God the Father

Perhaps you’ve never considered how each of the commandments of the Decalogue relate to the opening several chapters of Genesis. The primacy of God as the only God and the One deserving of all our worship are woven throughout those chapters. God resting on the 7 th day serves as the model for the 4...

Under God, Over the People We live in an era of growing governmental interference and intervention in the life of the local church. So what is the proper Biblical relationship between the civil magistrate and the church? Our hosts reach across the pond to discuss the topic with Oliver Allmand-Smith...

Gregory I’s Female Correspondents Some of our best sources of information about specific women in the early centuries of Christianity come from the correspondence of church fathers, particularly Jerome at the turn of the fifth century and Gregory I about two centuries later. Jerome’s letters were...

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 8:1 Few lines of Holy Scripture have been used more by God to encourage assurance and comfort in my own heart. In my own Bible, the page on which Romans 8 appears is a page well worn, smudged from the constant wear...

Let’s consider the Fourth Commandment carefully: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). There are two parts to this: 1. Remembering the Sabbath; 2. Keeping the Sabbath holy. First, let’s answer the following questions: What and when is the Sabbath day? The original Sabbath day was...

Names. We all have one, or two or three, maybe even four or five! Names identify us, don’t they? At least to some degree. Yet, we recognize that we are more than merely our name(s). My parents could have decided to name me by any other name besides David, and yet I would still be me. Our human...

Krishna Pal – The First Baptist Convert in India On November 25, 1800, a 36-year-old Indian carpenter named Krishna Pal slipped into the tank where he was going to bathe, dislocating his shoulder. Having heard about a doctor at the Baptist mission at Serampore, not far from his house, he sent two...

“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:7). Over half a century ago, the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister at Westminster Chapel, London, aimed the penetrating light of the first commandment at modern idolatry, saying, “There are many people today who never darken the...

According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, “The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof….neither doth Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation” (WCF, 19.5) Obviously, the Westminster Divines were not...

As we come to the conclusion of our study on the beatitudes it will be good to ask, how we should respond? What are we expected to do about this set of familiar blessings? Certainly these blessings are part of a larger sermon and so should be viewed in that light. For example, just as the sermon...