I am very excited about the release of the new Ligonier Ministry website. The resources that are now available range from previous conference audio and video to past issues of Tabletalk. While all the kinks are yet to be worked out, this site promises to be a great benefit to ministers and lay people alike. The site is sharp, user-friendly and full of wonderful resources. Check it out. You will want to visit it often.

In the interesting account of the rich man with a son near death, recorded for our instruction in John 4:43-54, we discover a valuable lesson that might easily be overlooked. J.C. Ryle, commenting on this passage, noted the way in which the rich are not exempted from troubles. He wrote:
There is no more common, or no more mischievous error, than to suppose that the rich have no cares. The rich are as liable to sickness as the poor; and have a hundred anxieties beside that the poor know nothing at …

Sometime last year I posted a link to Dale Ralph Davis’ sermons online. Since then the link to the sermons he preached at Aisquith Presbyterian Church has changed. Below you will find the original post with the new link:
Here is the link to sermons that Dale Ralph Davis preached during his time (1988-1993) at Aisquith Presbyterian Church in Parkville, MD . Currently, Rev. Davis is the Pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg, MS. You can find his recent sermons here. Dr. Davis is also well known for his …

We recently had the opportunity to have Carl Trueman join us again on Christ the Center to discuss the subject of Martin Luther and the use of Media at the time of the Reformation. This is a subject that Camden and I are especially fascinated by, considering the instrumentality of books and printing in the advancement of the Reformation. Could we be on the precipice of another age in which Reformation could be promoted by the use of electronic resources? We are sure that you will enjoy this episode. You …

I wanted to bring to your attention a few new books that have come out in recent days that you may want to add to your reading list (perhaps even your birthday and Christmas wish lists!).  The first book I want to note is the first entree of a new preaching commentary by R. C Sproul entitled the St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary series.  Sproul has published a commentary on Romans before (which can be found here), but this is a new treatment based upon his preaching at St. Andrew’s Chapel …

In a day when there are more study Bible’s than one can count, I know of none better than the Reformation Study Bible. What was formerly known as the New Geneva Study Bible is now available for iPhone and iTouch. The application is affordable and is well worth owning. You can find out all the details here.

James Grant has a post in which he considers the opinions of certain Christian leaders with regard to Christians observing Ramadan as an outreach to Muslims. You can read it here. There is absolutely no way that we should make a concession with regard to such a religious practice to a false god. Our definition of love, as well as our methodology of evangelism, are to be gleaned from Scripture, not from what some emergent churches practice. I have heard several individuals speak of respecting these practices in their communities.

When I accepted the call from the Savannah River Presbytery (PCA) to plant a church in Richmond Hill, I had no idea how much decision making would be in store. I had prepared myself in some measure with regard to how difficult it would be and how much time would factor into the equation, but there has been much I have learned in the process. After holding a Bible Study (on the book of Genesis) in our home for 6 months, the Lord had grown the group enough to begin …

Among the outstanding Scottish works of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries available online are the following:
Thomas Chalmers Romans – A masterful series of expositions on the Epistle to the Romans.
Thomas Chalmers Sermons Preached at the Tron – These particular sermons concern the natural man’s need for conversion. They includes Chalmers’ famous sermon, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.
John Maclaurin The Works of John Maclaurin – MacLaurin was a correspondent of Jonathan Edwards and was engaged in the organization of the Concert of Prayer. Among the noteworthy works included in …

I recently obtained a 1724 edition of Thomas Bradbury’s The Power of Christ over Plagues, a volume of ten sermons on various portions of Exodus and the book of Revelation. It interesting to note the way in which Bradbury expounded the presence of the number seven in the Apocalypse. There is nothing fanciful in his exposition. This is impressive on account of the fact that the majority of theologians in the 17th Century approached the book of Revelation in a chiliastic or historico-prophetical manner. These approaches relied heavily on post-canonical …

While I am somewhat late in posting something on what is a trendy, yet relevant, topic on the Reformed blogosphere at present, I want to make a recommendation concerning John Frame’s critique of Mike Horton’s Christless Christianity. If you have not read Horton’s work you really must. You should then, and only then, read John Frame’s critique. After that you should read the White Horse Inn’s response. Then you should read James Grant’s post on the subject here. Grant offers, what I believe to be, a knowledgeable, fair and balanced …

I have recently been confronted with several references to the forty days of teaching that the disciples were privileged to receive from their Lord in the days between His resurrection and ascension. What was it that He taught them in those days? Was there new revelation from what they had already known? Was there a progressive enlightening of their minds? If so, what was the precise nature of this revelation? There have been several attempts by theologians to answer this question in a manner that is faithful to Scripture. Two …

When dealing with Calvin on the Sacraments, it has sometimes been said that “what he gives with the one hand, he takes away with the other.” That is to say, some think that Calvin appears to walk a tightrope between the signum (the sign) and the res (what is signified). On account of this he has been accused of espousing a view of the sacraments which supports a virtus operativa position, viz that the sacraments, in and of themselves, have an operative power. they objectively and really convey grace to …

John 4 is one of the most wonderful chapters in the Bible because in it we have the record of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well. The account provides the key to understanding the nature of sin, as well as the nature of salvation.
The woman comes to the well with a waterpot (a symbol of her life). Our Lord comes to seek and save that which was lost. It is actually the Father and the Son who are seeking this woman (John 4:23, “The Father is seeking…”) Jesus …

Here is an outstanding series of lectures that Edward Donnelly gave at the 2001 Trinity Baptist Pastors Conference. The subject was “Helps for Today’s Pastors: Case Studies in the Life of Paul.” They are well worth the time it takes to listen to them.

Martin Downes has some extracts from a speech delivered by Martin Lloyd-Jones at the National Assembly of Evangelicals in 1966. The reason for this particular speech? The pressure to cave into the ecumenical movement of the time. One of my personal favorite quotes from this speech concerns the ecumenical desire for fellowship prior to doctrine. Lloyd-Jones put it in the following way:
What is the Christian church? That is the question. You cannot discuss church unity unless you are clear in your mind as to what the church is. Now here …

The following is a review of John Piper’s book The Future of Justification which I have written for the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology.  It is posted here with the approval of the editor of the SBET, Rev. Dr. Iain Campbell.  You can obtain the book here.  Bishop Wright has written a book in some sense in response to Dr. Piper’s book and it can be found here.
The Future of Justification:  A Response to N. T. Wright
John Piper
Inter Varsity Press, Nottingham, 2008; 240pp; £9.99; ISBN  978 1 84474 250 9
The …

I wanted to point our readers to two new books that have recently been published.  Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise, I will have reviews of these books sometime in the future.  The first book I want to mention is a festschrift (“celebratory writing”) for Professor John Frame.  Frame, former professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and Westminster Seminary California, now teaches at the Orlando campus of Reformed Theological Seminary.  This volume, Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John Frame is …

It’s time again to look at Reformed Forum’s most downloaded episodes last month and last year.  Nick and I are constantly amazed that our archives get a little too dusty.  Hopefully, you’ll find something interesting here that you haven’t already heard.  Or maybe you’d like to listen again.  I’m amazed each and every week how much I actually learn by listening to an interview  I was involved in!
October 2008

The Reformed Doctrine of Justification with John Fesko
Herman Bavinck with Ron Gleason
Christ’s Kingdom: Gospel Priorities and Politics with Russell Moore
The Preaching …

We were able to catch up with William Dennison, professor of interdisciplinary studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA, about his Th.M thesis, Paul’s Two-Age Construction and Apologetics. It is a subject you will want to familiarize yourself with. You can listen to and download the interview here.

Justin Taylor recently posted a fairly lengthy account of the calling and ministry of John Piper. You can read it here. I find his biography to be one of the most fascinating and encouraging of any living ministry on account of the centrality of Scripture, the glory of God and Jesus Christ in his testimony. I concur with Richard Muller, that Piper’s book on Romans 9:1-23 is one of the most scholarly treatments out there (though I do not personally agree with Piper’s conclusions on an eschatological hope for ethnic …

John Calvin commenting on Ephesians 3:14-19:
“. . . when the Scripture sets Jesus Christ before us, it is not without cause that we are told to rest wholly upon him, and keep to him when we have come to him, because he has all fulness of good things in himself. Therefore we do not need to be wandering here and there, or taking such great trouble in seeking the things that are needful for us. In short, we must no longer go astray, but must adhere wholly to him, as …

The University of Cambridge is, this year, celebrating its 800th anniversary. Cambridge University Press (one of the oldest publishing houses in the world) has recently republished a number of 18th and 19th century theological works. You can find the list of publications here.

Don’t get too excited – no long, lost puritan treaties here (those are all tucked away in the college libraries)!  The reprints are really a product of their times dealing mainly with the issue of the relationship between faith and science. So while there might not be too …

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.   For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV)
For the longest time now I have been captured by the majesty of Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Romans is the only book of the Bible which I have attempted to preach through in consecutive …

We have been in a far country, but he has been wiating for us. When we turn to him, he runs to meet us even when we are still a great way off. He throws his arms around us and treats us as dear children. He never hesitates. We approach him with tears, but find that his home is a house of joy. How is it that the just and holy God can give us such a reception? It is because his eternal Son has never disappointed him in any way, and he sees us being in him. He accepts us for Christ’s sake. In our unholiest moments, in the depths of our backsliding, even then the righteousness of Christ is reckonned to our account, and the Father sees us as having no faults. There is no cloud between us and our God, not ever.

Luther once said, “There is much divinity in pronouns.” William Fenner might say, “There is distinction in adverbs, there is blessing in adjectives.” This is not exactly the stuff that thunders from the pulpit to the awe of millions. But as they used to say, God still resides in the details.
In The Dutie of Communicants, Fenner asks his congregation to examine the state of their hearts before taking the Lord’s Supper. Fenner has made much of the need for meditation and self-reflection on scripture already. Here at the table it …

I was having a discussion tonight with a father in the faith about the faithful men in America who held forth their Calvinistic convictions during the 20th Century, at times when it was not cool to be a Calvinist. I was reminded by Steve Burlew’s post over at Challies about the part the Banner of Truth has played in the propagation of the Reformed faith at times when Calvinism has been more and less popular in America. You can read his post here.

On November 3, 1955 Martin Lloyd-Jones preached, what would become, one of his most influential messages–a marvelous exposition of the first two words of Ephesians 2:4, “But God…” This is the transition verse from Paul’s exposition of the awful plight of fallen man. Having explained fallen man’s condition in Ephesians 2:1-3 with the language of “death,” the apostle Paul proceeded to hash out the sphere in which man’s sinful condition existed. It was man’s nature that was sinful. Paul says, “By nature we were children of wrath as the rest…” …

I just noticed that Geerhardus Vos’ excellent little work The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church is online at Google Books.

We recently had the privilege of talking with Dr. Joseph A. Pipa about his doctoral dissertation, William Perkins and the Development of Puritan Preaching. It was an outstanding interview in which Dr. Pipa traced the influences on and contributions of William Perkins, a man who is arguably the most significant figure of the development of the Puritan movement. You can hear the interview here.
I also recently found a series of sermons that Dr. Pipa preached at Hillcrest PCA in Volant, Pa. back in 2006. It was a series on the …