Articles

(Note: What follows is not a sermon manuscript or transcript, but notes made in preparation for preaching.) Gospel Reading: Luke 10: 38-42 We live in an age of busyness: Families: Work, school, housekeeping, shopping, and cooking, soccer, baseball, music lessons, youth group, church committees, and, of course, a little time has to be found for […]

Recently a Presbyterian Church in America ruling elder posted a blog stating his stance on an earlier discussion regarding the Pope’s comments on Sunday sports. He made these points: (1) Though he is an elder who has subscribed to the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as “the system of doctrine” taught in Holy Scripture, He has […]

Historic evangelicalism has taken its cue on the needs of humans from the Philippian jailer whose question it assumed to be universal: “What must I do to be saved?” It has followed the lead of the Apostle Paul in proclaiming “how to be saved”: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you […]

(Note: What follows below is not a sermon manuscript but sermon notes and worked out thoughts for preaching. Gospel Reading: Matthew 28: 16-20 On the first Easter morning two women, both bearing the name Mary, but neither the mother of our Lord, went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. To their surprise they […]

Ian Hamilton, the pastor of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church in England, and William Harrell, the pastor of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia are old friends. Both adopt the Scottish tradition of writing a monthly letter to their congregations, and independently of one another the following were the letters they wrote in the past weeks […]

Ian Hamilton, the pastor of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church in England, and William Harrell, the pastor of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia are old friends. Both adopt the Scottish tradition of writing a monthly letter to their congregations, and independently of one another the following were the letters they wrote in the past weeks […]

Dr Ben Short was Geoff Thomas’ room-mate at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1961. Ben is now the pastor emeritus of the Orthodox Christian Reformed Church of Cambridge Ontario. His wife, Elizabeth, has recently passed away and this is one of the tributes that has been paid to her: Elizabeth was born in North Vancouver to […]

I returned to Israel from studies at the WEC College in Glasgow with clear and well laid out plans. I joined hands with the local Brethren Assembly in Tel Aviv, began a work among the Assembly’s younger people and was employed in Dolphin Press, then the only Christian publishing house in the country. Our means […]

It has been 486 years since Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on his church door in Wittenberg in 1517. That act was itself not extraordinary. It was an ordinary way of making public notices in those days. Had Luther done it in 2004, he would have created Ninety-five Theses.com! Back in those days, nails […]

I finished the 1000 page book in January; I took three years reading Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy. I have watched the three films avidly each December since 2001. I claim no expertise on Tolkien or the famous Trilogy which has sold 50 million copies, but I admit being fascinated and hooked by the […]

N. T. Wright, in his book, “What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tars us the Real Founder of Christianity” (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997.192 pages), has written one of the most compelling and frightening books I have read in a long time. Compelling, because N. T. Wright winsomely presents […]

Gospel Reading and Text: Mark 3:22-30Epistle Reading: Hebrews 6:1-9If you blaspheme my name, you may irritate me or may make me depressed. But you probably won’t provoke a full-fledged counterattack to defend myself. If you slander my friend, or my relatives, or my children, you will probably get a somewhat stronger reaction from me. When […]

During Samuel Rutherford’s time in London, where he was a delegate from the Church of Scotland at the Westminster Assembly, two children from his second marriage died. He wrote sorrowfully of this to another bereaved parent: "I was in your condition; I had but two children, and both are dead since I came hither … […]

Gospel Reading: Mark 2:23 – 3:6 I read this past week about an interesting decision of an Appeals Court in Mississippi. A man, his girlfriend, and family members were having a barbeque at a cabin in the woods. All were drinking alcoholic beverages. The man’s girlfriend became violently ill. They called 911, but after waiting […]

Love Is A Duty We had been counselling with them for three months, meeting every other week, praying and conversing with them, giving them homework to do together. Baruch was doing the counselling, with Sasha sitting in as an intern and learning from what he saw. The husband was the one who initiated the process: […]

I join the many who are thanking God and congratulating you on eightieth birthday. Our Lord has been most gracious to you and to His Church in sparing you these many years. Your service as Professor of Theology in two seminaries, as Stated Clerk and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in […]

Gospel Reading: Mark 3: 7-21There are three groups of people who can make a great impact on our lives. There are our foes. Not everyone has an enemy, or enemies, but if you do, you know that your enemy is against you. He does not wish you well, but will, if he has the chance, […]

The recent post on the Presbyterian Church of America News.com regarding a preacher who got into trouble for the length of his hair and the Hawaiian shirts he wore in the pulpit, brought to mind a story that has been circulating on the Internet for awhile. I think I have a little credibility to speak […]

A review of R. T. Kendall, In Pursuit of His Glory: My 25 Years at Westminster Chapel (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2002). Iain H. Murray In the past quarter-century, Westminster Chapel, London, has been through seismic change. Either from personal experience of what it was, or from the reading of Lloyd-Jones’ literature, there are many […]

by James C. Goodloe IV and Robert W. Patterson “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for […]

Every conceivable grace and virtue can be found this very moment in a limitless supply in the Son of God. All fullness dwells in the God-man. The believer will find in him love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control and every other virtue you can imagine, and many we can’t. You will find […]

Many things that are not wrong, but, in fact, good in themselves are inappropriate at some times and in certain circumstances. You don’t wear a white dress to a funeral or a black one to a wedding. You don’t act rowdy at church and you don’t act reverent at a football game. You don’t give […]

On February 25, 2004 Icon films, will be releasing Mel Gibson’s much anticipated film The Passion of the Christ. The date of the release was deliberately chosen to coincide with the Roman Catholic holy day of Ash Wednesday, and is indicative of the fact that for Gibson, his film was more of a work of […]

As Christian believers we face all the challenges of this life in Christ, that is, as joined to him and his illimitable resources. It is as those plugged into the Son of God that we face every obligation God lays upon us. We must endure the sufferings of this present time. We must resist the […]

At a recent Wednesday night adult Christian Education Class, the elder leading the study played for us a recorded sermon on Romans 6:11 preached on a Friday night in December 1958 by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. We were surprised and amused to hear at one point Dr. Lloyd-Jones mention that their Friday night series would be suspended […]