“Rejoice Always” Philippians 4:4-7 November 29, 2015 Tuesday afternoon I went to get a haircut. And while I was in the chair, the discussion inevitably turned to Thanksgiving and the meal ahead. “What kind of trimmings are you having with your turkey?” I asked. “Mom asked if I wanted pecan or chocolate pie…I told her, […]
Read More Sermon: Rejoice AlwaysWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Godly Man’s Picture. A godly man will express his thankfulness in every duty. He mingles thanksgiving with prayer: ‘in every thing by prayer with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God’ […]
Read More A godly man will express his thankfulness“One Grateful Man” Luke 17:11-19 November 22, 2015 It’s one of my (several) favorite Peanuts cartoons: Linus is shown sitting at a table, pencil in hand. In the second panel the paper he was writing on is crumpled with his expected exclamation, “Rats!” In the third panel we see a trash can surrounded by numerous […]
Read More Sermon: One Grateful ManWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from All Things for Good, and is continued from last week. I shall show you several ways how affliction works for good.… (6) Afflictions work for good, as they make way for comfort. ‘In the valley […]
Read More How affliction works to good for the godly (Pt. 2)“God’s Revelation; Man’s Rejection” Part 6 Romans 1:28-32 November 15, 2015 How many times in the past few months have you observed something culturally and asked a question something like, “How can that possibly be…what are they/is he thinking?…” I said that when I read some of the opinions that were espoused by our Supreme […]
Read More Sermon: God’s Revelation, Man’s Rejection, Part 6Wednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from All Things for Good. I shall show you several ways how affliction works for good. (1) As it is our preacher and tutor — ‘Hear ye the rod’ (Mic. 6.9). Luther said that he […]
Read More How affliction works to good for the godlyWhen I began preaching the book of Romans several months ago, I knew that soon I would have to think through and preach on Romans 1:24-27, the most significant passage in Scripture about homosexuality and God’s judgment. As I always do, I wanted to “get it right” — that is, I wanted to be sure […]
Read More The church and homosexuality“God’s Revelation; Man’s Rejection” Part 5 Romans 1:26-27 November 1, 2015 For many years I have been maintaining a filing system with articles and information on hundreds of different topics (it currently fills 27 file drawers in my office and a substantial portion of my hard drive on my computer). In one of those drawers […]
Read More Sermon: God’s Revelation, Man’s Rejection, Part 5“You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God — your domestic relationships, your child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior […]
Read More We need the Bible. Today. Everyday.I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the righteousness of God,” because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous.…Night and day I pondered until…I grasped the truth that the righteousness of […]
Read More “I hated the righteousness of God”On this date, 498 years ago, a little-known monk in Wittenberg, Germany started a “little” controversy. He posted 95 declarations of debate on the door of the church in that town, intending to start a discussion with the Roman Catholic Church to transform her. Instead, he started the Protestant Reformation. Some of the theses he […]
Read More Reformation from the inside outWednesdays with Watson is a weekly reading taken from my favorite Puritan writer, Thomas Watson. This week’s selection is taken from The Lord’s Prayer. Let us hallow and sanctify God’s name. Could we but see a glimpse of God’s glory, as Moses did in the rock, it would draw adoration and praise from us. Could […]
Read More Let us hallow and sanctify God’s nameStill a few more leftovers from Sunday’s sermon on redemption: while it is always good to speak of the truth of God’s work for us on the cross, how might we stimulate our hearts to gratitude and joy in that work, and transformation by that work? Here are three suggestions for what you might do […]
Read More Another thought about redemptionIn his book, Scandalous, D. A. Carson has a helpful discussion of the concept of redemption and its use in the ancient world — In our world a word like redemption belongs to God-talk. In other words you normally do not talk fluently about redemption in everyday life. Redemption is something religious people talk about. […]
Read More Christ’s work of redemption“The Message of the Cross: Redemption” Ephesians 1:7-8 October 25, 2015 Sometimes communion feels like an afterthought to a worship service: “it’s our monthly duty and we just squeeze it into an already full morning of worship.” But because the work of Christ is central to our salvation, communion should never feel like an after […]
Read More Sermon: Redemption
Words of Grace 