Tracing family (and thus family ministry) throughout both Scripture and the history of the church, Stinson and Jones have edited a helpful volume that highlights many key contemporary issues (including gender roles and homosexuality). Although the chapters on historical tradition may not hold interest for the casual reader, they do help cement the foundation of the practical viewpoints discussed in latter pages. While certain contributions outshine others, the book is a worthy (if occasionally repetitive) effort.

Churches that affirm, confess, and acknowledge the full authority of the Bible have no choice: we must speak a word of compassionate truth. And that compassionate truth is this: homosexual acts are expressly and unconditionally forbidden by God through His Word, and such acts are an abomination to the Lord by His own declaration. [90]

Scripture must not be subjected to defend itself in light of modern notions. Instead, modern notions of sexual orientation must be brought to answer to Scripture. Neither the apostle Paul nor the Holy Spirit will apologize to Sigmund Freud or the American Psychological Association. [93]

The fundamental axiom upon which evangelical Christians must base every response to homosexuality is this: God alone is sovereign, and He has created the universe and all within it by His own design and for His own good pleasure. Furthermore, He has revealed to us His creative intention through Holy Scripture—and that intention was clearly to create and establish two distinct but complementary sexes or genders. [96-7]

Our response to persons involved in homosexuality must be marked by genuine compassion. But a central task of genuine compassion is telling the truth, and the Bible reveals a true message that we must convey. Those seeking to contort or subvert the Bible’s message are not responding to homosexuals with compassion. To lie is never compassionate—and their lie leads unto death. [98] 

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Mohler examines the Ten Commandments and their implications, not only for Israel (to whom they were originally spoken) but to God’s new covenant people today. In each case, Mohler details how the standard is higher for those who are in Christ. While we are not under the old covenant law, our lives must reflect the true nature of God. Thankfully, He has given both the commands and the power to carry them out through His Spirit.

Intellectual pride is the enemy of any true knowledge of God, any real theological education. There is nothing we can figure out or discover. There is no “aha!” moment where, in some theological laboratory, a new element of divine truth gets discovered. We know by grace and mercy. [18]

Human beings are worshippers. We will worship either the one true and living God, or we will worship an idol of our own devising or our own adoption. [41]

The most important issue of Sabbath rest in the New Testament is that we rest in Christ and we rest from our labors—from all efforts to be saved by our works. We cannot work for our salvation. We may only rest in Christ, and in Christ we find a total rest...There is the promise of entering this rest, and we are told to rest from our works as God did from His. This is a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of our salvation. We are justified by faith, not by works. [87]

Most of us who were cared for by our parents will care for our parents, and God’s glory is in it. God’s glory is in it because in caring for our parents we show the world and we teach our own children what covenantal faithfulness looks like in the obligation of children to parents. It is not just care and provision; it is honor. [107]

Summarizing the Ten Commandments into the two tables of law makes some sense, but it probably misleads more than it suggests the truth. It is not as if you have five commandments addressed toward God, and five commandments addressed toward humanity. All the commands are addressed in terms of our faithfulness to God. God makes claim upon every dimension of our lives, so that our relationships with our fellow human beings are actually a reflection of our relationship with our Creator. [158] 

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In the tradition of Preaching The Cross, this book features the collected transcripts of the messages given at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference. Each speaker focused his sermon on the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ and what his death means in terms of both doctrine and application. Although the variety of writing styles occasionally disrupts the continuity of the book, the overall message is coherent and their unified proclamation of the Gospel remains clear. 

The sum and substance of the gospel is that a holy and righteous God who must demand a full penalty for our sin both demands the penalty and provides the penalty. His own self-substitution is Jesus Christ the Son, whose perfect obedience and perfectly accomplished atonement purchased all that is necessary for our salvation. Jesus Christ met the full demands of the righteousness and justice of God against our sin. [151]

The reality is that Christ not only became the penalty for our sin, but he also became the curse. He satisfied the divine justice by taking our sins away. [156]

Sin, of course, does bring about its own consequences, but those are not the consequences we should most fear. The consequence to fear is the wrath of God poured out upon all righteousness. [160]

There is a fundamental difference between human forgiveness and divine forgiveness, and this is central to understanding Scripture. We can forgive wrongs done to us, but we cannot atone for them. And first and foremost, these acts are not offenses against our righteousness, for we have none. To model atonement on human forgiveness and to suggest that God is less forgiving than our neighbors is a slander against Christ as his work—and against the character of God. [166] 

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Briefly addressing a wide variety of topics – church discipline, the true nature of beauty, hell, the emerging church, the postmodern mind, and others – Mohler encourages thoughtful interaction with and evaluation of the culture in which we live. As usual, Mohler speaks with consistent gospel clarity. While the shortness of the chapters often leave more to be desired, several topics are given a multi-chapter treatment and the result is a solid overview of each issue being discussed.

Assurance of salvation is indeed possible – and is a Christian responsibility. Pernicious doubt concerning salvation may be an indication that the believer does not truly trust the character, power, and purposes of God. Thus a believer’s insecurity – sometimes disguised as an artificial humility – can be evidence of a heart that does not adequately trust in the promises of God. [12]

Where sin is not faced as sin, grace cannot be grace. What need have men and women of atonement when they are told that their deepest problem is something less that what the Bible explicitly teaches? Weak teaching on sin leads to cheap grace, and neither leads to the gospel. [28]

We have come to use the word beautiful in an altogether awkward and inappropriate context. We speak of beauty, when what we really mean is prettiness, or attractiveness, or even likeability. None of these things, however, is actually equal to beauty. [48]

The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church. No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself as a voluntary association of autonomous members, with minimal moral accountability to God, much less to each other. [121]

When Christians sin, their sin is to be confronted by the church in accordance with the pattern revealed in Scripture. The goal is the restoration of a sister or a brother, not the creation of a public spectacle. The greatest moral danger to the church is the toleration of sin, public and private. One of the greatest blessings to the church is the gift of biblical church discipline. [152] 

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Unlike in previous generations, atheism has become quite marketable in this postmodern age. A slew of atheistic books have permeated bestseller lists, and Mohler has written this book to investigate and illuminate the claims of the “New Atheists.” Mohler adroitly summarizes the premises of modern-day atheists and also details varying responses to their claims, and while I would have preferred more of his own insight (and some additional pages), his work is typically skillful and helpful.

The New Atheists are, in their own way, evangelistic in intent and ambitious in hope. They see atheism as the only plausible worldview for our times, and they see belief in God as downright dangerous – an artifact of the past that we can no longer afford to tolerate, much less encourage. [12]

In the ancient world and throughout most of human history, the question was never whether or not there is a God, but which god is God? Thus, in the Old Testament, one of God’s most insistent purposes is to make clear that He is the only God, and that He will tolerate no other. That is a very different question from what is being asked today. [17]

We live in a time in which it is plausible to us that people would not ask the pastor about vocational issues, intellectual issues, legal issues, and all the rest. The church used to be at the center of all these questions, but differentiation now means that you go to a lawyer for legal advice and to a psychotherapist for counseling. People now go to any number of experts who are completely freed from the church and theistic belief. [32]

The world is looking for an evangelical demonstration of Christianity, not merely an intellectual defense. [65]

The defense of Biblical theism reveals the great divide in intellectual thought to be not merely over the existence of God but over the question of whether He has spoken. The materialism and naturalism that are so central to the New Atheism simply reject the category of revelation out of hand. This, in the end, is the real impasse. The issue is not merely metaphysics, but epistemology. [84]

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A compilation of messages delivered at a Together for the Gospel conference, this book addresses the notion of preaching from the perspective of several men who have been called to the preaching ministry. Filled with practical advice and timely exhortation concerning the proclamation of the Word, this book is easily recommended to anyone who stands behind a pulpit, or for any who would seek to better understand what preaching should be and what preaching should do.

As the Word of God, the text of Scripture has the right to establish both the substance and the structure of the sermon. Genuine exposition takes place when the preacher sets forth the meaning and message of the Biblical text and makes clear how the Word of God establishes the identity and worldview of the church as the people of God. [66]

Culture cannot be meaningless, but it cannot be our main concern either. It cannot be the primary focus of our thought because it is passing. [74]

God’s people saved by the blood of the Lamb – God’s claimed and chosen people – are citizens of the city of heaven. We do not live there yet, but our citizenship there is more real than our citizenship here. [75]

We do not care about the culture for the culture’s sake. Our concern for the culture is simply because that is where the sinners are, with whom we will share the gospel, to whom we will preach the gospel, and with whom we live as neighbors. [76]

Most Americans believe that their major problem is something that has happened to them, and that their solution is to be found within. In other words, they believe that they have an alien problem that is to be resolved with an inner solution. What the gospel says, however, is that we have an inner problem that demands an alien solution – a righteousness that is not our own. [81] 

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Written by preachers for preachers, this instructive work details the value of proclaiming God’s Word -- as it is written -- without ceding to the temptation to modernize or minimize what it says. It also addresses what makes preaching effective and what must be avoided. As with any compilation, some chapters are more helpful than others, but the whole volume remains a benefit to those called to preach (or to those wondering what biblical preaching entails).

Pulpit ministry is largely a hidden work in the human heart. Such a work will bear good fruit, but it will take time to show. [5]

If there is no controversy in your ministry, there is probably very little content to your preaching. The content of the Word of God is not only alive and active, it is sharper than any two-edged sword, and that means it does some surgery. Cutting leads to bleeding, and by God’s grace healing then comes, but there is always controversy. [6]

Preaching is not a mechanism for communication that was developed by preachers who needed something to do on Sunday. It was not some kind of sociological or technological adaptation by the church in the first century in an effort to come up with something to fill the time between the invocation and benediction. It was the central task of preaching that framed not only their understanding of worship, but also their understanding of the church. [10]

The general absence of church discipline in our age has often made the church just another volunteer association. [14]  

There is only one authority that undergirds and justifies the preacher’s teaching ministry, and that is the authority of the Word of God. This Word is inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and trustworthy. It is not only the foundation, but the substance, the content of our teaching and preaching. [15]  

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Though only in a very brief booklet containing the text of a message delivered in 1996, Mohler’s admonition to keep Scripture central in preaching remains timely. Mohler points out a disturbing trend to define the Gospel apart from the Word, and rightly discounts any such ideas as both foolish and indefensible. While his message is undoubtedly true and much-needed, the brevity of the format allows for nothing beyond a mere surface-level introduction to this important topic. 

The link between the preaching of the gospel and the preaching of the Word is indissoluble and unbreakable. Nevertheless, the sad history of the last two centuries indicates an increasing pattern of preachers who attempt to ‘liberate’ the gospel from the Scriptures. This pattern we must condemn. [9]

We are heralds, not originators. We are charged to preach a message we have received—not to invent a message that will be well received. We are to preach that which has been sent, delivered, and addressed to us, not a message that has been developed or altered. [10]

The purpose of preaching is not that we ourselves might be heard, but that the text of the Word of God might be heard. We preach, not that we might impress or be impressive, but that the Word of God might make its impression on the human heart. [11]  

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