At this portion of His great sermon, Jesus comes to teach on murder, along with the thoughts and attitudes that are prohibited under the scriptural prohibition of murder. When God prohibits something, we cannot hide our disobedience through clever appeals to the technicalities. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘”You …
Silence the Foe and Avenger
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of God, Light of Light, Father of all, we worship You now in the beauty of holiness. We clothe ourselves in the perfect name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and so it is that we can approach You. In Him, we …
Primer on Eschatology 1
1. What is eschatology? Eschatology is the study of the last days; a person’s eschatology is his view of the last days. The word is less frequently applied to the doctrine of heaven and hell. 2. The last days of what? The answer to that question divides Christians into various schools of thought. 3. What …
Foundations of Marriage XII
Introduction: So now we come to the particular duties of wives. We have to remember the same distinctions we covered when talking about the duties of husbands. That is, we have to remember the difference between being and doing. Wives must be careful not to rush off to work through a list of do’s and …
Life Together
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 33 As evangelical Christians, we know that we are saved by grace through faith, and it is not of ourselves, lest any should boast. Our salvation, in other words, is gracious, and completely detached from any notion of merit or …
False Witness
This commandment strikes at the heart of falsehood and lies, which in their turn are the native language of the devil. Without truth and trust, biblical culture is an impossibility. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16). First, what is the context of false witness? The commandment prohibits lying against one’s …
But For the Grace of God
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of ultimate wisdom, God of infinite, cascading wisdom, we worship You through the incarnation of that wisdom, our Lord Jesus. We give glory to You, for the earth is full of Your glory. We render thanks to You, because the earth …
Old Wineskins
As long as we live in this fallen world, we will be buffeted with at least two conflicting standards. The first is obviously the standard by which we are named—the wisdom of Christ, the aroma of the gospel, the scandal of the cross. But in the history of the Church, the competing standard that has …
Two Kinds of Losers
One of Christ’s most famous parables is that of the prodigal son. It could also be called the parable of the self-righteous brother, or the parable of the longing father. What it teaches us about God the Father is quite remarkable, and to a certain kind of religious mind and heart, also quite scandalous. Once …
Rejoicing in It All
Our Father and God, we rejoice in Your holy day, and we thank You for it. We rejoice in the food that is set before us, and we thank You for it. We rejoice in the fellowship that You have given to us in one another, and we thank You for it. We rejoice in …