Every true believer is being led by the Spirit of God. We are led away from our sin and into paths of righteousness. This is what it means to be led by the Spirit of God. There is, to be sure, no greater experience to be enjoyed by the children of God than that of being transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God. When the Spirit leads the sons of God, He leads them into conformity to the Son of God. As children of God we gain the family likeness. God is committed to conforming His children into holy sons and daughters. In order to do this, He gives us His Spirit to lead us to mortify sin. The leading of the Spirit then is not a special mystical experience reserved for the few, but a present reality for all true believers in Jesus Christ. ...
Close ministerial friendships are one of the kind gifts of God. Myriad have been the examples of close friendships shared by gospel ministers of the gospel throughout church history. One thinks of Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray Mc'Cheyne, or John Newton and William Cowper. Who cannot see the fruit that was born from the friendship between Martin Bucer and John Calvin. Scott Manetsch notes, "it was Bucer’s friendship and fatherly support that helped Calvin regain his sense of vocation to Christian ministry and proved decisive in shaping his future career as a church reformer."...
One of the most challenging trials for believers during our pilgrimage through this dark and fallen world is to truly believe and rest in the love that God has for us. Sinclair Ferguson once noted that the experience of so many believers is the internalizing of the thought, "He loves me, He loves me not." Many believers lack the assurance of their salvation precisely because they focus on the enormity of their sin to the exclusion of the enormity of the love of God for sinners. God's love superabounds to the salvation of sinners. So how should we think about the love of God toward us who believe, while we acknowledge the reality of sin in our lives? ...
The exodus of Israel out of Egypt was typical of the ultimate spiritual exodus believers experience through the redeeming work of Christ; nevertheless, the relationship of the Old and the New Testaments are united in the redemptive purposes of God–from Genesis 3:15 to the fulfillment of all things in Christ. One can err in only seeing Israel's exodus out of Egypt as a physical deliverance....
When we approach the matter of addressing textual variants in our preaching, we should keep a few things in mind. First, we must labor to help the people of God be confident that God has preserved His word for His church in the manuscripts that we have available to us. Second, we should help them understand that the contemporary translations of Scripture are trustworthy throughout (the majority of variants in the ancient manuscripts being of such minor significance as to be related to single vowels; and where there are inclusions of highly questionable variants, none contradict the harmony of the doctrines taught in Scripture). Third, whatever course we decide to follow on preaching more substantial variants, we should address these things generally rather than with great specificity. ...
While things like gender debates rage on in the make believe world of Western social media (with Christians being excoriated for their views on male headship in the home and church), the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan reminds us that there is an Islamic patriarchy that makes "dishwashing" debates look like something akin to kindergarteners yelling at each other on the playground during recess. Women and children are begging to be rescued from Afghanistan. This is in no way whatsoever meant to downplay the real evil of real abuse in our own country. Real evil needs to be fought wherever it appears. However, we must also come to terms with the fact that many are not living in the real world when they rant about how often a Christian husband should be washing and folding the laundry. My friend and fellow PCA pastor Alton Hardy offered some reflections on this matter. He wrote, ...
Personal pronouns have been all the rage and debate in recent years. It's amazing how important such short words are in our everyday speech and in our anthropology. That being said, personal pronouns are also some of the most important words to interpret when reading the Scriptures. . .Person pronouns guide the interpretation of a passage, they inform us of the individual and communal nature of the Christian life, and they aid the minister in the preaching of God's word....
We love the idea of diversity, until it cuts across our own idea of personal uniformity. I have been thinking often of the diversity of personalities represented in the church, and how that diversity plays into the heated conversations that we have online. We often fail to adequately understand why someone might be more vocal that we wish them to be, or more quiet than we would be. ...
When we consider all the depths and riches of the details and redemptive-historical background of Jesus' first miraculous sign, we are encouraged to believe in Him for spiritual renewal and joy. As the greater Moses, the Seed of the woman, and the Bridegroom of His Church, Jesus came to bring the life-giving blessings of redemption. He came to make all things new. May we know afresh the blessed realities of Jesus' first sign at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. ...
No matter how long men lived after the fall, the curse of the fall echoed in the words, “…and he died.” Man cannot outlive death, no matter how long his life may have been. The futility of life and the inevitability of death served to produce in that primitive era a greater taste of the bitterness of the fall, the longing for the promised Redeemer, and the hope of the resurrection. The extraordinarily long lives of Adam’s descendants served the purpose of God’s mercy, as did the shortening of man’s life. God shortened man’s lifespan so that we may hope in His mercy and long for His promised redemption in Christ. Additionally, it is a mercy for God to take believers away from this wicked and fallen world. Scripture teaches that the Lord sometimes takes the righteous away in order to keep them from experiencing more of the calamities and evils in this life (Isaiah 57:1...
I sometimes fear that there is a willful naïveté in the church with regard to the presence and power of Satan. One doesn't have to look far into the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, or the New Testament Epistles to discover the reality of the spiritual forces of darkness and to develop a theology of the assault tactics of the evil one. But it might surprise some to see...
Keep ReadingWith the five hundred and third anniversary of the inception of the Protestant Reformation upon us, it will do us good to remember that the Reformation was not simply a defense of sola Scriptura and the rediscovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone–it was a reformation in worship and ecclesiology. Since Rome had rooted its sacerdotalism (i.e., priesthood) i...
Keep ReadingA man preparing for pastoral ministry needs not only the scientific tools to learn the multi-variegated aspects of theology--he also needs the skill of experienced men to teach him how to weave them into the fabric of his ministry to a congregation. It is one thing to know the doctrine of God with scholastic and categorical precision; it is quite another thing to know how ...
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If the church is to be rooted in the timeless truths of God’s word, it needs leaders who are standing on the shoulders of giants in whom the Spirit of God was at work. If pastors are to navigate the overwhelming challenges of an increasingly secular and antagonistic society–not to mention the internal attacks from strong willed and self-seeking individuals within the c...
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In recent years, our society has rapidly embraced what has come to be known as the "cancel culture." If someone has said or done something--at any point in his or her life--that cuts across the grain of the suppose moral rectitude of society, he or she is swiftly excoriated to the point of irremediable social ostracization. An immediate sentence is determined by the masses...
Keep ReadingPaul teaches that Jesus Christ is the source of all godliness. There is no godliness apart from Him. His Person and saving work is the singular and exclusive source of that godliness that God requires and provides. Our God gives what He requires of Himself by coming in the Person of Christ. ...
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When we come to Christ, we learn to live in a way that is pleasing to God. We seek after His instruction and walk in His ways. Jesus is the rarest commodity–the eternal wisdom of God and sole source of righteousness and life. It is Him we must seek, find, and acquire more than any other commodities we may come to possess in life....
Keep ReadingPeter the Barber is one of the most interesting figures in church history. He was not like so many othersof whom we have accounts in the annals of church historya theological giant. He did not start any charitable organization or initiate a movement to liberate an oppressed people. He was Martin Luther's barber (and, apparently was quit committed to the bowl cut!). In 1535...
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Lately, as I have been reading through Augustine's Expositions of the Psalms, I have been struck afresh by how central God's free, unmerited, saving grace in Christ is throughout his theology. Though he is not always clear about justification being a legal act on the part of God, Augustine, nevertheless, makes numerous statements about the acceptance of a sinner before the...
Keep ReadingIt has become all too common for men and women to attack the church for all of the ways in which they believe that the church has failed. Almost every day professing believers rant online about the failures of "the evangelical church," "the Reformed church," "the Western church," etc. While recognizing that all of these categories are somewhat artificially manufactured, th...
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