Sermon Tone Analysis

Spurgeon’s Catechism

We will begin a series of 82 sermons working through the Spurgeon Baptist Catechism.

Developed using the Westminster Assembly’s and the Baptist Catechisms that are based on the 2nd London Baptist Confession.

I have one goal in doing this as a series.

That we see the value in catechizing our children.

I am recording this on line hoping the future generations will progress further.

Part 1

Catechize your Children

What is a Catechism?

A text summarizing the basic principles of the Christian faith, usually in question and answer form.

This is a convenient tool used to teach ourselves and our children.

The term is not as familiar to protestants today as it once was.

Generally thought to be a Roman Catholic practice.

However that is far from the reality.

This is a Biblical practice seem in the instruction to God’s people.

Deuteronomy 4:9 (NKJV)

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.

And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,

This will be a long ongoing series.

It will take more than a year to complete.

We will have breaks in the series but will gravitate back to this series as a norm for the foreseeable future.

I am convinced from Scripture and Scripture alone that we MUST train our minds and the minds of our children.

My prayer in focusing here is that the people of God here at Fairfield Baptist might spark the smallest of fires that God will use for revival in our community to the glory of the MOST HIGH GOD!!

So let us begin this journey trusting the LORD.

1.

What is the main reason a person exist?

Or you may ask it this way.

Why are we here?

What is the purpose of life?

Why do I exist?

Answer: The main reason a person exist is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

*Glorify means to praise, honor in worship, honor in thoughts or words, adore, give thanks to

1 Corinthians 10:31 (NKJV)

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Psalm 73:25–26 (NKJV)

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

What does this mean?

Genesis 1:25–28 (NKJV)

And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 9:1–7 (NKJV)

So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea.

They are given into your hand.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.

I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man.

From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.

And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”

So What?

Sin is the obstacle, our job is to rule over it as we image our maker.

IMAGO DEI.

Sin has marred our ability to think rightly, to worship rightly, to praise rightly, to give thanks rightly etc.

This is the beauty of the Gospel, the things we can’t do He has done, it is finished, Christ has filled the void, closed the gap that sin caused in our relationship with our creator.

This is why as we progress through this catechism you’ll see the focus point more and more to our need of Christ to be able to fulfill this goal.

We were created to image our creator and to enjoy that.

In order to do this to really fully enjoy our God, our minds must MUST be pointed at the source of life.

Do you want to enjoy God?

Do you want your children to glorify and enjoy Him?

Catechize your Children

PART 2

What rule has God given to teach us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?

Answer: The Word of God that is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only rule to teach us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.

I want us to notice a theme in several different areas of Holy Writ

Ephesians 2:19–20 (NKJV)

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

given by inspiration of God

1 John 1:3 (NKJV)

that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

we have seen and heard we declare to you

Other Scripture for consideration

Acts 7:51–52 (NASB95)

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

“Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One

Revelation 21:12–14 (NKJV)

Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel (Gates)

the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

(Foundations)

Little harder to see here as an example without unpacking the context of the passage.

Hebrews 1:1–4 (NKJV)

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

in these last days spoken to us by His Son

John 5:39 (NKJV)

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

John 5:46 (NKJV)

For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

Acts 28:23 (NKJV)