Dr Masters’ recent sermons

11:00am | Sunday 24 September 2023

Rejecting Christ the Lord

The events of Christ's three hearings before Pilate, the monumental choice of Barabbas over the Lord, and the Saviour's humiliation by the imperial guard all show the full depravity of unbelief, and the immeasurable love of God in redemption.
7:30pm | Wednesday 20 September 2023

Revealing the Church Age

'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.'
7:30pm | Wednesday 13 September 2023

God’s Plan for His Church in Revelation

Of the three great ‘secrets’ fully unveiled in the New Testament this book is the third – revealed by Christ. It is the explanation of the great struggle between the church and the world throughout the Gospel age. Here is great wisdom and discernment for us.
6:30pm | Sunday 3 September 2023

Our Argument With God

God calls us to think, setting before us the unreasonableness of turning our backs on Him. He shows us what we are rejecting – namely, His forgiving love, the rebuilding of our character, the imparting of life to the soul, and everlasting joy and peace.
11:00am | Sunday 3 September 2023

The First Trials of Christ

What a scene of dishonesty, hostility and brutality! Christ, the creator of all, the Holy One, put on trial by corrupt sinful people! How far He would go for our redemption! Here also is His proof that Scripture had promised a divine Saviour.
6:30pm | Sunday 27 August 2023

The Parable of the Harmful Eye

Christ's parable of the 'evil' eye portrays our inability to grasp spiritual matters. It shows that blurred spiritual vision is a wilful condition, for we do not want to know about the Lord. Here is how we may 'see', and find God's forgiving love.
11:00am | Sunday 27 August 2023

Lessons For Us From Peter’s Denial

Peter's collapse from bravado to denial was rapid and humiliating. How did fear so quickly overpower him? Here are the five failings that led to his fall, including the failing of love. Here also are the means to keep us from failing today.
6:30pm | Sunday 6 August 2023

If Only You Knew Christ – The Gift of God

Whether we live in a Christian age or in an atheistic culture, people, by nature, are unaware of the goodness and power of God if He is found and known. Here is why we are so far from Him, and how we may find Him.
11:00am | Sunday 6 August 2023

Arresting the Lord of All

When Christ submits to being arrested like a criminal, we see the outcome of 'nominal' belief (in Judas), the venom of the Lord's enemies, the deceitfulness of that shocking night, the reaction of 'the flesh' in believers, and a shining example of tenacious faith.
6:30pm | Sunday 16 July 2023

God Appeals to Our Souls

Isaiah, 700 years before Christ, prophesies the last phase of the world, from the time of Christ to the end of the age. Throughout, many will be appealing to and urging people to turn to Christ. Here is how God reaches out to us.

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Article excerpts on preaching by Dr. Peter Masters

From Regeneration and Gospel Persuasion

We begin with Paul disputing with people at Athens (Acts 17), meaning that he laid out his case to convince people of their need of Christ. He presented arguments and reasoned with them. At Corinth also he reasoned and persuaded constantly (Acts 18.4), eventually being charged with persuading people to worship God (Acts 18.13). Apollos also mightily convinced people (lit: with well-stretched arguments, utterly proving his case).

In Acts 19.8-9 there are two references to disputing and one to persuading, showing the degree of reasoned convincing and remonstrating carried out by Paul at Ephesus. Before Felix, Paul famously ‘reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come’, until Felix trembled (Acts 24.25). This was typical apostolic preaching. Even when a prisoner, Paul turned the dock into a pulpit and persuaded his hearers. At the very close of Acts (28.23), Paul was still persuading and reasoning – to the very end.

Are we preachers? Have we cultivated our skill in reasoning? Paul goes so far as to say – ‘Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men’ (2 Corinthians 5.11). We are called to make a persuasive presentation of the Gospel because it is God’s way of bringing the redeemed into his kingdom. When we are gathered into eternal glory, our cry of gratitude will be, ‘I was humbled to the dust; I felt my spiritual emptiness and need; I saw my desperately sinful state; I grasped how evil and foolish I was; I saw the Christ of Calvary, and I came to him longingly, willingly and freely for salvation.’

It is the will of God that preachers, witnessing believers, and the printed page, should be instrumental in this. Of course, the vital work is performed by the Lord, so the apostle rises no higher than saying, ‘we are labourers together with God.’ But we are his spokespeople.

Do you wrestle with souls as a preacher? It is a wonderful calling to search the Scripture, foraging for evangelistic arguments and parallels to salvation in both Testaments.

The hallmark of the Reformation was evangelistic preaching. And soon afterward the Puritans  reasoned with, appealed to and expostulated with souls. Evangelistic preaching was a defining characteristic of the rise of the Baptists, particularly through the golden age of Baptist expansion. We may read the classic sermons of John Bunyan to see the tender affection for souls, and the striving to gain them.

It was also the hallmark of preaching in the 18th-century Great Awakening (read the sermons of George Whitefield), not to mention the revivals of the 19th century and the high era of the Victorian pulpit, with all its persuasiveness.


From Expository Preaching – Benefits and Pitfalls

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 H Spurgeon, here are some of the benefits and common mistakes of consecutive expository preaching.

Firstly, if the preacher works through a book of the Bible week by week it becomes obvious to everyone that the Word of God is the supreme authority for all that is taught. The preacher is clearly in captivity to the Bible. Consecutive expository preaching is the greatest witness to biblical ­authority.

second virtue of consecutive expository preaching is that it helps the preacher to suppress his personal opinions. Because he is dominated by the Scripture, and bound to follow its presentation of information and its arguments, the preacher’s personal style of reasoning should be helpfully subordinated to that of God’s Word.

third virtue of consecutive expository preaching is that it obliges the preacher to present ­everything that is in the Scripture. By nature, most preachers will tend to emphasise a certain group of subjects and to neglect others. But by proceeding through a book they are bound to address every topic that presents itself, and so preach on a comprehensive range of vital themes.

fourth virtue of consecutive expository preaching is that it shows the people of God the plan and the purpose of a whole Bible book, which would probably not happen if the preacher darted from book to book selecting individual sermon texts. Think of the immense advantage to the people of God of becoming familiar with the overall scheme of entire books of the Bible. It is a very great help to private study.

Fifthly, consecutive expository preaching also enables the preacher to bring out the themes that often run through one or more chapters. He pays more attention to the context, and this delivers him from many mistakes. Would the so-called ‘holiness movement’ have developed if its proponents had been consecutive preachers? Would they not have hesitated to preach sanctification-by-faith when they saw that the whole chapter or passage was speaking about justification?

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