Two questions regarding Piper on Wilson

1) How does Piper square his love of Jonathan Edwards with his own pre-mill and credo-baptist theology?  Is there anywhere where he talks about parting company with Edwards?
2) Does anyone see the irony of two young guns bumping fists behind Piper just as he lays into the dumb guys that surround [...]

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What’s the Problem?

This is a Thawed-out Thursday Re-post.  There a reason why I’ve chosen this one, but I’ll let you in on it later…
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Once I was in a preaching seminar with 15 other young guns.  We were being taught by someone you might call a living legend.  One session was on how to preach Romans 3:21-30.  The point [...]

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We don’t need better preaching…

We don’t need better preaching, we need a better gospel.
Yes I’m being provocative and hyperbolous.  Let me remind you that this is a blog.
What I mean is this: there’s a lot of focus on becoming better preachers.  The real need is to preach a better gospel. 
These thoughts were prompted by a Spurgeon comment as quoted by [...]

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Here is a trustworthy saying…

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…  (1 Timothy 1:15)
It’s a wonderful motto for gospel ministry.  Here is the heart of all Paul does.  But when he relates it, he can’t help but add his autobiography ‘…of whom I am the worst.’
Some ministries are good on the first half of the verse.  That’s [...]

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Successful and troubled

Thinking and preaching through 1 Corinthians recently, it’s so stark what a mixture the Corinthian church was. Successful and troubled.  Their congregation contains former male-prostitutes, idolaters, thieves, drunkards and swindlers (6:9-11).  What a work of grace to convert this lot from their dark past.  As this motley bunch meet together, called saints by the Father [...]

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Where are all the Lutherans?

Are you aware of Mike Reeves’ new book on the reformation, The Unquenchable Flame? 
 
Mark Dever says about it:
 
‘With the skill of a scholar and the art of a storyteller, Michael Reeves has written what is, quite simply, the best brief introduction to the Reformation I have read.’
 
How about that?!  You can check out all the wonderful [...]

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All in the mind?

What’s wrong with solo sex?
Here CCEF has an 11 minute podcast on masturbation.  While there are some good points (like husbands prefering solo-sex to talking to their wives about the bedroom), it takes that age-old evangelical line: the problem’s all in the mind.
Have you ever heard the line, “If you can do it thinking about [...]

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1 Corinthians 9 sermon – part four

…Continued from here.
Let me ask you a question: What does an evangelical look like?
‘Evangelical’ is just a label that bible believing Christians like us use for ourselves. It’s taken from the word ‘evangel’ which means ‘gospel’. An evangelical just means a ‘gospel person.’ So what does an evangelical look like?
The scandal is – everyone knows [...]

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How to sum up evangelicalism worldwide

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge describe the spreading evangel in their Saturday Times article:  “God is back: How Ned Flanders won the evangelical crusade“.
Virtually everywhere in the developing world fiery preachers are preaching a faith that would appeal to Ned Flanders: live your life according to God’s law, read the Bible as the literal word of [...]

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Ode to an evangelical sage

O thou brain — exalted, senior,
Holding forth from pulpit’s throne.
Feed us with thy academia,
Meted out in monotone.
     ‘We could never,
     ‘We could never,
     ‘Plumb such myst’ries on our own.’
Hear the classics now recited,
Tumbling from thy tutored lips.
Nooks ignored are now ignited,
By thy greek and latin quips.
     ‘O how richly
     ‘O how richly,
     ‘Wisdom from each sentence [...]

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Models of masculinity

It’s an age-old question, but it’s taken the Flight of the Conchords to pose it again with aching poignancy:
What man?  Which man?  Who’s the man?
When’s a man a man?
What makes a man a man?
Am I a man?
Yes… technically I am.
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On reflection there were two models of masculinity on show at the London [...]

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Knowledge Puffs Up

 
Apparently the Sandemanians followed Robert Sandeman in asserting that saving faith involved mere assent to doctrinal facts.  Apparently they were soundly refuted by Andrew Fuller.  Apparently we needed to know this at a gathering of thousands of Christians today in London.  Three sentences on the subject were dropped into a short talk on how we [...]

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Preaching groups?

Adrian Warnock quotes Spurgeon (h/t Matt Finn):
…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 certainly be [...]

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Quiet times

This week I’ve been listening to sermons from the web on Luke 14.  I’m preaching on it on Sunday.  It’s Jesus at a banquet.  He heals on the Sabbath, He teaches about not taking the seats of honour, He calls people to invite the poor, crippled, lame and blind to dinner and He speaks of [...]

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