“And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Luke 24:32
Rev. William Macleod was born on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. He was educated at Aberdeen University, the Free Church of Scotland College (Edinburgh) and Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia). Ordained to the ministry in 1976, he is currently minister of Thornwood Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) in Glasgow, Scotland. Mr. Macleod is the editor of his denomination’s magazine, the Free Church Witness, and is Principal of the Free Church Seminary, Inverness. He is married, and has three children.
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:4-6)
John Calvin – (1509-1564) French reformer and theologian
While many of Calvin’s sermons are now lost after they were sold by weight by the library of Geneva, his sermons on Ephesians have been preserved, having been translated into Early Modern English by Arthur Golding (who also translated Calvin’s sermons on Galatians, Job and Deuteronomy). Arthur Golding’s claim to fame is that his translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses influenced Shakespeare.
A comparison with Calvin’s commentary on the same letter shows that Calvin saw preaching as no mere explanation of the text – the sermons work consecutively through the text but circle round on the point many time with brief illustration and continuous application to the hearers. The sermons on Ephesians were preached in French on Sundays morning and evening in Geneva in 1558 and were taken down in shorthand by Denis Raguenier, who had started taking his own notes on Calvin’s sermons and was eventually employed to perform the task and did so until his death. Calvin preached without notes.
Calvin’s aim was always to bring about faith in his hearers by which he means them comprehending their own helplessness and the kindness of God in Jesus Christ. An example of this from sermon 14 illustrates Calvin’s goal and style: Thus ye see that the thing which we haue to do continually, is too show that God hath been so kind unto us, as too be at one with us in the person of his Son, yea and to receive us to himself, that we might be washed and scoured from all our filthiness, and be accepted for righteous before him. Lo! how wretched souls are unbound. Lo! how poor captives are let out of prison. Lo! how they that erst were plunged in darkness of death are brought out again to the light of life.
(Summary by InTheDesert)
Sermon upon the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians 1:4-6 – John Calvin
“But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:24
Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 – January 31, 1892) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the “Prince of Preachers.” In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times a week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London for 38 years. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon’s which now works globally. He also founded Spurgeon’s College, which was named after him after his death.
Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.
Christ: the Power and Wisdom of God – Charles Spurgeon Sermon
“But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:24
“But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.” Isaiah 63:10
A Plea for Mercy – Mark Fitzpatrick Sermon
10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying: “Where is He who brought them up out of the sea With the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them, 12 Who led them by the right hand of Moses, With His glorious arm, Dividing the water before them To make for Himself an everlasting name, 13 Who led them through the deep, As a horse in the wilderness, That they might not stumble?”
14 As a beast goes down into the valley, And the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest, So You lead Your people, To make Yourself a glorious name. 15 Look down from heaven, And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained? 16 Doubtless You are our Father, Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. 17 O Lord, why have You made us stray from Your ways, And hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants’ sake, The tribes of Your inheritance. 18 Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary. 19 We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, Those who were never called by Your name. (Isaiah 63:10-19)
Lyricist: Henry F. Lyte
Lyrics Date: 1847
Key: E flat
Theme: Evening, Death and Eternal Life
Composer: William H. Monk
Music Date: 1861
Tune Title: EVENTIDE
Meter: 10.10.10.10
Scripture: Luke 24:29
It is commonly reported that Henry Lyte wrote this hymn in 1847, when he was dying of tuberculosis. He reportedly finished it the Sunday he preached his farewell sermon to the parish he had served for many years, before leaving for Italy in hopes of restoring his health. However, there is evidence that he wrote this hymn in 1820, after visiting a dying friend, who, on his death bed, kept murmuring the passage from Luke 24:29, where the disciples who were traveling to Emmaus asked Jesus to “abide with us, for it is evening and day is almost spent.” Perhaps, feeling his own frailty on that Sunday in 1847, he remembered the hymn he had previously written, and brought it out at that time, lending credence to the first scenario.
Originally with a tune that was also written by Lyte, this hymn was not widely used at that time. It was first published in England in a book “Lyte’s Remains, 1850, and in America in Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Collection, 1855. It was discovered by William Monk and included by him in Hymns, Ancient and Modern, 1861.
Lyte desired to leave behind a hymn that would endure. One of his earlier poems stated it: “Some simple strain, some spirit-moving lay, Some sparklet of the soul that still might live When I was passed to clay… And grant me … my last breath to spend In song that may not die!”
“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” Hebrews 2:1-4
As our exposition of Hebrews continues, we see the first major warning in the book against apostasy. In it – we find that the Spirit’s remedy for apostasy is to be earnest in heeding the Word of the Lord. If we will, we will stay on the straight and narrow both and not drift from Jesus Christ. Preached Sabbath PM on 07/25/21. (Reverend Romesh Prakashpalan)
Do not drift from Jesus! – Reverend Romesh Prakashpalan Sermon
Rom is married to Maegan and they have four children. Rom was raised as a Hindu and became an atheist early in life. The Lord called him to faith through hearing the gospel in 2009 (Romans 10:17). Soon after, he felt a call to gospel ministry. He graduated from the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) in 2020 with an MDiv. He was first ordained and installed as a ruling elder at DRPC in March 2015 and then a teaching elder in July 2020 by the Midwest Presbytery of the RPCNA. In addition to homiletics, counseling, and theology; Rom enjoys cooking, especially smoking meat, computer science (his first vocation), and roadtrips with his family.
The First Epistle of John in Form of a Dialogue – William Perkins
William Perkins was born in 1558 to Thomas and Hannah Perkins in the village of Marston Jabbett, in Bulkington parish, Warwickshire. As a youth, he indulged in recklessness, profanity, and drunkenness. In 1577, he entered Christs College in Cambridge as a pensioner, suggesting that socially he nearly qualified as gentry. He earned a bachelors degree in 1581 and a masters degree in 1584.
While a student, Perkins experienced a powerful conversion that probably began when he overheard a woman in the street chide her naughty child by alluding to drunken Perkins. That incident so humiliated Perkins that he gave up his wicked ways and fled to Christ for salvation. He gave up the study of mathematics and his fascination with black magic and the occult, and took up theology. In time, he joined up with Laurence Chaderton (15361640), who became his personal tutor and lifelong friend. Perkins and Chaderton met with Richard Greenham, Richard Rogers, and others in a spiritual brotherhood at Cambridge that espoused Calvinist and Puritan convictions.
Cambridge was the leading Puritan center of the day. Perkinss formal training was Calvinism within a scholastic framework. The strict scholastic training at Cambridge was modified somewhat, however, by Peter Ramuss influence. Ramism had won the support of the Puritans, due to its practicality. Ramus, a converted Roman Catholic, had reformed the arts curriculum by applying it to daily life. He proposed a method to simplify all academic subjects, offering a single logic for both dialectic and rhetoric to make them understandable and memorable. Chaderton first introduced Ramuss Art of Logick to Cambridge students, particularly to Gabriel Harvey, a lecturer who used Ramuss methods for reforming the arts of grammar, rhetoric, and logic.
Perkins was impressed with Harveys presentation and applied it to his manual on preaching titled The Art of Prophesying, or a treatise concerning the sacred and only true manner and method of preaching. Perkinss training in Ramuss method oriented him toward practical application rather than speculative theory, and gave him skills for becoming a popular preacher and theologian.
From 1584 until his death, Perkins served as lecturer, or preacher, at Great St. Andrews Church, Cambridge, a most influential pulpit across the street from Christs College. He also served as a fellow at Christs College from 1584 to 1595. Fellows were required to preach, lecture, and tutor students, acting as guides to learning as well as guardians of finances, morals, and manners.
Perkins died from kidney stone complications in 1602.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life – Contemporary Christian Worship Music Praise Song / Lyrics
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
I am a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. This is a new original contemporary Christian song I recently wrote and recorded. May those who listen find it a great blessing, to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in these last days…praise God. (Music and video owned and copyrighted by Rich Moore Music)
Lyrics:
Another day goes by, in your life Another memory Future’s gone, but the past remains Can’t see today
Trust betrayed, friends they sleep Arise and scatter away The only hope lies in, Jesus Christ The Savior of the world
He is the Way He is the Truth He is the Life, the only life there is He is the Way He is the Truth He is the Life
He alone can save you from your sin give you eternal life He is the resurrection and the life Believe in Him and you shall live
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him
He is the Way He is the Truth He is the Life, the only life there is He is the Way He is the Truth He is the Life
Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 January 31, 1892) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the “Prince of Preachers.” In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times a week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London for 38 years. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon’s which now works globally. He also founded Spurgeon’s College, which was named after him after his death.
Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.
The minister at Barvas, the Reverend James Murray Mackay, had been led to write to Duncan through the prayers of his congregation, and in particular two elderly sisters named Peggy and Christine Smith who had received the God-given assurance that Duncan would be the instrument that God would use to fulfill His purposes on the island.
Duncan was quite unaware of these things and he intended to stay in Lewis for just ten days and then take a rest from his mission work. However, despite his tiredness, he immediately recognised the feeling of spiritual expectation amongst the people who had invited him to Barvas, and after the preaching service on the second evening he was there, the congregation lingered outside the church and were joined by others who had not attended the meeting. At that moment, the voice of a young man was heard praying aloud inside the church, and many were moved to join him as a sense of deep conviction came over the crowd. The church was soon filled with people calling upon God for mercy and praising Him for His goodness, and even when they separated in the early hours of the morning, small groups went on praying in various parts of the village. The powerful awakening which swept through Barvas in the following days was not an isolated event, and although Duncan Campbell’s preaching was similarly blessed when services were hastily arranged in villages such as Tarbert, Leurbost and Arnol, the revival was felt throughout the whole of Lewis, to such as extent that he later described it as “a community saturated with God.”
Christian Sermons and Audio Books 