INTRODUCTION:In God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis has a very fine short essay on the dangers of national repentance. In short, what he cautions us against is the prayerful form of “don’t blame me, I wanted to do something else.” In other words, every form of true repentance is hard, while there is a form …
Pulpit Freedom
INTRODUCTION:Today, October 7, 2012, is Pulpit Freedom Sunday. In 1954, the Johnson Amendment was passed which asserted the federal government’s right to set limits on what could and could not be preached from the pulpit. On this Lord’s Day, over a thousand American pastors are going to be preaching in defiance of that regulation, in …
Joy and Melancholy
INTRODUCTION:What are we to make of a disruption of joy that does not appear to proceed from unconfessed sin, and which also appears unrelated to external afflictions? What are we to make of that broad category of minor depression, major depression, other forms of mental illness, the blues, or simply other forms of unhappiness? They …
Joy and Affliction
INTRODUCTION:We have seen that one cause of disrupted joy is the fact of unrepented and unconfessed sin. The second cause, the one we will consider today, is the relationship of joy and affliction. And the third, covered next week, will be the relationship of joy and melancholy, joy when you have a case of the …
Joy and Sin
INTRODUCTION:This message is the first of three on the subject of joy. I want to consider, each in turn, three basic challenges to a believer’s joy. The first challenge will be sin—disobedience. The second challenge will be suffering or affliction. The third challenge we will address will be melancholy, the blues, or what our generation …
A Sermon to the Governor and Legislature of Idaho
Introduction:It may seem unusual to preach a sermon to someone who is not present, and this would be odd if the church were contained and enclosed by her four walls. But Scripture teaches that the church is a city on a hill, with the whole world invited to look on, and that there are times …
Child Communion and the Keys II
INTRODUCTION: As you are bringing your children up in the covenant, your operating assumption ought to be that your God is their God, and that they are, adjusting for levels of maturity, faithful covenant members. Your attitude should not be that of assuming that “your sweet baby” must be converted despite a sullenness that ascends …
Child Communion & the Keys I
INTRODUCTION:As anyone who has worshiped with us can see, it is our practice to include our baptized children with us in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We do not want to be superstitious about it, as though the elements of bread and wine were magic, but it is a routine practice for us to …
Conservative and Progressive
INTRODUCTION:This is Ascension Sunday, which means that we are going to be reminded of the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in every realm. Because we are currently in a political season, and we are in this season in a time that is politically swollen, we need to come to the Scriptures as the …
Grace and Sweat
INTRODUCTION:I am fond of saying that grace has a backbone, but I think it is time to explain what I mean by that. The context of these remarks is the general and current ongoing discussion about the worrisome trajectories of all those incipient legalists and antinomians out there. The incipient legalists are the ones the …