The promise of blessing or curse
Deuteronomy 11 sets before Old Covenant Israel a stark choice: obedience leading to blessing in the land, or disobedience leading to curse and exile. The sermon traces three sections of the chapter — the works of God in Israel's history, the requirement of obedience, and the promise of blessing or curse — showing how the covenant of works that Israel repeatedly broke is fulfilled by Christ, the true Israel of God, who bore the covenant curse on the cross. The Apostle Paul's argument in Galatians 3 is brought to bear: all who trust in works of law are under the curse, but Christ has redeemed his people from that curse by becoming a curse for them, so that the blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles through faith alone.
2LCF Chap. 22 Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The regulative principle of worship — that God alone prescribes acceptable worship through his revealed Word — is the governing claim of 2LCF Chapter 22, paragraphs 1 and 2. The confession grounds this in natural theology: the light of nature declares that God exists and deserves worship, but general revelation cannot instruct the creature in how that worship is to be conducted. Scripture alone, from Deuteronomy 12 through 1 Timothy 3 and Hebrews 12, maintains that God's people are neither to add to nor take away from what he has commanded in public worship. The sermon calls hearers to reject the normative principle of worship and instead color strictly within the lines God has drawn, worshiping with reverence and godly fear rather than with entertainment, felt-need satisfaction, or cultural innovation.
The Psalmist's Cry in an Age of Deceit
Psalm 12 confronts the believer with a world of flattering lips, double hearts, and lying tongues — both outside and inside the professing church — and asks how the righteous can persevere when the foundations are being destroyed. The sermon argues that the psalm is preeminently the prayer of Christ in his earthly ministry, who faced this same godless opposition and who, as the incarnate covenant head, is the definitive fulfilment of verse 5's divine promise to arise and set the oppressed in safety. The contrast between the corrupt words of the wicked (verses 1–4) and the pure, tried word of God (verses 5–8) teaches that theology, prayer, and dependence upon Scripture are the appointed means by which the pilgrim church endures in a present evil age. Unbelievers are warned that the autonomy expressed in verse 4 — 'our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?' — leads to the judgment of God, and are called to kiss the Son before his wrath is kindled.
The Apostle's Charge to Timothy
Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3–7 exposes a crisis in the Ephesian church: false teachers devoted to fables and endless genealogies were generating disputes rather than the godly edification that flows from sound doctrine. The sermon traces two movements in the passage — the apostolic charge to silence the heterodox and the anatomy of the false teachers' departure from the law — demonstrating that gospel ministry is driven by love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. The application presses churches to hold elders to the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, to refuse a pulpit to the unqualified, and to guard the congregation against any teaching that diverts attention from the truth as it is in Jesus.
Ask FGBC #64: Who Should Catechize Your Children?
The Central Demand of the Covenant
Deuteronomy 10 confronts Israel — and every subsequent reader — with the central demand of the covenant: to fear God, love Him, walk in all His ways, and serve Him with undivided heart and soul. The first eleven verses narrate the renewal of the Sinaitic covenant after the golden calf catastrophe of Exodus 32, demonstrating that Israel's continuation rested entirely on divine long-suffering and the intercession of Moses, not on any righteousness of their own. Verses 12–22 then press the covenantal demand that runs from Genesis 18 through Micah 6:8 and into Matthew 23, showing that the people always knew what God required but consistently failed to live accordingly. The passage finally anticipates what only the new covenant can accomplish: the circumcision of the heart wrought by the Spirit through the gospel of the true Israel, Jesus Christ, apart from any merit in the creature.
April 19, 2026
April 19, 2026
The Courage of the Righteous One
The Introduction to First Timothy
Paul's apostolic authority and his commission 'by the commandment of God our Savior' stand at the center of 1 Timothy 1:1–2, establishing both the legitimacy of Paul's office and the delegated authority of Timothy in Ephesus. This introductory sermon traces Paul's missionary journeys, his post-imprisonment ministry, and his relationship with Timothy to locate the Pastoral Epistles within the apostle's life and the history of the early church. The epistle's overarching purpose — directing ministers and churches in conduct, refuting false teaching, and declaring sound doctrine — is shown to be as binding on congregations today as it was on the church at Ephesus. The sermon closes with a call to unbelievers to receive the Christ whom God, the Savior, sent into the world to save sinners.
Ask FGBC #63: What is Baxterianism?
Review Of Israel's Rebellion
April 12, 2026
Church Reports
Pastoral reports from seven Reformed Baptist churches and church plants across western Canada and one international context form the substance of this Lord's Day gathering. Congregations in Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario — ranging from newly constituted works to established churches of over a hundred attendees — report on membership growth, expository preaching programs, confessional development, and the ordinary means of grace sustaining church life. A detailed report from a pastor in Guadalajara, Mexico describes a three-pillar theological education ministry (seminary, publishing house, and bookstore) aimed at raising up the next generation of confessionally Reformed pastors and theologians for Latin America. The gathering is framed by Psalm 133, prayer, and a closing doxology, expressing the covenantal vision of churches dwelling together in associational unity for the glory of God.
April 12, 2026
CTF 2026: When peace like a river
CTF 2026: Dr "Rich Beeke" - books you need to buy!
Being Strengthened
The Danger of Neglecting the Means of Grace
Being Strengthened - Colossians 1:11
Confessing The Faith - Conference
CTF 2026 - Session 5: The End or Goal of God's Decree
Romans 11:36 declares that all things are 'of him, through him, and to him'—a text that opens onto the question of what God's decree ultimately aims toward, its telos. This lecture-sermon argues that the end or goal of God's decree is not speculative but revealed: the manifestation of God's glory for creaturely apprehension, so that rational creatures might enjoy and adore what God is in himself. Because creation is the execution of the decree, the telos of creation and the telos of the decree are identical—all things proceed from God as efficient cause, are sustained through him as providential cause, and return to him as their final end. The sermon draws on Bavinck, Webster, and Augustine to refute the notion that God decreed creation out of need, insisting instead that God's creative love flows from the abundance of his generosity, not from any deficiency in the divine life.
CTF 2026: Q&A Panel Discussion
A conference Q&A panel explores difficult questions arising from the doctrine of God's exhaustive decree, including federal headship and the fall, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the authorship of sin, the infralapsarian and supralapsarian debate, and the legitimacy of the free offer of the gospel. The panelists frankly acknowledge the limits of creaturely knowledge before the secret things of God, grounding their answers in Scripture, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and the tradition of Reformed orthodoxy. Practical counsel closes the session: those newly awakened to Reformed theology are urged to slow down, submit to the ordinary means of grace, read widely before entering debates, and avoid unaccountable online discourse.
Confessing The Faith - Conference
CTF 2026 - Dr Richard Barcellos Book Presentation - A Faithful Steward
CTF 2026 - Session 7: The Benefits of Understanding God's Decree
The final paragraph of 1689 LBCF Chapter 3 — identical across the Westminster Confession, Savoy Declaration, and Second London Baptist Confession — is a pastoral exhortation calling believers to handle the high mystery of predestination with special prudence and care. This session expounds that paragraph by distinguishing between the secret things that belong to God and the revealed things that belong to his people, grounding both the exhortation and the comfort of this doctrine in Scripture rather than metaphysical speculation. The threefold benefit of rightly receiving the decree — humility, diligence, and abundant consolation — flows from a proper, word-regulated understanding of election, assurance, and the perseverance of the saints. Believers are called to pursue assurance through the means of grace, to worship God with praise, reverence, and admiration, and to press on in holiness precisely because God's decree is at work in them.
Confessing The Faith - Conference
CTF 2026 - Session 6: How God's Decree Brings Life
God's eternal decree not only appoints the elect unto glory but ordains every means by which that glory is attained — leaving nothing to chance. This session works through 1689 LBCF 3.6, showing how the decree of election flows downstream into a coherent system of doctrine encompassing redemption, effectual calling, justification, adoption, and sanctification. The doctrine of the means of grace — the preached word, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and prayer — is grounded not in human invention but in dominical institution and divine promise, administered by a presently reigning Christ through his Spirit. Believers are called to rest in the immutability of God's counsel and to make faithful use of the ordinary means he has appointed, knowing that their conversion itself is the outworking of an eternal, triune purpose.