We often confess our sins falsely. We think we are confessing them to God, but we are actually asking God to excuse them. We point to the extenuating circumstances and think that they make it possible for God to forgive us. But forgiveness is only available for that which is inexcusable. If what you did …
A Little Christmas Exhortation for August
We celebrate the nativity of the Lord suitably when we remember that He came to rule the kings of the earth. We shall consider shortly what the great Caesars think of this, but the exhortation here is that we must remember His lordship over every petty tribal chieftain, particularly those in our hearts that resist …
Two Kinds of Crazy
Do not make the mistake of trying to figure sin out. In one sense, we can describe the pattern of sin and temptation, but we cannot ever make sense of sin. If sin made sense, it wouldn’t be sin. This means that every sin, no matter how small, is insanity in principle. Every pattern of …
Love in Trifles
You come here to display Your love for God, and this is good. But this cannot be done apart from your love for your neighbor, whom you have seen. The two great commandments are always together in Scripture, like husband and wife. A husband is not a wife, but without a wife, he is no …
Mosquitos in the Swamp of Self
The overflow of your salvation is to be love – love for God and love for your neighbor. This love comes along with a host of all the graces – humility, patience, gentleness, kindness, and every other good and pleasant thing that ties brothers together. You have one obligation to God, and that is to …
Their Stage-Prop God
You are being summoned to worship the triune Majesty of God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As you come, it is most necessary that you keep yourselves from the corruptions of idols. In these troubled times, it is crucial for every Christian to recognize that the Holy Trinity is not the god mentioned on …
Eating and Drinking the Wisdom of Christ
When you come to worship the Lord, you do so in order to magnify His name, His Word, and His way. Spiritual confusion enters when we try to listen to more than one spiritual authority. We are Christians, and this means that God alone has ultimate authority over us, and that God alone has an …
Keep Yourselves From Idols
Your only redemption is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Your only Redeemer is the Son of God sent from heaven. He is the image of the only wise God, and He is the way to the Father. You are called to worship God the Father through Him, and you are called to do so in …
Arguments and Character
One of the things that sinful men do to escape accountability is to pretend that they are deeply concerned about higher abstract principles. They want to detach character and history from all their disputes, and they want to do it for what should be obvious reasons. When Jesus was dealing with the woman who had …
Learning the Whole Psalter
You will no doubt notice that all the songs we are singing this morning are old and familiar to us. This is because we are now at the point in our musical reformation where we want to regularly reinforce what we know, and review what we have learned just a few years ago. This is …