The Five ‘Alone’s of the Reformation: Sermon Series

Here’s the text and audio for the five sola sermons.  Then a final thought: Christ Alone Audio Grace Alone Audio Faith Alone Audio Scripture Alone Audio God’s Glory Alone Audio . We refocus on these fundamentals not simply as an exercise in doctrinal purity.  The point is to rediscover the true God.  Because God is [...]

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God’s Glory Alone sermon

We’re like a little kid coming to God saying “Oooh, salvation, let me have a go!”  And like a Good Father, God says, “No, no, put salvation down.  Glen, I’ve told you a thousand times, PUT SALVATION DOWN.  It’s too big for you.  You’ll break it and it’ll break you.”  And we say “Aww but [...]

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Irrevocable but not irredeemable

Two weeks ago Eastbourne hosted a major airshow called Airbourne.  The F-16 fly-pasts rattle your fillings loose and make your bowels shudder. People either love that kind of stuff or hate it.  I think it’s beyond awesome. I was down at the seafront watching the show with a friend and the Red Arrows came on [...]

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Scripture Alone sermon

In our Gospel Alone series we’ve had: Christ Alone Grace Alone Faith Alone But how do you get in on this gracious salvation in Christ? Well faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom 10:17).  Jesus-people must be bible-people. And we must see the Scriptures as: confronting clear and consistent and [...]

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Happy Friday

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Words in Proverbs – all age sermon

Sticks and stone may break my bones but words can never hurt me?  Poppycock! Here for your brutal critique I offer an all age sermon on the theme of words in Proverbs: Audio here. Powerpoint slides here. But what power can change the heart??? The cross is heaven’s gentle answer to our harsh words When [...]

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Preaching groups? [Thawed out Thursday]

First published two years ago (here) CH Spurgeon: …to win a soul, it is necessary, not only to instruct our hearer, and make him know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it. A purely didactic ministry, which should always appeal to the understanding, and should leave the emotions untouched, would [...]

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Luther on Scripture 3 – The Meaning is Christ

Taken from this paper on Luther’s exegesis of Genesis 3… The meaning is Christ Rescuing the Scriptures from the Judaizers ‘Christ is the Lord, not the servant, the Lord of the Sabbath, of law, of all things.  The Scriptures must be understood in favour of Christ, not against Him.  For that reason they must either [...]

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All head no heart??

I’ve just heard yet another institution described in all too familiar terms: “Don’t get me wrong, their theology is straight down the line. They’re faithful, biblical, solid, orthodox, sound as a pound. You couldn’t fault them on their teaching… It’s just… Well, they’re not very loving. In fact they’re pretty closed. Cold even. Harsh actually. [...]

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Luther on Scripture 2 – The Meaning is in the Scriptures

Taken from this paper on Luther’s exegesis of Genesis 3… . The meaning is in the Scriptures, not conferred on them Rescuing Scripture from the Magisterium In Luther’s commentary on Genesis he stands against the tradition at key points.  First, we will note this issue of 6-day creation: Therefore it is necessary to understand these [...]

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Dev Menon – 2 Timothy 2

Wonderful sermon by Dev. At the end he quotes from Spurgeon’s sermon “Eternal Faithfulness Unaffected by Human Unbelief.“ I tell you again that He cannot reject you—that would be to alter His whole Character and “un-Christ” Himself! To spurn a coming sinner would un-Jesus Him and make Him to be somebody else, and not Himself [...]

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Luther on Scripture 1 – The Meaning is Literal

Here are some excerpts from a paper I wrote about Luther’s exegesis of Genesis 3.  In these next three posts I’ll tease out three key convictions underlying all Luther’s exegesis: The Meaning is Literal – Rescuing the Bible from the Allegorists The Meaning is in the Scriptures – Rescuing the Bible from the Magisterium The [...]

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Happy Friday – Open Thread (updated)

Contributions from Comments (more gratefully received) From Otepoti: (extra points for anyone who can explain!) How many Reformed Church members does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one, but it has to be the tea drinker. From Heather: From Si: From John: “A play so modern, and so brilliant it makes absolutely no sense [...]

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Not a scuttling underbelly

Unlike the scuttling basements of many a blog page, the comments section of Christ the Truth is its most redeeming feature.  For those who only get the RSS feed you are missing out. I thought I’d give you excerpts from some of Paul Blackham’s comments which would otherwise languish in the blog’s underbelly. Jesus – [...]

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Bar-Code Gun or Magnum? [Thawed out Thursday]

In this post I’ve been thinking about how we tend to pray before evangelistic efforts. Often the prayers we say will sound something like: ‘Lord, open hearts in advance of your gospel. Prepare people now so that later we will come across those upon whom your Spirit has worked.’ If this is how we think [...]

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Come Awake

Love this video for the first 3 minutes 20. But how do you feel about the last 30 seconds? For me the repeated phrase “could be” spoils it. .

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Faith Alone sermon

Can you imagine a beggar outside Buckingham Palace, begging for change.  And she’s not a rough diamond.  She’s not a salt of the earth character deep down.  She’s unpleasant, she’s selfish, she’s backstabbing, she’s grubby, she’s been in and out of prison all her life and she’s only got herself to blame. The Queen comes [...]

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Why does faith save?

Why is it that faith saves?  What’s so special about faith that it brings such benefits? Because here’s how the whole deal is usually set up: First we insist that God does not save us by our works.  No sir, we believe in ‘justification by faith alone.’  Therefore it’s not that God is armed with [...]

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