious and ritual observance of the law, Paul’s zeal to abide by every jot and title of the law, allows him to proclaim proudly that “according to righteousness which is in the law,” he was by definition “blameless,” even “faultless.” Suddenly Paul does an about face: after building a pyramid of Jewish pride he turns upside down the expectations of his listeners. In startlingly bad language Paul declares that all his previous attributes and accomplishments are nothing but “loss.” Even ...

29. Advent 3

Psalm 126:1-6, Isaiah 61:1-11, John 1:6-8, 19-28, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... always wholehearted. Our hearts and minds are often arrogant, prejudiced, unchangeable. Our bodies are too prone to rule us, and bad habits jeopardize our health. Forgive our faults and fulfill your promise through the communion of the Holy Spirit that we may be faultless when our Lord Jesus comes, to the glory of your great name. Amen Declaration of Pardon Pastor: Friends, hear the good news! God’s mercy is sure from generation to generation, and firm in the promise to our ancestors. People: God will not ...

30. Advent 1

Psalm 25:1-22, Jeremiah 33:1-26, Luke 21:25-36, 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... to the state of the nations and the immaturity of our souls, for the sake of your perfect Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Amen. Declaration of Pardon Pastor: Friends, hear the Good News! God is confirming your heartfelt belief People: so that we will stand faultless with all those who appear with Jesus before our Maker. Pastor: Friends, believe the Good News! People: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Exhortation Keep awake and sober. The Son of Man is coming with great power and glory. Hold your heads high, for ...

31. Proper 21

Psalm 91:1-16, Jeremiah 32:1-44, Luke 16:19-31, 1 Timothy 6:6-19

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... is marvelous. To live in your presence is a great honor. To have inherited the faith of Jesus and the apostles is a priceless heritage. We would express our thankfulness by making a faithful confession in the presence of many witnesses and living faultlessly until our Lord Jesus Christ appear. Amen. PRAYER OF DEDICATION Nowhere, invisible God, do we meet you more intimately than at the table of our Lord Jesus. Graciously receive our humble gifts. Transform our offerings into acts of love to one another and ...

32. Preaching God's Reformation

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... God. Not just the Hebrew people, either, but all people, all ages, and all economic levels. God will be known by all the people of the earth. For the Christian community, this has been neatly summarized in the book of Hebrews. "For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one. God finds fault with them when he says, 'The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not ...

33. Good News for Widows

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Widows in Bible times lived extremely difficult lives. When the writer of the epistle of James thought of responsibilities that Christians have, here is one of the most important. He writes: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress . . .” Some of you know about that distress. There is the emptiness, the loneliness, and sometimes there is financial hardship besides. But, at least, most widows today are somewhat provided ...

34. The Fellowship of Kindred Minds

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the degrees he had earned, assets he had accumulated, the places he had traveled, churches he had built nor the people he knew. He had it. He just didn’t need to flaunt it. This soldier of the cross was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a zealous and faultless Pharisee, educated in the exclusive school of Gamaliel. He had personally sailed to every known port in the Middle East building a church in every place. Instead of mentioning all of that, Paul says simply, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” The ...

35. Going For the Gold

Philippians 3:4-14

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... be" as a Christian? It really is not that hard, but you have got to want it first. Desire! Once the desire is there, what next? Listen to Paul. "... in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" (Philippians 3:5-6). Paul began with desire but fleshed it out with discipline. He worked hard to learn what was expected of him, and then he acted on it. Discipline is not a high priority for most church people these days. We are more than content ...

36. Born at Bethlehem — Hope

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... name. When darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil. When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found! Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne! On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand; All other ground is sinking sand. Micah had a breathtaking view atop his prophetic vantage point. The ocean of time stretched out before him with the waves of ...

37. The Supremacy of Christ

Colossians 1:15-23

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... believe that the terminology used here has a sacrificial or cultic meaning (cf. Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19). However, the main idea appears to be judicial, that is, those who have been reconciled to God are acquitted of all charges; they are holy, pure, and faultless when they stand before him (Eph. 5:27; Jude 24). The message for the Colossians is that all of this is true for them now. This is their standing before God because it is his gift to them through Christ. Nevertheless, there is a future aspect in ...

38. Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... (see the comment on 1:6). He uses three adverbs, holy, righteous and blameless. On the basis of their meaning in classical Greek, the first two are thought by some to refer to their Godward and their manward conduct respectively, and the third to their faultless conduct in both respects. It is unlikely, however, that these distinctions held good by the time that Paul wrote. The dative case that follows must also be taken into account. NIV reads among you, but it may be better to take the dative as meaning ...

39. The High Priest of a New Covenant

Hebrews 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... –8a By first covenant the author means the Sinai covenant (see v. 9) and not chronologically the first covenant of the Bible (whether with Noah or Abraham), just as by another he means in context that referred to by Jeremiah. Nothing wrong translates the word “faultless” or “blameless” (amēmptos), which occurs only here in Hebrews. The argument of v. 7 is similar to that of 7:11, i.e., if the old is sufficient, then why is a further reality mentioned in the text of Scripture? The perfect tense of ...

40. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... not based on knowledge,” he is drawing a pen portrait of the man he himself once was, endeavoring by his persecuting zeal to set up his own way of getting right with God. In fact, as for legalistic righteousness, he says, I was faultless. This is Paul’s Christian assessment of his pre-Christian attainment, made from the perspective of nearly thirty years of apostolic ministry. No Jew could have achieved more in devotion to his ancestral heritage. The parents of John the Baptist are commended because of ...

41. The Lamb and the 144,000

Revelation 14:1-5

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... time? Is our life energy directed inward in selfishness or outward in service? This text calls us, the bride of Christ, to spiritual faithfulness as opposed to the spiritual adultery that is so common. As James puts it, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (1:27; cf. 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Pet. 3:14). 2. As believers, we have a future worth looking forward to. Revelation calls ...

42. “Show Me Your Ways, Lord”

Psalm 25:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... caused him. Their hatred, as hatred directed toward any person’s life, has contributed to David’s sense of alienation and elevated his consciousness of sin, which only God can alleviate. 25:21 May integrity and uprightness protect me. The psalmist’s faultless and upright character is the source, even the instrument, of his well-being. These character attributes, in a personified way, have become the sentinels of the psalmist’s life (see also the personification of attributes in Pss. 23:6; 43:3 ...

43. Wisdom’s Final Appeals

Proverbs 8:1-36

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... to those most in need of understanding (8:4–5). In verses 6–9 she stresses the moral excellence rather than the eloquence of her speech: it is trustworthy, right (cf. Prov. 1:3; 2:9), reliable, righteous, honest (cf. Prov. 24:26), and faultless, devoid of any deception or perversion. Thus her instruction is more valuable than the most precious metals (8:10; 3:14); indeed, wisdom is incomparably desirable (8:11 = 3:15, briefly abandoning the personification for a third-person reference to wisdom). 8:12 ...

44. Paul’s Life as an Example of the Truth of the Gospel

Philippians 3:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Jews could not boast. Paul’s personal convictions while a Jew also gave him reason to boast of his Jewish distinctives: his attitude toward the law was that of the strict sect of the Pharisees; he was a zealous persecutor of the church; he was faultless in his strict observance of the law. Few Jews could match Paul’s claims, and Paul’s Jewish credentials show that he is fully competent by Jewish standards to judge any issue involving Jewish law or “confidence in the flesh.” Paul’s opposition to ...

45. Righteousness Through Faith

Romans 3:21-31

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... justice, a “therefore.” The party in the wrong hopes for mercy, a “nevertheless.” But Paul has shown in 1:18–3:20 that all people stand justly condemned by God. Neither Jew nor Gentile is innocent; both are guilty. What to the morally faultless is a travesty is to the sinner grace. There is thus no “injustice” in God’s imputing righteousness to sinners—at least humanly speaking—for as sinners all humanity stands under God’s wrath, and justly so. The only injustice might be to God ...

46. Struggling with Sin

Romans 7:7-25

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... prior to his conversion. Moreover, nowhere in Paul’s pre-conversion experience do we find, as we do here, a dirge of such desperation. A review of his pre-conversion life, in fact, reveals not frustration and struggle, but confidence (“as for legalistic righteousness, faultless,” Phil. 3:4–6). Paul had boasted of fulfilling the law as a Pharisaic Jew (Gal. 1:14). Any number of pious Jews could (and did) make such claims, which we might expect from those who had measured their lives according to a ...

47. The Fellowship Offering

Leviticus 3:1-17

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... enclosing the intestines and to which fat clings. The lobe of the liver is usually identified as the caudate lobe. The liver would be full of blood, a sacred substance (Hartley, Leviticus, p. 40). 3:6 The Hb. for without defect is tamim, meaning “whole, complete, faultless, or blameless.” The term has to do with the soundness or integrity of the offering. 3:9 Milgrom suggests that its fat is a general term for the part of the animal to be burned on the altar and then described: “its suet: the broad ...

48. How Long, O Lord?

Psalm 13:1-6

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... —in other words, these problems may not have merely slipped God’s mind, God may be deliberately ignoring them. Were we to hear someone praying in this fashion today, most of us would take offense at such irreverence against the holy and faultless God. Since Christian theology, and indeed postexilic OT theology (see the commentary on Ps. 106), contain a deeper awareness of human sin, we may not immediately appreciate the face-to-face relationship implicit in this psalm. Even the complaint How long will ...

49. We Are Not Alone

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

... cherub instead to remind me that real tragedies require a noble hero who falls through no fault of his/her own. We, however, more closely resemble characters in a farce, who are funny because they consider themselves tragic figures but are neither noble nor faultless. They are bounders and fools pretending to be kings and heroes. And so are we. The reality check that Aubrey gave me was more valuable than any sympathetic shoulder could have been at that moment: “Your cat’s dead: what are you going to ...

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see. Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.

Alexander Pope

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