A new form of Calvinism took the shape of a movement around 2005, but it differed in its acceptance of ‘the world’. 'New Calvinism' is not a resurgence of the old but an entirely novel formula which strips the doctrine…

'But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed’ (James 1.14). We often hear it said, ‘It is not a sin to be tempted. It only becomes sin when you succumb to temptation.’…

‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe…’ (1 John 5.13). This verse is written for those who…

This article presents the traditional view that we are to seek guidance from the Lord in all the major decisions of life, and he will clarify our thinking, or overrule our circumstances. ‘Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me…

‘For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.’ The Spirit does not search in the sense that he needs to find out. He is the Holy Spirit, eternal, all-knowing, equal with the Father and the Son.…

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…

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…

Here is the biography of Simeon in a single verse – four aspects of the life of a true believer for us to aspire to. The passage itself provides headings for a message. He was ‘just’, ‘devout’, ‘waiting for the…

Christ has purchased us, 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 has given us for…

Where will your church be five or ten years from now? With the adoption of contemporary worship, many have changed beyond recognition. This is one of the most important issues confronting Bible churches today, and here is why.

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 Jesus.’ Neither male nor female is superior to the other in the sight…

A massive revolution has been under way for years. A ‘new society’ is under construction, with entirely new thinking and morality. God has been dismissed and most traditional morality trampled upon and scorned. There is no source of guidance outside…

The personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer is such an amazing privilege that the mind never wholly grasps it. A daily succession of joys, temptations and trials produces various reactions in us, often without stirring our awareness…

We are ‘saved to serve’, but that little maxim is unfashionable today. It is, however, biblical and right. We are called to the tremendous work of the great commission of Christ to his disciples in every age – the gathering…

Over the last decades there has come in among Christians a craze for counselling borrowed from secular psychology, largely formulated by atheists opposed to biblical teaching. It is astonishing that even evangelical churches are hiring counsellors to ‘heal’ Christians who…

Why was the sabbath day instituted by the Lord, and in what way has it changed with the coming of Christ? How should it be kept? This article responds to these and other questions, showing that the sabbath principle is…

‘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…

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…

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…

It is often claimed by those cynical toward the Bible that Genesis 1 is contradicted by Genesis 2. But it is clear that these arguments are not made by people who read Genesis with any degree of care, because their…

Like no other agency, Sunday Schools enable us to reach and draw a large part of the rising generation to the Saviour. Indeed, whether or not a congregation contains young people saved from the neighbourhood will usually depend on whether…

The apostle is about to unfold the great 'cycle' of spiritual experience for Christian workers by teaching the golden chain of pressures (prayer: encouragement: thanksgiving) and commend it strongly to God's people.

When problems are brought to a pastor, our first aim is the preservation of the marriage bond, and the keeping of husbands and wives and families together. This must be our first objective: a much better and happier relationship. But…

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…

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. Before looking at classic examples from sermons of C…

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…

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?

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…

A divine covenant is an undertaking, a pledge by God, to relate to mankind on certain conditions. It is a form of compact or agreement. God does not relate to man in a haphazard, random, disorderly way, but in accordance with…

In Leviticus, the Lord prescribes 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 create expressions of worship not seen in…

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…

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…

'..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…

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’…

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…

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…

Many Bible-believing Christians, sadly, do not seem to have realised that each one has a personal commission. It is quite common to come across Christians who know the Lord, walk with him, have trusted in Christ, have a testimony, and…

Let us take a family of problems, such as lack of assurance, coldness in prayer, little sense of God, and small desire to pray. For a solution we may go to that most famous of texts for troubled minds – Isaiah…

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…

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…

In 1 Corinthians 5.11 the apostle writes, ‘But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

‘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…

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.…

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…

‘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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

'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…

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…

  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…

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…

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…

'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…

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…

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…

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;…

'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…

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…