There is a great divide between piety, which is true godliness, and pietism, which is a lie about the nature of true godliness. You have heard us disparaging pietism many times, and you can count on hearing it many more times. Pietism is the erection of a false standard of holiness, one that is generally …
No Complaining in the Streets
God is pouring out His material blessings on this community of saints. We rejoice in this, we thank Him for it, and yet we must labor to understand these blessings biblically—as we earnestly seek for continued multiplication of them. These blessings necessarily include our businesses, and so how should we pursue His continued kindness here? …
Too Big for One Mouth
We are a large congregation, and this means that we must take great care with our tongues. Many in the modern world have drifted into the view that when an institution gets large enough, the basic patterns of godly speech no longer apply. Within a small group, slander and gossip can readily be identified as …
Read All About It
One of the characteristics of modern assumptions about the Bible is that in the Old Testament God dealt with His people in more physical or earthy ways, and that in the New Testament His promises and deliverances are of a more spiritual (meaning ethereal) nature. Thus, we don’t expect God to actually deliver us from …
The Rest That Works
We are discovering that celebration is hard work. We are in the middle of a great season of personal and corporate celebrations—graduations from high school, from college, weddings, and so forth. This is a time of great joy, and joy naturally calls us to work so that we might give fuller expression to that joy. …
Inescapable Imprecation
The message today is on Psalm 35, one of the psalms of imprecation. These psalms have given many Christians many difficulties, and we don’t quite know what to do with them. Let us grant at the outset that they can be abused by people who pretend to embrace them. We can want to “destroy the …
Holy Hands
We assemble as God’s holy ones, as those who are called to be saints. We do not gather on one day simply to think certain thoughts about God, and that is the end of it. We come to present our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. This means that we cannot detach …
The Wine Is Better
We gather together now, in accordance with the will of God, and under the protections provided by His Spirit, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that at the conclusion of our service of worship we gather at the table of the Lord. All baptized Christians are welcome at this table, and …
Easter All the Time
He is risen. He is risen indeed! On this day, two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, conquering it forever, throwing down the collected might of all the principalities and powers, releasing the redeemed human race from its fear of death, and reversing the power of death that had dominated our …
Start With Prayer
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 95 “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Prov. 16:3). It is important for us to dedicate our business to God. Unless the Lord builds the house, the one who builds it labors in vain. …