All Articles by Dr Masters
The Merger of Calvinism with Worldliness
A new form of Calvinism took the shape of a movement from about 2005, but it differed from the original in its acceptance of ‘the world’. This critique written in 2009 was sharply attacked by New Calvinistic preachers but strongly…
Continue readingRegeneration and Gospel Persuasion
It is the will of God that people will be consciously awakened and convicted to experience a sincere desire for God’s mercy and a change of thinking. They must see their need, and what Christ has done, and come (as…
Continue readingAre The Architects Of New Morality Affected By Conscience?
As we are all aware, we live at a time when a ‘new society’ is under construction, with new thinking and an entirely new morality. A massive revolution has been under way for years. God has been dismissed and most…
Continue readingRemember the Lord’s Day
Why was the sabbath day instituted by the Lord, and does it continue now as the Lord’s Day? If so, in what way has it changed with the coming of Christ? How should it be kept? Is it true there…
Continue readingThe Clothing of Humility – Putting on the Garments
'..be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility..' What an amazing exhortation this is in these days of assertive self-confidence! As Christian believers we are to be ‘subject one to another’, not assertive, not resistant to advice, not…
Continue readingThe Garden of Eden
It is often claimed by those cynical toward the Bible that Genesis 1 is contradicted by Genesis 2. Naturally, such claims find their way to the top of the web search engine lists, and if anyone Googles Genesis, or Adam…
Continue readingBeware of the Counsel of Gamaliel
Some people seem to think that Gamaliel was the only wise man in the whole of the Bible! Whenever wisdom is needed to assess the latest strange idea or movement to penetrate the churches, we hear the famous ‘counsel of Gamaliel’…
Continue readingThe Dissolving of Doubts
There is a verse in 1 John 5 which is written for those who doubt whether they have been forgiven and saved by God. It is directed to those who have trusted in Christ, but do not feel that anything has come of…
Continue readingWhat Satan Can and Cannot Do
With Calvary before Him, the Lord spoke these remarkable words – ‘Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.’ He was referring to His imminent suffering on Calvary’s cross, which would…
Continue readingCessationism — Proving Charismatic Gifts have Ceased
Does the Bible teach definitively that the charismatic gifts have ceased? The ceasing of revelatory and sign-gifts in the time of the apostles is very plainly taught in God’s Word, so plainly, in fact, that the opposite view has only…
Continue readingSincerity First and Foremost in the Christian Armour
Of all the Christian virtues, love is named in the New Testament as the greatest and first, but when several virtues are presented as the Christian’s armour, sincerity is the piece which must be donned first as foundational to all…
Continue readingExercising a True Deliverance Ministry
The title of this article is obviously not meant in a charismatic sense. We offer no advice on how to cast out demons, rather on how to help true believers who have been heavily influenced by charismatic ideas, and who…
Continue readingThe Golden Chain of Blessing
The apostle is about to unfold the great 'cycle' of spiritual experience for Christian workers, proved repeatedly in his own ministry to souls. He will teach the golden chain of pressures: prayer: encouragement: thanksgiving - and commend it strongly to…
Continue readingSecondary Separation – When to Stand Apart from Biblical Error
It should not be forgotten that the duty of separation, whether primary or secondary, is laid upon us in the Bible by the infinite kindness of God. Far from being loveless, it is a Gospel-preserving and a church-protecting duty. It…
Continue readingSeven Voices of Calvary
As we come to the narrative beginning at John 12.12 and continuing to verse 29, we see a number of events and statements recorded, and we ask what they have in common. What unites them? At first we may think…
Continue readingThe Pattern for the Church
When we speak of the sufficiency of Scripture, we mean that the Word of God provides all that we need to know in order to be saved, to be sanctified, to worship, and to organise and operate the church of…
Continue readingFive Keys to God’s Law
There is nothing quite like the Ten Commandments for stimulating progress in sanctification, once our minds are primed to see all that they teach. In the New Testament we read that keeping them is an act of love to Christ (John…
Continue readingWorship or Entertainment?
Where will your church be five or ten years from now? With the adoption of contemporary music worship, many have already changed beyond recognition. Yet more will do so. Our manner of worship is one of the most important issues…
Continue readingDoes the Lord Really Guide?
Only thirty years ago this question would never have been asked by Bible-believing Christians, because the need to seek God's guidance in all the major decisions of life was firmly fixed in the minds of those who followed Christ. But…
Continue readingJoshua’s Sixteen Resolutions
Around 1375 BC Joshua proclaimed his ‘farewell’ address to all the elders and heads of the families of Israel. Speaking by divine inspiration the aged leader gave the people sixteen profound and heart-searching resolutions that stand to this day as…
Continue readingTrue Repentance for Believers
In the Book of Leviticus, the Lord speaks authoritatively to Moses, prescribing very precisely the order and manner of worship. They were not to devise services for themselves, and even in our day of greater liberty we are not to…
Continue readingSix Reasons Why Christ Rose From The Dead
‘For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead’ (John 20.9). In the verse quoted above there is a small but vital word that is the foundation of this short article – the…
Continue readingSanctifying Power – and Films, Music and Leisure in the Christian Life
Is our continuing sanctification impeded by worldliness? Has the ‘moral resurrection’ of which Paul speaks come to a halt? Here is how we may rediscover the secret power. There are doubtless many things we can employ and enjoy in this…
Continue readingSacred or Profane Worship? The Third Broken Principle
The third major departure from biblical principles of worship is the modern refusal to accept the great gulf between sacred and profane, so that the entertainment forms of the world are imported into the church for the praise of God.…
Continue readingSpiritual Joy
When the Holy Spirit first works in our lives, he does not communicate joy, but sorrow. He stirs our complacent and indifferent hearts, giving a deep sense of spiritual bankruptcy and need, and enabling us to see ourselves as we…
Continue readingHumility Essential for Blessing
‘Humility of mind’ – what a term! We do not always see this on the evangelical scene today. We see ministers revelling in what they call authority and power and gifts, endlessly expressing their opinions and devising new methods of…
Continue readingRational or Ecstatic Worship? The Second Broken Principle
Ecstatic worship is completely different to rational worship. Ecstatic worship takes place when the object of the exercise is to achieve a warm, happy feeling, perhaps great excitement, and even a sense of God’s presence through the earthly, physical aspects…
Continue readingThe Holy War – Do we dodge enlistment?
The devil’s self-assumed task is to bring down the human race in order to prove that God has failed in its design and creation. He has brought about the Fall by his lies, and if he can keep all people…
Continue readingSpiritual or Aesthetic Worship? The First Broken Principle
Aesthetic worshippers believe that genuine praise needs a ‘physical’ dimension greater than mere unison singing. It assumes that God is an ‘aesthete’ – sitting in the heavens and looking down with appreciation at the skill and beauty that we bring…
Continue readingWhy Did God Allow Sin And The Fall?
How could it be that God allowed the Fall, and all the evil, disobedience and horror that was brought into the world, when our first parents fell? How was it that sin was ever permitted in the first place? Our…
Continue readingLong-Term Praying
We constantly need the help of God in different situations, and we continually pray for individuals, but why does the Lord cause us to have to pray for some things repeatedly, often over a long period of time?
Continue readingThe Immeasurable, Personal Love of Christ to His People
It is an astonishing concept for us that Christ Jesus the Lord of glory, the second person of the Trinity, should dearly love his people. Here is an opportunity for us just to skim the surface of that mighty, unspeakable…
Continue readingHow We Treat the Holy Spirit Within
The personal indwelling of the infinite, eternal Holy Spirit in the believer is such an amazing blessing and privilege that the mind never wholly grasps it. A daily succession of joys, sorrows, temptations and trials produces various reactions in us,…
Continue readingThe Pilgrim Concept
The concept of pilgrimage is tremendously important to the Christian, especially at the present time, when an increasing number of evangelicals advocate being ‘culturally progressive’ or ‘culturally relevant’, exhorting us to get much more into the world. The very word…
Continue readingMutual Debts in Marriage
Christ has purchased us out of eternal debt, freed us from condemnation, and given us a better life and a glorious eternal home, by His precious blood. How readily we should now pay our due debts to the one God…
Continue readingBiblical Roles of Men and Women
Our starting point is Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3.28, where the apostle writes, in Christ ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ…
Continue readingWill Believers Pass Through The Judgement?
‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad’ (2 Corinthians 5.10). Will believers be…
Continue readingSix Biblical Steps for Guidance
This article presents the traditional view that we are to seek real guidance from the Lord in all the major decisions of life, and he will certainly clarify our thinking, or overrule our circumstances. ‘Shew me thy ways, O Lord;…
Continue readingA Spiritual Growth Check
Growth means dependence upon God, communion with Christ, daily engagement in holiness, prayer and proclamation. We cannot select one or two of these but must engage in all. 'But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and…
Continue readingThe Unique Virtues of Sunday Schools
Like no other agency, Sunday Schools enable us to reach a large part of the rising generation, and to draw children and teenagers to the Saviour. Indeed, whether or not a congregation contains young people saved from the neighbourhood will…
Continue readingRecent Race Demonstrations
In the light of recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations might I offer these comments. All manifestations of racial disrespect are disgraceful to sincere Christian people. They flow obviously from the Fall of man. All hatred, all superiority, all disdain,…
Continue readingFeatures of Apostate Behaviour
Perilous times In the course of his prophetic words in 2 Timothy 3, Paul moves swiftly to list the chief features of behaviour that will come to the fore in a perilous season, naming nineteen prominent sins which will take over…
Continue readingWitchcraft in a Modern Guise
In reviewing the sins of the flesh (in Galatians 5.19-21) the apostle mentions witchcraft, often today translated sorcery. He actually uses a word which we have in English, although for us it has a much nobler meaning. The Greek word is…
Continue readingLong-term Resentment in the Young
'And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord' (Ephesians 6.4). It hardly needs to be said that parenthood is a tremendous responsibility, and we are glad of every…
Continue readingExpository Preaching – Benefits and Pitfalls
Some benefits and common mistakes of consecutive expository preaching What exactly is expository preaching? It is preaching that draws the message from the biblical text, clearly and methodically, honouring the sense of the text, and the style of communication employed.…
Continue readingGod’s Parallel Covenants
From the beginning of the Bible we read of divine covenants, the word covenant being used twenty-five times in the book of Genesis alone. A divine covenant is an undertaking, a pledge by God, to relate to mankind on certain conditions. It…
Continue readingThe Awesome God
Three thousand years ago an outstanding king pointed out the way to know God, saying – ‘Stand in awe!’ But what is awe? I remember a teenage boy who went to see the Niagara Falls and was overwhelmed…
Continue readingShould churches comply with government instructions about coronavirus?
After these many weeks it may seem rather late to comment on this, but it is now that doubts begin to rise, and various voices in the Christian world begin to question the almost universal compliance with government rules on…
Continue readingWhen God Commissions
The call that makes all the difference to pastors and all converted men and women. All true believers should be aware of a personal commission to the service of the Lord. ‘Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year,…
Continue readingGod’s Love in a Pandemic
These are momentous days when we find ourselves in the midst of a worldwide ‘discipline’ or warning from God, calling us to acknowledge and seek Him. And although we shrink from the thought, this is the reason for all unexpected…
Continue readingRaiders of the Soul
Towards the end of Christ's most famous speech He uttered these striking words: ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves’. The most famous speech ever made was the Sermon…
Continue readingThe Seven Pillars of Counselling
Over the last 40 years, there has come in among Christians a great craze for counselling borrowed from the ideas of secular psychology, largely formulated by militant atheists holding a view of human personality and morality altogether opposed to biblical…
Continue readingThe ‘Evangelical Covenant’ of Moses
This article will sweep through Deuteronomy 29 – 30 to demonstrate that it records how Moses presented an ‘evangelical covenant’ which was set beside and distinct from the covenant of Sinai, the latter being a ‘works’ covenant that could only…
Continue readingAre there Gossips Among Us?
'Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people' (Leviticus 19.16). 'He that uttereth a slander, is a fool' (Proverbs 10.18). 'An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour' (Proverbs 11.9). Gossip has been defined as idle talk…
Continue readingThe Value of Covenants
Here are some of the personal spiritual benefits of understanding God’s covenants: 1 First, they provide a clear view of how God deals with mankind, so as to preserve his own holiness, and to explain the basis of either judgement or…
Continue readingThe Deep Things of God
Wonderful things had happened at Corinth, six years prior to Paul writing these words. As their founding pastor, his preaching had resulted in many remarkable conversions; trophies of grace. This enormously wealthy Greek city, proud of its beautiful buildings, its…
Continue readingCompanions of the Apostle Paul
Towards the end of Paul's remarkable letter to the Colossians, written during his first imprisonment in Rome, he names seven men who assisted him at that time, men whose lives continue to challenge and encourage us today. These were not…
Continue readingRemedies for Problems in Prayer
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s…
Continue readingThe Doctrine of Biblical Separation
Biblical separation from denominational heresy and apostasy (nowadays including homosexual immorality) is no longer widely followed by evangelicals. Evangelical Anglicans remain in their deeply corrupt denomination no matter what; the Evangelical Alliance happily harbours numerous people who deny penal substitution;…
Continue readingRecognising and Responding to Seasons of Exceptional Apostasy
'In the last days perilous times shall come' (2 Timothy 3.1) Perilous times The remarkable picture of the present age given in the prophecy of Paul in 2 Timothy 3 is breathtaking both in scope and detail. Humanly speaking, not even…
Continue readingThe Beginning of the World
The book of Genesis is in every way the foundational book of the entire Bible. It is the supreme book of beginnings, chronicling the origin of the universe and the human race, the entry of sin into the world, and…
Continue readingThe Cancer in all Human Relationships
Perilous times Following the evils of self-love, the apostle lists ten more evils, all of which are about relationships between people. A prominent feature of any perilous time is that of relationship wickedness. Once people choose to despise the authority…
Continue readingThe Battle for Souls
Years ago we used to say that we are ‘saved to serve’, but that little maxim is out of fashion today. It is, however, biblical and right. This article is intended as a call to the tremendous work of the…
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