Archives for January 2020

A lady from our church had one of my colleague’s sermons (Rev. Bart Elshout) stuck in her CD player for 1.5 years. It was preached on Romans 8:33-35 in 2005 in Grand Rapids. Because it was stuck that’s the only thing she could listen to, but she loved it every time. She has listened to it at least 40 times. Last week, she hit a bump with her truck, and the CD popped out!

This past Sunday morning, as she drove to our church she missed that familiar sermon (it was just the right length for her long ride to church) and was a bit sad that the CD popped out. She thinks the whole world should hear it. Imagine her surprise when she got to church, saw the sermon notes, and heard me announce that I was preaching on Romans 8:34! 😊

Last night was a great, unforgettable event at Puritan Reformed Seminary with a great turnout: the dedication of our Torah scroll (Genesis through Deuteronomy—127 feet long on calf skin) to God’s glory and the welfare of our seminary students. The Torah scroll will be very helpful for Old Testament classes—most particularly for Hebrew classes. Dr. Scott Carroll (far left in first photo), a specialist in manuscripts, gave a lecture on the history behind the particular scroll gifted to our seminary by Ken and Barb Larsen. Our 19^th-century scroll took a team of people in Romania about a year to write. It was completed in Romania, and later carried to Israel by Russian Jews who migrated from Romania to Israel after Israel became a nation. The Larsens purchased it in Jerusalem from the world’s largest scroll-collector and chose to gift it, in God’s kind providence, to PRTS. After Dr. Carroll’s moving address, about 200 of the attendees went upstairs where he and Dr. Barrett (PRTS OT professor) explained various fascinating particulars about the scroll. The overall impression was that it was a very moving evening for the attendees, particularly in reinforcing in our minds and hearts how carefully God has preserved His pure Word through the ages. Sola scriptura! Soli Deo gloria!

I am excited to report that RHB has just published three new children’s titles by Diana Kleyn that arrived this morning: “Sowing the Seed: Devotional Stories about Sharing the Gospel” (http://bit.ly/38DxxHR); “Taking Root: Devotional Stories about Conversion” (http://bit.ly/38v7Wkk); and “Bearing Fruit: Devotional Stories about Godliness” (http://bit.ly/36oSqFk). These are fascinating, true, God-honoring stories—together with scriptural citations, Q&A, and prayers—that serve as an excellent daily devotional tool for children 6 to 12 years of age. If you liked the “Building on the Rock” series that I did with Diana, you will enjoy this series of books as well. Pray with us that God will bless these stories to many thousands of children all around the globe.

The Reformation Heritage Study Bible is now available in Spanish, and it is a wonderful tool for anybody who speaks it! Follow the link below to learn more about the Study Bible, and to see the different options that are available for this product. http://bit.ly/SpanishStudyBible

Had a wonderful time of fellowship this evening with our nephew and niece, Jonathon and Al Beeke, and their precious children. The Queen provided a great dinner. Dr. Jonathan serves as PRTS’s able and kind-hearted registrar and also is teaching a few courses for us with more to come. Everyone appreciates him immensely at the seminary.

“But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it” (Numbers 14:24).

Caleb is one of the few people of scripture where nothing negative is said about him. He, with Joshua, gave the minority report of the 12 spies (Numbers 13) and urged the people to take the land, trusting in the promises of God. He is said to have followed the Lord fully. So often we follow God partially, half-heartedly, or inconsistently, and as a result we often fail to grow spiritually and dishonor the Lord who has brought us out of slavery to sin.

In this video in the Hope for the Family series, I discuss what it means to follow God fully: https://ncfic.org/resources/211983.

Yesterday, our Dean of Students and Spiritual Formation, Mark Kelderman, sustained his oral defense for a Doctor of Ministry degree in counseling at Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. His thesis was on how to establish a biblical Master of Arts counseling program at the seminary level—a study that we hope to use in a very tangible way at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, as we envision establishing such a program, with God’s help, in the near future, which we trust will serve to the welfare of many churches and people through students trained to be biblical counselors. Here Dr. Kelderman is rejoicing with his wife Donna at the good news. Congratulations, dear brother and sister, and may God use your degree, brother, for the welfare of many in the future!

Back safely with the Queen from the G3 Conference held in Atlanta the last few days. Despite fighting a weakening voice, I was privileged to speak on the Puritan view of public worship, family worship, and private worship to the 5000 hungry attendees (most of whom attended all 12 addresses in 50 hours!), as well as to do a QA session with three other speakers.

Additional speakers who addressed various facets of the critical subject of worship included John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, Voddie Baucham, Paul Washer, Derek Thomas, Josh Buice, Tim Challies, James White, Phil Johnson, Tom Ascol, and Costi Hinn. Steve Lawson’s address on Romans 11:36 brought us to the vestibule of heaven.

I also did a radio interview (Mary snuck a picture) for the upcoming Puritan Conference on June 2-5, 2020, D.V., that is a joint effort of John MacArthur’s team and RHB/PRTS to be held in MacArthur’s church (you won’t want to miss this conference—registration is opening very soon!), and had scores of opportunities to speak with dear friends, make some new ones, sell numerous books, and receive humbling testimonies from people from various states and countries who have been blessed by our books. All-in-all, it was quite a remarkable and humbling conference for us. God is so good; despite the darkness of our day in many circles, He is working salvation and spiritual maturity in many souls all over the world.

I’m excited to announce that my favorite set of books in my library, “The Christian’s Reasonable Service” (4 volumes) by Wilhelmus a Brakel, translated by Bartel Elshout and edited by me for 6 years back in the 1990s, has just been released in Korean! This sends chills up and down my spine and tears into my eyes. Pray that God may use this classic set abundantly among Korean-speaking people all over the world.

Volume 8 of the projected 10-volume set of “The Complete Works of William Perkins” has arrived—this volume including all of Perkins’s masterful treatises on “cases of conscience.” It is a masterful volume—an indispensable read for pastors and all those who want to counsel others, as well as individual Christians who want to grow in grace. More good news: Volume 9 is already typeset and at the indicer, and volume 10 is presently being typeset.

The whole set should be available by May in time for the June 3-5, 2020 premier Puritan Conference being organized as a joint effort by John MacArthur’s team, RHB, and PRTS—to be held at MacArthur’s church in Los Angeles. We hope to have 4500 attendees at this conference, the Lord willing. You won’t want to miss this conference! Registration and speaker information will be available soon at http://puritanconference.org. You can also sign up for news and updates.

Pray for God’s blessing on this conference.