Riverside Church
328 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsThis podcast includes sermons delivered at Riverside Presbyterian Church in Cambridge, Ontario. Join us for morning and evening worship services each Sunday. Visit Riverside online at riversidepres.com.
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Episodes
The Sixth Commandment (1) The Value of Human Life
February 03, 2019 22:30 - 35 minutes - 15.7 MBRead: Exodus 20:13 Genesis 9:6 Mark 8:34-37 Human life is almost infinitely valuable. The glory of God is the most important value of existence. The human beings as the image of God are glorious beings because they reflect the glory of God. Sin is such a horrible thing that it requires the destruction of the most glorious thing. And the love of God is so great that he was willing to sacrifice his dearly beloved Son for the rebels. And so this God is even more glorious and more worthy...
Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (4) Faith, Reason and Knowledge (2)
February 03, 2019 15:00 - 36 minutes - 15.9 MBRead: Proverbs 1:7 Romans 1:18-23 Hebrews 11:1-3 Evolution cannot rationally account for anything because of the huge role it gives to chance, but it certainly cannot account for the deeper spiritual and psychological and moral aspects of human life. The jump from nothing to something and then from random something to orderly something, and then from orderly physical stuff to the profound spiritual, psychological and moral aspects of life is a whole list of impossibilities. At the end ...
The Fifth Commandment (8) Authority and the State
January 27, 2019 22:30 - 36 minutes - 15.9 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 Romans 13:1-7 1 Peter 2:13-17 As we have been seeing in our studies of the Fifth Commandment, we are to submit to those whom God has placed in authority over us and that doing so is for our good – it is the way of life and blessing. But as we have also seen along the way is that that is sometimes problematic because authority is often misused and abused because all authority figures are sinners and many of them are not saved. There is an awful lot of suffering in the...
Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (3) Faith, Reason and Knowledge
January 27, 2019 15:00 - 44 minutes - 19.5 MBRead: Proverbs 1:7 Romans 1:18-23 If you do not start your thinking with the God of the Bible, it is impossible to give a reasonable account of the world and the big questions of life. You don’t start with reason and reason your way to God. You start with God and show that any reasoning about ultimate things that does not start with God is actually irrational. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs
The Fifth Commandment (7) Authority in the Church
January 20, 2019 22:30 - 35 minutes - 15.9 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 1 Peter 5:1-5 Hebrews 13:17 The requirement of believers in Jesus Christ to submit to the oversight of elders requires them to be members of a specific congregation. The biblical teaching about salvation includes church membership and not submitting to church membership is direct disobedience to the clear teaching of the word of God. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (2) The Conforming Power of Society and the Biblical Answer
January 20, 2019 15:00 - 37 minutes - 17.3 MBRead: Romans 12:2 Ephesians 4:17-24 We live in a secular world that teaches that all that matters is our lives in the here and now. The Bible teaches us that the most important thing for human beings is how they relate to the God of the Bible. And what we will see the more that we study the Bible and ourselves and the world around us is that the world of which we are a part reflects perfectly the word of its Creator. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: Biblical ...
The Fifth Commandment (6) Honor to whom Honor is Due
January 13, 2019 22:30 - 36 minutes - 16.2 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 Romans 13:7 Romans 12:10 1 Peter 2:17 We are to honor other people appropriately because we are all made in the image of God. That gives value to every human being and we are to acknowledge that value in the way that we think of one another and in the attitudes that we have towards one another and in the way that we treat one another. We are to show them respect as people who are valuable and significant because they are made in the image of God. — Rev. Jerry Hamst...
Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs (1) Destroying Arguments Raised Against the Knowledge of God
January 13, 2019 15:00 - 39 minutes - 17.7 MBRead: 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 2 Corinthians 11:1-6 1 Peter 3:13-17 One of the secular beliefs that we will have to address is the belief that the secular world-view is based on reason alone while the biblical world-view is based on a faith that is not reasonable. Part of demolishing arguments raised against God is to show that no-one believes what they believe on the basis of reason alone. There are many factors that go into why we believe what we believe and one of the factors that is ve...
Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs
January 13, 2019 14:30In Romans 12:2, we are told “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind….” This series of sermons will consider a number of biblical themes that address some of the beliefs of the secular worldview that are so influential in our society. The goal of this series is that with the Lord’s blessing it may contribute to keeping us from being “led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).
The Fifth Commandment (5) Submit to One Another
January 06, 2019 22:30 - 37 minutes - 16.7 MBRead: Ephesians 5:1-21 Text: verse 21 In biblical thought the freedom of individualism is really bondage and the submission to God and to the obligations of belonging to the body of Christ is really freedom. True freedom in biblical terms is not freedom to express ourselves and to do whatever we want to do, it is living as God has designed us to live and that involves a significant dose of self-denial and submitting to the demands and constraints of our relationships with other people....
Living with Realism and Hope in our Time
January 06, 2019 15:00 - 37 minutes - 17 MBRead: Matthew 24:1-14 The application for us as we face a new year is, “Do not be complacent. Do not take it for granted that you are not being pulled into the current of worldly thinking and worldly living. Think very seriously about your life and values and priorities in the light of biblical teaching.” One of the common themes of the best Christian literature on this subject is that the only Christians who will survive in the current environment are those who go deep – that is those...
The God who Searches our Hearts
December 30, 2018 22:30 - 41 minutes - 16.5 MBRead: Romans 11:33-12:2 Psalm 139
The Witness of Christ
December 30, 2018 15:00 - 46 minutes - 18.1 MBRead: Isaiah 44:1-8 Acts 6:1-15
The Birth of Jesus
December 23, 2018 22:30 - 38 minutes - 17.1 MBRead: Matthew 1:18-25 Jesus is more than the reason for the season. Jesus is the reason for everything. As the risen and ascended Jesus himself says to John in Revelation 1:17, “I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
December 23, 2018 15:00 - 42 minutes - 17.9 MBRead: Matthew 1:1-17 There is no celebration of the birth of Christ that is in line with biblical priorities that does not have the overturning of sin by Jesus at its heart. The problem of all problems, both in each of our lives and in the world in general, is sin and the blessing of all blessings is the fact that God send Jesus and Jesus came to deliver us from the curse and the power of sin. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript
Waiting for the Day of the Lord
December 16, 2018 22:30 - 40 minutes - 17 MBRead: 2 Peter 3:1-13 What Peter is saying is that we must prioritize what will matter on that day. Having lived a life of holiness and godliness will matter on the day when heaven and earth will be dissolved. What really matters now is what will matter then and that is what is to determine how we live as we wait for the coming day of God. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript
The Fifth Commandment (4) The Abuse of Authority in Marriage
December 16, 2018 15:00 - 42 minutes - 18.3 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 Colossians 3:18-19 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 The key from a biblical perspective is that the abuse of authority is sin and it must be dealt with as sin. A related perspective is that God cares greatly about people who are suffering abuse at the hands of other people. Psalm 146:7 says that God “executes justice for the oppressed.” The oppressed are those who are mistreated by others particularly the weak who are suffering at the hands of those who are stronger than they. ...
Why Do You Do the Things You Do?
December 09, 2018 22:30 - 45 minutes - 18.1 MBRead: Luke 6:37-49 Text: Luke 6:43-49
God Sent forth His Son
December 09, 2018 15:00 - 43 minutes - 18.8 MBRead: Galatians 3 Text: Galatians 4:1-7 Our natural tendency, apart from salvation, is to prioritize the joys and pleasures of this world apart from God. That is the tendency of our sinful nature. We focus on God’s gifts and ignore God himself. The things of this life dominate our thoughts and our efforts, and God is ignored or neglected. But when we are saved, we come to see that fullness of life is rooted in our relationship with God. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript
The End of the Matter
December 02, 2018 22:30 - 39 minutes - 16.5 MBRead: Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 There is a profound trust and submission behind recognizing that since God is who he is, it is impossible that in the end it will not all be beautiful and God’s way with the world, what he did and what he allowed, will demonstrate “the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33) And so our job is to leave governing the universe to God and just focus on the only wise way of life in the light of who God is, “Fear God and keep hi...
The Fifth Commandment (3) Authority in Marriage
December 02, 2018 15:00 - 42 minutes - 18.5 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 Genesis 2:18-25 1 Peter 3:1-7 In connection with male headship in marriage, it is important to underscore the emphasis in the opening chapters of the Bible on the basic equality of man and woman. Both are equally made in the image of God. We also see that when Adam receives his wife from the Lord, he is so thrilled that he sings a love-song. It is the first love song in the history of the world and so it does not sound very romantic to 21st century ears, but it is po...
Youth, Old Age, Judgment and Death
November 25, 2018 22:30 - 40 minutes - 17 MBRead: Ecclesiastes 11:9 – 12:8 The world is a wonderful place and the possibilities are endless and God has given us appetites and desires and Ecclesiastes is saying that you should follow them and see where they lead. There are, of course, sinful desires and appetites and Ecclesiastes is not encouraging you to follow those, but we are created with hearts that seek satisfaction and fulfillment and pleasure and joy. That belongs to our humanity. We have desires to learn things and exper...
The Fifth Commandment (2) The Nature and Purpose of Authority
November 25, 2018 15:00 - 41 minutes - 17.8 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 Genesis 1:26-31 Matthew 20:20-28 Wherever we have authority over others, we are to use that authority in a way that reflects how God uses his authority and that means that it must be a blessing to those who submit to it. God is good. God is love. God punishes the wicked, but his nature is to bless, and his use of his authority reflects that fact. Because of sin, authority sometimes means punishment, but the overall purpose must always be righteousness and goodness an...
You Can be Too Careful
November 18, 2018 22:30 - 31 minutes - 12 MBRead: Ecclesiastes 11:1-8 We are saved so that we can invest our lives so that we can make something of them for the glory of God. That is a risky business because we may fail, or disaster may strike, but God does not want us to be so careful that we just exist, live as safely as we can, and making nothing of the opportunities and possibilities that God has given to us. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: Ecclesiastes
The Fifth Commandment (1) The Basic Thrust of the Command
November 18, 2018 15:00 - 40 minutes - 17.1 MBRead: Exodus 20:12 Matthew 15:1-9 Now I want to remind you of the biblical context. God did not give his people the Ten Commandments as the way of salvation. He gave them to his people after he had already delivered them from Egypt. In our context, we must understand that keeping the commands is not the way of salvation; it is the way that saved people are called to live for the glory of God and for their true well-being. We should never think of God’s laws as the way to be saved. — ...
A Wisdom Sampler
November 04, 2018 22:30 - 38 minutes - 16.6 MBRead: Ecclesiastes 10:12-20 The overall insight is that words are very, very important. They can win us favor or they can consume us. So, we must be careful and thoughtful about our words. That means that we will use fewer of them and seek to have the words that we do use reflect biblical values and priorities. Our words should be used to glorify God and to be a blessing to other people. — Rev. Jerry Hamstra Download Manuscript Sermon Series: Ecclesiastes