If there is “nothing new under the sun,” perhaps the main task now facing the Western church is not to reinvent or be relevant, but to remember.The truth of the gospel is still contained within vintage faith statements. Within creeds and catechisms we can have our faith strengthened, our knowledge broadened, and our love for Jesus deepened.In The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin DeYoung explores the Heidelberg Catechism and writes 52 brief chapters on what it has shown him. The Heidelberg is largely a commentary on the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, and deals with man's guilt, God's grace, and believers' gratitude. This book is a clear-headed, warm-hearted exploration of the faith, simple enough for young believers and deep enough for mature believers.DeYoung writes, “The gospel summarized in the Heidelberg Catechism is glorious, its Christ gracious, its comfort rich, its Spirit strong, its God Sovereign, and its truth timeless.” Come and see how your soul can be warmed by the elegantly and logically stated doctrine that matters most: We are great sinners and Christ is a greater Savior!

In this timely book, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung challenges each of us—the skeptic and the seeker, the certain and the confused—to take a humble look at God’s Word regarding the issue of homosexuality. After examining key biblical passages in both the Old and New Testaments and the Bible’s overarching teaching regarding sexuality, DeYoung responds to popular objections raised by Christians and non-Christians alike, making this an indispensable resource for thinking through one of the most pressing issues of our day.

Can we trust the Bible completely? Is it sufficient for our complicated lives? Can we really know what it teaches?With his characteristic wit and clarity, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by both Christians and non-Christians. This book will help you understand what the Bible says about itself and encourage you to read and believe what it says-confident that it truly is God’s Word.

At some point, most Christians have wondered if they are fulfilling God's plan for their lives. Many seek to find this will as if the Lord always provides a clear, direct, unmediated direction. This work explores the true way to discern God's will through the study of Scripture and faithfulness to our present callings.

Authors Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck present the case for loving the local church. Their newest book paints a picture of the local church in all its biblical and real life guts, gaffes, and glory in an effort to edify local congregations and entice the disaffected back to the fold. It provides a solid biblical mandate to love and be part of the body of Christ and counteract the "leave church" books that trumpet rebellion and individual felt needs.

He knew by heart, and other prayers that Jews were instructed in. There are many ways to jumpstart your prayer.

Let me give you one practical idea that’s been helpful for me: walk. It’s harder to fall asleep when you’re walking. Go out and walk ten minutes, and then you have ten minutes to come back, which means you can have a long, wandering prayer.

Read through Psalm 55 sometime. The psalmist is praying, and sometimes he’s talking to God in the second person, sometimes he’s talking about himself, and sometimes he’s talking about God in the third person. It’s a freewheeling conversation in the presence of God.

The most important thing about prayer, perhaps, is where it ends up. Sometimes on the way to end up in a good place, the Psalms take some circuitous routes, and we may too in our long, wandering prayers. So, get up, walk around, have a hymnal, and try something different.

GODFREY: The Canons of Dort, First Head of Doctrine, Article 17, say that godly parents may believe without doubt that their children dying in infancy are elect and saved. And I think that’s true.

DEYOUNG: That is exactly what I was going to say. Everyone up here has faced that question, and pastors can’t avoid that question. It’s not something that the Bible deals with as head-on as we might like. But I’ve always found that 2 Samuel is probably the best case, where David’s child is killed because of the sin with Bathsheba, and he prays. Then he changes his mood because the Lord tells him that he will go to be with his child.

There’s some discrepancy among Hebrew scholars about whether Jews in the Old Testament had an understanding of the afterlife, and I think it’s clear from Daniel 12 and elsewhere that they certainly did. So if we can clear that away and understand that David had an understanding of the afterlife, it goes on immediately after that to say, “And he comforted his wife, Bathsheba” (2 Sam. 12:24).

The juxtaposition of those two things suggests to me that he’s comforting his wife, Bathsheba, with the understanding that his child who has died in infancy he will see again. He will “go to him,” he says clearly (2 Sam. 12:23). And “go to him” not just in the sense of “I too will go to Sheol, and go to the grave,” but in the sense that there’s some comfort to be experienced in that because there will be some sort of reuniting.

So, at the very least, I would certainly agree with the Canons of Dort that children of at least one covenant parent should be assured of their election and their being in heaven.

On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History recorded live at Ligonier’s 2018 National Conference, Dr. Stephen Nichols asks Dr. Kevin DeYoung to share what five books he would want on a deserted island.

of (depends on what you mean by “hung out”). But Jesus believed marriage was between a man and a woman (Matt. 19:3–9). The example of Christ in the Gospels teaches us that we should not be afraid to spend time with sinners. If a gay couple next door invites you over for dinner, don’t turn them down.

“Jesus wasn’t worried about being contaminated by the world.” That’s not the concern here. This isn’t about cooties or sin germs. We have plenty of those ourselves.

“Jesus didn’t want to turn people off to God’s love.” But Jesus did so all the time. He acted in ways that could be unintentionally, and more often deliberately, antagonistic (Matt. 7:6, 13–27; 11:20–24; 13:10–17; 19:16–30). Jesus turned people off all the time. This is no excuse for us to be unthinking and unkind. But it should put to rest the unbiblical notion that says if someone feels hurt by your words or unloved by your actions that you were ipso facto sinfully and foolishly unloving.

“Jesus was always throwing open the floodgates of God’s mercy.” Amen. Let’s keep preaching Christ and preach as He did, calling all people to “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

“If someone forces to you bake one cake, bake for him two.” This is, of course, a true and beautiful principle about how Christians, when reviled, must not revile in return. But it hardly can mean that we do whatever people demand no matter our rights (Acts 4:18–20; 16:35–40; 22:22–29) and no matter what is right in God’s eyes.

A wedding is not a dinner invitation or a graduation open house or retirement party. Even in a completely secular environment, there is still a sense—and sometimes the wedding invitations say as much—that our presence at the event would honor the couple and their marriage. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to attend a wedding (let alone cater it or provide the culinary centerpiece) without your presence communicating celebration and support for what is taking place. And, as painful as it may be for us and for those we love, celebrating and supporting homosexual unions is not something God or His Word will allow us to do.

others by putting up fences to keep out wolves and nurture green pastures. The hard work of setting boundaries must not be ignored. God calls us to it for His glory and our good.

the same groceries at the store, and share a bed with the same person every night. Church is often the same too—same doctrines, same basic order of worship, same preacher, same people. But in all the smallness and sameness, God works—like the smallest seed in the garden growing to unbelievable heights, like beloved Tychicus, that faithful minister, delivering the mail and apostolic greetings (Eph. 6:21). Life is usually pretty ordinary, just like following Jesus most days. Daily discipleship is not a new revolution each morning or an agent of global transformation every evening; it's a long obedience in the same direction.

It's possible the church needs to change. Certainly in some areas it does. But it's also possible we've changed—and not for the better. It's possible we no longer find joy in so great a salvation. It's possible that our boredom has less to do with the church, its doctrines, or its poor leadership and more to do with our unwillingness to tolerate imperfection in others and our own coldness to the same old message about Christ's death and resurrection. It's possible we talk a lot about authentic community but we aren't willing to live in it.

The church is not an incidental part of God's plan. Jesus didn't invite people to join an anti-religion, anti-doctrine, anti-institutional bandwagon of love, harmony, and re-integration. He showed people how to live, to be sure. But He also called them to repent, called them to faith, called them out of the world, and called them into the church. The Lord "didn't add them to the church without saving them, and he didn't save them without adding them to the church" (John Stott).

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7). If we truly love the church, we will bear with her in her failings, endure her struggles, believe her to be the beloved bride of Christ, and hope for her final glorification. The church is the hope of the world—not because she gets it all right, but because she is a body with Christ for her Head.

Don't give up on the church. The New Testament knows nothing of churchless Christianity. The invisible church is for invisible Christians. The visible church is for you and me. Put away the Che Guevara t-shirts, stop the revolution, and join the rest of the plodders. Fifty years from now you'll be glad you did.

Since the first century, God has been pleased to send awakenings to His people, and we can learn much from how He has worked in the past as we call out to Him for awakening today. This session examines the various awakenings that have taken place in history since the Apostolic era, focusing particularly on the Reformation and the First Great Awakening. It considers the awakenings that happened as God blessed the work of the Reformers and later preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

The Apostle John warns us not to love the world, and our fallen tendency to view the world as an ultimate end in itself means that we must fight against our dark inclinations to set our hearts on this age and its pleasures. But God created the world to glorify Himself, and as we make Him our ultimate end, we can identify the sins that manifest our love for the world and enjoy the Lord's creation in an appropriate way. Rev. Kevin DeYoung calls on the Lord to restore us to a high view of the world as the arena of God's glory, and he describes how Christians, in pursuing the light of God, can identify and fight against sin in the world while loving our enemies and blessing those who curse us.

on some hills. I believe in standing fast on doctrine, even on “non-salvation issues.” But on some matters, we should say with Paul, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5). And sometimes we must ask, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother?” After all, “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (14:10–11). It’s okay on some matters for Christians to agree to disagree. It’s not a failure of theological nerve to recognize that some believers make different decisions than other ones. The mature Christian can hold strongly to his opinions without insisting strongly that all other Christians do the same.

A third problem is that some Christians inquire too early and too often about their particular hot-button issues. When evaluating a church, I hope you’d be interested to hear about the role of prayer, the importance of missions, the understanding of the gospel, the integrity of the leaders, their view of Scripture, and a dozen other things before launching into the rarified air of tertiary issues.

Finally, we must be careful that our passions are not out of proportion. There is no problem with Christians feeling strongly about schooling, the placement of the congregational prayer, or the frequency of communion. The problem is when our passion for these issues exceeds our passion for the gospel, for the cross, for the lost, for the afflicted. Not every issue matters as much as every other issue. Not every position deserves our fieriest passion. Save the big guns for the big ones. Get the heart pounding for the doctrine of the Trinity, penal substitution, or God’s sovereignty. If your “thing” is Christmas trees or the kind of beverage in the communion cup, it’s time to get a better “thing.”

The Christian life allows for a lot of passion, discourse, and detailed application—as long as we don’t get everything out of whack.

loved them like a father, refused their money, and risked his neck for their spiritual good. No wonder there was no weight for Paul like the weight of caring for God’s people.

Ask any pastor who really takes his work seriously and he will tell you of the pressures he feels in ministry — people in crisis, people leaving, people coming, people disappointed by him, people disappointing to him. In the midst of this work, the pastor is trying to find time for study, prayer, preparation, and family. He’s trying to improve himself, train up new leaders, meet the budget, get to know a few missionaries, champion important programs, provide for deep, accessible worship and preaching, be responsive to new ideas, listen to new concerns, and be ready to help when people are in trouble.

And most pastors feel a burden for all the other things they could be doing: more evangelism, more for the poor, more for missions, more to address global concerns, and more to address social concerns. There are pastors reading this who wonder if the church is still responsive to their preaching; if the leadership will ever be responsive to their leading; and if the congregation will ever grow like the churches they hear so much about. On top of all this, every pastor has his own personal hurts, his own personal mistakes, and his own spiritual health to attend to. We are all weak.

But be encouraged. God uses weak things to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). His grace is sufficient for you; His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). For the sake of Christ, then, be content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when you are weak, then you are strong (v. 10). Paul had pressure. You have pressure, too. But God can handle the pressure. And He looks good when you can’t.

God cannot tell me what they’re for or when or how to use them.

Shoppingism: It’s not idolatry if it’s for my kids or on sale.

Advocacyism: I care therefore I am.

I could go on and on about all the other worldly “isms” of our day. But you get the point. We live and breathe worldliness.

The answer is not to hide in a holy huddle in some Christian ghetto. The problem with the Christian subculture isn’t that it’s too otherworldly but that it is almost always too worldly. Sure, some of the movies and music change, but the way of thinking is still the same. The experienceism, the healthism, the entertainmentism are all there because finding an alternative to Babylon is more difficult than watching different movies. It’s living by a different story. It’s being shaped by a different set of assumptions. It’s demonstrating a different ethic. It’s being supremely relevant to a dying world by smashing the idol of relevance. If you want to always be relevant, you must deal with the things that touch eternity, and if you are dealing with eternal things, you always seem a bit irrelevant.

We’re foolish if we think that we are not surrounded by Babylon. Everyone is. Worldliness in this country will ruin far more spiritual lives than Islam and new-age spiritualities. “In the world, not of the world,” Jesus said. Easier said than done. “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” (Prov. 6:27–28). Beware of all the subtle ways the world wants to squeeze you into its mold.

saints. Paul’s heart beat with gratitude because God had saved these men and women and used them to bless others. The strongest bonds of friendship should be gospel bonds. The deepest affections ought to be stirred in us not because we like the same movies and music or come from the same place and root for the same teams, but because we share the same passion for an identity in the gospel. These “greetings” are more than secular “hellos.” They are signs of churchwide solidarity growing out of our communion together through our union with Christ.

Fourth, Paul didn’t just encourage his friends and co-laborers; he cultivated an atmosphere of appreciation and affection in the whole church. He greeted them but then told them to greet each other: “Go meet Philologus. Stop by and see Julia. Give my regards to Nereus.” Paul fostered community. He even encouraged signs of physical affection. The sign is not as important as the thing signified. Whether it’s a kiss, a hug, a hearty handshake, or a super sweet fist bump, Paul understood that God gave us bodies and wants us to use them appropriately to encourage others.

Paul wanted the church to be quick to encourage, not quick to condemn. His love for encouragement makes sense because God is the great encourager. God is always rejoicing in the truth. He loves to highlight His own grace and glory. He called Jesus His “beloved Son” and speaks just as kindly to us—“beloved,” “little children,” “new creations,” “holy ones.” Because of the work of Christ, God accepts us when He would otherwise reject us, which means He can encourage instead of condemn. And by this same work of Christ, we can encourage all those who belong to Christ.

in Christ. The old is gone; the new has come. You are no longer depraved. Your heart belongs to God. So listen to your heart." There's some truth here, but such advice grossly underestimates the presence of indwelling sin and the ongoing need for the law to guide our steps. We are not liberated souls that know "neither shame nor honor, neither poverty nor riches, neither joy nor sorrow, neither love nor hate, neither hell nor heaven," as Marguerite taught. This disavowal of desire is more Buddhist than Christian. No, we are desiring creatures, and our desires, even after conversion, do not always pull us in the right direction.

Fourth, Marguerite's theology exposes the fundamental flaw in mystical approaches to knowledge: she had no place for means. She claimed her insights could "be understood only by those to whom God has given understanding and by none other; it is not taught by Scripture, nor can human reason work it out. . . . It is a gift received from the Most High." This is akin to those Christians who think they can move beyond traditional devotional practices or the humdrum of the local church. But no healthy Christian ever moves past sermons, Scripture, prayer, sacraments, and the organized church. These are the God appointed means by which we grow in Christ. When we reject these ordinary means laid out in the Word, we not only invite the kind of spiritual elitism that flowed from Marguerite's two-tier ecclesiology, we also show ourselves to be more "spiritual" than the Spirit Himself.

instead of the other way around.

It should go without saying that the goal is to have both. A mature Christian with little theological knowledge is not living up to his potential. A knowledgeable Christian without maturity has potential he doesn't know how to use.

A theologically astute, immature Christian is like a five-year-old flying an Apache helicopter. Here's this massive weapon: it can destroy arguments and defend against heresy; it can soar to the heavens and take in glorious sights no one at sea level will ever witness. This theological helicopter is just as good for search and rescue as it is for seek and destroy. Every congregational army would be thrilled with such a vehicle. It's fast. It's furious. It's impressive. But it's also dangerous. And with a five-year-old behind the wheel (or whatever they have in choppers), some people are going to get hurt. It's not wrong for a little kid to have a helicopter, but it would be nice if he grew up and took some flying lessons before taking the thing out for a spin.

On the other hand, a mature Christian content with the barest theological knowledge is like a 45-yearold riding a tricycle. Sure, he can get around on the tricycle, but he can't go very fast or very far. He's limited in terms of what he can see and experience. He can't do much to beat back enemies or scale new heights. He's steady, but not the best he can be. The goal in discipleship is that we don't have to choose between kids flying helicopters and adults riding trikes. We want the most mature pilots flying the most intricate machinery. Our aim is for Mr. Bookworm to grow into Mr. Head-and-Heart and for Mr. Simple-Faith to learn to be Mr. Deep-Truth.

And if our congregations haven't reached this equilibrium yet, we can at least provide a safety instructor for the kids and kick off the training wheels for the adults.

out of your way to include them.

On the flip side, there’s no good reason — certainly no biblical one — why families with five, six, seven, ten, or fifteen kids should be made to feel strange. There’s no need for comments such as “Really, another one?” or, “Wow, he can’t keep his hands off you.” Those comments are hurtful, and so are the eye rolls and exasperated sighs and suspicions. Let those who have eight kids not judge those who have two, and those with one child not judge those with six.

And let me throw out one other verse while I’m at it: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). For most Christians, there is almost nothing as joyful as having a baby and almost nothing as painful as being unable to do so. This leads to lots of awkward church lobby deliberations: “Should I tell her I’m pregnant? She’s been trying for so long; my news will just make her sad. But if I don’t tell her, she’ll find out eventually and be hurt that I didn’t mention anything. Maybe I’ll tell her privately. But then that will make her feel singled out.” There is no solution to this problem. Infertility hurts and babies can make it hurt more. But a step in the right direction is God’s command in Romans 12. Let every young lady rejoice with her friend’s pregnancy, and let that same friend weep when her sister in Christ hasn’t had or won’t have the same joy.

I don’t pretend to get all this baby stuff right. I’m sure I’ve been woefully insensitive at times. I need God’s help too. But as a pastor, I at least try to set the right tone, dial down the tensions, and encourage every man and wife to assume the best. It doesn’t make all the tensions go away. But I’m hoping it will help us love each other’s families, the small and the big, in big ways and small.

really is. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16).

You may think you’re saying very complimentary things about Jesus when you call Him one of the prophets, a great man, or an enlightened teacher, but you’re not actually complimenting Him at all. It’s like saying the sun is one of many lights we use to illuminate the house, that Michael Jordan used to throw the ball around for the Bulls, or that Barack Obama owns a home in Chicago. Those statements are all true. But they are also all false because they don’t say enough. The sun is the star in our solar system. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever. Barack Obama is the President of the United States. If you don’t say those things, you’re not saying what really matters. By not saying what is most important and most unique, you’re actually saying something very misleading.

When it comes to identifying Jesus, partial truths that miss the biggest truth end up telling a lie. True, Jesus is a prophet (Mark 6:4; Deut. 18:18). But He is not like John the Baptist. He is not another Elijah. He is not merely one of the prophets. He is the One to which all the other prophets were pointing. So to call Him a prophet and nothing but a prophet is to misunderstand at the profoundest level who this man is. If you were to describe your wife as “a beautiful woman among many beautiful women in the world,” as “an individual I deeply respect,” or as “the last, in a long line of women I have loved,” would your wife be pleased? Obviously not. You’ve damned her with faint praise. You’ve insulted her by demeaning her uniqueness and describing her in terms far below what she deserves.

So, away with all this nonsense that Jesus is like Mohammed, the Buddha, the Dalai Lama, Ghandi, or your saintly grandmother. He is not like anyone else. And, so, we will not pretend to be impressed when others call Jesus a good man, an enlightened figure, or one of the prophets. He is not one of, He is the One.

others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation” (Q&A 21). This is Christian individualism at its best. Faith isn’t faith if it merely believes that God exists and God is good. True faith believes that God is and that the God who is will be good to me because of Christ.

When you come to the end of your life, what do you want buried in your heart — a general truth that God is gracious and merciful or the particular promises that your sin is forgiven by Christ (1 John 1:7), you have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20), and in death you will gain Christ (Phil. 1:21)? John Calvin maintains that the knowledge we want in our last days “is not merely of a general kind, as though believers were merely in a general way persuaded, that the children of God will be in a better condition after death.” In other words, we will have no consolation in death unless we find assurance individually. “Everyone must have a knowledge peculiar to himself,” Calvin goes on to say, “for this, and this only, can animate me to meet death with cheerfulness — if I am fully persuaded, that I am departing to a better life.”

There may be no “I” in team, but when it comes to claiming the specific truths of Scripture and God’s particular promises for the individual believer, there is an “I” in faith.

for the rest of my years.” In both passages, pulai hadou is a euphemism for death. Notice the parallelism in both passages. The first half of each verse clarifies that the second half of the verse is not about hell but about death. The gates of hell represent the passageway from this life to the grave.

Consequently, Jesus’ promise to Peter is not about storming Satan’s lair and conquering demonic powers. In fact, the repeated injunction in Ephesians 6 is “to stand.” Christ defeated the Devil (John 16:11). Our responsibility is simply to hold fast and resist. Carman’s fantastic music videos aside, we are not demonslayers. The promise in Matthew 16 is not about venturing out on some Dungeons and Dragons spiritual crusade but about Christ’s guarantee that the church will not be vanquished by death.

If you think about it, this makes much more sense of the imagery. Defensive gates can be used in an offensive way because Jesus is simply talking about death. Death stalks each one of us, but those who confess Jesus as the Christ know that death is not the end. We have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:57). Jesus isn’t asking us to conquer anything, except perhaps our fear of the grave.

So preach and believe in Matthew 16:18 with all your might. But don’t misunderstand the promise. Jesus assures us of something better than world transformat ion. He promises eternal life. Truly, with intense opposition and persecution, the early church was under at tack from the gates of hell. But just as Jesus conquered the grave, so the gates of hell — death itself — will not prevail against those who belong to Christ. As Jesus Himself put it, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25).