Come Down, Lord!

  * I have heard some say that I have changed .  They mean by that that I am not preaching and teaching what I used to, that my emphases have changed, my convictions have changed, my leadership has changed.  In fact, it hasn't .  Anyone can go back and listen to the sermons preached at Faith even 8 years ago, and they will find I was saying the same things then.  Actually, I used to grieve over the fact that people seemed to be hearing without hearing.  I suspect that with the onset of the pandemic and the legal implications of what I was teaching that suddenly congregants who weren't hearing began to hear.  And that is why they have become unhappy under the preaching, because they are hearing now with ears that hear!  And now it isn't just theoretical but profoundly practical. The following is a sermon preached in December of 2013.  I have not updated it except to highlight in bold portions particularly relevant now.       Rom...

  Introduction Monday I was waiting to hear an interview with Pastor Jacob Reaume of Trinity Bible Chapel .  The morning talk show host was discussing the church's defiance of the provincial orders, and as you might imagine he was scathing in his criticism.  He was taking calls, and I listened as a woman from Peterborough area called in with a question.  She was also opposed to what Trinity Bible Chapel had done, but she was puzzled.  Why had Mike Farwell spoken so favourably of schools (in some parts of Ontario) opening?  He had just done so the week before!  Wasn't it the same thing?  In both cases more than 10 would be gathering, and so in both cases there was increased risk of the spread of Covid-19.   The woman calling made it very clear that she was opposed to both.  She thought both were reckless.  But she wanted to know why Mike was supportive of the one and worse than scathing about the other.  Mike's answer wa...

  Dear brothers and sisters, I offer you this short word of exhortation to stir up most holy affections and thought in you, in us as I reflect out loud on the Scripture and our times. I pray it will be received in the spirit in which it has been written, from a brother among brothers, with love that is free from malice.    There is something burning on my heart I want to share with you, compelled by love for God and you all. When coronavirus (Covid-19) was officially declared a pandemic in March 2020 everything changed around the globe. We were gripped with fear and mandated to stay home, stay away (social distance), and stay safe and clean for the good of all. We never imagined our democratic government to invoke the war time act and override political and legal due process for a virus. Nevertheless, many Canadians embraced this in good faith believing it to be in the nation’s best interest. What was quite eerie though was the wholesale buy in of everyone from government...