Because this is a Sunday, we are commemorating our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. Because it is All Saints Eve, we are acknowledging all the elect of God from every century, from every tribe and nation, north, south, east or west. And because it is Reformation Sunday, we are marking the great work of God …
How Forgiveness is Like Water
Sin begins with the imagination. In order to work ourselves loose from the world as God made it, we have to imagine that it is a different kind of place than it is. John Bunyan once wisely said that the sinful soul “entertains the sin by its imagination.” He adds that “sin thus attacks at …
All of Christ for All of Life
When Adam sinned, and the human race fell into a condition of sin, the name of that condition was death. God had told Adam that the day he ate of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, he would surely die. But he didn’t die physically that very moment. So what …
Talebearing and the Teenager
For you young people, this part of your life is a white water stretch of the river. And one of the most treacherous rapids that you will need to navigate is the challenge presented by the sins of others, and by the glaring sins of others. When do you keep silent, and when do you …
The Blessed Exchange
We have gathered to call upon the name of the Lord, and the joyful solemnity of this privilege should be resting upon our shoulders like a mantle of glory. How is this possible? We do not want to overcomplicate the answer to the question. Our forms of worship and teaching are in deep sympathy with …
Real Revival
In a moment we will confess our sins. The message last week was about confession of sin, and how God is dealing with us so that we will deal honestly with Him. So what is it to confess? What is this duty, and to whom is it owed? In 1 John 1:9, we are told …
That Old Conveyor Belt of Time
In our prayers for reformation and revival over the years, we have asked God to move in remarkable ways, and He has been pleased to grant many aspects of our requests. But as God has done wonderful things in our midst, He has been pleased to do it over time, over the course of years. …
No Endless Chain of Buttercups and Daisies
God is the God of great mercy and He brings great salvation. But it should not be concluded from this that the God of the Bible is a soft God. He is the Lord of Heaven and earth, and though He is altogether good, He is not what we would call well-behaved. The universe is …
Red for Our Red
We want our sins to be reckoned as tiny for numerous reasons. One is the obvious self-justifying one, but we also want our sins to be small because we want God’s forgiveness to be a reasonable forgiveness. We want God to be a gentleman, the kind of being who would obviously be well-bred enough to …
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. …