Testimony, confession, and baptism: Hans
A baptismal service in which a new believer makes public profession of faith through immersion, grounded in the 1689 London Baptist Confession's teaching on baptism as a sign of union with Christ through his death and resurrection. The candidate recounts a providential journey from Eastern mysticism and Stoic philosophy to Scripture, tracing his conversion to a sermon on Matthew 24:15 and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as the demonstration of God's simultaneous justice and mercy. The confession of faith is administered through four credal questions, after which the candidate is baptized as a public declaration of a grace already received.
The Sanctifying Benefit of the Gospel
Romans 6:1–4 confronts the objection that justification by faith alone licenses continued sin, and Paul's answer is grounded not in moral resolve but in the gospel itself. The sermon traces the inextricable link between justification and sanctification: those united to Christ by faith have died, been buried, and been raised with him, and Christian baptism is the appointed sign and symbol of that union. Because the Christ who secured justification gives his Spirit to effect sanctification, the two benefits are inseparable — the same gospel that frees believers from the penalty of sin is the power that breaks sin's dominion. The primary application is that believers fight sin first by reckoning themselves dead to it in Christ, not merely by external restraint.
2LBC Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate
2 London Baptist Confession Chapter 24 examines the divine origin, proper scope, and Christian obligations relating to civil government. Civil magistrates are ordained by God, under his authority, for his glory and the public good, with their power limited to maintaining justice and peace through the sword — encompassing criminal punishment, capital justice, and defense against foreign invasion. The sermon argues that Christians may lawfully serve as magistrates or soldiers, directly contra the Anabaptist tradition, and that the Confession's three paragraphs provide a sufficient framework for navigating contemporary political crises. Believers are called to submit to lawful commands, resist unlawful ones, and pray persistently for governing authorities so that the church may worship freely.
The Active Obedience of the Righteous One
Psalm 15 poses the question of who may dwell in the presence of God, and this exposition argues that the answer is not a moral prescription for the believer but a description of the active obedience of Jesus Christ alone. The psalm's portrait of the righteous man — pure in works, words, company, and commitments — indicts every reader who imagines it describes them, and points instead to the one man in human history who satisfied every demand of God's law with perpetual, exact, entire obedience. Justification is God's act of pardoning all sin and imputing that accomplished righteousness to the believer through faith alone, so that sinners described in Psalm 14 enter the holy hill of God solely on the merits of the Savior described in Psalm 15.
The Conversion of the Apostle Paul
Paul's gratitude in 1 Timothy 1:12–14 is inseparable from the radicalism of his own conversion. Working through these three verses, this exposition traces the apostle's pre-conversion state — blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent man — as deliberately set up to magnify the sovereign mercy that overthrew him on the road to Damascus. The sermon gives careful attention to the nature of Paul's ignorance in unbelief, distinguishing it from the willful, light-rejecting sin of those who witnessed Christ's signs and wonders firsthand, and shows how effectual calling brought not only forgiveness but a hermeneutical key that unlocked the entire Old Testament. The governing application is that every believer, like Paul, stands before God not on the ground of moral reformation or law-keeping but solely on received mercy and exceedingly abundant grace — and that this reality is the wellspring of genuine Christian gratitude.
The Goodness of God's Law
The law of God is good — but only when used lawfully. Expounding 1 Timothy 1:8–11, this sermon defends the goodness of the moral law against both antinomian dismissal and legalistic distortion, situating Paul's argument within the classical Reformed framework of the law's three uses: civil, pedagogical, and normative. The false teachers in Ephesus had neither understood the law nor handled it properly, and Paul's corrective is not to demote the law but to demonstrate its proper function — restraining lawlessness in society, exposing the sinner's need for Christ, and directing the justified believer in the path of sanctification.
The Psalmist's Description of Depravity
Psalm 14 furnishes a comprehensive doctrine of total depravity, showing that man's rejection of God is not merely intellectual but ethical — a practical atheism that issues in universal corruption and abominable works. The psalmist's two-part structure moves from the description of the ungodly (vv. 1–3) to the deliverance of the godly (vv. 4–7), with Paul amplifying the same argument in Romans 1–3 by citing and structurally imitating the psalm. The only remedy for the corruption of the heart is not behavioral modification but the righteousness of Christ received through faith — the salvation that comes out of Zion — which gives believers both ground for evangelism and comfort in a sin-cursed world.
The Central Sanctuary
Deuteronomy 12 establishes the principle that Israel's worship must be conducted where and how God commands — not where or how the surrounding nations worship their gods. Working through four sections of the chapter, this exposition traces the logic from the destruction of Canaanite shrines and the centralization of sacrificial worship, through the legislation governing ordinary and sacrificial eating, to the climactic prohibition of verse 32: 'You shall not add to it nor take away from it.' The regulative principle of worship is not an Old Covenant curiosity but a transcovenantal demand, grounded in the first and second commandments and confirmed in the New Covenant by 1 Timothy 3:15 and Hebrews 12:28-29. The sermon calls hearers to resist the perennial temptation to import pagan practices and autonomous creativity into the worship of the living and true God, and to find in prescribed worship the very joy and blessing God promises his obedient people.
The Lament of the Psalmist
Psalm 13 is a lament psalm of David that moves through raw grief — the perceived forgetfulness of God, the daily sorrow of the soul, and the threat of encroaching enemies — to a resolved trust in the covenant mercy of God. The sermon traces this trajectory through the true humanity of Christ, who himself prayed lamentingly in Gethsemane and on the cross, establishing lament as a legitimate and God-given vehicle of prayer for his people. Lament is distinguished sharply from whining: whining refuses to petition God and ends in despair, while biblical lament drives the soul toward God and terminates in doxology. The congregation is called to bring their distress boldly to the throne of grace, resting in the hesed of God covenanted to all who are found in Christ.
The Priestly Blessing of the Ascending King
Luke 24:50–53 closes the Gospel with the ascending Christ lifting His nail-pierced hands to bless His disciples at Bethany — a gesture laden with Old Testament typology, most immediately the Aaronic priestly blessing of Leviticus 9. The sermon argues that this blessing is not a mere farewell gesture but an authoritative, ongoing priestly act: Christ ascended while still blessing, signifying that His intercession and the bestowal of divine favor upon His people never cease. Preached in the context of a Lord's Supper service, the exposition calls believers to receive the sacrament as participants in the everlasting blessing of the great High Priest, and to respond with the pattern of the early disciples — continuous, corporate, joyful worship of the Triune God.
2LCF Chapter 22 Of Religious Worship and Sabbath Day Part 2
The perpetual moral obligation of the Christian Sabbath is grounded not in Sinai alone but in the creation ordinance of Genesis 2, where God blessed and sanctified the seventh day as a reflection of his own divine perfections. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 22, paragraphs 7 and 8, frames the Sabbath as a positive-moral commandment — moral in its trans-covenantal, creation-rooted character, and positive in its covenantal form, shifting from seventh-day to first-day observance upon the resurrection of Christ as the inauguration of the new creation. The day belongs to God before it belongs to man: the governing question is not what may be avoided on the Lord's Day, but how near to God the worshipper may draw. Paragraph 8 calls for whole-souled preparation, rest from works, words, and thoughts entangled in worldly concerns, and the filling of the day with public and private worship, works of necessity, and works of mercy.
The promise of blessing or curse
Deuteronomy 11 sets before Israel a stark covenantal choice: blessing conditioned upon obedience to the Lord, or curse consequent upon idolatry and rebellion. Working through the chapter's three sections — the works of God rehearsed in history, the requirement of covenant fidelity, and the promise of blessing or curse — the sermon traces how Israel's failure to meet the covenant's demands is precisely the ground upon which Christ, as the true Israel and last Adam, fulfills all righteousness and absorbs the covenant curse on behalf of his people. The exhortation closes by connecting Deuteronomy 27:26 to Galatians 3, showing that the Mosaic covenant of works for Israel becomes the ground of Christ's redemptive obedience and that justification has always been by faith alone in the one who kept what Israel could not.
The Apostle's Charge to Timothy
Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3–7 commands the silencing of false teachers in Ephesus who taught other doctrine, devoted themselves to fables and endless genealogies, and generated disputes rather than godly edification. The charge is not motivated by power or animosity but by love flowing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith — the fruit of regeneration. The false teachers compounded their error by combining ignorance of the law with arrogant confidence in their own assertions, a combination the apostle deems disqualifying. Churches today must hold the same line: qualifying teachers rigorously, refusing platforms to the heterodox, and measuring all teaching against the truth as it is in Jesus.
2LCF Chap. 22 Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The regulative principle of worship — the doctrine that God alone prescribes the acceptable manner of his own worship — is the controlling theme of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 22, paragraphs 1 and 2. Drawing on Deuteronomy 12:29-32, 1 Timothy 3:14-15, Hebrews 12:18-29, and the narrative arc of Exodus through Leviticus, this study argues that Scripture consistently restricts corporate worship to what God commands, forbidding both addition and subtraction, across both the Old and New Covenants. The contrast between Leviticus 9 (divine approval) and Leviticus 10 (divine judgment on Nadab and Abihu) illustrates that coloring outside the lines God has drawn in worship carries deadly consequences. The practical application presses hearers to reject the normative principle of worship — the view that anything not expressly forbidden is permitted — in favor of the regulative principle: in worship, do only what God commands, with reverence and godly fear.
The Psalmist's Cry in an Age of Deceit
Psalm 12 presses the question Psalm 11 leaves open: not what becomes of the wicked in the end, but how the people of God survive and remain faithful in the present evil age. The sermon traces two movements in the psalm — the destruction of foundations (vv. 1–4), marked by idle speech, flattery, and the proud autonomy of godless men, and the preservation of the righteous (vv. 5–8), grounded in God's arising to deliver the oppressed and in the utter purity of his Word. David's prayer is read through a Christological lens: the psalm is supremely the prayer of Christ in his earthly ministry, opposed at every step, yet sustained by the Father's Word and promise. The congregation is urged to respond to cultural and ecclesiastical decay not by retreat or despair but by theology, prayer, and dependent trust in the pure and preserving Word of God.
Ask FGBC #64: Who Should Catechize Your Children?
Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6:4 establish the family — and the father in particular — as the primary locus of catechetical responsibility for children, not the church, the school, or civil government. The church's role is complementary: it equips parents, and through preaching, catechism classes, and Sunday school it instructs children alongside the home. Rote memorization of a catechism plants doctrinal truth that takes deep root at conversion, making faithful repetition a discipline as foundational as teaching a child to read or to do arithmetic.
The Central Demand of the Covenant
Deuteronomy 10 presents the central demand of the Mosaic covenant — that Israel fear, love, and serve the Lord with all their heart and soul — set against the backdrop of the golden calf incident and the covenant's renewal. The sermon traces this demand from its roots in Deuteronomy 10:12–13 through its echoes in Genesis 18, Proverbs 21, Hosea 12, Zechariah 7, Micah 6, and Matthew 23, demonstrating that obedience rooted in heart religion has always been God's requirement of His people. The threefold division of the law is expounded, with the moral law established as perpetually binding while the ceremonial law finds its fulfillment in Christ and the judicial law expires with the Israelite theocracy. The sermon closes by pressing believers to hold fast to God, keeping His law not as a means of justification but as the pattern for sanctification purchased by Christ, the true Israel who alone fulfilled the covenant.
The Courage of the Righteous One
Psalm 11 presents the righteous man — supremely the Lord Jesus Christ — facing the temptation to abdicate his calling when wicked enemies ready their arrows and the foundations of moral order appear destroyed. The sermon expounds two movements: the temptation to flee (vv. 1–3) and the fortification found in contemplating God's sovereignty, omniscience, and justice (vv. 4–7). Because Christ steadfastly set his face toward Jerusalem and drank the cup of divine wrath to its dregs in the place of his people, believers have every reason to resist the same temptation to cowardice and unbelief, and to stand firm in the Lord.
The Introduction to First Timothy
What does it mean for a letter written to one man in one city to carry the authority of God himself? This introductory sermon on 1 Timothy 1:1–2 traces the post-prison ministry of the Apostle Paul, establishes the historical occasion of the letter, and unpacks the significance of Paul's self-description as 'an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior.' The greeting's three blessings — grace, mercy, and peace — are shown to be not mere formalities but the divinely appointed means by which Timothy could wage war against the false teaching overtaking Ephesus. The sermon closes with an appeal to sinners: the entire infrastructure of apostolic authority, qualified elders, and sound doctrine exists so that God might effectually call the lost through the foolishness of preaching.
Ask FGBC #63: What is Baxterianism?
Baxterianism, drawn from the teaching of 17th-century minister Richard Baxter, replaces the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone with a scheme in which God justifies the believer on the ground of evangelical obedience to a relaxed 'law of the gospel.' This Q&A exposition identifies Baxterianism as a conflation of justification and sanctification, a departure from the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience, and an implicit relaxation of the moral law — errors addressed directly by 1689 LBCF chapters 11, 13, and 19. The discussion grounds its critique in Galatians 2:16 and the consistent witness of Paul that sinners are justified by faith alone, not by any human obedience, through the sole and finished work of Christ.
Review Of Israel's Rebellion
Deuteronomy 9 confronts Israel's temptation to attribute their inheritance of the promised land to their own righteousness, and Moses systematically dismantles that presumption. The chapter divides into the anticipation of the conquest (vv. 1–6) and a recapitulation of Israel's wilderness rebellions (vv. 7–29), each episode confirming that Israel stood not by merit but by the sovereign mercy of God and the faithfulness of his covenantal promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses's intercessory prayer at the chapter's close models covenant pleading that appeals not to Israel's worthiness but to God's glory, his sworn word, and the redemption he himself accomplished. The passage calls God's people in every era to forsake self-righteousness and rest entirely on divine grace.
Church Reports
Pastors and church planters from a Reformed Baptist association gather to deliver reports on the state of their congregations, church plants, and mission works across western Canada, Mexico, and West Africa. The reports span churches at various stages of maturity — from a newly constituted church plant in central Canada to an established congregation in Guadalajara overseeing a theological education ministry for Latin America. A recurring theme across all reports is the ordinary means of grace as the ground of congregational health, the acute shortage of qualified men for ministry, and the need for confessionally grounded churches across regions dominated by nominalism, Pentecostalism, and various cults. The assembled churches are encouraged to pray for one another and to trust that God's glory, not numerical success, is the measure of faithful ministry.
Being Strengthened
Colossians 1:11 describes one of four characteristics of a life that pleases God: being strengthened — a passive reception of divine power, not a self-generated act of will. The sermon expounds the action, the gift, the measure of the gift, and the goal of the gift, arguing that God infuses his people with all needed power according to the inexhaustible measure of his own glorious might. This strengthening is the mechanism by which believers endure patience and longsuffering under any and all circumstances of life. Sinners who have not yet come to Christ are invited to the only Savior who both grants entrance into the Christian life and sustains his people all the way to glory.
The Danger of Neglecting the Means of Grace
Hebrews 2:1–4 issues the first formal exhortation of the letter: pay much closer attention to what you have heard, lest you drift away from so great a salvation. The sermon traces the logic from Hebrews 1 — the Son of God is the final and supreme Word of God, surpassing angels, prophets, and every prior mediator — to the terribleness of neglecting that Word. Three causes of drift are identified: over-familiarity with the gospel, allowing lesser things to displace the greater, and the hardening of the heart through closed ears. The remedy is the faithful use of the means of grace — the gathered assembly, preaching, baptism, and the Lord's Supper — through which Christ continues to speak to his people.
CTF 2026 - Dr Richard Barcellos Book Presentation - A Faithful Steward
At a seminary conference, colleagues and friends present Dr. Richard Barcellos with a festschrift titled 'A Faithful Steward,' compiled in his honor. The presentation draws on 1 Corinthians 4:2 — 'it is required of stewards that they be found faithful' — as the governing theme of his decades of ministry in preaching, writing, and theological education. John Gill's exposition of that verse is read as a description of Barcellos's own ministry: preaching the pure gospel without human mixture, declaring the whole counsel of God, seeking the honor of Christ rather than the applause of men.
CTF 2026: Q&A Panel Discussion
A panel of Reformed Baptist and Reformed theologians fields audience questions on some of the most demanding loci in Reformed theology: federal headship and the fall, God's effective and permissive will in the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the mystery of the first sin, free will as acting according to nature, hyper-Calvinism, the infralapsarian and supralapsarian debate, and the legitimacy of the free offer of the gospel under God's exhaustive decree. The discussion is frank about the limits of creaturely knowledge on questions the secret will of God has not resolved, while insisting that doctrinal humility and ordinary means of grace—not cage-stage polemics or churchless social media—are the proper context for growth in these truths.
CTF 2026 - Session 2: Introducing “Of God’s Decree”
What does it mean that God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass, and how should that staggering claim be approached without either flattening its force or drawing false conclusions from it? This lecture introduces 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter three ('Of God's Decree'), establishing three guiding principles for the study: the decree is not our duty to obey, it remains largely veiled in mystery despite its scriptural attestation, and it demands a robust creator-creature distinction throughout. Working through 2LCF chapters two through five as a unified doctrinal unit, the lecture distinguishes God's imminent work of decreeing from his transitive works of creation and providence, and sets up the question — to be addressed in the following session — of whether God's comprehensive decree makes him the author of sin.
CTF 2026 - Session 4: Pastoral Sermon
Hebrews 2:10 declares that it was fitting for God — the source and goal of all things — to bring many sons to glory through the sufferings of Christ. This sermon traces the eternal decree of election to glory, showing that the predestined are appointed not only to grace but to the full unveiled sight of God in Christ. Drawing on Hebrews 1–2, 2 Corinthians 4, and Psalm 36, the preacher argues that regenerate eyes now see the glory of God refracted through creation, Scripture, and the means of grace, as a foretaste of the unmediated vision that awaits the saints. The exhortation is to resist stopping at the creature, tracing every creaturely beauty upward to God himself, and to hunger for the glory that outweighs all present suffering.
CTF 2026 - Session 1: God's Decree in the Puritan Confessions
The doctrine of God's eternal decree, as confessed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Savoy Declaration, and the Second London Baptist Confession of 1677/1689, is not a single isolated chapter but a thread woven through the entire fabric of Reformed confessional theology. Drawing on Isaiah 46:8–11, this study traces the decree from its grounding in the doctrine of divine simplicity through creation, providence, the fall, covenant, redemption, the ordo salutis, perseverance, the spread of the gospel, and final judgment. The three Puritan-era confessions are shown to form a deliberate family — Westminster as parent, Savoy as child, and the Second London as grandchild — sharing common language and structure while registering careful Baptist and Congregationalist revisions. The study calls hearers not to speculative curiosity but to humble worship before the sovereign God whose decree is simply God decreeing.
CTF 2026 - Session 3: Is God the Author of Sin?
Two difficult theological questions frame this conference session: Is God the author of sin, and do a believer's sins work together for good? Drawing on 1689 LBCF 3.1, Acts 2:23, Acts 17:28, and Romans 8:28, the session argues that God's comprehensive, eternal decree encompasses all things — including sin — without making God personally culpable for evil, because sin is a privation of good rooted in the creature's deformed nature rather than in God's infinitely good being. The session closes by showing from Romans 8:28, with support from Robert Haldane and Genesis 50:20, that God's overruling providence turns even the believer's own sins toward their ultimate good and his glory — not as license to sin, but as ground for humility, dependence, and hope.