my burg

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes."  (Ezekiel 36:22-23 ESV) Below is an excerpt from one of the sermons by Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Ezekiel 36.  This series of Sunday evening sermons is a powerful example of how to preach the gospel from the Old Testament...  "But salvation also vindicates God's holiness.  He is a holy God. 'I will  sanctify my name,' he says.  'You have profaned it and the heathen have  profaned it.'  How does God vindicate his holiness?  He does it partly by  punish...

God's Word is our guide. For some, orthodoxy consists in seeking out passages in the Word to support their own opinions.  At the same time they probably hold to other ideas which are contrary to the Word, and they ignore that with which they do not agree. That is a perverted approach to the Word of God. For the Word of God and human ideas are in opposition to each other.  God's Word gives us a view of the world and of man and man's soul that is quite different from the purely human opinion.    Nevertheless there are many, ministers as well as laymen, who view man and his problems from the viewpoint of the world.  They know no other anthropology or psychology than that of the world's scientific thinkers, and they build a system of religious thought upon ground which differs from the Word.  Their foundation is not Scripture, but human insight. For the Christian, God's Word is source-book.  He bases his thoughts and opinions upon that Word. Eve...

"For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, 'I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.'"  (Hebrews 2:11-12 ESV) "Christ was not ashamed of us at His incarnation.  To be sure He had many reasons to be.  For He, Himself, was the only begotten of the Father, of one essence and glory with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, yea, the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person -- who thought it not robbery to be equal with God.  And we were laden with guilt, unclean from the crown of our heads to the soles of our feet, and subject to corruption.  But still He was not ashamed to call us brothers.  He was ashamed of us neither before God nor before the Holy Angels.  He accepted our flesh and blood, went in unto our nature, became like unto us in everything, sin only excepted.  And ev...

Over a century ago, Benjamin B. Warfield, principal and professor at Princeton University (then College), wrote out a "brief and untechnical statement" of personal faith.  His last paragraph (#24) was as follows:  “I believe that if I die in Christ, my soul shall be at death made perfect in holiness and go home to the Lord, and when He shall return in His majesty I shall be raised in glory and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity; encouraged by which blessed hope, it is required of me willingly to take my part in suffering hardships here as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, being assured that if I die with Him I shall also live with Him, if I endure, I shall also reign with Him.  And to Him, my Redeemer, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, Three Persons, one God, be glory forever, world without end, Amen, and Amen.”   Is this something you and I can also affirm? Image: from Warfield's grave in Princeton Cemetery. ...