Randy McCarthy • Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church of Oklahoma City • Page 38

The Gospel Brings Relief to Our Self-Condemnation

February 7, 2016

Randy McCarthy

In this third sermon that Randy delivers on our Conscience, he points out that God has given us His commands regarding right from wrong in different ways, such as through the natural law that is written on our hearts (Rom 2:5) and the Mosaic Law (Acts 13:39). Randy points out that these forms of law condemn us, cause our conscience to accuse us, and there is no mechanism in these forms of law to bring us relief. By contrast, the Gospel brings us relief to our condemnation when we believe on Christ and follow Him in a conversional sense. Randy illustrated this by discussing the woman who was taken in adultery (in John 7:37 to John 8:12). Jesus had previously cried out offering living (moving) waters to those who thirsted and came to him in faith (John 7:37). There was much self-righteous scoffing of these words by the religious leaders (Pharisees), and the next day these unbelieving men sought to trap the Lord Jesus by casting a woman before Him who had been taken in the act of adultery, demanding whether she should be stoned in accordance with the Law of Moses. Jesus responded by writing in the dust on the temple floor, stood and challenged that a man without sin cast the first stone at her, and then commenced to write again in the dust. The men then left one by one, being convicted by their own consciences, until all were gone. We don’t know what was written, but it was apparently important and led to their condemnation. Randy suggested that Jesus may have written the text from Jeremiah 17:13 (O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.). Randy suggested that Jesus wrote this as a warning to these self-righteous men, and because they continued to demand of Him, it is possible that Jesus began to write their names and their sins in the earth, in fulfillment of this prophecy. By contrast, Jesus extended mercy and forgiveness to the woman, telling her that He did not condemn her, and that she should go forth and not sin any more. This is a wonderful illustration of how Jesus, through the Gospel, cleanses us.

Bill McCarthy followed up with closing comments on how we should be meek, which means to be submissive to the will of God as we present ourselves to all men. Titus 3:2-3; Gal 5:22.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:08 — 12.0MB)

Tagged With: Bill McCarthy, forgiveness, Randy McCarthy

The Sufferings of the Son of God

January 31, 2016

Randy opened services by reading from Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Randy encouraged us to seek God, recognize and confess our own sin and ask God for mercy and forgiveness, which He surely will for His people who humble themselves before Him.

Elder Henry Newman

The Lord Our Righteousness

Brother Henry read to us from Jeremiah 23:6, which states that “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Henry showed how that God is the one who makes us righteous. We have no righteousness of our own but the Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness and He answers for all that is due to God on our behalf. The Lord blesses, delivers and comforts His people in all our afflictions (2 Cor 1:10). We should trust Him for all that we need.

Elder Ed Kirkpatrick

The Sufferings of the Son of God

Brother Ed took as his text Hebrews 5:8-9 (“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him”). Brother Ed pointed out that Jesus Christ is a “Son” in three ways: the eternal Son of God (Mark 1:1), the Son of Mary (Mark 6:3), and the prophetic Son of Man (Dan 7:13-14; Matt 26:64). While the eternal Son of God knows all things, yet as a man He suffered certain things in order that He might “learn” from direct personal experience and therefore be equipped as our great High Priest. Ed pointed out that the Old Testament Scriptures foretold the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 1:11; Luke 24:25-27). These Scriptures include Psalm 2; Psalm 22; Psalm 69; Isaiah 50; Isaiah 53; Isaiah 54; and Zech 13:7. It was the will of the Father that after Christ suffered, He should enter into His glory which He had before the world began (John 17:5), and that we will share in that glory when He returns. Romans 1:4; Ps 2:7; Is 53:11-12; Luke 24:26. Those that obey Him are those called of God, which are drawn to Him by His power. John 6:44. We should therefore serve the risen Christ with our whole heart and obey Him in all things.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:41 — 16.9MB)

Tagged With: Ed Kirkpatrick, Henry Newman, pain/suffering, Randy McCarthy, righteousness

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.