Topic Archives: Man & Sin

We stood on the green grass sloping towards the deep-blue sea. Below us a burn meandered downwards until it became lost in the sand of the beach which skirts the ocean, while a huge bank of cloud dominated the horizon. It was a beautiful scene. But death cannot be kept out of even a beautiful […]

HOW 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 […]

“BUT…YOU MUSTN’T BLAME YOURSELF.” Since the Enlightenment the idea of ‘sin’ – an offence against God – was replaced by the idea of crime – an offence against man, today men find it difficult to attribute the act of sinning to human behaviour Fred Furedi’s brilliantly perceptive article begins, “One upon a time there were […]

ESCAPE FOR YOUR LIFE! A wounded, weak, and helpless worm, On Christ’s kind arms I fall; Be thou my strength and confidence, My Jesus and my all. God speaks. Sometimes He whispers by the still small voice of the gospel to us in tender overtures of mercy through the preached Word. Sometimes He speaks through […]

THE FEAR OF THE LORD Historically, when the people of God take God seriously, the result is true and enduring growth in the Church I am certain that a deep chord was struck in all of us who attended a recent prayer meeting at which we considered a section of the long Psalm containing a […]

It is evident that in the shallowness of modern English evangelicalism sin is not dealt with seriously in evangelism or in the battles of the Christian life and many feel that Owen is the man who can teach this generation much that is absent, to our lamentable weakness. At the Westminster Conference 2001, held at […]

APOSTASY WE MUST START FROM THE ‘GREAT POSITIVE STATEMENTS OF SCRIPTURE’ John Owen is one who has written comprehensively on this subject. I have, therefore, taken his writings as the basis for what I want to say, while drawing on the contribution of others here and there, and interjecting some comments of my own. By […]

The first and worst cause of error that prevails in our day is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead […]

I was reading recently some words of George Swinnock (a mid seventeenth century Puritan) that seemed (at least to me) to describe twenty-first century evangelical Christianity: “We take the size of sin too low, and short, and wrong, when we measure it by the wrong it doth to ourselves, or our families, or our neighbours, […]

by Dr. O. Palmer Robertson Everybody talks about being “born again.” But what does it mean? What happens if you are born again? How does this idea apply to you? Do YOU need to be born again? These important questions need answers. First, Do YOU need to be born again? If you are like the […]

Perhaps the most famous sermon ever preached in America was the one Jonathan Edwards delivered entitled “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.” Not only has the sermon been reproduced in countless catalogues of preaching but it is included in most anthologies of early American literature. So scandalous is this vivid portrayal of unconverted […]

The old gospel of Owen, first of all, contains no less full and free an offer of salvation than its modern counterpart. It presents ample grounds of faith (the sufficiency of Christ, and the promise of God), and cogent motives to faith (the sinner’s need, and the Creator’s command, which is also the Redeemer’s invitation). […]

Over forty years ago the Banner of Truth reprinted John Owen’s “Death of Death in the Death of Christ ” The book became instantly famous in the English-speakng world because of its introductory essay written by the youthful Dr. J.I.Packer. The book is still in print, and here are its timeless opening paragraphs: “The Death […]