Fire in the Mouth

ALL SAINTS’ DAY AND ALL SOULS’ DAY Roman Catholic holy-days. Man made. Not instituted in Scripture. The theology behind these commemorations are the validity of the Church of Rome, the distinction between mortal and venial sin, the existence of Purgatory, the canon of saints of the Roman Catholic Church, and the validity of Roman Catholic worship. In fact, All Saints’ Day is a Catholic “Holy Day of Obligation,” meaning all Catholics are required to attend the Mass. Those who aren’t communing R...

Measured Enthusiasm about "Reformation" in the Philippines The Philippines now has its own "conference circuit." More and more events are being put on that promote "Reformed" theology. Money is being donated, special speakers are invited, people are traveling to attend, and book tables are being set up with all the latest offerings of Reformed and Presbyterian publishers. It's all very exciting, truly. And there's no question that this is an enormous improvement in this country. But is this...

There is always another verse that can be covered and another word that can be said, but ministers are best advised to select passages that allow them to quit before the congregation does. The well-prepared pastor always has more to say than time to say it. Part of the discipline of sermon preparation is setting aside for anther occasion what there is not time to say in this message. We simply will say more that is heard if we preach less than all we know. In the pulpit, less can often mean more...

Without the authority of the Word, preaching becomes an endless search for topics, therapies, and techniques that will win approval, promote acceptance, advance a cause, or soothe worry. Human reason, social agendas, popular consensus, and personal moral convictions become the resources of preaching that lacks “the historic conviction that what Scripture says, God says.” The opinions and emotions that formulate the content of preaching that lacks biblical authority are the same forces that can d...

"Blessed [Happy] are the people whose God is the Lord." Psalm 144:15 An atheist was once addressing a crowd of people in the open air. He was trying to persuade them that there was no God and no devil, no heaven, and no hell, no resurrection, no judgment, and no life to come. He advised them to throw away their Bibles, and not to pay attention to what preachers said. He recommended them to think as he did, and to be like him. He talked boldly. The crowd listened eagerly. It was "the blind lead...

But let us take courage: there are better days yet to come. Our great Redeemer and Liberator has gone before us to prepare a place for His people, and when He comes again our redemption will be complete. The great jubilee year is yet to come: — A few more Christmas and New Year's Days — A few more meetings and partings — A few more births and deaths — A few more weddings and funerals — A few more tears and struggles — A few more sicknesses and pains -- A few more Sundays, Baptisms, an...

Are you free? Then stand firm in your liberty, and don't be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. —Don't listen to those who by good words and fine speeches would draw you back to the Roman Catholic Church. —Beware of those who would try to persuade you that there is any mediator but the one Mediator, Christ Jesus. —Beware of any one who would try to persuade you that there is any sacrifice but the one Sacrifice offered on Calvary. —Beware of any one who would try to persuade you that t...

There is no more perfect doctrine than this to perfectly satisfy the ignorant and the unlearned! Visit the poorest and humblest person who knows nothing of theology, tell him the story of the cross, and the good news about Jesus Christ, and His love to sinners; show him that there is freedom provided for him, as well as for the most educated in the land--freedom from guilt, freedom from the devil, freedom from condemnation, freedom from hell. And then tell him plainly, boldly, fully, unreserve...

We are not born with the freedom in Christ. The inhabitants of many a city enjoy privileges by virtue of their birthplace. Paul, who drew his first lifebreath at Tarsus in Cilicia, could say to the Roman Commander, “I was born free.” But this is not the case with Adam's children, in regards to spiritual things. We are born slaves and servants of sin: we are by nature “children of wrath,” and destitute of any claim to heaven. We do not acquire freedom in Christ by baptism. Every year many a...

Too many are content with a vague idea that Christ will somehow save sinners: but how or why they don’t have a clue. I protest against this ignorance. Let us set fully before our eyes the doctrine of Christ dying in our place—His substituted death, and rest our souls on it. Let us hold on firmly to the mighty truth, that Christ on the cross: Christ on the cross: Stood in the place of His people Christ on the cross: Died for His people Christ on the cross: Suffered for His people Christ on...

The love of the Bible does not consist in never disapproving anybody's religious opinions. Here is another most serious and growing delusion. There are many who pride themselves on never pronouncing others mistaken, whatever views they may hold. Your neighbor, for example, may be a Roman Catholic, or a Mormon. But the "love" of many says that you have no right to think him wrong! If he is sincere, it is "unloving" to think unfavorably of his spiritual condition! From such love may I ever be deli...

The love of the Bible does not consist in never disapproving anybody's conduct. Here is another very common delusion! Thousands pride themselves on never condemning others, or saying they are wrong, whatever they may do. They convert the precept of our Lord, "Do not judge," into an excuse for having no unfavorable opinion at all of anybody. They pervert His prohibition of rash and censorious judgments into a prohibition of all judgment whatsoever. Your neighbor may be a drunkard, a liar, a viole...

Never make an intimate friend of anyone who is not a friend of God. Understand me, I do not speak of acquaintances. I do not mean that you ought to have nothing to do with anyone but true Christians. To take such a line is neither possible nor desirable in this world. Christianity requires no man to be discourteous. But I do advise you to be very careful in your choice of friends. Do not open all your heart to a man merely because he is clever, agreeable, good-natured, and kind. These things...

Another danger to young men is the FEAR OF MAN'S OPINION. "The fear of man" will indeed "prove to be a snare" (Proverbs 29:25). It is terrible to observe the power which it has over most minds, and especially over the minds of the young. Few seem to have any opinions of their own, or to think for themselves. Like dead fish, they go with the stream and tide: what others think is right, they think is right; and what others call wrong, they call wrong too. There are not many original thinkers in ...

Matthew Henry tells a story of a great statesman in Queen Elizabeth's time, who retired from public life in his latter days, and gave himself up to serious thought. His former gay companions came to visit him, and told him he was becoming melancholy: "No," he replied, "I am serious; for all are serious round about me. God is serious in observing us,—Christ is serious in interceding for us, the Spirit is serious in striving with us,—the truths of God are serious,—our spiritual enemies are serious...

Some, I dare say, will object that I am asking what is unreasonable; that youth is not the time of life when people ought to be grave and thoughtful. I answer, there is little danger of their being too much so in the present day. Foolish talking, and jesting, and joking, and excessive merriment, are only too common. Doubtless there is a time for all things; but to be always light and trifling is anything but wise. What says the wisest of men? " It is better to go to the house of mourning than to...

So certain people or congregations were instrumental in your conversion or sanctification. You have since "grown out" and moved on doctrinally. Great. It is right to recognize that God sovereignly used them. It is right to be grateful. Give credit to whom it is due, and glory to God. But does being used by God earn anyone a "life-time exemption from biblical discernment" card? Too many Christians fall all over themselves to excuse or dismiss error, sometimes serious error, because of a past c...

Westminster Larger Catechism 105 Q. What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment? A. The sins forbidden in the first commandment are . . . making men the lords of our faith and conscience. . . J.G. Vos: What is meant by “making men the lords of our faith and conscience”? This means making; mere human beings our authority in religion, so that we believe and do what they tell us to believe and do, not because of the teachings of God’s Word, but merely because of the influence or ins...

Conservative Fragmentation Put simply, the controversy that fractured the OPC during its first year concerned a choice between American fundamentalism: and the Reformed faith. If one defines fundamentalism strictly by its opposition to modernist theology, then the OPC is and always has been a fundamentalist denomination. But by such a definition conservative Lutherans, Episcopalians, Anabaptists, and even Roman Catholics would also qualify as fundamentalist, for conservative communions in those...

Choosing Righteousness before Convenience From this order we may further gather that justice and good conscience ought to move us to do our duty more than our own profit and the benefit that returns to us. If there should come such an opposition between these that they could not both stand together, but that for doing that which is right, and which God has commanded, our prosperity must be hindered and life shortened, we should stick with what is right and commanded of God, even though prosper...

It is not in the nature of things to be expected that the spiritual character of the church should ever be superior to that of the ministry: and it is perfectly consistent with what we know of human nature to expect that it will always hold itself excused for being inferior. It will not tread a path which its spiritual guides are slow to pursue; and will deem it an affectation of sanctity, and a presumptuous ambition, to attempt to advance beyond them. How else than by admitting a deficiency of ...

Prioritizing Husband or Wife before Parents The first point shows, that a wife, or a husband must be the priority before parents. The examples of Leah and Rachel (Gen. 31:14), even of Michal (1 Sam. 19:11), are commendable in this respect. The bond of marriage is more ancient, more firm, more near. There was husband and wife before there was parent and child, and there is a time when parents and children may depart from one another, and that while both live. But there is no time when man and...

Is Hell separation from the Presence of God? No. Because God is fully present everywhere (immensity and omnipresence). Hell included. The confessional phrasing: "everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God" (WLC 29) "cast out from the favorable presence of God, and the glorious fellowship with Christ" (WLC 89) "A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, “Hell is a symbol for separation from God.” To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the i...

Christocentricity is indeed vital in the preaching of the Word of God; but Christocentricity must not be permitted to degenerate into Christomonism. The Christocentric does not and must not exclude the exemplary; the indicatives of history do not and must not exclude the imperatives of ethics. —John Carrick, 'The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric', 130 ...

WHO IS REFORMED? Published on 12/18/2018 Reformed, or not Reformed, that is the question. —William Shakespeare It’s come around again. The infamous question that never completely goes away, despite being answered over and over again: “what does Reformed mean?” Some of you may be thinking, “why should we care?” And some of the group are doing the non-conformist-teenager-thing, “I’m not into labels.” Does it really matter what this term means? Does it really matter how we use it? Yes, it does ...

Truth and doctrine, are to be preached always, openly, and firmly, and are never to be dissembled or concealed; for there is no offence in them; they are the staff of uprightness.—And who gave you the power, or committed to you, the right, of confining the Christian doctrine to persons, places, times, and causes, when Christ wills it to be proclaimed, and to reign freely, throughout the world? For Paul saith, "the Word of God is not bound," (2 Tim. ii. 9,) but Erasmus bounds the word. Nor did Go...

THE DANGER OF AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX Posted on 05/01/2017 by Nate The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A’s on the 2nd Commandment: Q. 49. Which is the second commandment? A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of ...

The Christian profession is sinking in its personal piety; the line of separation between the church and the world becomes less and less perceptible: and this is taking place, less through the elevation of the world, than through the depression of the church. The character of genuine Christianity, as expounded from pulpits, and delineated in books, has too rare a counterpart in the lives and spirit of its professors. How is this to be remedied, and by what means is the spirit of piety to be rev...

I go on now to mention another qualification for the sacred office, and which the earnest minister will anxiously cultivate with a view to the great object of his life and labours, and to which I advance with a praying mind, an anxious heart, and a trembling hand, ardently desirous to set it forth in such manner as shall secure for it the attention which its importance demands; I mean personal religion. We are weak in the pulpit, because we are weak in the closet. An earnest man will not only tr...

WHO IS THE WEAKER BROTHER? I think that this is one of the most difficult subjects, practically. It’s not just about alcohol. This subject of “weaker brothers” and Christian liberty touches on so many things. Attending movies and what kinds of movies, certain types of music, practicing martial arts or even contact sports, dancing, smoking, recreational gambling, using medication, tattoos. This is one of those biblical teachings where the application is the meaning. If we aren’t applying it ri...