The Semper Reformata Podcast

Catechism Class: LD48 Praying About the Kingdom of GodThe catechist is teaching us about the Lord’s Prayer. We MUST consider carefully every line of the Lord’s prayer, so that we can use it as a tool, a model prayer, to shape the petitions of our daily prayers, to teach us how we should pray.  Luke 11:1 The Heidelberg Catechism asks, "What is the second petition?" The answer is, "Your kingdom come. That is: So rule us by your Word and Spirit that more and more we submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against you, and every conspiracy against your holy Word. Do all this until the fullness of your kingdom comes, wherein you shall be all in all.”To read the NOTES CLICK HERE

God's Boundless LoveHow wonderful is Christ’s love for us, vile sinners, that he would bring us from death to life? Let’s try to grasp its magnitude…This sermon was preached at Ballymacashon and Templepatrick Reformed Church It was recorded at TRC and and is reproduced here with their kind permission.Read the NOTES HERE

Catechism Class: Lord's Day 47, Really Knowing God.Jeremiah 9:23-24  We continue our examination of the Lord’s Prayer looking at the first petition – and it IS a petition – not a declaration. It is us asking ‘May your name be hallowed.’Read the NOTES HERE

Ready for War?Sometimes war is thrust upon us. War is horrific. More horrific than we civilians can know, and today we seem to be standing on a precipice, looking into a great chasm of conflict, perhaps even World War 3. Faced with the prospect of an escalation of violence, what are we do do? Let’s see, how God prepared David for war.Read the NOTES HERE.This sermon was preached at Ballymacashon and Templepatrick Reformed Church. It was recorded at Templepatrick and is used here with their kind permission.

Catechism Class: LD46, Q120-121 Our Father, who art in heaven.When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He told them exactly how they are to approach him, what they are to say and how they are to address him. The Heidelberg catechist instructs us on what we should say when come to God in prayer…https://saltyscrivener.uk/2021/01/19/catechism-class-lords-day-46-q120-121/

Catechism Class: LD45 Q119 The Purpose and Structure of the Lord’s Prayer.Lord’s Day 45 - Q119 The catechist has introduced us to the Lord’s Prayer, which is the model prayer for all our prayers. So we move on now to look at the model prayer itself, and before we begin to examine the petitions in the prayer, let’s make a few important general observations about it.Read the NOTES HERE.

The Four HorsemenText: Revelation 6:1-8You must not think of Revelation as linear history, – history written in advance for us. It is unlikely that’s the case. Revelation is not a history book, it is apocalyptic literature, and it is a series of scenes, overlapping in time, moving in parallel through the church age, and out into eternity to come, each scene revealing to us something more of God’s eternal plan and purpose, and each one ending further ahead in history, until at very end of the book we have the final state, a new heaven and earth. In this lesson we shall watch as the first four of the seals are opened, a passage often referred to as ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”…This sermon was recorded at Templepatrick Reformed Church and is reproduced here with their kind permission.Read the NOTES HERE

Lord's Day 45C – What should We Ask God For When We Pray? Q118. What has God commanded us to ask of him? “All the things we need for body and soul, as included in the prayer which Christ our Lord himself taught us. James 1:17.”So there is a very simple answer to the catechist’s question. We are pray for and about EVERYTHING. How difficult then is our task! How impossible to bring ALL our needs before the Lord in prayer! That’s why we have confidence that the father knows us better than we know ourselves, and he already knows what we need, even before we ask him. Matthew 6:8 Read the NOTES HERE

Israel’s FutureRomans 11Throughout chapters 9-11 Paul says repeatedly that the Gospel is for both the Jew and the gentile, and that there is no difference in Christ, for all have sinned, and there is only one way of salvation. This is a theme which predominates in chapter II, and again Paul approaches the subject by a series of questions and answers…Read the NOTES HERE. This sermon was recorded at Templepatrick Reformed Church and reproduced here with their kind permission.