Countless people have said of Walt Gerber that it was from him they "first heard grace preached." Walt, a popular pastor in the heart of Silicon Valley, loved Jesus, prayer, people, and the Bible, and this shows in every one of these fifty sermons, prayerfully chosen from among the hundreds he gave.

Walt was a Silicon Valley titan of the most unassuming kind. He had no website. No blog. No Twitter. No social media of any kind. He never published a book or developed a technology. But as senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church for twenty-eight years, Walt was a titan of grace. He had a way of speaking, like no one else, directly to listeners' hearts through his sermons. Caring, relational, and compassionate, Walt was more concerned about "the ultimate heresy of making God boring," as he put it, than with church growth. But the church did grow under him-from 2000 members in 1974 to 5500 members in 2002. People flocked to hear Walt present his God as he knew him . . . full of love, grace, kindness, and fun.

For each sermon, relevant Scriptures and discussion questions are provided, making this book ideal for personal devotions or small-group study.

Resolved, that, by the grace of God, I will not merge my office as a minister of the gospel, in that of professor. I will still preach as often as my Master gives me opportunity and strength. I am persuaded that no minister of the gospel, to whatever office he may be called, ought to give up preaching. He owes it to his ordination vows, to his office, to his Master, to the church of God, to his own character, to his own soul, to go on preaching to his last hour. Lord, give me grace to act on this principle!

With this commitment in place, Samuel Miller entered his career at Princeton Seminary determined not to allow his professorial duties to diminish his calling as a minister of the gospel. And with such conviction, Miller did, indeed, continue preaching unto the last days of his life. Holding Fast the Faithful Word collects a number of sermons Miller had published during his ministry. Miller's sermons are models of organizational clarity.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, James Macdonald of Edinburgh purchased a box of old papers which had belonged to a preacher of around sixty years earlier. The contents might have seemed of little value, but to some they were altogether priceless. They were the notebooks and sermon notes of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, the godly and devoted minister of St Peter's Church, Dundee. From these papers, lodged in the library of New College, Edinburgh, Dr Michael D. McMullen has transcribed the sermons found in this set of three volumes. They are indeed a precious treasure. Whether based on Old Testament or New, every sermon is full of Christ: the sinners need of Him, the fullness of His grace, the happiness of those who come to Him, and the danger of stopping short of genuine faith in Him. They will remind preachers and ordinary Christians alike that to preach Christ aright, one must first know Him, and live in the atmosphere of His love.

Unlike a commentary, a sermon serves a different purpose. Herein find Calvin expositing the Word, exhorting God's people and applying its truths to real life. But let the reader be warned - this volume contains lively preaching!

Throughout his long ministry in Geneva (1536"€"38, 1541"€"64), Calvin was a tireless preacher. He spoke of course to a specific congregation and at a particular point in time. Even so his sermons have travelled well across both time and space. God's word is not bound by history or geography, and Calvin's French has a robust plainness and directness which allows it to cross barriers of language and culture with relative ease.

Of the 101 sermons which the Reformer preached in 1554"€"55 on the Pastoral Letters, thirty, on Paul's second letter to Timothy, are presented here. They have been newly translated from the original French. They offer a clear, forthright exposition of the biblical text, but also challenge the reader to live out the truths taught, since to be profitable God's word must transform the way we think, feel and act. In Calvin's hands the sermon is an instrument of real and lasting change.