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This is the personal website of David W. Norris

"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" (I Corinthians 9:16)

Permission to reproduce or quote from any article is freely granted. However, out of pure courtesy please acknowledge the author and give the link to this website.

https://reformedpulpit.com

 

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THE GOD EVERYONE KNOWS

IS GOD REALLY DEAD?

Recently rewritten and expanded

CLICK HERE >

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God” (John 17:3)

“The verse does not say that he who knows the Father shall receive eternal life. It is not said: If you are religious and zealously seek to know God, your rewards after your death shall be eternal life. It states altogether differently that, to know God is itself eternal life. And you realize the difference is heaven-wide. Eternal life, taken as a reward for your painstaking efforts to learn to know God, is a superficial mechanical and unnatural interpretation. On the contrary an eternal life that itself consists in knowing God is a thought so deep, that you, peering into it, see no bottom. …

But the knowledge of God itself is eternal life. He who possesses this knowledge already possesses this eternal life now. On the other hand, he who dies without having found this knowledge of God here, will not find it in the hereafter. On him the eternal morning never dawns.”

Abraham Kuyper in To Be Near Unto God

 

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NEW

The second of three messages on the parables in Luke 15

THE LOST COIN

 

 

 

THE BIBLICAL USE OF PARABLES

In Mediterranean countries to this day, when someone wants to convey some information or make a point, they will often tell a story. This indirect approach may be for reasons of safety and security so that the teller of the story can always say that he never said such and such a thing. Generally, those intended to know the meaning of the tale will fasten onto what is being said and to whom it is directed. For those not party to the purpose, it may just seem to be a story and nothing more. Sometimes these stories are like a riddle and the hearers will be left to puzzle out the meaning, or they will miss the whole point and need to have everything explained to them clearly.

more here >

 

Video messages on

THE LOST SHEEP

THE LOST COIN

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES

 

coming soon:

THE LOST SON

go to the media page

 

CLICK HERE >

 

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THIS IS MY STORY

A spiritual pilgrimage...

I do not know how many years God still will grant me or whether I shall fall to some sickness or disability, but it is my intention to live my life to the glory of my precious Lord who saved me.

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

> read here

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So very often the writings of theologians are set aside as purely academic exercises above the heads of ordinary believers and of little help to those looking for a living relationship with the Lord Jesus. Indeed, this may be true of many. This can hardly be said of the works of men like Herman Bavinck or Abraham Kuyper. They wrote not only from exceptional intellectual attainment, but more, what they wrote grew from an intimate personal knowledge of and love of the Lord Jesus. This is nowhere clearer than in Kuyper’s book of meditations: To Be Near Unto God (1908). It still readily available, new and second-hand, and I earnestly recommend it, such a blessing. Breathing his last in November 1920, he was asked by a friend and colleague: “Shall I tell the people that God has been your Refuge and Strength to the end?” Kuyper’s answer when it came was distinct although whispered in weakness: “Yes, altogether”.

TO BE NEAR UNTO GOD

(Extracts from the first chapter of the book by Dr Kuyper)

read here >

“The inward preciousness of being near to God extends still further, penetrates still more deeply, until it comes to that unspeakable, indescribable, unfathomable reality, that the Lord Himself in the Holy Ghost unites Himself so closely with our spirit, that He is not only above and around us, but that He is also in us, that He takes up His abode with us, makes our heart His dwelling place, and that conversational communion between God and our soul takes place in our own inmost self.”

ABRAHAM KUYPER (1837-1920)

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THE DAY GOD CHANGED THE SERMON

Should I still go to church when my husband forbids it? For one wife’s experience read this account by John Fletcher

read here >

An experience in the ministry of John Fletcher of Madeley

"I now know why my sermon was taken from me – namely, that God might thus magnify His mercy."

JOHN FLETCHER (1729-85)

 

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WHEN RESISTANCE TO THE STATE IS NOT JUST PERMITTED, BUT IS OUR CHRISTIAN DUTY

Conflict with Caesar is not inevitable.

“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” (Matthew 22:21)

It only becomes inevitable when Caesar demands for himself what belongs to God. As long as the State does not claim absolute authority and autonomy, it can play a lawful role in establishing law and order. In this capacity it is the ‘servant of God’ (Romans 13:4)

Problems arise when the State assumes not a derivative or a relative authority, but claims for itself absolute and autonomous authority. In seeking to make itself the centre of all human loyalties, the goal of human aspiration, the source of human values, the final arbiter of human destiny without using religious language, then just like pagan Rome is has become a modern deity.

Government has now become a religion and is in direct conflict with genuine Christian faith. It claims to be a modern ‘divine Caesar’ without saying as much lest there be widespread civil unrest. As Christians and good men sleep, the pagan State enlarges itself and consolidates its gains. The Church wilts before the Leviathan State instead of slaying it.

read here >

 

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A VALLEY FULL OF DEAD BONES

“It is upon a field of the dead that the Sun of righteousness has risen, and the shouts that announce His advent fall on deaf ears; yea, even though the morning stars should again sing for joy and the air be palpitant with the echo of the great proclamation, their voice could not penetrate the ears of the dead. As we sweep our eyes over the world lying in wickedness, it is the valley of the prophet’s vision which we see before us: a valley that is filled with bones, and lo! they are very dry. What benefit is there in proclaiming to dry bones the greatest of redemptions? How shall we stand and cry, O, ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! In vain the redemption, in vain its proclamation, unless there comes a breath from heaven to breathe upon these slain that they may live.”

Benjamin Warfield, Studies in Theology, p.9

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IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN...

“If God is sovereign, then His Lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the Church or within the Christian orbit. The non-Christian world has not been handed over to Satan, nor surrendered to fallen humanity, nor consigned to fate. God’s sovereignty is great and all-dominating in the life of the unbaptized world as well. Therefore, Christ’s Church on earth and God’s children cannot simply retreat from this life. If the believer’s God is at work in this world, then in this world the believer’s hand must take hold of the plough, and the Name of the Lord must be glorified in that activity as well.”

(Abraham Kuyper, (De Gemeene Gratie, vol.i, pp. xxxvi-xxxvii)

 

Only one King can make the world His Kingdom
And hold it for His own;
God’s ancient covenant His house established,
An everlasting throne;
Majesty, glory, power and dominion
Are His and His alone, Lord of all lords and King of kings, eternal,
Great David’s greater Son.

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SALVATION IS FOUND IN JESUS CHRIST ALONE:

"This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

(Acts 4:11-12)

“The benefits which Christ has achieved for us by His great love are so rich that they simply cannot be calculated or estimated at their just value. They comprehend no less than a whole and perfect salvation” Herman Bavinck, in ‘Magnalia Dei’

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Many of you will know that my dear wife, Valerie, who had suffered with Parkinson's disease for many years went to be with the Lord on 9th June 2023. I miss her so much.

Read the extraordinary events of Valerie's life including the flight of the family from eastern to western Europe at the end of World War 2, through a harsh winter, six months in a covered wagon, and how God preserved them all.

click here

“If the knowledge of visible things can enrich life, how much more will the knowledge of God make for life? For God is not a God of death and of the dead, but of life and the living. All those whom He recreated after His image and restored to His fellowship are by that fact raised above the level of death and mortality. He that believes on me, said Jesus, though he were dead, shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26). Knowing God in Christ brings with is eternal life, imperturbable joy, and heavenly blessedness. These are not merely effects, but the knowing of God is itself a new, eternal, and blessed life.”

(Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, p.14)

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What happens to Christian believers when they pass away?

Where do they go?

read here >

"But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me." Psalm 49:15

 

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SPHERE SOVEREIGNTY: IS IT IN THE WORD OF GOD?

We should all be most concerned with the meaning of reality and with the coherence of meaning in the created works of God. One essential undertaking is to seek to view each separate part of reality in its connection with all the others and in relation to the whole. There is a coherence between the different spheres placed in creation by God and everyone is subject to those laws God has established within creation itself for its own existence and preservation.

The sovereignty of each sphere is derived from God’s order for creation and expounded in Scripture. God created all things according to their nature, including societal relationships. The Scriptures therefore contain the basic principles for all aspects of human society.

read complete article HERE

“The sphere of the Church is distinct from that of the civil magistrate … What needs to be appreciated now is that its sphere is co-ordinate with that of the State. The Church is not subordinate to the State, nor is the State subordinate to the Church. They are both subordinate to God, and to Christ in His mediatorial dominion as head over all things to the body of the Church.”

John Murray, Collected Writings, Vol. I, p.254

 

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WHEN I AM OLD AND GREY-HEADED

What is the reality in modern godless Britain? There are of course those who spend sometimes almost a lifetime caring and tending ailing loved ones and they ought not to go without mention. Despite this, throughout the UK, 43 funerals a week are arranged for those who die alone, friendless and without family around them. The isolation and loneliness experienced by so many older folk in our communities is something approaching a national scandal. Of the 10.8 million aged 65 and over, 3.5 million live alone, a quarter of these are friendless, and 1.6 million have little or no contact either with neighbours or family. This age group accounts for a fifth of all suicides. Living in undignified circumstances many of these old people feel that they having nothing left to contribute. They are left at the edge of our communities in loneliness to fade into oblivion. All too often we read of the body of some poor soul being discovered in an advanced state of decay after dying alone in their home and lying for weeks undiscovered. It happens all the time and this is an appalling indictment against the nature of many of our communities.

read the whole article

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Who then is a believer?

“We have to keep to the rule that we cannot judge of the heart, but only of the external conduct, and even that defectively. Those who, as the human eye sees them, are walking in the way of the covenant must according to the judgement of love be regarded and treated as our fellows in grace. But in the final analysis is not our judgement, but God’s, that determines. He is the Knower of hearts the Trier of the reins. With Him there is no respecting of persons. Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).”   

Hermann Bavinck in Our Reasonable Faith

 

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Possibly the most important series of articles I have yet written

“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5)

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” (1 John 3:14)

Sections include:

1. A debt that cannot be paid

2. Alive or dead?

3. Regeneration an act of God

4. God will not be refused

5. Right with God

6. Sanctification

7. How do I know that I have passed from death to life?

8. The greatest of these is love

9. The suffering of love

 

BEGIN HERE >

 

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The Completed Revelation of God

Herman Bavinck

Since the revelation is complete, the time is now come in which its content is made the property of mankind. Whereas in the Old Testament everything led up to Christ, in the New Testament everything is derived from Him. Christ is the turning point of times. The promise, made to Abraham, now comes to all nations. The Jerusalem which was below gives way to the Jerusalem which is above and is the mother of us all (Galatians 4:26).

read the complete article HERE

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What is the biblical Reformed Faith?

Reformed Distinctives

Read this important article

here

"Nothing short of the Christ of the Scriptures, as presented in historic Reformed theology, can challenge men to forsake their sin and establish them in truth and life." Cornelius Van Til

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All one in Christ Jesus

“For my own part, I believe sects and denominations to be the result of the devil’s attempt to mar and hinder as far as possible the visible union of the church of God; and that they all have their root in our spiritual pride and selfishness, our self-sufficiency and our sin. …
May God forgive us for, and correct our divisions! Nothing gives greater occasion to the outside world, than the differences between professing Christians. The bickerings and contentions between men and women of different sects and denominations of the visible church of God has always been one of the world’s greatest hindrances. Instead of looking on, and being constrained to confess, ‘See how these Christians love one another,’ the world has too often reason to say, ‘See how they carp at one another, see how they judge one another, see how they malign one another.’”

Marcus Rainsford in The Lord’s Prayer for Believers

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TYRANNY IN THESE LAST DAYS

We live in a time of profound crisis: gargantuan military, economic, political, legal, educational, moral, social, religious upheaval. A new Dark Age threatens. We face a centralized planned world that assumes for itself complete omniscience and virtual omnipotence, an imitation of the attributes that exist only in God.

 

Read the full text here

The Huguenot document of 1579, Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos, stressed the duty of all men to obey the law of God. It went on to argue that should rulers command the contrary, it becomes the duty of the people under the leadership of magistrates to oppose such a king in order to uphold God’s law. The law of God applies to all men in the first instance because He is the Sovereign Creator of all things.

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Read the full text here

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REVISED & REWRITTEN

THE NEW TOTALITARIANISM & THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

Refusing the providential working of God, men substitute their own version of predestination in its place. Modern social scientists and politicians strive to escape the dismal predictions of the poets and popular songwriters in their own way: a victory for the human race is to be gained only by total control and prediction, by tyranny. Today, humanistic science, godless economic theories, politics of every colour and creed, are charged with the task of bringing order where they see chaos, meaning where absurdity rules and by using force where necessary. Social order must be created and enforced; there must be total planning through education, economic intervention, and environmental controls. There must be total control with nothing left to playful fortune. The irresistible will of nature must be tamed and harnessed. Central to this project are the functions of the State, but also science, the media, schools, universities and whatever other tools lie to hand. Everything is to be planned by an élite and nothing left to itself. History is not determined by fortune or fate, chaos or chance, nor is it in the incapable hands of social scientists or politicians, but in those of our sovereign God. History has meaning only because of God’s eternal decree and the act of creation. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18).

Read the full text here

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No faithless, weak withdrawal from the struggle

We may not be a sect. We may not want to be one, and we cannot be one, except by a denial of the absolute character of the truth. Indeed, the kingdom of heaven is not of this world. But it does demand that everything in this world serve it. It is exclusive and jealous, and it will judge no independent or neutral kingdom of the world alongside of itself.  Naturally, it would be much easier to leave this age to its own ways, and to seek our strength in a quiet withdrawal. No such rest, however is permitted to us here. Because every creature is good, and nothing is to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, since all things are sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, therefore the rejection of any creature were ingratitude to God, a misjudgement or under-evaluation of His goodness and His gifts. Our warfare may be conducted against sin alone. No matter how complicated the relationships may be, therefore, in which the confessors of Christ are placed in this time, no matter how serious, difficult, and virtually insurmountable the social, political, and especially the scientific problems may be, it were faithlessness and weakness in us proudly to withdraw from the struggle, perhaps even under the guise of Christian motivation, and to reject the culture of the age as demonic.

Herman Bavinck

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A Christian country: is it a delusion or should it be a reality?

Many will question the very idea of a Christian country or State and consider it delusory. At the other end of the argument are those who firmly believe that our present godless nations can be turned into Christian ones. Is either one of these positions supported by Scripture? In order to resolve this question, we must ask ourselves, if a nation does not order its affairs according to the Word of God by what measure ought it to be ruled? There can be no other answer than that every State, every nation ought to be Christian and challenged to be so.

HERE >

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NOT HEARERS ONLY...

The indispensability of good works

 

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22)

 

HERE >

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Read it here

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OUR NATION AND THE SCRIPTURES

There was a time when the Bible enjoyed a privileged place at the heart of British life. This is far from being the case today.

To abandon God is the height of folly, but to be abandoned by God is profoundly tragic.

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Read here 

 

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The living Christ, the object of our faith

Herman Bavinck (1854-1921)
Dutch Reformed theologian and churchman.

The peculiarity of the Christian religion as has been shown so often, and acknowledged even by opponents, lies in the person of Christ. All other religions are independent, to a certain degree, of their founders, because those founders were nothing more than their first confessors. But Jesus was not the first Christian; he was and is the Christ. He is not the subject, but the object, of religion. Christianity is not the religion of Jesus, still less of Jesus-worship, but Christ religion. Christianity is now as dependent on him, from moment to moment, as when he trod this earth. For he is not a person who lived and worked only in the past, but he lives and works still, is still Prophet, Priest, and King, and himself upholds the Church, which he established, from age to age, and assures her victory.

read the complete article 

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