Yearly Archives: 2011

He has risen; he is not here. (Mark 16:6)1 Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus. Why do Christians say that? Because the Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly prophesied it, both directly and through typology! King David said that God would not allow his Holy One to undergo decay, to see hell or what the […]

The Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference 20111 began April 11 with Steven Curry on Matthew 6, expounding an extract from the Sermon on the Mount. STEVEN CURRY In this section Jesus deals with the piety that should characterize those who are in the Kingdom of God. Jesus requires his followers to be different from formal […]

The concluding part of a paper delivered at the 2009 Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. See here for the first part of this paper. 3. Echoes of the downgrade movement The echoes we can hear of the downgrade movement which destroyed the orthodoxy of the old Free Church, and indeed brought […]

Introduction Martin Luther is not merely a key figure in the unfolding of events in the Protestant Reformation; he also played a major role in moulding its ideas. ‘Perhaps more than any other person, Luther shaped the presuppositions that define Protestantism.’ (Stephen J. Nichols) These presuppositions are known to scholars in their Latin form as […]

Extracts from ‘Definitive Sanctification,’ (pp. 277-280, 284) and ‘Progressive Sanctification,’ (pp. 294-296, 299), in The Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume 2.1 When we speak of sanctification, we generally think of it as that process by which the believer is gradually transformed in heart, mind, will, and conduct, and conformed more and more to the […]

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2a-3) In the context of our ministry here in West Hartford, I live with a constant two-fold state of desperation and hope. At least […]

The English verb ‘to evangelize’ comes from the Greek word euangelizo, which means ‘to proclaim good news.’ It is employed in the New Testament to describe the proclamation of the Christian message to the world. This New Testament verb has an interesting linguistic background in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), particularly […]

‘With laudable brevity, wry wit, proverbial pithiness, earnest devotion, vigorous plainness and gripping earthiness, Spurgeon paints his portrait of the King of kings, bringing the beauties of the Lord Christ into sharp relief and sweet expression.’ [Jeremy Walker on Spurgeon’s Commentary on Matthew at his ‘The Wanderer’ blog.] Below are links to selected online reviews […]

John Brown was one of the most illustrious Bible commentators of the nineteenth century. The Banner of Truth publishes his commentaries on Galatians and Hebrews in the ‘Geneva’ series, and his 3-volume work on The Discourses and Sayings of our Lord. Also published by Banner of Truth, but currently out of print, is his 2-volume […]

In this book you will find a collection of short stories (between three and six pages long) for children between the ages of four and 12. They could either be read alone or read aloud by an adult, but given the wide range of subject matter and the topical index at the back they could […]

If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city, has not the Lord done it? (Amos 3:6) The mammoth earthquake, 9.0 on the Richter scale, that struck northern Japan on March 11, and the ensuing tsunami, captured so dreadfully and spectacularly on video, has, […]

Owen’s teaching1is based on Romans 8:13: ‘If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live’, although he also alludes to the other New Testament reference to mortification, notably to Colossians 3:15, where the Apostle Paul exhorts his readers: ‘Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, […]

Augustus Toplady was born at Farnham, Surrey on 4th November 1740. His father, who was a soldier, died soon after he was born. He was educated for a time at Westminster School. When he was still a boy, his mother went to Ireland to claim some property there and he accompanied her. It was in […]

Do not love the world. (1 John 2:15) It is no coincidence that the men whom God uses powerfully in the work of his kingdom always have one thing in common. This is true with the early church fathers – men like Irenaeus, Origen, and Polycarp. And this one thing in common is also found […]

God expressed the Moral Law in the Ten Commandments. Those commandments list ten specifications of our duty to our redeeming Lord and to our fellow man. When Jesus was asked which of the Ten Commandments should be regarded as the greatest he answered in terms of man’s duty to love the Lord and to love […]

I remember every member of the congregation who stayed for a few services, or maybe a few years, and then grew disillusioned with my life and preaching and drifted off disgruntled. But that is not of first priority in my areas of failure. None left to hear more of Jesus Christ or a better gospel […]

These remarks were made at Kuiper’s funeral service in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 25, 1966. Westminster Theological Seminary has compelling reason to thank God for the ministry of R. B. Kuiper. The decades of his teaching at Westminster were the prime years of his life. His remarkable gifts made him a leader in the […]

The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:18) Are you presently living with a sense of hopelessness, a sort of low grade depression where you tend to speak in negative absolutes? For example, do you say, ‘My marriage will never get better. God never answers my […]

A product of Spurgeon’s last years, this1 is the only complete commentary on a book he wrote (excepting his treatment of the Psalms, which was in some senses more of a compendium of others’ comments). You will forgive me for saying it is magnificently Spurgeonic: from its opening paragraph, Spurgeon points us to Christ and […]

One of the recurring struggles every Christian without exception has is the struggle to realise how astonishingly blessed it is to be a Christian. I would like to remind you (and myself) of the vast, inconceivable privilege it is to be a Christian. A Christian is someone who has been called by ‘the God of […]

Edward Donnelly’s wonderful preaching gifts translate very naturally into the printed word, and in this book he addresses the most ultimate subjects which any of us could consider. The opening four chapters deal squarely with the horrors of eternal punishment, yet they are marked by utter fidelity to the biblical text and by a profound […]

Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me! (Job 38:3) After Elihu, the fourth of troubled Job’s friends, exhorts him to consider the glory and wonder of God and his providence, the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind. God did the same with Elijah (1 […]

Only be strong and courageous. (Joshua 1:7) We seem to be like the proverbial frog in the pan of water on the stove. As the water is slowly heated the frog is unaware of his perilous condition until it is too late and he is boiled to his death. We seem to be like fish […]

Believer: Come, my soul, and let us try, For a little season, Every burden to lay by; Come, and let us reason. What is this that casts thee down? Who are those that grieve thee? Speak, and let the worst be known; Speaking may relieve thee. Soul: O, I sink beneath the load Of my […]

This is a wonderful biography. It is all the more powerful in view of the fact that the subject is so little known. It is the biography of a spiritually-minded preacher and pastor. The reader finds himself in the heady atmosphere of periods of great spiritual fervour and revival. It is free-offer, historic Calvinism at […]