On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached what may the most famous sermon ever preached in North America: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Follow the links below to find more about the sermon, and Edwards. The conclusion of the sermon is a passionate Gospel call to repentance: “And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now harken to the loud calls of God’s word and providence. This…
Many of us are familiar with the inspiring story of the audacious German monk, Martin Luther, nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. Lots of us know that one of his great concerns was the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And some of us know that this doctrine has been a hallmark of faithful evangelical preaching ever since. But we may not have ever appreciated just exactly how radical this truth is. Getting Ready to Hear a Radical Truth Justification by faith is one of the most stunning…
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (based Psalm 103/150), 1680 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty is one of the very best hymns (thinking of the combination of text and tune) written in the last three hundred fifty years, and it is no surprise that it is a favorite of our congregation. The text of the song is based on Psalms 103 and 150. In the Scottish Psalter and Church Hymnary of 1929, it finds itself aptly located in the section delineated “God: His Being, Works, Word.” The song’s author was Joachim Neander, the grandson of a…
One of the best-known and loved metrical psalms still in wide use today is this setting of Psalm 100. Metrical psalms used to be the core of what was sung in Protestant worship services (by Presbyterians, Anglicans, congregationalists and others).…
I received my first copy of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones “Preaching and Preachers as a gift from a family in my home church as I was just beginning my studies in seminary. My copy was from the 14th printing of the first edition. I had been introduced…
The doctrine of sanctification is back on the frontburner of discussion in the Bible-believing Christian community. We live in a time of happy renewal of the Gospel accent, grace focus and Christ-centeredness of the preaching in our theological neck of the woods. This is a wonderful thing, for which we rejoice. The superficial practicality and ossified moralism that this emphasis replaces has been a plague on the well-being of Christians and churches. But this new emphasis brings its own…
If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2. We will begin reading in verse 8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and…
As we have already mentioned, Hebrews has more occurrences of diatheke than in the rest of the New Testament. This relative prominence of the covenant conception in Hebrews may be attributed to the authors’ preoccupation with the comparison with the old and with the new religious systems of Judaism and Christianity. I mean it is natural that you would revert to the covenant concept to help you describe the distinctives of the era brought about by the advent of Christ. In Hebrews 7:22,…
We have already looked at definitions of covenant and we have, or definitions of diatheke and berith, and the arguments over that translational controversy. And we have looked at one passage in the New Testament in some detail, the passage in Hebrew 9, which is difficult to translate. Many Bible translations will start in 9:15, with the word covenant, and they will switch to testament and then back to covenant again by the time they get to verse 18. But we have really not done a New…