Yearly Archives: 2006

Augustus Montague Toplady was born at Farnham in Surrey on 4th November 1740. His father, Major Toplady, died in May 1741 of yellow fever at the siege of Cartagena. Toplady was baptised at Farnham Church on the 29th November of that year. We can pass over his childhood for there is little of importance for […]

Genesis 2:24&25 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.“ One of the greatest challenges to Christianity in Wales today is what is called ‘postmodernism.’ Don’t worry […]

In the early part of my ministry I had no picture of what a reforming work might look like. Though familiar with some 16th century Reformation personalities and events, the ongoing necessity for biblical reformation had not captured my imagination. But that soon changed. I was in the midst of studying “Church Growth” under Peter […]

In the previous installment we traced the roots of the New School Dutch Calvinistic preaching. This type of preaching is characterized by historical-redemptive rather than an exemplary approach to Scripture. Rejecting what it considers the individualistic, subjective, mystical and experiential elements in Old School Calvinistic preaching, it emphasizes the covenantal, objective and corporate aspects of […]

The Bible’s Teaching On Election This fundamental doctrine teaches believers that they were chosen in Christ before the world was created. The eternal Father chose a people from the ruins of the fall of Adam; a number that no man can number from every nation, kindred, tongue and people. The eternal Father loves them in […]

Introduction Every religion has certain characteristics that sets it apart from its rivals. There are different traditions, customs, rituals, ceremonies, modes of worship and styles of preaching. Limiting ourselves to Christianity and preaching, there is a marked difference, for instance, between Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Pentecostal and Reformed or Calvinistic preaching. It does not […]

Keep a Close Watch on Yourself and on the Teaching (3)– Al Martin I Timothy 4:16 “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Take heed to yourself that you are growing in grace and maintaining a vital walk with God, by […]

Someone contacted me to say that the town drunk had had a stroke and was in the local hospital. Could I visit him? I have had dealings with him over the years, seen him lain out on a bench in front of the bank dead drunk, an empty wine bottle under the seat, been approached […]

The Life of John Knox – Iain Murray John Knox was born around 1514 at Haddington. At 12 an unknown book arrived in Scotland, Tyndale’s Bible. Thirty years later the first Scottish martyr was to be burned at St. Andrews. Knox was ordained a priest in the Scottish RC church in 1536. In the 1540s […]

The Banner of Truth has reprinted Robert Traill’s Justification Vindicated (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2002, xii, Puritan Paperback Series). It would be understandable if a reader of Justification Vindicated were to conclude that this book had been written only quite recently, for in it Scottish Presbyterian Pastor Robert Traill was responding to the rise […]

If it were to be asked what is the recurring theme in Knox’s words and writings the answer is perhaps a surprising one. Sometimes he could be severe, and sometimes extreme. Given the days and the harshness of the persecution he witnessed, it would be understandable if these elements had preponderated in his ministry. But […]

“On Becoming a Better Pastor”– Graham Heaps, Dewsbury Evangelical Church, Yorkshire I am tied to my notes because I have 10 minutes. It is natural to think that years of pastoring make one a better pastor, but is that necessarily so? My son played the violin and practiced for years and yet he failed his […]

(A sermon preached at the Memorial Service for Donna Cunningham, a single sister in Christ who died of cancer at age 58, and who served the kingdom unselfishly and sacrificially, especially in the education of church at Grace Christian School. She was also a faithful member of Covenant Presbyterian Church, Louisville, MS, who endured in […]

We all perhaps would have to admit that we do not pray as often as we should. That admission, while it may shame and grieve us, would probably not surprise us. However, what may surprise us is the fact that few, if any of us, pray as often as we think we do. This is […]

(A letter written to the Editor of the Reader’s Digest) I am writing with reference to the final section of the article entitled “Happiness – how to have it now” in the current issue of Reader’s Digest, relating to the prospect of facing one’s own death. I would like to say that it is possible […]

Opening Sermon: The letter to Jude-Maurice RobertsI take two texts from the epistle, verse 3, and then the closing verse, “Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling . . .” The work of the minister is both the best and worst work in the world. Best because of what he is […]

It is with great pleasure that the Trust brings to the attention of readers the publication of a number of new titles during June and July. Titles available from the end of June include Sharon James’s Elizabeth Prentiss – More Love to Thee (272 pp. clothbound, £15/$20, ISBN 0851519261). This is the first full-scale biography […]

During the early 1990’s after almost seventy years of political and cultural servitude, Russia finally rejected its thraldom to communism. For a few brief years under President Yeltsin there was a degree of unprecedented religious freedom. An example of this freedom was the mission, ‘Christ to the Peoples of Siberia’, organised during the two summers […]

The Letters of Samuel Rutherford have again been reprinted in hardback and published by The Banner of Truth Trust. In former years some have contended that Rutherford’s Letters are the nearest thing to inspiration outside Scripture. It is a delight, therefore, to find that there has been a call for yet a further republication of […]

In November I visited South Korea. My main purpose was to take part in an Induction service of a Korean minister who for the past two years has been studying some of our Seminary courses by distance learning. The Rev Dr Y C Whang has also become known to our ministers by his attendance at […]

David Wells latest book, Above All Earthly Powers; Christ in a Postmodern World, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005) is one that I found difficult to put down once begun. This work is the culmination of his three previous works. While I found all three of those books filled with helpful insights and profound analyses, his latest […]

It is fifty years since Iain Murray first addressed this conference when the Welsh ministers met with Dr. Lloyd-Jones in Cilgwyn. Geoff Thomas took these notes of the first and third of his addresses. SESSION ONE We gather together burdened with this concern to preach the word of God. What a supreme calling it is […]

In the eyes of B. B. Warfield, ‘Jonathan Edwards stands out as the one figure of real greatness in the intellectual life of colonial America’. Most commentators would agree on the greatness of Edwards’ contribution to America’s intellectual life, but Warfield is more specific: ‘From the first he was recognised as a remarkable preacher, as […]

It was a week ago on Thursday, June 1, that my family dropped me off at the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport on a warm afternoon to catch a flight to LA, where I would have an 8 hour lay-over before boarding an international flight to the South Pacific where I would land on the main […]

What a master-preacher Dr Lloyd-Jones was! You can still hear his eloquence and feel his passion for souls as you read these pages many years after his death. The language pours out as it did from his pulpit. Once again I was fascinated as he moved slowly through just a part of Stephen’s speech in […]