Getting along with people you differ with can be difficult on two levels. The first level is the basic one of “ego surrender,” recognizing that the other person might have a point, or worse, might be entirely correct. This is addressed rightly when you embrace the humility of confessing your sin, your fault, your mistake. …
Two Bell Curves, Not One
One of the basic doctrines of Scripture is that the entire human race is shut up under sin. The only way out is through the gospel, through the redemption that was accomplished fully and completely by the Lord Jesus. This redemption is grasped by faith alone. The Bible is plain. No one is righteous, not …
High in the Night Sky
One of the great sins, according to the Scriptures, is the sin of complaining. We tend to overlook this this, thinking that complaining is just an ordinary, garden-variety sin. Everybody complains, right? But in Scripture it is one of the big ones. The children of Israel in the wilderness incurred the anger of God more …
Many Buttons to Fasten
As we come to worship the Lord, we confess our sins. We are preparing ourselves now to do just that. But it is important for us to understand the nature of what we are doing. We do not confess our sins here weekly so that you don’t have to bother with confessing them in the …
The Plow of Conviction
As we continue to pray for reformation and revival—and it is more necessary now than ever—we have to take care not to neglect the true nature of conviction of sin. Given the nature of the world around us, it is perilously easy for us to mistake certain things for conviction of sin that are not …
Your Down Ballot Duties
This is the last Sunday before the election, and next Lord’s Day we will all know a lot more about what exactly we have done to ourselves. Consider this exhortation a last set of reminders. First, the church is necessarily a political force, and nothing in governmental restrictions can be done to undo that. We …
The Devil’s Miracle-Gro
Resentments have a tendency to accumulate. They are something that grows. Bitterness is a settled negative disposition toward someone, but it is a settled negative disposition that feeds and grows. If you one time fired an employee for laziness or dishonesty, that might represent a settled negative disposition toward him, in that you would never …
Without Guile
In a time like ours, one of the fundamental distinctions we must master is the distinction between a sin and a crime. This is more complicated than it looks or sounds. A crime is something outlawed by the civil authorities, and in what they have done, they may have behaved wisely or foolishly. For example, …
On the Imputation of Motive
Imputation is a glorious part of our salvation. Through imputation, God credits us with the complete and untouchable righteousness of Jesus Christ. His obedience is reckoned as ours. There are times and places in our lives where we are invited to imitate Him in this—imputation occurs in every wedding, for example. But there are many …
Humility Is An Inference
When it comes to the duty of humility, the body is generally divided into two large sections. There are those who do not think of humility much, for the whole thing seems entirely unrealistic, and then there are those who pay a great deal of direct attention to this duty, and it is that kind …