Christ is the Prince of Peace, who alone gives peace with God, peace with others, and peace within; sin is the disturber of all three, and that peace is enjoyed only by being reconciled to God in Christ and submitting to His terms. Everyone is hunting…
The New Testament church has identifying marks — undenominational, congregationally governed, missionary, made up of converted and worshipping and united and pure members — and every member should know them well enough to help keep the church true to the pattern. A congregation drifts the way…
Every Christian is a priest. Not in a metaphorical sense — in the direct biblical sense of I Peter 2:5 and 2:9. The structure of the Levitical priesthood (one High Priest, many secondary priests, qualifications, duties, sacrifices, altar) is replicated exactly in the Christian age: Christ…
A good sermon may be poorly delivered; a weak sermon may be skillfully delivered. The delivery is not the sermon — but it is the instrument through which the sermon reaches the hearer, and an instrument poorly played loses the music. The preacher who has prepared…
The Bible is a divine-human book: human language carrying divine content, the will of God expressed through the words of human writers who were divinely guided in speaking only the truth. The inspiration of Scripture did not make truth truer; it ensured that what was recorded…
Nothing can hurt us if we receive it as God teaches. No one can do us real harm if we remain faithful to God. The six categories of life experience that most commonly cause damage — temptation, sickness, pleasure, sorrow, slander, and the general experiences of…
The church was in the eternal purpose of God and the mind of Christ from the beginning; it is the true Israel, the saved remnant, the “little flock” that receives the kingdom — so that there is no Christianity without the church. People speak today of…
What looks like defeat is often the path to victory in God’s kingdom: we lose life to save it, find it by losing it, gain by spending, live by dying, and conquer through the cross — for the way of the cross leads to life, and…
The outline defines forgiveness this way: to hold one as though no offense had been given — in love, in sympathy, with full interest and goodwill, as though nothing had happened. That is a demanding standard, and most of us know it. The question is not…
Psalm 8 is a psalm of wonder: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Ps….