『The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura』のカバーアート

The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

著者： Aaron Ventura
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 The Local Christendom Podcast is hosted by Aaron Ventura.Copyright 2022 All rights reserved. キリスト教 スピリチュアリティ 社会科学 聖職・福音主義
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  • Sermon: Purity Cult (Titus 1:15)

    Sermon: Purity Cult (Titus 1:15)
    2025/09/08
    Purity Cult Sunday, September 7th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:15 Prayer O Lord, Who may abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Only he who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. So grant us now such truth, such justice, such uprightness of faith, so that with pure hands and a clean heart, we may ascend into thy loving presence, and find rest there for our weary souls. Grant us this through Christ Jesus our Lord who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, and Amen. Introduction It says in Proverbs 11:22, He that loveth pureness of heart, For the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. He who loves purity of heart, and has grace upon his lips, the king shall be his friend. Do you have King Jesus for a friend? Do you love purity of heart? Do people say about you what God says about the Proverbs 31 woman? She openeth her mouth with wisdom; And in her tongue is the law of kindness (Prov 31:26). Friendship with God, the King of all creation, is the ultimate end for which Christ suffered, died, and rose again the third day. Jesus Christ came to this earth to reconcile sinners to God. To make us who were enemies into friends of God, who like Moses may speak with Him face to face, even as a man speaks to his friend (Ex 33:11). It says in Ephesians 2:14-17, For he [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And [he] came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. The world in its sin and perversity was not clean in the eyes of God. Both Jew and Gentile alike were not friends of God, we were not friends of one another, we were as pigs in a pen wallowing in the mud, as irrational animals pursuing our own sinful desires. That is who God says we all were and are apart from grace. There is none righteous, no, not one (Rom 3:10). Some people acknowledge that, while others still live in denial. Of such sin-deniers it says in Proverbs 30:12, There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, And yet is not washed from their filthiness. The deception of sin is that we don’t know how sinful we really are. We can get so used to smelling bad that we become nose deaf. We can get so used to our own foul stench and body odor, that we have no idea how offensive our lives are to God and to other people. And while God could have justly left us in that defiled state, He chose instead to pity us, when no one else would. God says to His people in Ezekiel 16:4-7, On the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. This is what God desires to do for you. To make you not only clean, but beautiful. To regenerate you and to wash you by His Holy Spirit. It says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. And it is that sanctifying grace alone that makes us capable of friendship with God the king. Now this morning we come to a text in Titus that is all about purity and defilement. And I have titled this sermon Purity Cult, because just like there were many rival religions and cults pursuing purity in the 1st century, so also today. Just like there were Jewish Cretans and Hypocritical Pharisees who prized purity in external matters, but were filthy in their hearts, so also is America today. And so I have outlined our sermon according to two important questions that arise from our text. Outline of the Sermon Question #1 – Why are all things pure to the pure?Question #2 – How can a Christian maintain purity of heart before the Lord? Q#1 – Why are all things pure to the pure? Recall that this statement from Paul in verse 15, Unto the pure all things are pure, is the reason why Titus is to give the Cretans a sharp rebuke.There were two dominant errors leading the Cretan church astray, and both of these errors made purity a matter of external bodily things, whereas Jesus taught that purity is a matter of internal spiritual things. Jesus says in Matthew 15:17-20, Do you not yet understand ...
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    44 分
  • Sermon: Liars, Evil Beasts, Slow Bellies (Titus 1:5-16)

    Sermon: Liars, Evil Beasts, Slow Bellies (Titus 1:5-16)
    2025/09/04
    Liars, Evil Beasts, Slow Bellies Sunday, August31st, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:5–16 Prayer Father, we thank You for your living word, that is a hammer, a fire, a two-edged sword against evil, and also a healing balm to comfort our wounded soul. Give us each now what we most need from Your word, whether conviction or consolation or both, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction For four consecutive weeks we have studied the 16 qualifications to be a pastor/teacher in the church. And this morning we turn now to the purpose for all of those qualifications, which is twofold: One reason we need qualified pastors is because Paul says there are many false teachers who need to be silenced.And second, because there are entire households listening to false teaching, being seduced and led astray by them (sometimes without knowing it), and they need to be rescued by a sharp rebuke.The goal of all of this refutation of errors and instruction in what is true, is so that as Paul says in verse 13, “they may be sound in the faith.” This is the goal and end of a qualified biblical eldership and of good presbyterian government: soundness in the faith once received.God wants the body of Christ to be a healthy body. And therefore, as the Head of the church, and the Supreme Bishop of our souls, Christ commands true teachers to silence and refute false teachers, and he commands faithful members to only listen to faithful and trustworthy men. This is how the body of Christ builds itself up in love. For as Paul says in Ephesians 4:15-16, but, speaking the truth in love, [we] may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So just as a small infection in one part of the body can easily spread to the rest, so must the body of Christ seek soundness, wholeness, and vitality in all of its members. This means that every single person in the church, (including you!) has a part to play. Sin in one member can spread to another. And likewise, health in one member can spread to the rest. It says in Proverbs 13:20, He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed. So who are you walking with? What body are you a part of? The nature of body-life is to walk together in love, to uphold one another when we trip or stumble, to encourage one another when we grow weary, and like good soldiers in the Lord’s army, we leave no soul behind. The pastor John Piper likes to say, “sanctification is a community project.” Meaning, our individual growth and health, or lack thereof, impacts the rest of the body. This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. This letter from Paul to Titus is a good test. It is a routine spiritual checkup as to whether you are sound in the faith, or wavering. Whether you are living up to that high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14), or whether you are slacking and forgetting your first love (Rev 2:4). Paul says in Hebrews 3:13, But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. How often does God think you need encouragement, exhortation, help from one another? He says here daily. Every day we desperately need Jesus. His mercies are new every morning, because every night we forget that we need them. We need God, and we need one another, far more than we think we do. And so Paul has written Titus to give us many exhortations, exhortations we can than share with one another, and practice together. This is the body life God intends every Christian to have. So this morning our focus will be on verses 10-14, which includes exhortations about false teachers and how to deal with them. Outline of the Text In verses 10-11 we have False Teachers DefinedIn verses 12-13a we have National Sins ExposedIn verses 13b-14 we have The Christian’s Response to False Teaching Verses 10-11 – False Teachers Defined 10For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. Observe first that false teachers are many. While the truth is one and united like hitting the very center of a target, still there are an infinite number of ways you can miss the bullseye. Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 7:13-14, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. So because of our original sin, our actual sins, and our...
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    53 分
  • Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 4 (Titus 1:5-14)

    Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 4 (Titus 1:5-14)
    2025/08/28
    What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 4 Sunday, August 24th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:5-14 Prayer Father, we thank You for Your Son, who is true man and true God, the way, the truth, and the life eternal. Grant us now to value Truth more than all the fleeting and deceitful riches of this world, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction For the last three weeks we have been answering the question, “What are the qualifications to be a bishop?” Recall that the word bishop means to oversee, or to supervise, and it is the work of elders/presbyters to oversee the lives and teaching of God’s people.Thus far we have studied 15 moral qualities thata bishop must possess, and this morning we come to the 16th and final quality, which is unique in that while being a character trait, it is also a matter of skill, competency, and action.We find this 16th qualification in verse 9 of our text which says, Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Now I need to flag for you that this 16th qualification is what distinguishes within the eldership, what we call Teaching Elders/Pastors from Ruling Elders/Governors. In classic Presbyterianism, Teaching Elders/Ministers of the Word must meet a much higher standard for understanding and teaching doctrine, and they must be examined and ordained by the regional Presbytery. Ruling Elders/Governors on the other hand are elected and installed by the local congregation, and because they are not called to regular preaching duties, it is not expected that they need to know Greek, Hebrew, Systematics, Church History and the like. It is certainly a bonus if they have these things, but they are not essential to their official duties of ruling. I’ll spare you the details of this important distinction, but I want to flag it here because this is the one qualification that does not strictly speaking apply to everyone in the church. The moral aspect of holding fast to the faithful word applies universally, but the skill and action to exhort and convince gainsayers (to argue with and refute heretics) applies only to a Pastor/Teaching Elder. And so with that caveat in mind, let us consider this 16th qualification according to three different questions: Outline What is this moral quality of holding fast to the faithful word?What actions/duties result from this moral quality?Why is this quality essential for a Pastor to possess? Q#1 – What is this moral quality of holding fast to the faithful word? This Greek verb that we translate as holding fast is ἀντέχω, and it can signify loyalty, devotion, or clinging to someone in love. Jesus uses this same verb in Matthew 6:24 when he says, No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold (ἀντέχω) to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. It says likewise in the Greek version of Proverbs 3:18, speaking of wisdom, She is a tree of life to them that lay hold (ἀντέχω) upon her: And happy is every one that retaineth her. So to hold fast to the faithful word, is to cling to Christ’s teaching from love. It is to join your soul in marriage to God’s infinite wisdom and goodness, and to hate/shun/despise anyone or anything that tries to separate you from it. This is what it means to hold fast to the faithful word. This firmness of mind/resolve stands in contrast to the person who wavers in their faith. James 1:5-8 speaks of this person saying, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. And then later in James 4:7-10 he calls that wavering person to repentance saying, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. So this quality of holding fast is to have firmness of faith. It is to be constant and reliable in a world that is in flux. Moreover, the object of your faith is not your own opinion or any opinion of man, but rather God’s unchangeable goodness, love, and generosity, and because God is always good and always liberal, you constantly ask him for heavenly wisdom. And he is happy to give it to the one has a single-minded faith. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:15, that the church of the living God [is] the pillar and ground of the truth. In Galatians 2:9 he identifies James, Peter, and John as pillars in the church. ...
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    59 分
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