Thoughts on how the Biblical teachings of the Reformation and Puritan Christianity should affect our souls and change our lives.
The apostle Paul brings together two Scriptures when he says of himself, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man”. In speaking of the law of God after the inward man, he identifies himself as a partaker of the New Covenant. This is clearly a reference to the prophecy in Jeremiah, where it is written that in the New Covenant, “I [the LORD] will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people”. And in speaking of his delight in the law of God after the inward man, Paul identifies himself with the blessed man of Psalm 1.
God’s blessing must necessarily precede godliness in fallen sinners. We must infer that the fallen sinner who becomes the blessed man of Psalm 1 is already a transformed man, since he now delights in the law of the LORD as only a man with a new heart can. Such a man is godly because he is blessed by God; it can never happen the other way round. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” says the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must begin our worship of God with the first Psalm. But we must not remain upon its surface, and we must not stop here. Many theologians say that Psalms 1 and 2 serve together as a foundation for the whole Book of Psalms. We will find this to be true, if we get to know them. Let us dig deeply into that foundation, let us learn to appreciate how the first two Psalms prepare us for the whole Psalter, and let us see how they introduce us to some of its most important recurrent themes.
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The joy of the Christian is that everlasting, appreciative, thankful, glad, and sometimes solemn awareness of having been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
By John Brown of Haddington
The full “Evangelical Commentary” notes from John Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible, at the Gospel of John chapter 15. John Brown (1722-1787) was a presbyterian minister in Haddington, Scotland, and Professor of Divinity for his denomination, the Burgher branch of the First Secession Church of Scotland.
By Simon Padbury
“Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (John 11:23-27).
By Simon Padbury
The rich young ruler was not seeking salvation—he didn’t think he needed to be saved from his sins. So, Christ directed him back to the law, the covenant of life, to learn its lessons.
By Simon Padbury
In the parables of the kingdom, Christ’s name for his Church is both a prophecy and a promise: “the kingdom of heaven.”
By Matthew Vogan
Questions and answers on what the fear of God is, what it is not, what it works in us, how it should affect our daily life, and what God’s blessing is upon those who fear him. “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments” (Psalm 112:1). “The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Psalm 147:11).
By Matthew Vogan
Questions and answers on what godly sorrow is, what it is not, what true repentance involves, and what is the hope of the godly sorrower. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
By Simon Padbury
If true faith in the gospel is “the substance” of those things hoped for from God, then it must also be true that our faith itself (our belief in the gospel) has come from God.
The author of Hebrews further explains: saving faith is, itself, “the evidence of things not seen.” Therefore, we must conclude: true faith in the gospel of Christ is itself evidence that the believer has the things hoped for, from the hand of God.
By James Fisher, et al.
From The Assembly’s Shorter Catechism Explained, by Way of Question and Answer, by James Fisher and other Ministers of the Gospel. Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 57-62 on the Fourth Commandment, with expository questions.
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“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
—2 Peter 1:5-8.