Here is the link to very insightful quote by Derek Thomas on preaching the God-breathed Scriptures.

I recently found this short work by Sinclair Ferguson on preaching Christ from the Old Testament. It is really quite helpful.

We recently had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Peter Lillback, President of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, about his doctoral dissertation, The Binding of God: Calvin’s Role in the Development of Covenant Theology. Dr. Lillback has contributed numerous articles to various publications and journals, and is the author of George Washington’s Sacred Fire and Wall of Misconception. He has set out to offer an objective reading of John Calvin in regard to his view of “covenant” and the role that it plays in theology. The Binding of God is …

Every Thanksgiving I am reminded of the account of the one leper who, after he was healed, returned to give thanks to Jesus (Luke 17:11-19):
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 So when He saw them, He said to …

Last year I began a series of posts on “Pitfalls in Mercy Ministry.” One of the posts dealt with the work of Thomas Chalmers. Chalmers influence cannot be emphasized enough. One of the specific areas to which he contributed a considerable amount of practical theology was that of deaconal ministry. Here is a previous post dealing with some of Chalmers’ thoughts on mercy ministry. Michael Ives, over at West Port Experiment, has some extremely helpful posts on Chalmers and deaconal ministry. Ives argues that Chalmers is not more widely appreciated …

Ligonier Ministries Blog has posted the second part of John Gerstner’s teaching on Jonathan Edwards and Covenant Theology. You can find the first part here. You can find the second part here.

For quite some time now I have been recommending a six part series on Baptism by Edward Donnelly. Rev. Donnelly is the pastor of Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church, in Northern Ireland. He is also the Principal and Professor of New Testament at the Reformed Theological College, Belfast. Edward Donnelly is one of the finest preachers alive. If you have not heard him, I recommend every sermon he has at Sermon Audio. But you really must listen to this series on baptism:
Baptism #1
Baptism #2
Baptism #3
Baptism #4
Baptism #5
Baptism #6

David, over at the Thirsty Theologian has a post dealing with the issue of images of Christ and the second commandment. Interestingly, he quotes J.I. Packer, who notes:

The realization that images and pictures of God affect our thoughts of God points to a further realm in which the prohibition of the second commandment applies. Just as it forbids us to manufacture molten images of God, so it forbids us to dream up mental images of him. Imagining God in our heads can be just as real a …

Thanks to Andy Naselli for the reminder on the “Ask Pastor John” series over at Desiring God. These are posted three times a week and cover a broad range of questions. You can find all of the episodes here.

On February 5-7, 2009, the Institute for Reformed Worship at Erskine Seminary is promoting “The Architectural Setting of Christian Worship” at Independent Presbyterian Church, in Savannah, Ga. Speakers include Hughes Oliphant Old, Terry Johnson, Mark Ross, and David Gobel. You can find out all the details here. Conference Registration is $150.00, Student Registration is $25.00.

Here is a beautiful Olney Hymn by John Newton. Notice the way that Newton draws the attention to the work of Christ:
How Kind the Good Samaritan
Luke 10:33-35

How kind the good Samaritan
To him who fell among the thieves!
Thus Jesus pities fallen man,
And heals the wounds the soul receives.

O! I remember well the day,
When sorely wounded, nearly slain;
Like that poor man I bleeding lay,
And groaned for help, but groaned in vain.

Men saw me in this helpless case,
And passed without compassion by;
Each neighbor turned away his face,
Unmoved by my mournful cry.

…

Vern Poythress has an article, at the World Magazine website, that deals with guilt and the Gospel. Every minister should read this. You can find it here.

Dale Ralph Davis has an article over at Reformation 21, on why evangelicals have largely abandoned the OT. For those of you who do not know Dr. Davis, you can find out more about him here. You can read the article here.

Here is the link to a great sermon by Sinclair Ferguson on Jesus, Children, and the Kingdom of God. It is the eighth sermon on the player that comes up. It is a helpful exposition of a passage that substantiates Covenant Theology. I remember the first time I came to realize that when Jesus put His hands on the little children and blessed them He was not simply showing kindness to children. As the Covenant LORD, He was giving them the covenant blessing. The parents of these children were bringing …

All you eschatology buffs will appreciate this post about how to read the times.

Mike Gilbart-Smith, Pastor to students at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in D.C., has a very useful article over at The Theologian in which he argues that Jesus was the prototypical Systematic Theologian . He writes:
Scripture is often used in Scripture in a systematic manner, making logical deductions in order to observe the full implications of what the bible teaches elsewhere.
Look again at Mark 12:24-27. Jesus rebukes the Saducees for not knowing the Scriptures, yet what he criticises is a …

Here is the link to a very interesting post by Mark Jones, over at the Thomas Goodwin blog, concerning the Westminster Assembly, Christology and the Imputation debate. While it is a well known fact that some of the divines differed over the language of active and passive obedience, why they differed is not as well known. Check out Jones’ thoughts.
You can also listen to a lecture by Chad Vandixhoorn here.

Ligonier Ministries is posting videos from the 2008 Together for the Gospel Conference from Nov. 18-Dec. 5. If you were not able to attend T4G, or would simply like to see and hear the speakers again, tune in. You can find links and details here.

I just received a copy of G.K. Beale’s new book The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism from Crossway. It is a direct response to Peter Enns’ Inspiration and Incarnation. I look forward to reading the book and offering a meager response. Just to give you a flavor of where Beale is going, he attributes the current evangelical reassessment of the doctrine of inerrancy to two factors:

The onset of postmodernism in evangelicalism and its subsequent loss of confidence in propositional claims in the Bible.
An increasing number of conservative students graduating with …

Today at the CCEF Annual Conference, Mike Emlet spoke on addictions from the perspective of the New Testament. Mike spoke about the foundational starting point of the believer’s union with Christ. Christ’s death is our death to sin and his resurrection is our resurrection to newness of life. It is this reality that provides the context for our struggle with sin. Mike’s lecture was extremely encouraging and my Vossian ears perked up when he brought union with Christ up. Though most people don’t realize it, …

Our friend Jeff Jue’s doctoral dissertation is now available on Google Books. You can read most of it online here. For those of you who do not know Jeff allow me to give you a brief bio. Jeff is a graduate of Westminister Seminary California. After finishing seminary he went to Aberdeen to do his doctoral studies under Dr. Carl Trueman. Jeff’s dissertaion is titled, Heaven upon Earth, Joseph Mede and the Legacy of Millenarianism. After completing his doctoral studies, Jeff lectured there at the University of Aberdeen. Beginning in …

R. Scott Clark has a post over at the Heidelblog in which he sets out Calvin’s thoughts on what Paul means in Romans 2:13. This is one of the most misunderstood passages of Scripture. You can read the post here.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Dr. Stephen Nichols to talk about his new book, Getting the Blues. You can listen here. Dr. Nichols is research director of Christianity and Culture at Lancaster Bible College. “Nichols discusses his interest in blues music and shows how the blues touch upon biblical themes.”
Even Derek Thomas has given this interview a proper recommendation! You can read it here.

Thomas Hooker, the New England Puritan, once made the astute observation that the problem with the men at Pentecost was not that they had not seen nor heard Christ enough before, but that they had not been sufficiently convicted of their sins. They had seen Christ many times before, but the Holy Spirit had to come and convict them of their sins in a saving way. Iain Murray writes:

The reason for the change in the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost was not that they had not heard of Christ …

With the rise of interest in the use of Ancient Near Eastern Literature comes a new responsibility for Christians to be careful of what they adopt into their doctrine of Scripture. It has become a common to suggest that Proverbs 22:17-24:22 was a later composition of Egyptian Proverbs, supposedly given by Amen-em-opet, and commonly called the Instruction of Amenemope. Before rushing to adopt this view of literary dependence, I want to recommend six short blog posts by Dr. Benjamin Shaw:
The first post can be read here, and the rest can …

Ligonier Ministries announced the new Ligonier Academy today. There are no plans to offer seminary educational programs, but they plan to initially serve post-graduate study for ministers and continuing education for laymen. Ligonier is proposing these academic offerings:

D. Min. program, continuing education courses, and seminars for pastors
Certificate programs
Studies for students with general and special interests
Programs for Sunday school teachers and church officer candidates
Courses on Scripture, theology, history, philosophy, apologetics, and ethics
Onsite and online learning opportunities

Visit the Ligonier website for more information and their blog tomorrow for a formal …

While it is easy to overreact to those who say they hold to what is commonly known as “the Regulative Principle of Worship,” (largely because of all the contention that many who hold to the RPW have caused in the church in regard to exclusive psalmody), it is much more difficult to carefully and reverently work your way through the Scriptures in order to outline how God tells us He is to be worshiped.
Worship is the greatest act we are called to in this world. If we truly believe that …

Here is the link to C.J. Mahaney’s interview with David Powlison. Powlison, as you will most likely know, is one of the leading figures in the biblical counseling movement and teaches at CCEF, Westminster Seminary’s Counseling Center.

Just after we left Tenth Presbyterian Church to go to Christ the King, Phil began a series of sermons on the book of Ecclesiates. I wish I could have heard them in worship but I have been listening to them online recently. They are an excellent resource for anyone wanting to go deeper into the details and the biblical theology of Ecclesiates. You can find the sermons in that series here. I do want to remind you that the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals owns the rights to Dr. Ryken’s sermons …

I recently hired a friend to catalog my theological library. I did this for several reasons. The first is the fact that I needed proof of what I have in case I ever lost the books in a fire or some other catastrophe and needed it for insurance purposes. It would have cost me three times as much to have someone appraise the entire library (close to 3000 books), and would have taken much longer to do. The second reason, which is almost …