Christian weddings and marriages are a canvas upon which the Holy Spirit of God paints the gospel. Now we know that He loves to paint the gospel in many ways, and in many places—preeminently in the proclamation of the Word on the Lord’s Day, as well as in the two sacraments that He has bequeathed …
Inscrutable Justice and Mercy
Introduction This passage concludes the narrative of the book of Samuel, and it does so with a story that sounds odd to modern ears—for various reasons. Some of those reasons have to do with the coming of the gospel, and some of them have to do with us drifting away from a biblical understanding of …
The Lord is Your Cup
The message of Psalm 16 is one that speaks clearly of Christ, but also of His people. The New Testament tells us plainly that God’s promise to Christ in the grave was given in this psalm. God would not allow His holy one to see corruption, which is why Christ was in the grave for …
Orange Steeples
We do not usually have trouble being unselfish about things we don’t care about. If something is not connected to us, and is happening on the other side of the world, then the way of renunciation is easy. We let things go quite handily when they are things we never came in contact with. But …
Mental Markers
“In . . . extemporaneous speaking, it is practically better, though amounting to the same thing, to fix the mind on points, rather than on paragraphs” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 351).
A True Sun King
Introduction In this passage, we have the last formal pronouncement that the great David gave. This message from David spoke of the blessing that comes from a godly ruler. Louis XIV was the Sun King of France, and his idea of it was absolute monarchy. David, by way of contrast, spoke of a sun king …
Acoustical Centrality
In the beginning, John tells us, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We are told other things about the Second Person of the Trinity elsewhere in Scripture—He is the icon of God, He is the wisdom of God, He is the Son of God, He is the …
An Unworthy Objection
We are told in Scripture to walk worthy of the calling we have received. We do this by knowing that we are unworthy, and have been made fit to approach God in this fashion by the grace that He offers us in Jesus Christ. We are to walk worthy in the Lord Jesus. If you …
The Bagpipes of Hard Sovereignty
A few posts ago I wrote about how God loves cliff-hangers. In the comments to that post, one person asked about long term unanswered prayer, and I wanted to briefly respond to that concern here. There is the emotional side of this question, and there is a logical side. If the emotions are just answered …
And Be Translating All the Time
“Whether the preacher be what is called a linguist or not, he ought to know at least two languages, the language of books and the language of common life” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 343).