Sermons and Biblical Studies

In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved … Continue reading “CROSS:
DEMANDS OF; DISCIPLESHIP; WORLDLINESS; BACKSLIDING”

But if I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity whose hands are indeed the hands of Abel, but whose voice is the voice of Cain. The old cross slew men; … Continue reading “CROSS:
CURRENT VIEW OF; CHURCH: CURRENT CONDITION”

God made the world; it is a beautiful thing and something to venerate. It’s a great loss—a tragic loss—that we’ve suffered in the last generation. We have lost the ability to wonder. We know so everlasting much and we’re so sure of ourselves. But David stood and wondered in the presence of God’s creation; he … Continue reading “CREATION;
WONDER”

The human mind requires an answer to the question concerning the origin and nature of things. The world as we find it must be accounted for in some way. Philosophers and scientists have sought to account for it, the one by speculation, the other by observation, and in their labors they have come upon many … Continue reading “CREATION;
SCIENCE; ATHEISM; ORIGINS”

The converted man is both reformed and regenerated. And unless the sinner is willing to reform his way of living he will never know the inward experience of regeneration. This is the vital truth which has gotten lost under the leaves in popular evangelical theology. The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has … Continue reading “CONVERSION;
REGENERATION; SALVATION: TRANSFORMATION”

Our intellectual activities in the order of their importance may be graded this way: first, cogitation; second, observation; third, reading. I wish I could include conversation in this short list. One would naturally suppose that verbal intercourse with congenial friends should be one of the most profitable of all mental activities; and it may have … Continue reading “CONVERSATION;
INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION”

It is in the realm of religion that contempt finds its most fruitful soil and flourishes most luxuriantly. It is seen in the cold disdain with which the respectable church woman regards the worldly sister and in the scorn heaped upon the fallen woman by the legally married wife. The sober deacon may find it … Continue reading “CONTEMPT;
PRIDE: SPIRITUAL”

But when a conscience has become seared, when a man has played with the fire and burned his conscience and calloused it until he can handle the hot iron of sin without shrinking, there is no longer any safety for him. Titus wrote in his epistle about those to whom nothing is pure any longer, … Continue reading “CONSCIENCE;
TONGUE; PROFANITY”

Our shortcoming in spiritual experience is our tendency to believe without confirmation. God Himself does not need to confirm anything within His being. But we are not God. We are humans, and in matters of our faith we need confirmation within ourselves. Why are so many Christian believers ineffective, anemic, disappointed, discouraged? I think the … Continue reading “CONFIRMATION:
NEED FOR; BIBLE: VALUE OF; GOD: HIS PRESENCE”

To be right we must think worthily of God. It is morally imperative that we purge from our minds all ignoble concepts of the Deity and let Him be the God in our minds that He is in His universe. The Christian religion has to do with God and man, but its focal point is … Continue reading “CONCEPT
OF GOD; MAN: INSIGNIFICANCE OF”