CTF 2026 - Session 2: Introducing “Of God’s Decree”
God's decree, as confessed in Chapter Three of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, is a revealed mystery demanding both theological precision and creaturely humility. The scope of that decree is comprehensive — God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass — and yet it must be carefully distinguished from God's will of precept, from any necessity of nature, and from any conferral of actual being through the decree itself. Three guiding principles govern the study: the decree is not our moral duty, it remains largely veiled despite scriptural revelation, and any engagement with it requires a robust Creator-creature distinction throughout. The pressing question raised by so radical a scope — whether God is therefore the author of sin — is the burden taken up in the subsequent lecture.
CTF 2026 - Session 4: Pastoral Sermon
Hebrews 2:10 frames the whole of redemptive history as God bringing many sons to glory through the sufferings of Christ, and this sermon traces that theme from the eternal decree of predestination through the means of grace in the present assembly to the consummation awaiting the saints. Drawing on John Owen's exposition of Hebrews, the 1689 London Baptist Confession's chapters on God and election, and John Calvin's theology of creation as a theater of divine glory, the sermon argues that God's eternal purpose is both ultimate — his own glory — and penultimate — the saints' participation in that glory. The congregation is urged to receive the Word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper as present foretastes of the glory to come, and to read creation itself as a stepping stone toward knowing and enjoying God rather than a terminus for the affections.
CTF 2026 - Session 1: God's Decree in the Puritan Confessions
The doctrine of God's eternal decree, far from being confined to a single chapter, runs as a unifying thread through the entire fabric of the three major Puritan confessions — the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Savoy Declaration, and the Second London Baptist Confession of 1677/1689. Drawing on Isaiah 46:8–11, this lecture traces how the divine decree undergirds Scripture's authority, creation, providence, the fall, the covenant of grace, the person and work of Christ, the ordo salutis, and the final judgment. Because the decree is simply God decreeing — an expression of His eternal, immutable, and holy will — the doctrine is inseparable from the classical Christian doctrine of God in His simplicity, sovereignty, and self-sufficiency. Believers are called to receive this doctrine humbly, to resist both the error of making God the author of sin and the error of bare permission, and to respond with worship as they watch the eternal decree unfold in history.
CTF 2026 - Session 3: Is God the Author of Sin?
The comprehensive decree of God—that he has ordained whatsoever comes to pass—immediately raises two pressing questions: Is God therefore the author of sin, and do a believer's own sins somehow work for their good? Drawing on 1689 LBCF 3.1, Acts 2:23, Acts 17:28, and Romans 8:28, this session argues that God cannot be the author of sin because sin is a privation of good rather than a positive entity, and God, being essentially and immutably good, cannot be the deformed agent that authoring sin would require. The doctrine of concurrence—God acting as the divine first cause while creaturely second causes act according to their own natures—resolves how God upholds sinners in their sinning without being morally implicated in that sin. Believers are called to receive even their falls as instruments in the hand of a sovereign God who overrules the effects of sin to produce humility, dependence, and ultimately a glorified state exceeding even Adam's original condition.
A Trinitarian Blessing
Why does Paul conclude his most difficult letter with the New Testament's fullest Trinitarian blessing? This benediction reveals how genuine Christian love responds to conflict—not with bitterness or recrimination, but with a prayer that invokes the grace of Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit upon even the most troublesome believers. Paul's final words demonstrate that the doctrine of the Trinity forms the foundation of all our communion with God, and that grace, love, and fellowship are not rewards for good behavior but the very source from which repentance and obedience flow. The apostle urges us to find hope in this blessing whatever our struggles may be, teaching us to receive Christ's grace in temptation, meditate on God's love in difficulty, and remember the Spirit's presence in weakness.
The Ascended King - Daniel 7:13-14
The Theater of His Glory
Baptism in the Old Testament
Why do Old Testament washings, not circumcision, provide the proper framework for understanding Christian baptism? This seminar challenges the common Reformed assumption that circumcision serves as the typological foundation for baptism, arguing instead that the Mosaic washings—particularly priestly consecration and ritual cleansing—point forward to New Testament baptism. The presentation traces how Jesus fulfilled the priestly washing requirement and how believers, as priests under the New Covenant, participate in this symbolic cleansing to approach God's presence. Rather than defending baptism reactively, this approach reclaims the biblical-theological initiative by demonstrating baptism's rich Old Testament foundations.
Confessing The Faith - 2026 Conference Livestream
Ask FGBC #62: What is Federal Vision?
Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The Challenge and Confidence of the Psalmist - Psalm 10:1-18
The Opened Sanctuary
Ask FGBC #61: Conviction of Sin Before or After Regeneration?
Life in the Wilderness and Canaan
The Justice and Mercy of the Lord, Part 2
The Commendation of the Philippian Church
Ask FGBC #60: How Necessary is Seminary for Pastors?
How essential is seminary training for pastoral ministry, and what qualifications truly matter for those called to preach God's Word? While seminary education is not an absolute biblical requirement—as evidenced by Christ's apostles and self-taught giants like Spurgeon—the church's role as "the pillar and ground of the truth" demands pastors who are genuinely "apt to teach" and capable of laboring faithfully in sound doctrine. The central issue is not educational credentials but theological competence, with seminary training serving as valuable preparation for the weighty responsibility of feeding Christ's sheep through faithful exposition of Scripture.
The Believer's Contentment
2LCF Chap. 21 of Christian Liberty and Liberty of conscience
The Justice and Mercy of the Lord
Ask FGBC #59: What is Faith?
The Authority of Christ Over the Demons
The Blessings of Obedience
SLBC: Of The Gospel, and the extent of the grace thereof
The Authority of Christ Over the Demons
Christ's authority over the demonic kingdom is the central demonstration Matthew presents in chapter 8, where two men reduced to a subhuman, tomb-dwelling existence are liberated by a single word from the Son of God. The passage exposes both the wretchedness of Satanic bondage — no glamour, only madness, nakedness, and self-destruction — and the sufficiency of Christ's power to deliver the most apparently irredeemable sinners. The sermon draws a direct line from the Gadarene demoniacs to Paul's confession in 1 Timothy 1:15, arguing that the same sovereign grace that rescues the most visibly ruined also reaches the self-righteous religious man who trusts in his own standing before God. Parents, youth, and all hearers are urged to flee the occult, resist the devil through gospel proclamation, and rest in the one whose word alone — 'Go' — dismantles the kingdom of darkness.