-
Reformation Today and Justification from Eternity
The March/April, 1999 number of Reformation Today features four articles on John Gill. The first, entitled John Gill – a Sketch of his Life, is a succinctly written biography of Gill’s faithful and productive life in the service of the gospel. Next, Editor Errol Hulse continues with John Gill – An Appreciation, presented as a review of The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771), (ed. Michael Haykin). Here, Hulse ignores the facts of Gill’s own testimony to make what he calls ‘a fair assessment of the damage which emanated from his errors.’ Thus, though the book Hulse reviews chiefly depicts Gill as a great evangelist and soul-winner, Hulse’s one-sided critique is centred on Gill’s supposed Hyper-Calvinism and lack of evangelistic fervour. This is stretching…
-
The Covenant God Of Israel
A Sermon Preached By John M’Kenzie At Providence Chapel, Eden St, Hampstead Rd, on Lord’s Day morning, August 15th, 1847 “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, our fathers; keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people; and prepare their heart unto thee.”—1 Chronicles 29:18 The preaching of the gospel of Christ is one of the greatest blessings which God confers upon the church, next to the gift of the beloved Son and the Scriptures; because it pleaseth God “by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” When I say preaching, I mean such as God alone sends and blesses to the salvation of souls, and the glory of his own name. Where…
-
The Heart Of The Gospel
Forgiveness of sin is the heart of the gospel. Election is the beginning of the gospel. Eternal glory with Christ is the end of the gospel. But peace with God through sins forgiven is the beating heart of gospel grace. When forgiveness is little valued the gospel is held in low esteem. If sin appears as a small thing, a matter of no real gravity or consequence, then the gospel will not be treasured in God’s church and God’s testimony will be diminished in the estimation of sinful men. This is the curse of our day. Men and women have little sense of sin, no dread of judgment and no felt need for forgiveness. We call good evil and evil good, morality is stood on…
-
Whose Righteousness Saves Us?
“This is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jeremiah 23:6“… to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” II Peter 1:1 Present day evangelicals tend to believe that the fierce Calvinist-Arminian controversy of the eighteenth century was merely a question of whether God chose the elect or the elect chose God. This is an oversimplification. Then the point of discussion was not so much the broad question “Who are the elect?” as the more basic question “Whom does God consider righteous?” Our brethren in those days were more interested in the means of salvation rather than the outcome. How the Calvinist-Arminian Controversy of the Eighteenth Century Began The…
-
Job’s Faith In The Resurrection
A Sermon Preached By John Hazelton, At Mount Zion Chapel, Chadwell Street, Clerkenwell, On Lord’s-Day Evening, 14th February, 1875 “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.”—Job 19:26 Job had spiritual breathing times before the throne of God. There were moments in his sufferings, when his spirit was buoyant, and his feelings lively; when his thoughts were carried on high, and he was more than a match for Satan, and equal to all his pains and afflictions. Sometimes we see him plunged as it were, into the greatest depths, and then we hear the language of deep and bitter complaint. Again, we see him rise to the surface, and breathing sentiments of joy. The hand of his covenant God was underneath him, and the Spirit…
-
Phil Johnson On Christ Being Made Sin Only Figuratively
Following Theological Fashions Our modern theology has apparently become a matter of fashions. In my youth, Christians kept to their theological opinions closely. Whether a Plymouth Brother, Particular Baptist, Wesleyan Methodist or an Evangelical Anglican, they remained true to their affiliations all their Christian lives. Nowadays, Christians seem to be changing their theological bent regularly. I have friends who have adopted one supposedly modern fad after another, going through Hyper-Fullerism, Hyper-Calvinism, New Covenant Theology, New Perspectives, Dispensationalism and other old warmed up errors within a few years. I have even received letters from irate brethren scolding me for not keeping up to date with new theological trends myself. Being made sin and being made righteous refers to facts not fictive pictures When browsing through magazines,…
