Sermon Study Questions

Pastor James will post his Sermon Study Questions every Tuesday with the previous Sunday’s sermon. Our hope is for these study questions to promote deeper personal study and further edify our church body.

Sermon Study Questions – May 17, 2026

1.      Read Isaiah 41:1-20

2.      The scene here is of a courtroom.  What is going on in this imaginary courtroom?   

3.      How would you define or characterize an idol?

4.      Psalm 135:15-18 says, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. ¹⁶ They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; ¹⁷ they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. ¹⁸ Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.”  What are the implications of what the Psalmist says here?

5.      Beginning in v.2, the first piece of evidence the Lord brings forth to demonstrate that He is truly God is His activity in history, that He knows history before it happens.  What is historical event/person is He talking about in v.2?  What are some other places in the bible you can think of where God speaks of future events happening before they happened (predictive prophecy)?

6.      As global events are playing out on the stage of world history the nations frantically turn to the idols which they have fashioned with their own hands.  Meanwhile, amidst the unrest the Lord reassures His people.  In doing so, He says “Fear not, for I am with you.” (v.10).  How does knowing God is with you help to address and dissolve fear, and specifically the fear that something might happen to you?   

7.      The Lord follows up His promise that He is with you with a bevy of other promises, “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  Though these promises are given to “Israel, my servant, and Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham,” (v.8), on what grounds do you say that they equally belong to you?

8.      In typical prophetic fashion, the Lord uses vivid imagery of taking a worm (v.14) and making it into “a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth,” saying of it that “you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff” (v.15).  What is the point of this imagery?  What is the Lord saying He will do in the lives of His people, both through this image and the parallel image in v.17-20?  How does this show evidence that the Lord is truly God?  

9.      There is so much encouragement in this passage!  What is the most encouraging thing to you out of all that is here?

10.  Pray!

Reading of Law: Exodus 20:3

You shall have no other Gods before me.

Prayer of Confession:

Our Father in heaven, You are great and greatly to be praised.  Truly, there is none like you in heaven or on earth.  You are worthy of all our love, affection, adoration, attention, and devotion.  As our Creator and Redeemer you are to be honored, revered, obeyed, and submitted to with all gratitude and humility at all times and in all circumstances.  But Father, how far away we are from doing this.  Though we praise you with our lips, our hearts are often far from you.  We confess that we are prone to ponder, desire, love, and pursue the things of this world more than you.  The things we long for, hope in, trust in, and delight in reveals that we do have other gods that compete with you for that place of supreme allegiance in our lives.  Father, in so many ways we fall short of obeying this commandment which sits at the head of the Ten Commandments.  Please forgive us and have mercy on us.  We thank you that in confessing our sin to you we have assurance that in Christ we are forgiven, as Christ did for us what we could never do for ourselves, as He kept this commandment and all your commandments perfectly throughout His entire incarnation.  We thank you that through faith in Him, His perfect obedience is imputed to us so that we may stand forever blameless in your presence.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness: 1 John 4:9-10

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 36

Q.99. What is required in the third commandment?

That we must not by cursing, or by false swearing, nor yet by unnecessary oaths, profane or abuse the name of God; nor even by our silence and connivance be partakers of these horrible sins in others; and in summary, that we use the holy name of God in no other way than with fear and reverence, so that He may be rightly confessed and worshiped by us, and be glorified in all our words and works.

[1] Lev. 24:10–16. [2] Lev. 19:12. [3] Matt. 5:37; Jas. 5:12. [4] Isa. 45:23. [5] Matt. 10:32. [6] 1 Tim. 2:8. [7] Rom. 2:24; 1 Tim. 6:1; Col. 3:16–17; *1 Pet. 3:15.

Q.100. Is the profaning of God’s name, by swearing and cursing, so grievous a sin that His wrath is kindled against those also who do not help as much as they can to hinder and forbid it?

Yes, truly, for no sin is greater and more provoking to God than the profaning of His name; wherefore He even commanded it to be punished with death.

[1] Lev. 5:1 [2] Lev. 24:15–16; *Lev. 19:12; *Prov. 29:24–25.

NT Reading: 1 Corinthians 8:1-6

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. ² If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. ⁴ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” ⁵ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth– as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”– ⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.