Randy McCarthy • Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church of Oklahoma City • Page 37

Trusting In & Having Courage In God

January 24, 2016

randyMc_1_crop Randy McCarthy opened services by reading from Ephesians 1:3-11 and Romans 8:28-29 and spoke briefly about predestination. God predestined, or determined beforehand, the destiny of His people before the creation of the world. This destiny includes the facts that we would be adopted as God’s children, that we would have an eternal inheritance, and that we would be conformed to the image and glory of His Son Jesus Christ.

Keith West

Trusting in God

Keith preached on how the Scriptures teach us to trust God. He noted that our national motto (“In God We Trust”) is present on the currency of the United States. To trust God means that we need to believe that He is able and willing to do what He has promised. He observed that since God created everything (Gen 1:1), it is not difficult for Him to do other things within His creation. Keith brought to mind three important characters who were presented with challenges of faith and who reacted in different ways (Zechariah, Luke 1:11-20; Mary, Luke 1:26-38; and Joseph, Matt 1:18-25). Keith encouraged us to be faithful to God’s promises even when we don’t understand how He will fulfill them.

Mark Wattenbarger

Having Courage in God

Mark followed up with the same theme by examining the life of Joshua. Joshua had been present during all the great works that God did through Moses in redeeming the nation of Israel from Egypt, giving them the Law and Tabernacle service, and providing for them in the wilderness. Nevertheless, it was something else when it became apparent that Joshua, not Moses, would be the one leading the people into the promised land. Both Moses and God told Joshua to “be strong and of a good courage.” Deut 31:7; Josh 1:6; Josh 1:9). Most importantly, Mark pointed out that God further said to Joshua, “Have I not commanded thee?” Mark encouraged us that, just like Joshua, if God commands us to do something, He will most certainly give us the grace and power to carry out His tasks.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:55 — 15.7MB)

Tagged With: faith, Keith West, Mark Wattenbarger, Moses, predestination, Randy McCarthy

Randy @ Oxford PBC – Jan 17

January 17, 2016

Randy McCarthy

Podcast: Download (Duration: 53:08 — 14.3MB)

This sermon was recorded at
Oxford Primitive Baptist Church
Located in Oxford,Kansas

Tagged With: Randy McCarthy

Not Damaging the Conscience of Others

January 10, 2016

Randy McCarthy continues his series on the conscience of man in this sermon by stressing that we should strive to have a good conscience before God and man. Randy makes the point that while men may be informed of right from wrong through the Mosaic law or the natural law, these things merely condemn us and give us no true relief or path to reconciliation when we violate that which we know to be right. It is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ and our repentance and faith in Christ can we be restored and cleansed when we invariably get off track. Randy further shows that even if we strive to have a good, operative conscience before God and man, this is not the entirety of the matter. Disciples of Jesus Christ are called by God to consider the conscience of others, and if necessary, limit our liberty in order to not damage the weak conscience of our brethren because of our love for them. (Heb 9:11-14, Acts 15:1-9, 1 Cor 8:1-13, Mk 7:15, Lk 17:2, 1 Cor 10:23-33, Romans 14:1-19)

Mark Wattenbarger closed out the services by stating that the underlying presupposition for God’s people is that God is our father and has saved us, and we must decide to follow him as Joshua had done in his final words to the nation of Israel (Josh 24:2-15).

“In major things, unity; in minor things, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:22 — 16.4MB)

Tagged With: Mark Wattenbarger, Randy McCarthy

The Conscience of Man

January 3, 2016

Randy McCarthy

In this sermon, Randy asks us to think about this question: what is the purpose of the preaching of the gospel? He refers to 1 Timothy 1:5 which states that the end (or purpose) of the commandment of God is to promote love out of a pure heart, and a good operative conscience, and genuine faith. Randy focuses on the conscience of man, which is a faculty which God has given every man to enable him to know and judge his own behavior; when we disobey our conscience, we feel inward condemnation. Randy shows that while our conscience is operable, it is not infallible due to the fall of man. If we ignore our conscience, it can easily be damaged; if we are not careful, we can do amazingly sinful things and our conscience will not condemn us. Randy looked to three examples in the Old Testament of men whose consciences were “seared over with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4:2): Cain (Genesis 4), Joseph’s brothers (Gen 37, 42) and David (1 Sam 11). God nevertheless promises to cleanse our consciences by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9).

Bill McCarthy closed out the services by stating that a good summary of what was preached by Randy was “to beware your conscience” since it can be so easily damaged. Bill spoke of the heart of man and how easy it is for us to sin – no man needs to teach us how to do that. He referenced 1 Cor 9:24-27 and Ps 119:9 to show that we are called by God to be temperate in all things and to run the race before us by applying the things we hear in the gospel.