Reading the gospel accounts of John the Baptist’s ministry of baptism and then considering the significant number of accounts of baptism in Acts has made some wonder about the Old Testament practice of baptism. Was it present in the Old Testament? And what was already known and believed by the public about baptism during the […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers: Baptism at the time of ChristCan I ask you a question? Have you become complacent about God? If you’re not sure, then consider these marks of complacency: apathy about worship a sense of emptiness when you read God’s Word a sense of emptiness when you communicate with the God of the universe spiritual dryness an overwhelming feeling of worry and […]
Read More Complacent about God?The Shepherds’ Conference is starting in about seven weeks. Here is some information about it: More information and registration is here.
Read More Shepherds’ Conference 2012Among evangelicals, there are two ways of thinking about Christ and His temptation. No orthodox believer thinks that Christ sinned, but there is debate about whether he could have sinned. The view that Christ could have sinned is termed peccability (“able not to sin”) while the view that Christ could not have sinned is designated […]
Read More The temptation of ChristThe temptation of Jesus (Mt. 4:1-11) is often used as an illustration of how Satan attacks believers, or how believers should respond to Satan’s deceptive offerings, or how the Word of God is sufficient for every need, or how Christ is sympathetic to our temptations because He has endured every kind of temptation. All those […]
Read More Satan and temptationI moved to Southern California early in the summer of 1984 — the year the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Virtually as soon as we arrived, we noted that there was a barrage of information about what to do to prepare for the traffic nightmare that was anticipated to ensue as soon as the […]
Read More What shall we do?Writing in World a few years ago, Gene Veith observed that, “People today want to feel moral. But they do not want objective, transcendent absolutes — such as the Ten Commandments — whose authority comes from God.…They prefer to construct an ethical system that does not make them feel guilty.” In general, people want authority, […]
Read More He has authorityIt seems self-evident that a father would love his child. There are aberrations to that statement, but in general it’s true (as Christ Himself verified, Mt. 7:9-11). Even unredeemed men enjoy taking their sons to the park to throw the ball and are happily willing to sit down with their elementary-aged daughters for “tea.” And […]
Read More The beloved SonCharles Bridges’ comments on Psalm 119:24 (“Your testimonies also are my delight; They are my counselors”) are a fitting summary to this morning’s sermon on the third stanza of that great Psalm — What could we want more in a time of difficulty than comfort and direction? David had both these blessings. As the fruit […]
Read More Sunday Leftovers — Psalm 119:24We know God is infinite in all His attributes. And that, by definition, means that there can be no limitations to His abilities and works. As Jesus has said, “All things are possible with God” (Mk. 10:27). We know that. And yet we struggle to believe it. We are very much like the father of […]
Read More Trust in the LordIn Matthew 5, Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (v. 17). There might be a temptation to think that His fulfillment of the Law began with His public ministry. Not so. His fulfillment began with His birth, […]
Read More This was to fulfill what was spoken…If you have an eBook reader, here is a great way to expand your library inexpensively: Crossway is having a 10-day special on all its eBooks. No eBook is priced more than $5.99. Check out the specials on the Crossway website.
Read More 10 Day Special on All Crossway EbooksWhen you read the stories of Christ’s birth in Luke 2, it is possible to come up with sermons that are pleas to be more evangelistic: the shepherds investigated the revelation of the angels by going to find the new-born Christ and then declared what they discovered to others. This provides potential opportunity for another […]
Read More They said what they’d seenWhen my wife was pregnant with our children, we spent many dinners and evenings reading names to each other from the baby name books. And until we settled on a final name, not wanting to call the baby, “baby,” we came up with interim names — monickers that tickled us as we read through the […]
Read More It’s not just a nameIt’s possible to read the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth in Luke 1 and think, “that’s a blessed family.” But that’s like reading the last chapter of a book first, finding the happy ending and assuming that the participants of the story knew the end of the story while all the hard stuff was happening, […]
Read More This is the way the Lord deals with His own
Words of Grace 