How many ministers have you met who are sowing reformation in their churches in tears? In our day, the current temperature of the Evangelical church has been watered down by shallow, non-doctrinal preaching that tickles the ears and woos people into the pews. Churches are filled with emotionally charged seeker sensitive services, catering to jingles and emotional feel-good “worship” that erradicates true worship and exalts feeling good over glorifying Christ. People attend churches based on criteria surrounding whether or not the foyer’s coffee shop serves hot lattes, how short the service is on Sunday so they can get home to mowing the lawn, or whether they can conveniently go to a thirty-minute Saturday night service and disregard the Lord’s Day all-together. Is this biblical reformation? Not at all. It’s quite the opposite. So, what are the marks of true biblical reformation? Do you know what they are? Are you set on fire through the unction and power of the Spirit of God and his word to reap something spiritually beneficial, heartily reformed yet laced with Christian joy? Are you on fire for Biblical Reformation before God for the glory of Jesus Christ? C. Matthew McMahon, Ph.D., Th.D., is a Reformed theologian, and pastor of Grace Chapel in Crossville, TN. He is the founder and chairman of A Puritan's Mind, the largest Reformed website on the internet for students of the Bible concerning Reformed Theology, the Puritans and Covenant Theology. He is the founder of Puritan Publications which publishes rare Reformed and Puritan works from the 17th century, specializing in the Westminster Assembly. He is also a managing partner at Reformed.org, and the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics.

There is no real commendability in a mere resolve. If Christians resolve to do something, and never actually get around to doing it, what good is that? A weak and wobbling resolution in this way, holds in it nothing of real value. But if Christians desire to glorify the living Christ in their kingdom service, then such service does, truly, come in light of biblical resolution. For a true and Spirit-guided resolution to take place, the Christian mind considers many things. All Spirit-filled Christians turn all resolving powers into execution. Having a resolve to do something is a wonderful beginning. It ties two parts of a duty together for the Christian; to resolve and to do. Being resolved as a Christian, sets forth a deliberation of the mind about the thing to be resolved on. No wise Christian will ever resolve to do anything until he has considered the action, and weighed it in the balance of Scripture with himself, and fully debated its necessity and expedience. How might a Christian be resolved in the work of doing good always before God? And in what main categories might resolution take place? In considering a holy resolve, a fixed determination of serving King Jesus, this book will cover five marks: Mark 1: resolved to do great works for the glory of God in everything. Mark 2: resolved to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Mark 3: resolved to reject all earthlimindedness. Mark 4: resolved to righteously use the means of grace for further sanctification as Christ prescribes. Mark 5: resolved to continue to do good without growing weary.

Do you long for a closer relationship to the Savior Jesus Christ? Do you desire a more intimate communion with God each day? Every true Christian does. The purpose of this volume in the "5 Marks Series" is to cover the spiritual disciplines housed in private devotions and family worship. It is a study on how the biblical doctrines of reading Scripture, prayer and godly meditation practically work in the life of the believer. These spiritual disciplines will help further conform them into the image of their only Savior Jesus Christ, both individually pressing them towards a godly reformation, and also to reform the family as a Christian household. It is to come to know God in a deeper and more intimate manner, and to be empowered by the Spirit of God for the glory of Christ. This work covers the following five marks of devotion to God: Mark 1: Daily Bible Reading and Study Mark 2: Daily Meditation Mark 3: Daily Prayer Mark 4: Fasting Mark 5: Family Worship

In this study, McMahon considers the universal and perpetual teaching of loving God and loving one’s neighbor, as it pertains to the heart, soul and mind of a Christian. His main text is taken from Christ’s words in Matt. 22:37-39, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” The love that Christians ought to have in light of biblical reformation, consist in loving God with all the heart, soul and mind, and loving one’s neighbor. Though this is often thought of as a nice “religious” sentiment, many Christians have no idea how that works out in the life of the Christian. Where did Jesus get such a notion, and what was he teaching? Biblical reformation is set within this “love to God” and that without it, no one can ever be reformed, and no revival will ever take place in the whole world. In this, Jesus’ words are far reaching, and they are a basic fundamental tenant of the Christian religion. Jesus did mean what he in fact said, to love God in heart, soul and mind is loving him in a superlative degree, the highest degree. Does this seem impossible? How does reformation and loving God fit together? And how does reformation of the heart, soul and mind for God’s glory and our good work itself out in light of Scripture? This is the substance of this work.

Scripture furnishes Christ’s blood-bought church with everything it needs to worship God effectively with the greatest degree of honor (John 4:24). The holy exaltation of God by his people is vital to giving him high praise in glorifying Christ in their worship before his uncompromising majesty. Such a congregation of holy worshippers have certain qualities that distinguish them from the world. In such a distinction, there are five non-negotiable marks of a biblical church without which, a church unchurches itself. These marks not only aid Christians to discern the nature of a healthy church, but differentiate the Spirit empowered qualities of a biblical church from that which is false. From 1 Tim. 3:14-15, McMahon explains what it means for the church to conduct itself in God’s house, “which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” He biblically and historically sets down the five invariable marks of the church: Mark 1: Biblical Preaching Through Sound Doctrine Mark 2: Biblical Administration of the Sacraments Mark 3: Biblical Administration of Church Discipline Mark 4: Biblical Leadership Mark 5: Biblical Worship

This volume is a spiritual journey through five important Scriptures: Jeremiah 3:1, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 16:4, 1 Samuel 17:34-35, and Ezekiel 36:9. It demonstrates the cultivation of true assurance that Christians can sincerely have as believing Christians, if they trust in the work of Jesus Christ. In these pages, the Christian will find a spiritual feast in God’s love to the soul (that God is for you if you are a believer), and the soul reciprocates this to him, in service before Christ, to love him back, even into eternity. This coming of Christ to be near to his redeemed people is, in its highest and transcendent nature, seen in the incarnation of the Son of God. In this drawing near to them, he shows, by action, that he is God with us. And, he testifies that he is God for us, as Ezekiel, 36:9 says, “For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown.” God draws near to his people in Christ, to turn to them, to be for them, to till them and sow into them the glorious Kingdom of God. “What shall we say then to these things?” In the Father’s ordination of the work of redemption through Christ, even from before the foundation of the world, we find that the saint’s infirmities cannot wholly remove Christ’s love for them in their present weaknesses and fallen state, if they are truly redeemed. He does this as the great Shepherd of the sheep, the Shepherd of his people, whom he loved before the foundation of the world. Christ is the Spiritual David who was planned before the beginning of time to work and merit salvation in rescuing his lambs from the mouth of the lion and the paw of the bear. Sinners find that drawing near is to believe in him by faith, to draw great virtue from him in the Spirit. They come to understand that the way to receive the virtue of Jesus Christ is by touching him in faith, and in this they are resolved to follow Christ the King without reservation casting themselves on his infinite mercy in everything.

One of the greatest depictions of God’s providence in Scripture is the historical narrative of Joseph, who was sold into slavery, and worked under Potiphar, the chief steward of Pharaoh. Within the course of this narrative, while Joseph is in his house, Potiphar’s wife comes to him many times to lure him off to sin in one of the most bold and forthright temptations to be recorded anywhere in the Bible. She had longing, wandering eyes and comes to tempt him, assaulting him, “day by day,” constantly, and audaciously. Joseph’s reaction to this wicked assault is an instant refusal to the temptation. “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). What biblical directives can be found in this amazing statement of holiness and godliness? From this one text McMahon meticulously explains how Joseph’s victory over temptation against Potiphar’s wife can be used by the believer today for their own victory to the glory of Jesus Christ. Christians need to be prepared to deal with temptation in a manner in which they will be victorious in the power of Christ’s Spirit. But they can only do this if they understand what Joseph understood in regards to God, temptation and the heinous nature of sin. He covers such topics as: the great evil of sin, the relationship between sin and God’s holiness, how to live faithfully before God’s omniscience and omnipresence, the nature and character of temptation, what it means to resist temptations, how holy fear aids the Christian in light of temptation, what the Spirit works in a Christian motioning them to holiness, how one can cultivate a sensitivity to the Spirit’s work, the inconsistency in sinning against God, how usefulness in God’s kingdom is linked to holiness, the power of Christ’s Gospel as the full remedy to temptation and sin, as well as a number of other important considerations. (He also includes a study on the “hedge of protection” that is mentioned in Job 1:10 as an appendix to the work.) This book faithfully explains and applies Genesis 39:9 demonstrating Joseph’s godly resolve and the unreasonableness of sinning against God. Here you will find what steps you can take, following devout Joseph, to keep yourself from falling into sin through the craftiness of temptation, that you may bring the most glory to Jesus Christ in your walk before God.

This work expounds on Scripture, and outlines, from a biblical point of view, why Christ has sent his coronavirus to covenant breakers in his church. The thesis is that the world-wide virus (and other calamities which are building and exploding in our day) are here primarily for Christ’s church; his disobedient, covenant breaking church. This is a difficult and saddening time for many people. At the time this work was written, almost 689,000 people have died worldwide from the coronavirus, (158,000 in the US) and the Lord is adding more and more calamity to our country on top of the horrors of prolonged and disease-ridden death. All of it is calamity upon calamity. It’s actually “calamity” that God promises his covenant breaking church if they do not repent. What will the church do in a time like this? Since the calamity is growing and not subsiding, it doesn’t seem like the church is doing much of anything collectively to stop the plague by way of reform, much less those things that have not layered on top of that. The church needs to repent of its idolatry, its lack of scriptural precision, its confessional dismissiveness, its abominable worldliness in the sanctuary of God, and the dishonor they are continually bringing King Jesus, the one they "profess" to serve. God deals very harshly yet tenderly with his people when they break covenant with him. Taken from Leviticus 26, this work expounds and describes the following: that pestilence is a sign from Christ to his church, Christ’s remedies against the plague are sovereign prescriptions he alone commands, Christian humility is needed during times of occasional repentance (and what occasional repentance is), humility in prayer and fasting with godly zeal is required, what the nature of Christ’s afflicting providences are, and a number of other subjects related to the plague, especially if the church does not repent, that they are daring Christ to do his worst against them in their spiritual indifference.

The watchman’s life is a life of consecration; a life on the wall dividing the world and church, to watch and take heed, to sound the alarm, and bring God’s message to his people boldly, faithfully and plainly. The watchman acts in the name of another, that is, of God, who has called him to the task of watching which includes praying (power) and preaching (guidance and direction). He is commissioned by God with supernatural gifts (given by the effectual work of the Spirit on behalf of Christ) which allows him to discern, speak and work in the ministry by the word God has given him to preach. He officiates in that office as one commissioned of God on behalf of God’s people. He is not sent of his own accord, but sent of God to minister the words of Christ to his beloved church. In this work on the watchman of Ezekiel 33, McMahon explains the nature of the watchman, the work of the watchman, the watched of the watchman and the faithful exercise of his duty on behalf of Jesus Christ, who has commissioned him to serve his sheep as a faithful steward of the glory of Gospel.

In the contemporary church biblical teaching revolving around the Ten Commandments is inconsistent at best. Paul’s statement, misunderstood, is often what Christians will run to, “for ye are not under the law, but under grace,” (Rom. 6:14). Christians often want to divorce themselves from God’s holiness. They frequently do not understand how holiness in life is attached to both God’s character, and God’s commandments. Today's church is very happy to take Christ as Savior, in some instances, as prophet, but not so much as King. Christ says, “If a man love me, he will keep my words.” The man who loves Jesus as he ought, what will the outcome be for him in this act of loving? “…and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” (John 14:23). Union and communion with Christ are set on keeping his words. The King commands his people and he expects them to obey. This is not legalism, as if one would work for their justification, but rather, it is obedience, that one would be made more like the King in holiness. Christ says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” (John 14:15). This work takes Christ’s Ten Commandments, the commands of King Jesus, and not only expounds their basic teachings, but also how those commands apply to the life of the Christian. First considered is the relationship between the Law and the Gospel. Then each command will be considered, in both their positive and negative aspects (i.e. do not lie, also means, tell the truth). Then three concluding chapters will cover, 1) those people who count the Law of God as a “strange thing;” 2) those people who turn away from the Law and reject it; and 3) how Christ is the “end” of the Law for all believers, and what that actually means in light of his covenant work and merit. This is a practical study of how the “law of Christ” applies to every Christian both in obedience and submission to Christ the King, and for the good of their growth in holiness.