“The preaching of the Word is the testimony of God and the profession of the knowledge of Christ, not of human skill. Furthermore, the hearers ought not to ascribe their faith to the gifts of men, but to the power of God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:1, 2, 5). But this does not mean that pulpits …
The Memoirs of Old Walnut Heart
My fifth bit of advice for writers was this: “Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly. He was right. Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out.” But let’s unpack this a bit. 1. Concert pianists do what they …
The First Law of Sanctification
“We are seeking to understand the disintegration of the culture around us, and in order to do this rightly we have to keep coming back to this foundational principle. Worship drives and shapes all of human existence, and it does so according to this principle: you become like what you worship” (Why Ministers Must be …
Exegetical Restraint
“Note, however, that doctrines ought to be deduced from passages only when it is proper and valid to do so. They must be derived from the genuine meaning of the Scripture. Otherwise we will end up drawing any doctrine from any place in the Bible” (Perkins, The Art of Prophesying, p. 51).
Avoiding the Arbitrary
“Traditionalists are fighting a rear-guard action, trying to keep women out of a post that they clearly more qualified for than men are. Feelings can run high in the debate, but the debate is essentially over whether men only or women and men both should occupy the post of an essentially feminized office. If anyone …
No Other Field
“The Word of God alone is to be preached, in its perfection and inner consistency. Scripture is the exclusive subject of preaching, the only field in which the preacher is to labour” (William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying, p. 9).
The God of Peace Who Crushes
INTRODUCTION:In this small portion of the last chapter of Romans, the apostle arranges a number of profound and important truths. If we have eyes to see the sweep of redemptive history, we will get it. If we do not, then we are missing some crucial aspects of the gospel. THE TEXT:“Now I beseech you, brethren, …
Staying Away from Ziba
We are gathered here at the royal table of the greater David, the one who has graciously invited us to take this meal together with him. As the Lord Jesus is the one greater than David, so we are like Mephibosheth, descended from an enemy of the king, and with no great power of our …
The Wrong Opposite
The Bible teaches that God hates. We prefer a sentimental faith to a biblical one, and so we tell ourselves that God is love, which is biblical, and that the opposite of love is hate, which is unbiblical. God hates insolence. God hates lies. God hates hands that shed innocent blood. He hates wicked imagination. …
By Forgiveness If Possible
Our Father and God, Your Word tells us plainly that You hate and despise, among other things, pride, lies, and hands that shed innocent blood. We confess to You that our nation is guilty of all three, and so we turn to You now to confess these grievous sins to You on behalf of our …