Yearly Archives: 2011

A sermon taken from Assurance: An Exposition of Romans 5,1 a volume in Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ series of sermons on the book of Romans, published by the Trust (pp. 14-29). Dr Lloyd-Jones died thirty years ago today, on March 1 1981. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 140-141).1 1. When we come to be religious, we lose not our pleasure, but translate it. Before we fed on common notions, but now we live on holy truths. 2. The whole life of a Christian should be nothing […]

How blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. (Psalm 84:5) In the summer of 2008 our staff and wives enjoyed a two day retreat at a house in upstate New York. On our first afternoon there we all drifted peacefully down the Batten Kill, a […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 137-139).1 1. In justification we are liberated from the chains of our sins, so far as they bound us for condemnation, yea, even so far as they held us under the dominion of Satan; and this suffices for its […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 90-91).1 1. What is glory in this world but shame? Why art thou afraid to carry Christ’s cross? Wilt thou come into his kingdom, and not drink of his cup? 2. Dost thou not know Rome to be Babylon? […]

But someone may well say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ (James 2:18) With some fifty percent of Americans claiming to have had a born again experience, and with thirty percent saying they are evangelicals1 should we not expect a mighty societal impact resulting in a more just society, the abolition of abortion, the […]

The first part of a paper delivered at the 2009 Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The concluding part can be found here. Attacks upon the doctrine that there are no errors in the Bible are not new. As the history of the Scottish Church in the late nineteenth century demonstrates, they […]

The aim of this book is to show the relevance of the Bible’s teaching on the sovereignty of God to our daily lives. In 10 chapters Fred Leahy shows how the sovereign Lord is the hand that creates, governs, provides, redeems, keeps, guides, chastens, blesses, enables and judges. Mr. Leahy writes in an accessible, yet […]

An extract from Words Old and New: Gems from the Christian Authorship of all Ages (pp. 82-83).1 1. The law sheweth us our sin; the gospel sheweth us a remedy for it. The law sheweth us our condemnation; the gospel sheweth us our redemption. The law is the word of wrath; the gospel is the […]

Jeremiah’s was a very difficult situation. He had watched the spiritual situation in his country deteriorate further and further. As a prophet of the Lord, he had to declare what was revealed to him about future judgement against his people. No wonder he wished ‘that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of […]

Can women be ordained to Christian ministry? Should they be bishops or hold office as pastor/teachers in the 21st century? These and many other related questions, are being asked and acted upon in an increasingly fluid, controversial, and divisive atmosphere within the professing Christian Church. A fresh appreciation in the light of contemporary church disorder […]

‘Ferguson writes in a way that children can understand, while the adults benefit, too. The gospel is presented clearly, and the truth that following Christ may lead to persecution and martyrdom is handled well.’ [John Bird on Sinclair B. Ferguson’s Ignatius of Antioch: The Man Who Faced Lions at his ‘While We Sojourn’ blog.] Below […]

We live in a mad, as well as a bad, world. The pace of life is simply frenetic, and shows few if any signs of slowing down. One danger facing the Christian in this mad, bad world is that we become swept along in the rush and never really take, and make, the time to […]

The Geneva Bible, first printed in 1560, is arguably the second most important English translation of the Bible after the King James Version. It was the work of a group of English Protestant exiles who lived in Calvin’s Geneva during the oppressive reign of Mary Tudor. This translation became immediately popular with over 150 editions […]

There’s more to the ministry than preaching! We have to shepherd our people – all of them – as well. A. Biblical foundations [1] What it means ‘to shepherd’Two key verses are Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2, both of which are found in direct addresses to elders. We are to look after the sheep. […]

Cremation has become an increasingly popular practice today, not only in other nations, but in America as well. The general attitude is, ‘It doesn’t matter how you are buried or if you are buried or what happens to your body.’ Increasingly, professing evangelical Christians are supportive of the practice of cremation, saying, ‘It doesn’t really […]

You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22) One of the more relevant issues on the college campus today is gender identification. A growing number of young men and women are wrestling with their gender. The recent repeal by Congress of the ‘Don’t Ask, […]

Europeans should not forget their most pressing moral issue: abortion At the close of the last century, as the reckoning was drawn up in Europe for the actions and reactions of the twentieth century, could we not have been forgiven for tending a little toward the view that we had, after everything, acquitted ourselves rather […]

Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes: Foundations for Expository Sermons Sidney Greidanus Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010 xvii + 340 pages, softcover, $26.00 ISBN: 978 0 80286 535 9 This is the third ‘Preaching Christ’ book written by Sidney Greidanus, professor emeritus of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary. His other works are entitled […]

Watch over your own heart with diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23) I have known men who began well, who began their careers and families with a steadfast commitment to honour God, to be faithful to their wives and children, and to keep a lid on their fleshly desires. Sadly, […]

A little book (95 x 130mm) but a treasure if you are comfortable praying in the language of yesteryear. Although taken from the Scottish Psalter of 1595, the introduction (well worth reading) explains that these prayers based on the Psalms date back even earlier, to a French Psalter of 1567 with ‘a prayer at the […]

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8) Things began unravelling with frightening […]

Introduction In winding up his magnificent exposition of the sovereignty of grace in salvation, the apostle Paul writes: ‘For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things’ (Rom. 11:36). That is, from God as the Source, through God as the Means, to God as the End, all things exist and have their […]

The first individual is André Kizito, pastor of an Evangelical Assembly of God congregation. Kizito is a highly motivated, well educated man who led a corrupt life in the military before being saved and radically transformed by the Lord. He is one of those believers who seems never to have lost his first love, and […]

I. Valera Oichanko has been leading the work in Tiumen very successfully for the past eighteen months. Here is his latest report. We are very glad to be able to share with you the experiences and blessings we have had in our service for the Lord in Tiumen. We also thank you for your prayers […]