Reformed Christian Studies

 By Dr. Derek H. Thomas - Posted at Sermon Audio: Psalm 127 KJV 1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. 3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: How Jesus's Being the Prophet, Priest, and King Inform the Church Howdy! Seems like it is a good time of the year to count our blessings and consider again where they come from. The Larger Catechism questions for today are a great benefit to accomplishing that. For the believer there is always a need to be comforted in the reminder that everything we have, everything we need, both now and in the future, has their yeah and amen in the ongoing ministry of our Savior. In these Q/A’s we get to hear exactly how He goes about making sure in real time and through His providence His sheep are provided for in His glory. The fact that our Lord fulfills all of the roles registered below each in their own way deliver a particular peace and help in understanding how He is continuing in His ascension to be God to His covenant people. The three offices of Christ are called that for a few reasons. First, when we use the word “offic

By Pastor Adam Kuehner - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Shepherd on Justification | SermonAudio

 By Simonetta Carr - Posted at Place for Truth: "Sine dominico non possumus" ("We can't do without the Lord’s Day"). This was the answer of a group of 49 Christians (31 men and 18 women) who were arrested for participating in a Lord’s Day service. They lived in or around Abitina, a city in today's Tunisia which was at that time under Rome. It was the year 304, and Emperor Diocletian had launched an empire-wide persecution against Christians, forbidding their meetings, destroying their churches, and demanding them to hand over (tradere) their Scriptures. Defying the emperor’s orders, this group, led by their presbyter Saturninus, continued to meet secretly for worship in private homes. Discovered and arrested, they were sent to Carthage, about 50 miles away, to be tried by proconsul Gaius Annius Anulinus. Commenting on this arrest, the author of the Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs [1] – most likely an eye-witness – wrote: “As if a Chr

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  4. Ambrose and Augustine - YouTube

By Rev. Neal Mathias - Posted at Sermon Audio: Psalm 126 KJV 1 When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. 3 The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. 4 Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. 5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts from Parson Farms: How the Hypostatic Union Grants Assurance to Believers Good Morning! Today in our look at the Larger Catechism we will be spending time considering more about what it means that Jesus Christ is our Mediator. We’ve defined that word enough to be able now to dig deeper into why it matters and to see how it effects our daily walk and life. Some people like to look down on doctrine, saying things like “it’s a relationship, not a religion”. Yet, the problem with thoughts like that is when you utter it you are standing on the shoulders of men who spent a lot of time in concert with the Church in the blessed work of faith seeking understanding. There’s a bit of Paul’s concern at Corinth and Peter’s general worry to those he is writing to in his first epistle. Milk is good, but it’s not filling, it doesn’t make you stronger. There should be a desire to learn more and more of Jesus and His labors on our behalf. Can you get too d

By Adam Kuehner - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  The Federal Vision: Overview (2) | SermonAudio

 By Simonetta Carr - Posted at Place for Truth: Most tourists to Rome stop by Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, in Piazza Navona. Some drop a coin in the water and make a wish. Hardly anyone is aware that in the same square a young Italian man was boiled in a cauldron of oil, pitch, and turpentine for his religious convictions. And yet, the man’s young age, stubborn refusal to recant, and astonishing composure during that final, agonizing ordeal, have contributed to imprint his name in the history of the Protestant Reformation. Algerio was born around 1531 in Nola, near Naples, Italy - the same birth-place of another famous dissenter, Giordano Bruno. That general area was also where a Spanish Reformer, Juan De Valdes, held a Protestant-leaning conventicle. Quite possibly, Algerio had already been exposed to dissenting ideas by the time he moved to the university of Padova (or Padua, as it is known outside of Italy). In Padova, he lived with other stu

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  3. Athanasius Contra Mundum - YouTube

By Rev. Neal Mathias - Posted at Sermon Audio: Psalm 125 KJV 1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. 3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 4 Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. 5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Why Jesus Remaining in the Flesh is Good For Humanity Good Morning! We’ve talked at length about the covenant and what a covenant is, etc... and so a lot of what we are going to look at today is a repeat, but it’s the good kind of repetition that gives us strength of a spiritual kind. Our Lord calls on us to meditate on the blessed things because we are constantly being assaulted by the bad stuff. As Paul likewise reminds us in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” That’s why we do these catechism lessons every week. When we compare the amount of time we spend on frivolities verses the word of God every one us likely should be ashamed in some way. Yet, when we do go t

By Adam Kuehner - Posted at  Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  The Federal Vision: Overview (1) | SermonAudio

 By Simonetta Carr - Posted at Place for Truth: Sybil’s admission to the mission field reminds me of a scene of a movie. She was asking for directions to her accommodations when a young man offered to take her there. The man, Hiram Bingham, was preparing to leave as a missionary to the Hawaiian Islands. He just had one problem: the mission board was reluctant to send unmarried people, and his fiancée had just broken off their engagement. Sybil was a school teacher dreaming of joining a mission. It was common then for young Christian women to seek “higher” service to God by marrying a minister, going to a mission field, or both. And there they were, in the same vehicle, both thinking of far-off fields. “I had taken cold by a night’s ride over the mountains,” Hiram explained, “and I wrapped a handkerchief about my neck, chin, and mouth, that cold evening, and this awakened ready sympathy in the sensitive heart of the young lady.” [1] Hiram had heard

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:   Constantine the Great - YouTube

 By Rev. Neal Mathias - Posted at Sermon Audio: Psalm 124 KJV 1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: 5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 6 Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

 By Rev. Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts from Parson Farms: How the Continuity of the Covenant Shows Our True Family Good Morning, A couple of things as we get going this morning in our catechism lesson. First of all, you’ll notice that we skipped 31 and 32. Last week when I did number 13 I failed to add them into the post along with question 30. My apologies on that. Second, part of the my job in writing these is to convince you that it is worth your time to read them. That goal is going to get a little tougher admittedly as we turn into some of the more in depth content the Larger Catechism has to offer. The hope is that not only am I successful in that, but you really do get something out of these little letters of explanation. On that front let’s get into the three amigos for this week: Q. 33. Was the covenant of grace always administered after one and the same manner? A. The covenant of grace was not always administered after the same manner, but the administrations of it und

By Neil Stewart - Posted at YouTube : Direct Link:  Neil Stewart on why Reformed Christians do not and cannot affirm images of Christ. - YouTube

 Posted at  SermonAudio - Daily Devotional : "He that believeth shall not make haste" — Isaiah 28:16 He shall make haste to keep the LORD's commandments; but he shall not make haste in any impatient or improper sense. He shall not haste to run away, for he shall not be overcome with the fear which causes panic. When others are flying hither and thither as if their wits had failed them, the believer shall be quiet, calm, and deliberate, and so shall be able to act wisely in the hour of trial. He shall not haste in his expectations, craving his good things at once and on the spot, but he will wait God's time. Some are in a desperate hurry to have the bird in the hand, for they regard the LORD's promise as a bird in the bush, not likely to be theirs. Believers know how to wait. He shall not haste by plunging into wrong or questionable action. Unbelief must be doing something, and thus it works its own undoing; but faith makes no more haste than good speed, and thus i

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  1. Three Threats, Three Apologists, Three Fathers - YouTube Series Link:  Church History - YouTube

By Rev. Colin Mercer - Posted at Sermon Audio: Posted November 18, 2012 Direct Link:  Christians and Thanksgiving | SermonAudio

By Rev. Josh Squires - Posted at Sermon Audio: Psalm 123 KJV 1 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. 3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  21. The Birth of a New Republic (5/29/2022) - YouTube ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See also: 1. Just Another Scrap of Paper - YouTube 2. If it's wet...it's Federal - YouTube 3. Of Catholics and Mormons - YouTube 4. Speech and its Limits - YouTube 5. Protection, Privacy, and Procedure - YouTube

 By Pastor Dewey Roberts - Posted at Vanguard Presbyterian Church: The longer I live, the more I find myself agreeing with Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on so many things. I do not have an exact passage from which to quote, but I remember in his writings that he often said that you are in the wrong position when you have an enemy on only one side. The true Christian position is that we must be in the middle between two enemies, one on the right and the other on the left. This is especially true when we consider the matter of salvation. The correct doctrine will have two great enemies—legalism and antinomianism. Antinomianism is a word that throws many people. It comes from the Greek word for law, ‘nomos’. Thus, our enemies are legalism or anti-legalism, nomism or antinomianism. Legalism is a denial of the gospel. Antinomianism is a denial of the law. They would seem to be polar opposites and in many ways they are. In other ways, legalism and antinomianism are friendly cousins. In the end,

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Finding Hope in the Midst of Darkness Howdy! Well, we have some encouraging and happy stuff to talk about today…not really. Whenever sin is on the menu it’s going to be a bitter meal. A common question many Christians have is why people choose freely to commit idolatry and wickedness and then seek to promote it among impressionable souls. How can an honest person be in favor of murdering children in the womb or where is the mindset grown which can think that God would approve of the bodily mutilation of underage teens? It can be hard to comprehend, but the situation isn’t new. Whether it be the Babel folks building a tower to challenge the LORD or the Israelites thinking they could make an idol and somehow Jehovah would be proud of them our catechism questions this morning point us to an answer. Also when we think of the punishment due to sin our minds are likewise drawn to illness, disasters, and other more physical re

 Posted at Sermon Audio - Daily Devotional: "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." — Lamentations 3:24 It is not "The Lord is partly my portion," nor "The Lord is in my portion"; but He Himself makes up the sum total of my soul's inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not His grace merely, nor His love, nor His covenant, but Jehovah Himself. He has chosen us for His portion, and we have chosen Him for ours. It is true that the Lord must first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of electing love, we can sing-- "Lov'd of my God for Him again With love intense I burn; Chosen of Him ere time began, I choose Him in return." The Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills Himself; and if God is all-sufficient in Himself, He must be all-sufficient for us. It is not easy t

By Rev. Josh Squires - Posted at Sermon Audio : Psalm 122 KJV 1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. 2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: 4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. 7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. 8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. 9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  20. A Tea Tax and a Tea Party (5/22/2022) - YouTube

By Rev. Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Apostasy: Can Real Christians Fall Away, Part 3 | SermonAudio

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts from Parson Farms: Dealing With the Truth of Man's Depravity Good Morning! In some ways of all the doctrines of the Christian faith sin is the easiest one to define and verify. No one who is a rational creature doubts the fact that men do bad stuff. The (question comes as to why people choose to be jerks and selfish. In today’s walk through these three inquiries from the Westminster Larger Catechism we’ll hear an answer to that and talk a little bit about how pervasive man’s depravity is. In addition time will be spent noting why it is so dangerous to downplay the wickedness of the human heart, and falsely treat people as “basically good”. Let your eyes be your guide and may the Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures help us to see the truth for what it is so that like good physicians we can comprehend the way forward to do something about the fallenness of humanity for the blessing and betterment of whole race. Here are the four Q/A’s for o

 Posted at Sermon Audio - Daily Devotional: "So walk ye in Him." — Colossians 2:6 If we have received Christ Himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with Him by a walk of faith in Him . Walking implies action . Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that man, "He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ." Walking signifies progress . "So walk ye in Him"; proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved. Walking implies continuance . There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ. How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of

By Rev. Josh Squires - Posted at Sermon Audio: Psalm 121 KJV 1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube : Direct Link:  19. Whitefield's last tour (5/15/2022) - YouTube

By Rev. Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio : Direct Link:  Apostasy: Can Real Christians Fall Away, Part 2 | SermonAudio

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms : Why Things Are Bad and Why They Stay That Way Good Morning! Having heard much of creation and the early moments of the life of mankind the catechism is now going to transition from the big picture to the ordinary providence of God in the history of humanity. As we noted in our stroll through the shorter catechism last year the divines are interested in moving us through the story of Christianity by taking the building block approach to education. They are very much of the school that says you need to learn to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. We have a lot of questions about the why’s of life and the how’s and the when’s, but the beauty of the way the Westminster men designed each of the standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is that they are not interested in learning us at the end of a firehose. You eat a whole cow with small bites. If then this is an appropriate and helpful way

Posted at  SermonAudio - Daily Devotional "I am the Lord, I change not." — Malachi 3:6 It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed--all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth-- "I am the Lord, I change not." The stability which the ancho

By Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas - Posted at Sermon Audio : Psalm 120 (KJV) 1 In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me. 2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. 3 What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? 4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. 5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! 6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. 7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube : Direct Link:  18. A Crisis in Mecklenburg (4/3/2022) - YouTube

 By Rev. Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Apostasy: Can Real Christians Fall Away, Part 1 | SermonAudio

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts from Parson Farms : Seeing the Beauty of the Totality of the Lord's Providence in Creation Good Morning! Today as the divines open our eyes to see the depth of how God works in history and why He does what He does there is an opportunity here to put a plug in for something we are going to begin to do at Bethany ARP Church on Sunday evenings beginning Sunday November 13th. As we close out Ruth the week before we are then going to start a new series in our second service on the Lord’s Day where we’re going to mainly work through this portion of the Larger Catechism. Gaining a better sense of how God operates in His works of predestination and election, and how that plays out in His providence is vital to dealing with the day-to-day troubles we face as believers living in a sin-soaked world. For those of you unable to attend at that time of night for whatever prudential reason they will be recorded and placed on our YouTube channel. So a

 By Danny Hyde - Posted at Reformation21: Back in 2005, Rick Warren—then hailed as "America's New People's Pastor" by Time magazine—made a revealing statement on his understanding of theology and doctrine: “The first Reformation was about doctrine; the second one needs to be about behavior. We need a reformation not of creeds but deeds. It’s time to stop debating the Bible and start doing it... This is the new reformation I’m praying for.” Sadly, what used to be a hallmark attitude of Protestant liberalism has since become a fit-for-Hallmark platitude of many so-called Bible-believing evangelicals. This stance is precisely what J. Gresham Machen so masterfully refuted in his classic, Christianity and Liberalism . To pit doctrine against duty, theology against community, or faith against life is unbiblical. For example, Paul spoke of "the truth, which accords with godliness" ( Titus 1:1 ). This is why our forefathers defined theology as theologia est doctri

 By John Hartley - Posted at Place for Truth: Young children love family reunions more than the adults who host them. Children are focused on who will be there, who will they play with, who will tell the best story, who will remember their name, who will lift them high off the ground to say, “Look how big you are!” It is good we start life as children, we might never learn joy otherwise. Psalm 122 reminds the whole church it is our calling to be the joy-filled children of God. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (v.1). To us belongs the joy that comes from leaving the world behind and going home to the Lord. Together. Like the other Psalms of Ascent (120-134), Psalm 122 is a pilgrim psalm. It is sung by a congregation on the move. A congregation ascending the mountain of God. A congregation of happy festive children, whose happiness lies not behind in a world that is passing away, but ahead and above, in the Jerusalem above, her true and forever hom

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  17. Colonial Crossroads (3/27/2022) - YouTube

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts from Parson Farms : How God's Unique Creation Helps Us to Adore Him in Love I was going to send this out yesterday, but the wifi in the Windhoek Airport was non-existent, so sending it this morning from Frankfurt instead. :) Today in our lesson from the Larger Catechism we are continuing to learn about the nature of God’s grace in His work of making all things of nothing. I think sometimes we gloss over just how incomprehensible it is that our Lord has taken that which does not exist and made it to be. The very fact you are reading this and I am typing this is wholly because God is God and we are not. Our totality is dependent on the nature of Jehovah. It’s part of why we must be obedient unto Him in love. We owe everything to Him and as Stephen Charnock makes clear we become practical atheists when we sin primarily because we act as if we can live without and against the world He has made. That is why it is vital for the Christian to

 By Dewey Roberts - Posted at Vanguard Presbyterian Church: How large were the churches in the New Testament? What was the membership of the church at Corinth? Or at Ephesus? Or at Rome? Or even at Antioch or Jerusalem? Do we know? Do we have any way to know? The Scripture never really gives us that information. We know that there were 3,000 people converted to Christ at the Feast of Pentecost, but they represented many different regions and countries—from Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, and Rome. That is a very large geographical area represented by the converts. We know that there were about 120 believers who gathered in the Upper Room after Jesus’ resurrection. There were over 500 people who saw Jesus ascend into heaven 40 days after His resurrection. There were about 5,000 men who believed as a result of Peter’s second sermon in Jerusalem. Many of those were probably Jews who lived in Jerusalem or Israel