Goodness and Meaning: Made for God

Are we made for God, the One who is all goodness and truth, or are we just intelligent slime, thrown up from some primeval soup? In A River out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, Richard Dawkins declared: ‘The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect …

Life of Moses: Slaves in Egypt

Peter Barnes: Exodus 1:1-14

(23 September 2018)

SERMON NOTES : SLAVES IN EGYPT (Exodus 1:1-14)

Moses is mentioned nearly 700 times in Scripture. He was also the author of one Psalm: Psalm 90. He lived for 120 years: his first forty years in Pharaoh’s palace; his next forty years as …

Isaiah: Woe Upon Woe!

Peter Barnes: Isaiah 5:8-20

(16 September 2018)

SERMON NOTES: WOE UPON WOE! (Isaiah 5:8-20)

– 5:8-20 will look at the first four of six woes, before Isaiah sees himself as under a woe in the next chapter – 6:5.

1. Woe to greedy land-grabbers.

– 5:8-10. Israel was not set …

Repent & Believe

Peter Barnes: Acts 20:21

(16 September 2018)

SERMON NOTES : REPENT AND BELIEVE (Acts 20:21)

– William Perkins: ‘These words summarise the complete duty of a minister as a public angel or interpreter.’ Calvin: ‘repentance and faith are tied together in an unbreakable connexion.’

1. This testimony is to be …

Isaiah: Song of the Wasted Vineyard

Peter Barnes: Isaiah 5:-17 : NO AUDIO

(9 September 2018)

SERMON NOTES: SONG OF THE WASTED VINEYARD (Isaiah 5:1-7)

– Ps.80:8-16; Isa.27:2-6; Ezek.15:2-6; Luke 20:9-10, 15; John 15:1. Alec Motyer calls Isaiah 5 the ‘last, grimmest section of his preface’. It is almost introduced as a love song (5:1), but …

Being Misunderstood

Peter Barnes: Psalm 35

(9 September 2018)

SERMON NOTES : BEING MISUNDERSTOOD (Psalm 35)

We are all prone rather too readily to sing the ‘I am so misunderstood’ song. Tremper Longman says that David is being falsely accused of a capital crime. This is an imprecatory Psalm, like Psalms 7, …

Granting Forgiveness

Peter Barnes: 2 Cor 2:5-11

(2 September 2018)

SERMON NOTES : GRANTING FORGIVENESS (2 Cor.2:5-11)

Martin Luther once described human beings as like a drunk trying to get on a horse – first he falls off one side, then he falls off the other. It is surely the incestuous man …

Isaiah: The Disintegration of Zion

Peter Barnes: Isaiah 3:1-4:1

(26 August 2018)

SERMON NOTES: THE DISINTEGRATION OF ZION (Isaiah 3:1-4:1)

T. S. Eliot: The Church disowned, the tower overthrown,
the bells upturned, what have we to do
But stand with empty hands and palms upturned
in an age which advances progressively backwards?
William Butler Yeats: …

Dealing with Doubt: Luke 7: Jesus, the Expected One

Shane Gooch: Luke 7:18-23

(26 August 2018)

SERMON NOTES: DEALING WITH DOUBT (Luke 7:18-23)

We live in an ever-changing world

  1. Doubt is in our nature

“Honest doubt is not a bad starting point, but it is a bad finishing point” John MacArthur

There is such a thing as healthy skepticism …

Isaiah: Trust God, not Man

Peter Barnes: Isaiah 2:6-22

(19 August 2018)

SERMON NOTES: TRUST GOD, NOT MAN (Isaiah 2:6-22)

In these early chapters of Isaiah there is a contrast painted between Zion as it was, as it is, and the new Zion.
1. Sins that anger God.

– 2:6. ‘Striking the hands’ (ESV) is …