Latest from Derek Thomas
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4 Sermon Types to Avoid
from Derek Thomas May 01, 2013 Category: Articles
There are a variety of sermon types that fail to "display what is there."
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The 3 Tenses of the Gospel
from Derek Thomas Nov 16, 2012 Category: Articles
We never get past the gospel. What saved us in the past, when we were still in our sins—fallen sons of Adam by nature—was the grace of God in the gospel.
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What Is The Proper Response To Grace?
from Derek Thomas Mar 07, 2012 Category: Articles
There can be only one proper response to grace: a life of grateful holiness. Christ's atoning death was "in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4).
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The Need for Perfect Obedience
from Derek Thomas Nov 13, 2011 Category: Reformation Trust
There are only two ways of salvation: by the law or by grace. If salvation is to happen by the law, perfect obedience is necessary. There can be no blemishes or shortcomings, for the law will never show mercy. It knows nothing of grace or forgiveness. Keep Reading -
A Light in Dark Places
from Derek Thomas Sep 25, 2009 Category: Articles
"The Holy Spirit has exhorted the faithful to continue clapping their hands for joy until the advent of the promised Redeemer," wrote John Calvin in a comment on Psalm 47:12. Paul would heartily concur! Writing from a prison cell from which he had no certain knowledge of escaping other than to his execution, joy is what came to mind. Joy is what the epistle to the Philippians is all about. So much is Philippians about joy that George B. Duncan once referred to it as "the life of continual rejoicing." The opposite of joy is misery, and miserable is something we are not meant to be. The Reformers caught the centrality of joy in the affections of Christians when they insisted that our chief goal in life is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever" (WSC, Q. 1). Keep Reading -
Corinthian Enthusiasm
from Derek Thomas Jul 20, 2009 Category: Articles
Only one book is absolutely essential to save us, to equip us to obey God's will, and to glorify Him in whatever we do. Only one book gives us undiluted truth -- the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Only one book serves as our ultimate and final authority in all that it affirms. That book, of course, is the Bible, God's Holy Word. No wonder John Wesley once exclaimed, 'Let me be homo unius libri'--a man of one book! Keep Reading -
The Breath of God
from Derek Thomas Nov 30, 2008 Category: Articles
Expository preaching is a necessary corollary of the doctrine of the God-breathed nature of Scripture. The idea is not so much that God breathed into the Scriptures, but that the Scriptures are the product of His breathing out. Independent of what we may feel about the Bible as we read it, Scripture maintains a "breath of God" quality. Thus, the preacher is to make God's Word known and make it understandable. He is to limit himself to it without adding or subtracting. As Alec Motyer has written: "An expository ministry is the proper response to a God-breathed Scripture. . . . Central to it all is that concern which the word 'exposition' itself enshrines: a display of what is there." Keep Reading
