A Long Line of Godly Men Profile Series

Communion with Our Triune God

The writing and teaching of John Owen, a 17th century pastor and theologian, continues to serve the church. Daily communion with God characterized his life and equipped him for both ministry and persecution.

In The Trinitarian Devotion of John Owen, the latest addition to the Long Line of Godly Men series, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson offers careful reflection and insight for Christians today as he highlights Owen's faith in the triune God of Scripture. We're reminded that regardless of our circumstances we can know God, enjoy Him, and encourage others.

During the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Reformers' most effective tool was the pulpit, and all of the Reformers were gifted preachers. This was especially true of Martin Luther, the man regarded as the father of the Reformation.

Luther used every legitimate means to make known the truths of Scripture. His strategies included writing books, tracts, pamphlets, and letters, as well as classroom lectures, public debates, and heated disputations in churches and universities. But his chief means of producing reform was the pulpit, where he proclaimed the truths of God's Word with great courage. In a day when the church greatly needed to hear the truth, Luther's pulpit became one of the most clarion sounding boards for God's Word this world has ever witnessed.

In The Heroic Boldness of Martin Luther, Dr. Steven J. Lawson shows the convictions and practices that fed Luther's pulpit boldness, providing an example for all preachers in a day when truth once more is in decline.

England in the twentieth century was in the grips of theological liberalism. It was thought that no modern person could accept the claims of the Bible. Preaching was filled with maudlin platitudes and empty moralizing.

Into this dark atmosphere stepped the man known as "the Doctor." D. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a physician by training, and he embarked on a promising career in medicine. But after having been converted, Lloyd-Jones felt an irresistible call to preach. In answering this call, he engaged in a ministry that would exert profound influence on both sides of the Atlantic. From his pulpit at Westminster Chapel in London, he set a new standard for faithfully proclaiming the Word of God while combating the influence of liberalism in his day.

In The Expository Genius of John Calvin, Dr. Steven J. Lawson delves into the practices, commitments, and techniques that made John Calvin, the great Reformer of the sixteenth century, such an effective preacher during his long pastorate at Saint Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Lawson identifies thirty-two distinctives of Calvin's preaching, providing comments from Calvin's writings, quotations from Reformation scholars, and examples from Calvin's own sermons to reinforce his points. In the end, Dr. Lawson finds in Calvin a strong model for expository preaching and calls on modern pastors to follow the Reformer's example.

Steve Lawson is the senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. Dr. Lawson serves on the board of directors of The Master's College and on the ministerial board for Reformed Theological Seminary. He teaches with Dr. John MacArthur at the Expositor's Institute.

In an age of simplistic and repetitive choruses, many churches are rediscovering the blessing of theologically rich and biblically informed songs. In the latest addition to A Long Line of Godly Men Profile series, Douglas Bond introduces us to Isaac Watts, "the father of English hymnody." Douglas Bond urges Christians to delight in the grandeur, beauty, and joy of Watts' poetry. Hardcover.