Are we afraid of preaching news that’s too good?

I dunno, this isn’t based on anything but a vague gut feeling (yeah, yeah, as opposed to my usually well-researched and even-handed analysis!)  but…
Are we afraid of preaching news that’s too good?
I just wonder whether that ‘honey mouthed’ Puritan preacher, the ’sweet-dropper’, Richard Sibbes was surrounded by a more bitter fraternity of preachers.  You can [...]

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Thank you preacher- that was boring, uninspired, obscure and moralistic

Of course the words they use are ‘faithful’, ‘clear’, ‘helpful’ and ‘challenging’.
But we all know what they mean.
By the way – when did ‘faithful’ become a synonym for boring? 
I want to be understood on this point – when I advocate gospel-alone evangelism - that is not a licence for boring preaching.  There are illegitimate solutions to boring [...]

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The Truth that is in Jesus [Thawed out Thursday]

Given our current discussion about apologetics, thought I’d thaw out this post…
 
We’ve noted the danger of fiting Jesus into a pre-fab system of truth. We don’t want to do that.  But Missy has asked the $64 000 question.  It’s basically this: What do we do when speaking to a non-Christian - isn’t it desirable at least sometimes to bring Christ [...]

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He loves us because He loves us

I wasn’t a huge fan of this paragraph quoted on Tony’s blog (as my comment makes clear).
But I love this one:
Thomas Manton, from a sermon on John 3:16
“Love is at the bottom of all. We may give a reason of other things, but we cannot give a reason of his love, God showed his wisdom, [...]

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I in Christ, Christ in me

You who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ  (Gal 3:27)
I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you  (Gal 4:19)
Christ put on me
Christ formed in me
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Christ surrounding me
Christ birthed in me
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Christ already
Christ progressing
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Christ: My status
Christ: My stature
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I in Christ
Christ in me
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No merit in man’s receiving – only in God’s giving

“To be bursting with thanksgiving is a true witness of the Spirit within us. For the voice of thanksgiving speaks without ceasing of the goodness of God. It claims nothing. It sees no merit in man’s receiving but only in God’s giving. It marvels at his mercy. It is the language of joy because it [...]

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Whitefield on The LORD our Righteousness

Lex Loizides quotes Whitefield’s oft repeated sermon: The LORD our righteousness.
‘Alas, my heart almost bleeds! What a multitude of precious souls are now before me! How shortly must all be ushered into eternity! And yet, O cutting thought! Was God now to require all your souls, how few, comparatively speaking, could really say, ‘the Lord [...]

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Christianity Explored – week 3 – Why did Jesus come?

My talk from last night.  (I’ll publish text and other talks later)
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We make God look like a jerk, He makes looking like a jerk truly glorious

A further thought:
What do you look like when you hold out your arms to obstinate people?  (Rom 10:21)  You look like a jerk.  You look completely foolish.
But God makes this arms-outstretched, suffering love His glory.  In spite, not because of us.
If we’re going to oppose synergism (and we should) let’s be thorough-going about it.  Just [...]

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Justified in union with Christ

Having just thought about Calvin and union with Christ – here is Mike’s second talk on justification.  We receive His righteousness in Jesus.
Do give some time to these talks.  It’s a chance to be refreshed and liberated by gospel truth.
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Why should I let you into my heaven?

From Doug Wilson:
I was talking to a woman one time… and she told me sheepishly about her first reaction to that great grace question hypothetically presented at the pearly gates — “why should I let you into heaven?” The right answer of course is a variant of “because of the blood of Jesus Christ, plus [...]

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Mike Reeves on Justification part 1

Hour long talk.  Mike opens with the story of justification. Really, really good.
Here’s an early stop along the road.  The Epistle to Diognetus:
He himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous [...]

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Thawed out Thursday – The Way of the LORD

A re-post
From Genesis 1, the way of the LORD has always been forming, then filling.
The filled-out reality is there by anticipation even in the forming. The intention for filling is included in the forming. But still the order is ‘form, then fill.’:

In Gen 1:2 – a formless and empty creation is then formed (days 1-3) [...]

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Christ our Substitute

My first effort at a video.
The making of it was very fiddly – Powerpoint slides then Windows Movie Maker.  There’s things I’d like to change but alterations are a bit too time consuming I’m afraid.
Hope it’s an encouragement to some…

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He rescued me because He delighted in me

I preached that verse about a month ago (Ps 18:19).  And you know my first reaction as I was preparing?
Hmmm, tricky, how on earth should we understand this…?
I hope you’re all saying: But why Glen – it seems perfectly straightforward.
Well, there’s the slightly tricky part about how we take the verse on our own lips.  [...]

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Christ our Fountain of Blessing

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ (Acts 4:12). We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him (1 Corinthians 1:30). If we [...]

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Calvin on the proper and the accidental office of the gospel

Last week Dave Kirkman helped me to distinguish between what Luther called God’s ‘alien work’ and His ‘proper work’.
Death is the alien work.  Life through death is gospel and God’s proper work.  But it’s extremely important not to view death and life as equivalents in God’s eyes.  One is the alien work, transformed by the [...]

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Not just sheltered – BROUGHT OUT

Not just Passover, but Red Sea crossing.
Not just saved by the blood, but delivered over to new life.
Not just baptised into His death, but sharing in His resurrection
That’s the gist of this sermon on Exodus 13 and 14 – preached last night.
We looked at Passover last week.  We rejoiced in the fact that we are [...]

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Anthropogenic?

There’s a mouthful of a word.
Perhaps we’re aware of the term ‘anthropogenic’ to describe climate change?  The climate is changing – climate always does – the question remains, is man (anthropos) the cause (genesis)?
A lot of people say yes.  Some say no.
This guy says “maybe… some… but that’s not really the issue.”
[...]

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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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Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Revelation Alone

I’m halfway through Mike Reeves’ excellent lectures on a theology of revelation.  Go and listen now if you haven’t done already.
Maybe I should put them somewhere prominently and permanently on the blog because they explain much better than I can the thinking behind ‘Christ the Truth’. 
To be an evangelical theologian is to have your method [...]

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Time for a Spring Clean

… in the southern hemisphere anyway.
But as the weather turns decidedly Fall-en here, I’m still thinking about Spring cleaning.  The reason being – I’ve just preached on Exodus 12 tonight.  In preparation I was thinking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread (I speak about it some more in my 1 Corinthians 5 sermon).
Basically the Feast of [...]

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Come as you are

From Spurgeon’s book: All of Grace
Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are, but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. …The Gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at [...]

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In other words…

Always given to verbosity, here’s what I meant in my previous post:
‘I have been crucified with Christ’ is profoundly ethical
‘Take up your cross’ is profoundly mystical
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Dying with Jesus

How do you think of judgement and salvation?
If you ask me – you shouldn’t think like this:
 
Instead think like this:
 
Or to be a bit more nuanced – like this.
Now I could take this observation in many directions.
Perhaps we could explore its significance for an infra versus supra-lapsarian debate.
Perhaps we could discuss the strong link that [...]

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Some thoughts on your ‘personal problems’

This is a long one but I won’t be posting for a while so read at your leisure…
 
1) This is the occasion for change not the reason for change.
It’s great if you’ve come to some sort of crisis moment.  It’s good that you want to change.  But you ought to know that this is the [...]

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The Gospel and Social Action – Paul Blackham

This video is very well worth the ten minutes plus.
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Cardboard testimonies

Really, really moving.

And a cool way to teach Luke 16 too.
From Paul Blackham
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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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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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Sometimes the smart-assed answer is the best

The Sunday School teacher asked:
What do you need to do in order to be forgiven by God?
Billy piped up:
Sin
 
Got it in one Billy.
Are you a sinner?  That’s all you need to bring.  Jesus will do the rest.
 

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Luther v Cranmer on Lord’s Supper

Given discussion about Lutheran influence on the UK, here’s a Thawsday repost…
John Richardson (whose excellent blog is here) adds his voice to this discussion on Stand Firm in Faith.  He writes about the place of repentance in the communion service.  It chimes with a lot of what I wrote here: 
I have long felt Anglicanism (specifically Thomas [...]

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The New Birth

My great friend (and regular commenter here) Will Mackerras recently preached a cracker at Farm Fellowship (where Paul Blackham ministers).
Do we really believe that a person in Christ will naturally and organically produce righteous fruit – just as someone in Adam will naturally and organically produce wicked fruit?  Do we have a proper understanding of our new [...]

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Eat Dirt Man Eater!

Satan must eat dust all his days (Gen 3:14)
Man is dust (Gen 3:19)
Satan is a maneater (1 Pet 5:8)
Yet Christ will join man to crush the maneater (Gen 3:15)
He does this by being Man eaten (John 6:51)
Only in this way does He swallow His enemies (1 Cor 15:54)
Those who don’t eat (with) Christ get eaten [...]

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1 Corinthians 9 sermon – part two

Continued from here.
What does it mean to give up our rights for the sake of the Gospel?  What does that even mean?  What is the gospel?  Let me summarize it for you:
‘Gospel’ is a word that just means good news.  And here is the good news that the bible tells us: 
[SLIDE - the Gospel]
Jesus Christ [...]

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Gospel outline?

Ok, I’m off for the weekend – but that doesn’t mean you can slink off.  I have work for you all.
I’ve just thought of a gospel outline – probably for a tract.  But I need you to fill in the details for me.
Provisional Title:  “What for?“
Six sections (of course):
For Him – Creation is for Christ, [...]

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Judgement and Salvation in Isaiah

I’ve been preparing sermons from Isaiah recently.  What’s really striking me is the universal judgement pronounced by the LORD.
The book has rightly been called a tale of two cities and the remarkable thing is that both cities are Jerusalem.  Jerusalem stands at the head of both old and new creation.  The earthly Jerusalem has its earthly [...]

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Sanctification by Faith

Just an excellent podcast (25 mins)
Tim Rudge talks to Mike Reeves on living by faith on an hour by hour basis – applying the truths of the gospel to our sin and cultivating a healthy and happy walk with Christ.  I’ve listened to it twice already.  Great stuff.
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Luther on Galatians 1:4

Galatians 1:4:  [Jesus Christ] who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.
You will readily grant that Christ gave Himself for the sins of Peter, Paul, and others who were worthy of such grace. But feeling low, you find it hard to believe that Christ gave Himself for your sins. [...]

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What Matthew 8:1 does not say…

And lo, having spoken thus, He didst ascend from the mount before their eyes.  And He spake unto them saying, “Remember this that I have taught you.”
And lo, angels didst appear saying, “Why doth ye lookest into the sky?  He hath given to thee thy programme of reform…”
Instead there’s an unclean wretch who runs to the LORD [...]

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A theology of mission 4 – Evangelism only?

We have been thinking about mission grounded in God’s own life.  God is the Sending God, His Sent Son and the Reconciling Spirit – this is not simply something He does but who He is.
So it is with the Church.  We have inherited our mission from the Sent One and we too find ourselves not simply [...]

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How to win the world

It’s a story about high school football.  But really it’s about how to win the world.  Go and read now!
h/t Letters from Kamp Krusty
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You will

Ok, Dave’s right, blogging’s about the quick post.  So here goes…
The Ten Commandments are written in the indicative.  Did you know that?  There’s a perfectly straightforward imperative mood in Hebrew.  God could easily have  said “You must not murder”.  But God didn’t say that.  He said “You will not murder.”  You won’t.  You’re my special people.  [...]

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Sinning really isn’t the worst thing

Oh it’s bad.  It’s very bad.  It’s murdering your Maker.  It’s cheating on your Lover.  It’s grieving His Spirit.  It’s tearing apart your soul.  It’s bad.  Bad, bad, bad.
But not receiving forgiveness is far worse.  Failure to accept the grace of Jesus dwarfs all other sins in its monstrosity.  To refuse the vulnerable humility of [...]

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What would cheap grace look like?

…The younger brother came to himself and said, ‘My dad’s an old softy.  I reckon if I returned looking sufficiently contrite he’d bail me out.  It’s worth a try anyway.’ he reasoned. 
And so he rose and made the journey back to his father rehearsing his sorry-spiel along the way.  ‘Father, my father.  I know I messed up.  [...]

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Election results – latest

Ok so the title’s a lame attempt to get Google hits.  But really this post is about the results of our election.
In the first post on freedom we thought about the blasphemy and bondage of modern, individualistic accounts of freedom.
Next we considered Jesus – especially Jesus in Gethsemane – as the proper starting point for [...]

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Freed will

Previously on Christ the Truth…
We discussed the impossiblility of a humanistic account of freedom. To say ‘I am who I am / I will be who I will be’ is both idolatrous and, ironically, makes us slaves of our own desires.  Such “freedom” enthrones the self and simultaneously locks the self off from the claims [...]

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The problem of freedom

Freedom
An evocative word.
What does it mean to us?
Usually it means a freedom from some kind of power so that we can realize our true potential.  ‘I’m free to do what I want any old time.’  That kind of thing.
The question of ‘Who is this “I” who can do these things?’ is usually considered to [...]

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Holding fast the healthy teaching

Titus 1:9 in my amplified translation:
[An elder must be] Continuing to hold fast / grasp / embrace / protect the word of faith according to The Teaching, so that he is able, on the one hand, to encourage in healthy teaching and, on the other, to prove to opponents their error.
The word for ‘holding fast’ [...]

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Christless Christianity

Mike Horton is promoting his new book “Christless Christianity“.  Listen here to the podcast from the ever-helpful Issues etc.
A couple of great quotes from Horton:
Christians need to hear the gospel preached not only once in their christian life but throughout – each week – because (as Calvin said) “We are all partly unbelievers throughout our [...]

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Some more kids songs

Here’s a song I wrote for a holiday club for 7-11 year olds. We called it Shipwrecked. 
We turned the church into a desert island and we were all washed ashore having run our ship aground.  The Captain had put us in charge of his incredible ocean liner – he’d built it with his son.  He gave [...]

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Discussion continues…

I, like some deranged Sanballat, continue my attempts to abolish religion.  Marc, like brave Nehemiah, is building the wall.  Go here for the latest comments.
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Too far?

Is it too much to say “Jesus is the abolition of religion” as I did in my last post?
Thanks to Marc who commented with this:
Glen, this “religion” as a dirty word is tiresome and misleading, don’t you think? Jesus came to abolish man-made religion and false religion, sure. He calls us to true religion of [...]

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He saved my life and I don’t even know his name

Anyone else sick of the whole ‘Christ in the OT’ debate?  Man… some people just go on and on.
I’m announcing a new hobby horse – Christ in the NT.  In fact I think this is where you really see a preacher’s Christ-centredness.  We’ve had the rule drummed into us by now – Thou shalt ‘bridge [...]

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Where is the power?

We’re in the middle of a mission at the moment (prayers always welcome!).  One of the things we’re doing is door-knocking our neighbourhood and we’ve seen people turn to the Lord even on the door-step.  Praise God!
In our morning meetings there seems to be one kind of prayer that recurs more than any others – [...]

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Seeing the Doctor 1

Do you ever wonder, like this blogger, if Jesus would actually like you?  Not whether some abstract principle of grace covers you.  But the question, How would the radical Jesus of the bible deal with you?
I mean the Guy’s fierce.  Totally uncompromising, pure.  No double-standards, no tolerance for double-standards.  He sees you to the bottom.  [...]

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Faith is the opposite of self-regarding

From the ridiculous to the sublime.
I’ve posted quite a few long-winded reflections on faith in the past.  (And how we shouldn’t reflect too much on it!)  Here, here, here and here. 
 But they’re all summed up and vastly surpassed by one paragraph of Stott’s Romans commentary:
“Further it is vital to affirm that there is nothing meritorious about [...]

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Go and preach the gospel…

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… TO OTHER CHRISTIANS!
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Here’s my ill-considered overstatement of the issue:  Our problem is not that we aren’t telling the gospel to our pagan friends.  It’s that we don’t tell the gospel to our Christian friends! 
When’s the last time you looked another Christian in the eye and said ‘Mate you’re a sinner.  I know you have struggles, [...]

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Jesus or ‘empathy and courtesy’?

Channel 4 screened the first of Make Me a Christian last night.  Haven’t seen it yet.  But here’s one reviewer’s reaction:
The infuriating thing will be if some of the group think happier lives can only be achieved through Jesus, rather than, say, empathy and courtesy and not being fat / crying / shagging all the [...]

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What changes the heart?

Tim VB put me onto this 9 week course about Gospel Centred Living which is freely available here.  It looks great.  They draw on material from World Harvest Mission – their Gospel Tranformation and Sonship courses.  To give you a flavour of these, here is the blurb about the Sonship course:
Sonship: Live the theology you [...]

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Sin is not the problem

I was once in a preaching seminar with 15 other young guns.  We were being taught by someone you might call a living legend.  One session I remember was on how to preach Romans 3:21-30.  The point came when the living legend asked us what we thought the application should be.  Now aside from my various [...]

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Five Smooth Stones – Reward

This is the last in our series looking at various doctrines through the lens of the David and Goliath story. (The other four stones were: preaching, grace, faith and election)
Here we consider why it is that the concept of reward is not counter to the doctrines of Christ alone, grace alone and faith alone.
So let’s ask: [...]

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Light Shines in Darkness

Recently I was reading John 1:1-18 with some international students who knew next to nothing about Christianity.  I was bracing myself for all sorts of questions about the trinity and the incarnation.  Actually they understood these quite easily. (After all how difficult is the sentence “God is a loving relationship of three Persons” or “the [...]

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Five Smooth Stones – Faith

We’ve looked at Preaching and Grace, now we examine Faith through the lens of David and Goliath.
One of the most significant ‘light-bulb’ moments for me in the last couple of years has been to hear Alan Torrance and Mike Reeves say in different contexts basically the same thing.  Namely this: the reformers did not speak [...]

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Five Smooth Stones – Preaching

You’ve all wondered what David’s five smooth stones represent (1 Sam 17:40).  Now I bring you the definitive answer…
Not really, I just have some reflections on David and Goliath and there happen to be five of them… 

Preaching
Grace
Faith
Election
Reward

But first, let’s remind ourselves of the story. (Read it here)
So here we are (verses 1-3) the uncircumcised Philistines [...]

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Human religion and the gospel

Human religion is man justifying man before a watching god.
The gospel is God justifying God before a watching humanity.
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