Come Down, Lord!

  The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law giver, the  Lord is our king; he will save us. - Isaiah 33:22 Thomas Manton says if we take these words in a spiritual sense "the words are exclusive : God, and no other , our only judge, our only lawgiver, &c.  God only knoweth the conscience, and therefore God only must judge it, and give laws to it.  God only can punish the conscience for sins, and therefore he only can make a sin." But this raises a question (and probably from some quarters an objection).  What about Romans 13:5?  Paul says, "Wherefore ye must be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake."  Doesn't this mean that the laws of men can 'oblige' the conscience.   True - to a point.  The laws of  men do oblige the conscience, but - as Manton put it - "not in that order and manner that God's do."  He names three differences.  I will name them here and explain them in my own words. 1. "Not...

The following article was originally posted on our church blog in 2018. As a pastor I am always reading commentaries and theological works, so it is important for me to keep the Sabbath somehow different.  Here is a day of worship, and I have sought, then, to read material that will bring me into worship.  To that end I generally confine my Sunday reading to sermons.    There are, of course, other books appropriate for the day.  I think, for example, of Octavius Winslow's  Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul  or some of the great Christian biographies (M'Cheyne, Bonar, Nettleton, Whitefield, Lloyd-Jones, Elias, Harris, Burns, Dabney, etc.) or histories of revival or any of the great books on the person of Christ listed in an earlier post. In this post, however, I will offer just 8 books - the best 8 that I am aware of - which contain sermons suitable for this day which ought to be for the Christian a kind of heaven on earth.  ...

“My soul is among lions.” Psalm 57:4 Some of you cannot say this and you ought to be very thankful that you are not obliged to do so. Happy are you young people who have godly parents and who dwell in Christian families. You ought to grow like the flowers in a conservatory, where killing frosts and biting blasts are unknown. You live under very favorable circumstances. Your soul, I might almost say, is among angels, for you dwell where God is worshipped, where family prayer is not forgotten, where you can have a kindly guidance in the hour of difficulty and comfort in the time of trial. You dwell where angels come and go and God Himself deigns to dwell. Happy young people to be in such circumstances! How grateful and how holy you ought to be! I want all who dwell where everything helps them, to recollect the many gracious ones who dwell where everything hinders them. You who live near the Beautiful Gate of the temple must not forget the many who are sighing in the tents of Kedar. If...

We all know  what  it  is to be discouraged and  sometimes even depressed.  These are night seasons when we long for the morning.  In such times it is hard to find our way out.  Reading becomes difficult and often in my experience adds to the sense of failure and futility.  I am one who loves biographies, but there are times when I can hardly bea r to get through one.  When I am confronted with my own weakness and failure and feeling low it is almost too discouraging to read of men (or women) whose lives were marked by such consistent faithfulness and fruitfulness.  I believe my discouragement in such times is due - at least partly - to pride (and perhaps as R. Erskine said "a legalistic spirit"), so I try to read anyway.  But in those 'night' seasons I don't read with the same relish or edification.  Still, there are books that have helped me immensely in those times , and I want to share a few of them here.   ...

  I have chosen the words for the title of this article carefully and deliberately.  We are facing a crisis, and I fear it is worse than we realize.  I have written before explaining my reasons for refusing the mask.  I have also publicly expressed concern over the decision in some churches to mandate masks.  I believe in doing so those churches are placing a stumbling block in the way of God’s people and legislating where they have no right to legislate.   But I have a growing concern in another direction .  It isn’t with those mandating the mask, but with those on both sides of this issue who have allowed this matter to trump most everything else.  These are people who ordinarily say very little (if anything) about their Saviour on social media, b ut they have plenty to say about masks (for or against).   They have never had the courage to tell the cashier about the gospel, but they can look that same worker in the eye and boldly refuse th...