The last 3 messages on Ruth from John Piper's time in the UK are now available.

Last night John Piper spoke at UCCF’s annual World Missions Service. The message was divided in two parts:

John Piper is speaking this week at the Universities & Colleges Christian Fellowship Forum near Weston Rhyn, England.

Message 1 of 4 on the book of Ruth is now available.

In the new book, Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints, John Piper and four others encourage Christians to keep on until the end.

In an interview that is included in the book, John Piper says,

In addition to Piper's contribution,

What will your small group be doing this fall? The John Piper Small Group Series is one way to center your small group around the Bible as you pursue Christian maturity together.

Desiring God has designed these resources to be flexible so that each group can use the videos, study guides, and books according to what best fits their context.

You may not have noticed, but a lot of things were added to the website last month. It's a goal of ours to make our content as complete as possible, so we regularly post material from the past that Pastor John has written or spoken.

Here are some of the recent additions:

Again, these are just some highlights. You can locate anything that has been added by glancing through our Resource Library.

We have 2 specials on books starting today.

First, a free copy of Taste and See will be added to orders from our store that are over $25.

Second, we're offering some of our overstock from past conference bookstores at greatly reduced prices. All titles are only $3.99.

Please call 1-888-346-4700. This sale is only available by phone and will continue while supplies last.

Here are the books that are available:

This Week's Sermon: "What Is Baptism, and How Important Is It?"

(Part 2 of a 3-part series on baptism and church membership )

The drama of baptism gets its meaning from the gospel.

It pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It's not mainly about ritual or tradition but Jesus and his magnificent saving work of dying for sinners and rising again in triumph.

Baptism is:

A sense of the continuity of the old and new covenants leads some people to baptize infants. But the argument for infant baptism doesn't work textually or covenantally.

Textually, the apostle Paul makes plain that baptism is for those who have been raised with Jesus through faith (Col. 2:12) and are sons of God through faith (Gal. 3:26–27). Baptism is not for those who don't have faith in Jesus—whether adult unbelievers or infants.

Covenantally, while the old-covenant sign of circumcision was administered to males after their physical birth into the national people of God, the new-covenant sign of baptism is to be administered to both males and females after their spiritual birth into the international people of God. New birth by the gospel now provides entrance into the people of God, not physical birth, and is marked by believer baptism, not circumcision.

Both baptism and local-church membership are serious and important. May God grant us the wisdom of Christ not to minimize either.

This week's sermon: "How Important Is Church Membership?"

(It is the first of 3 sermons on baptism and church membership.)

Church membership is a blood-bought gift of God's grace. So it is no small thing for a Christian to stiff arm church membership—or for a church to stiff arm a born-again believer from membership.

Part of what it means to belong to the body of Christ is to belong to a local body, because God intends the local church to be an expression of his universal church.

The New Testament gives at least five strands of evidence that a definable, local-church membership is necessary:

This week's sermons: "Declare His Glory Among the Nations"

The sixth and final message in the series "Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God"

The Psalms speak to all of life. They help us in guilt and discouragement. They show us how to praise when our hearts are full. They guide us when we've been wronged.

But there is something missing. God did not make known his ways or reveal his glory or display his marvelous works for us alone, or for our ethnic group alone. He did it for all the peoples—every tongue, tribe, and nation.

He summons us to sing, and in doing so to summon the nations to sing a new song with us. And at the center of our singing for all eternity will be our global Savior, the God-man, the Lamb who was slain.

This is overflow from a pastoral staff discussion on how to be free from covetousness. Fred Johnson had drawn our attention to Achan’s stealing and lying in Joshua 7:11. Jericho had fallen before Israel. The riches of the city were not to be taken. But Achan took garments and silver and gold. He hid them and tried to deceive the leaders.

Why did he do this? When he was caught, Achan gives the answer: “I coveted them and took them” (Joshua 7:21). Covetousness. He desired the silver, gold, and garments more than he desired fellowship with God...

Read the rest of the article.

This Week's Sermon: "Pour Out Your Indignation Upon Them"

Part 5 of the series "Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God"

Psalms that curse can make us squirm.

Is this really in the Bible? What about Jesus' command to love?

The key to understanding the imprecatory or cursing psalms is to see how they are handled by the New Testament authors—and even see them on the tongue of Jesus on the cross.

These psalms are both prophetic of God's judgment and reflective of the suffering of God's anointed. They help us to approve of God's judgment, anticipate the sacrifice of Christ, and incline our hearts toward forgiveness and forbearance.

You can now listen to John Piper's 2nd message at Resolved.

You can also read the manuscript he based this message on.

Message Title: "Bless the Lord, O My Soul"

Part 4 from the series "Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God."

Not only do the Psalms teach us how to be depressed well and how to feel guilt well, but they also help us deal well with God's goodness toward us.

Psalm 103 teaches us to "bless the Lord"—to praise God—and to do so in the presence of others.

This is one of the key ways in which we can impart trust in Jesus to a coming generation—especially a father to his children.

You can now listen to John Piper's first message at Resolved.

He spoke about hell, beginning with 5 things we need to believe about it:

Then he explained how hell is an echo of God's glory. And finally he made clear that no one can be saved simply by not wanting to go to hell.

There's no manuscript for this message, but you can read the sermon series that this message was based on. It includes much of the same content, including most of the quotes he used.

This week's sermon: "A Broken and Contrite Heart God Will Not Despise"

This is the 3rd part in the series "Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God."

Being crushed with guilt can be good. Psalm 51 teaches us what it's like and how to be crushed with guilt well.

Christians get discouraged. We sin and feel miserable about it. But we are connected by faith to Jesus. This shapes how we think and feel about our sin and guilt.

Being a Christian means being broken. It marks the life of God’s happy children until they die. Brokenness is the flavor of Christian joy and praise and witness.

This week's sermon: "Spiritual Depression in the Psalms"

Part 2 of the series, "Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God"

The end of Psalm 42 isn't happy, but it is hopeful. The psalmist is in duress. There are tears and turmoil. His soul is downcast, and he asks God Why?

He's fighting for hope. He thirsts for God and affirms God's love and preaches good news to himself. And even in the midst of his great discouragement, he has the wherewithal to sing.

Audio is available for John Piper’s two messages at New Attitude on Memorial Day:

This week's sermon: "Songs That Shape the Heart and Mind"

Part 1 of the series, "Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God"

The Psalms couple instruction with emotion. In ancient Israel, they shaped both the hearts and minds of kings and prophets and soldiers and farmers. Likewise, God designed the Psalms to shape the heart and mind of his church today.

Psalm 1 opens this great songbook by zeroing in on delight in God's word. The righteous are those who are watered by the river of the gospel, which swells with the perfect life and atoning death of Jesus Christ.

You can now listen to the Wheaton Alumni Symposium. The panel was Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and John Piper. They discussed changes in Evangelicalism over the last 40 years (the length of time since they all graduated from college).

It begins with a 10-minute intro from each; then there's some discussion among themselves; and it closes with some questions from the audience.