Topic Archives: The Holy Spirit
Every true minister of the gospel is committed to preaching the Word, the whole Word, and nothing but the Word. We are committed to doing this in season and out of season, when times are good and when times are bad. We do so because we believe that the Scriptures make us wise for salvation […]
ReadThat which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). We must preach Christ crucified. This is not limited to pastors and missionaries.1 It is clear that disciple-making, including the task of evangelizing, is part and parcel of our sanctification. We are commanded to […]
ReadThe penultimate paper in the John Owen Centre at the September 2009 Conference on John Calvin was from Sinclair Ferguson – on ‘Calvin and the Holy Spirit.’ Dr Ferguson spoke about the fact that there is teaching about the Spirit everywhere in Calvin’s writings leading to B B Warfield’s famous remark that Calvin was the […]
ReadPray in the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:18) Some time after Peter preached at Pentecost where three thousand were saved, he and John were going to the temple to pray when they saw a lame man begging alms. Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold but what I do have I give to you. In the […]
ReadJohn Calvin was not a man who would readily draw attention to himself. When he gave some details of his early life in the preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, his purpose was to draw attention to God’s activity. His father had intended him for the priesthood but, says Calvin, God, by the secret […]
ReadBe filled with the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) In July, 1997 my wife and I had the privilege of taking tea with Lord and Lady Catherwood in Cambridge, England. Lady Catherwood is the daughter of my favourite preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who so ably preached the doctrines of grace, beginning in Aberavon, Wales in 1927 and […]
ReadThe Westminster Confession of Faith, insisting that Scripture is sufficient in our day, holds that ‘those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people’ have ‘now ceased’ (1.1). We who adhere to that doctrine are thus often called ‘cessationists.’ That label carries a lot of baggage. By itself, it’s negative. In current debates […]
ReadDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed until the day of redemption. [Ephesians 4:30] 1735 was a most remarkable year in the expansion of Christ’s kingdom. In order to appreciate what God did that year, we need to go back to 1662 when King Charles II, in an effort […]
ReadThere are few subjects more debated and more hotly debated in the church today than whether or not the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit continue to this day. We have recently seen a great deal of discussion about this issue in the blogosphere. It is an issue which leaves many believers confused, unsure as […]
ReadREVIVALS TRUE AND FALSE In short, a revival shows itself to be genuine by its effects upon the religious, the fraternal and the missionary life of the church. [The following fascinating piece is extracted from the chapter on Revivals of Religion in the Writings of Thomas E. Peck, (Banner of Truth Trust, 3 volumes, hbk)] […]
ReadThe hearts of all mankind are closed to the gospel, to the preaching of the word, the beseechings and invitations of the Lord. by Geoff Thomas Lydia’s home town was four hundred miles away in Thyatira a city famous for its dyes (there is an early inscription to a guild of dyers there). Lydia was […]
ReadTHE VALUE OF A GOOD BOOK When Dr James Stalker gave the nine Yale Lectures on Preaching in 1891, which were subsequently published by Hodder and Stoughton under the title “The Preacher and His Models”, he drew to his conclusion with these words: A student ought, while at college, to make himself master of at […]
ReadWe will not be strong because of our own sense of righteousness, morality and good behaviour. by Geoff Thomas What a constant theme is Christian weakness in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. How alien a message it is to the prevailing Christian ethos of the 21st century. For example, those churches which claim to […]
ReadHOW TO KILL SIN A Sermon on the Mortification of Sin “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the […]
ReadFor they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.’ — Romans 10:3 ‘For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going’. . . We have, so far, been dealing with the first two verses, and have seen that certain general […]
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