The Qualifications of Elders, Part 3
What qualifies a man for the office of elder extends far beyond his pulpit gifts — Paul's requirements in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 encompass his household, his maturity in the faith, and his standing before outsiders. This third installment in an expository series on elder qualifications examines three remaining criteria: the man's domestic faithfulness (ruling his wife and children well), his experience in the faith (not a novice), and his testimony among those outside the church. The sermon draws on Ephesians 5–6, Titus 1, Proverbs, and Spurgeon's 'Lectures to My Students' to show that these qualifications protect both the church and the man being considered for ministry.
Of God's Decree - Chap. 3
God's decree — his eternal, comprehensive, and unchangeable purpose over all things — is the subject of 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 3. The confession affirms that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, including the free and sinful actions of men, without becoming the author of sin or violating the will of the creature. Paragraph 2 refutes the Molinist and Arminian claim that God's decree is grounded in his foreknowledge of human choices, insisting instead that election puts sinners in Christ rather than finding them there. The doctrine is shown to be practically consoling, doxologically oriented, and inseparable from the character of God as defined in Chapter 2.
October 20, 2021 - Wednesday Night Bible Study: Exodus 16:1-36
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Exodus 16 - Bread from heaven
Exodus 16 records Israel's complaint in the wilderness and God's provision of quail and manna, revealing that grumbling against His appointed servants is ultimately grumbling against God Himself. The chapter is expounded under three headings: the promise of bread (vv. 1–12), the presence of bread (vv. 13–31), and the preservation of bread (vv. 32–36). The manna narrative carries a Sabbatarian argument — the double portion on the sixth day presupposes Sabbath observance that predates Sinai, pointing back to Genesis 2 and forward to Exodus 20 and Hebrews 4. The episode also functions typologically, anticipating Christ as the true bread from heaven in John 6, and calls God's people in every covenant administration to daily dependence on their Provider rather than grumbling against His providence.
The Discourse on God's Salvation, Part 2
John 3:16 — Luther called it 'the Bible in miniature,' and this exposition treats it as precisely that: a compressed statement of the whole Christian gospel. The sermon moves through three divisions of the verse — the declaration of God's love, the demonstration of that love in the gift of the only begotten Son, and the description of those who receive God's redemptive love through faith. Central to the argument is the insistence that God's love is the source, not the consequence, of the atonement, and that 'the world' in John's vocabulary denotes persons from every tribe and tongue without ethnic distinction, not every individual without exception — a conclusion that grounds particular redemption in the wider theology of John's writings. The sermon closes with a direct appeal to unbelievers: the one way of salvation is to believe on Jesus Christ alone, whose active obedience supplies the righteousness that sinners need and whose substitutionary death removes the condemnation they deserve.
The Qualifications of Elders, Part 2
What does Scripture require of those who lead and teach the church? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this sermon works through the apostle Paul's qualifications for the elder-bishop-pastor office, arguing that these standards are not perfectionist ideals but demonstrated graces and virtues that the church must require of any man considered for gospel ministry. The qualifications are examined under four heads: the man's desire and its right motives, his personal conduct, his domestic faithfulness, and his testimony among outsiders, with particular attention given to the distinction between blamelessness and sinlessness, the meaning of 'husband of one wife,' and the danger of a Gnostic misreading of the prohibition on wine. The sermon closes with a call to churches to pursue both the edification of the saints and the evangelistic mission that God ordained through the office of pastor-teacher.
Exodus 15 - Song of Moses
Exodus 15 records the Song of Moses, a celebration of divine redemption and righteous judgment sung by Israel after the destruction of Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. The sermon expounds the threefold structure of the song — the triumph of the Lord, the defeat of the Egyptians, and the majesty and incomparability of God — before tracing its prophetic reach into the nations' fear of Yahweh and the ultimate goal of covenant dwelling. The bitter waters of Marah complete the chapter, exposing Israel's reflexive grumbling as a failure to trust the God who had already done the greater work of redemption. Hearers are called to praise God for both his saving mercy and his just judgment, and to pass that doxological heritage to the next generation.
Chapter 2, Para. 3 - The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit as the third subsistence of the one divine essence is the subject of this study in Chapter 2, Paragraph 3 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. The session traces the Spirit's presence and deity through both Testaments, works through the meaning of eternal procession from the Father and the Son (the filioque), and engages the historical debates at the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Toledo that shaped confessional Trinitarian language. The practical conclusion drawn from the Confession is that the doctrine of the Trinity is not abstract speculation but the foundation of all communion with God and the believer's comfortable dependence upon Him.
A Practical Example for the Suffering Christian
Psalm 61 presents David at the edge of the wilderness — heart overwhelmed, throne usurped, kingdom collapsing — as a concrete example of what it looks like for a suffering believer to cry out to God, refocus on covenant faithfulness, and be brought from despair to joyful praise. The sermon traces three movements in the psalm: the cry for help from the brink of despair (vv. 1–2), the deliberate refocusing on God's past faithfulness, the Davidic covenant, and the eternal inheritance of the Messiah's kingdom (vv. 3–7), and the resulting resolve of praise (v. 8). David's process is not mystical — it is conscious, disciplined engagement with the means of grace: prayer, meditation on covenant promises, and fixing the mind on the eternal kingship of Christ. Suffering Christians are exhorted to follow that same pattern rather than abandoning the means of grace at the very moment they are most needed.
The Discourse on God's Salvation, Part 1
Jesus answers Nicodemus's question — 'How can these things be?' — by pointing to three realities: his own incarnation as the one who descended from heaven, the Old Testament typology of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21, and the necessity of his crucifixion as the antitype to whom sinners must look in faith. The sermon works through John 3:11–15, examining Christ's authority to speak of heavenly things, the doctrine of the hypostatic union and the communication of idioms, and the parallel between Israel's look-and-live prescription in the wilderness and saving faith in the crucified Son of Man. The application is direct: the antidote to sin is not moral reformation but faith in the lifted-up Christ, who alone secures justification and eternal life for believing sinners.
Exodus 14
Exodus 14 records the crossing of the Red Sea — a chapter whose driving theme is not merely Israel's deliverance but God's self-glorification over Pharaoh and his army. The exposition works through two main movements: the plan of God (vv. 1–14), in which God sovereignly directs Israel's route and hardens Pharaoh's heart so that He may gain honor, and the power of God (vv. 15–31), in which divine promise, protection, and action result in the salvation of Israel and the destruction of Egypt. Israel's fear and complaint throughout the chapter expose a chronic lack of faith, while Moses' brief but confident exhortation — 'Do not be afraid; stand still and see the salvation of the Lord' — models the response that faith in God's promises produces.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 3
Matthew 27:45–46 records the fourth of Christ's seven words from the cross — the cry of dereliction, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — and its interpretation demands both exegetical precision and doctrinal care. The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour was not a solar eclipse but a supernatural sign of divine judgment, recapitulating the ninth plague pattern and marking the moment the Passover antitype was slain. The cry itself does not imply any ontological division within the Trinity, any dissolution of the hypostatic union, or the suffering of all three persons; rather, it expresses the withdrawal of divine consolation from the Son according to his true humanity as he bore, in our place as surety, the full weight of penal wrath. Believers are called to ground their assurance not in felt divine presence but in the covenant faithfulness of the God to whom Christ still cried 'my God' even in the depth of his substitutionary suffering.
The Meeting with Nicodemus, Part 2
John 3:4–10 confronts every hearer with the absolute necessity of regeneration before any entrance into the kingdom of God. Working through Nicodemus's proud misunderstanding and Christ's patient explanation, this exposition argues that the new birth is entirely God's sovereign work — initiated by the Holy Spirit, prefigured in Ezekiel 36 and Deuteronomy 30, and entirely prior to saving faith. The sermon also draws out the Trinitarian theology embedded in Christ's wind analogy, showing that the Spirit's sovereign, effectual work in regeneration reveals who God is, not merely what He does.
Wednesday Night Bible Study - Exodus 13:1-22 (Sept 29, 2021)
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Exodus 13 - The consecration of the firstborn
Exodus 13 grounds the consecration of Israel's firstborn in the redemptive logic of the tenth plague: because God spared Israel's firstborn while striking Egypt's, Israel's firstborn belong to him — to be set apart, sacrificed if clean, or redeemed if human or unclean. The chapter's twin emphases on perpetual remembrance through the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the catechetical instruction of children press the same truth across generations: God's people are defined by what God has done for them, not by their own merit or strength. The typological weight of substitutionary redemption — one life in the place of another — finds its terminus in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, making these ordinances intelligible only in light of Christ. Practically, the sermon calls the congregation to remember the mighty works of God, to sacrifice freely in gratitude for redemption received, and to pass this theological inheritance faithfully to the next generation.
Sunday School - Chapter 2.3 - the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a mathematical formula but a carefully defined confession of one divine being eternally subsisting as three distinct persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This session works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 2, paragraph 3, examining the unity and equality of the persons, their distinction by eternal relations of origin, and the contemporary crisis caused by the abandonment of eternal generation. The denial of threeness is as heretical as the denial of oneness, and a recovery of Nicene Trinitarianism is essential not only for theological orthodoxy but for the health of the soul and the vitality of corporate worship.
The Qualifications for Elders
What qualifications does Scripture require of a man before he may serve as an elder in a local church? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this sermon establishes that the elder, overseer, and pastor are three terms for one office, and that the qualifications Paul lists are not recommendations but binding mandates. The sermon works through the first qualification — a genuine, rightly-motivated desire for the office — and frames it within four criteria for evaluating a call to ministry: right motives, graces indicating genuine Christian experience, gifts indicating divine provision (especially aptness to teach), and providential opportunity. The congregation is exhorted to apply these standards carefully and not to install any man, however virtuous or personable, who lacks the God-given ability to preach and teach the word.
The Meeting with Nicodemus
John 3:1–10 presents Jesus confronting Nicodemus — a ruler of the Sanhedrin sent by the Jerusalem religious leadership — with the doctrine of regeneration: that a man must be born again, born from above, before he can see or enter the kingdom of God. The sermon argues that the new birth is entirely a sovereign act of God Most High, not a command for the sinner to obey by his own power, and that regeneration logically precedes and produces saving faith rather than following it. Those born of God will evidence that new life through faith in Christ, a practice of righteousness, love for the brethren, and an overcoming of the world.
Exodus 12, part 2
Exodus 12:29–51 records the execution of the tenth plague, the departure of Israel from Egypt, and the regulations governing who may participate in the Passover. The death of every firstborn in Egypt—from Pharaoh's throne to the dungeon—is presented not as arbitrary cruelty but as the righteous retribution of a holy God against a nation that had enslaved and slaughtered His people, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15. The Passover ordinance, with its requirements of circumcision for participation and the prohibition against breaking the lamb's bones, functions typologically to point forward to Christ, who is our Passover sacrificed for us, whose bones were not broken at the crucifixion.
The Antitype of the Temple
John 2:18–25 presents Jesus as the antitype of the Old Testament temple — the reality to which the type pointed and in which it finds its fulfillment and realization. The Jews' demand for a sign of his authority after the temple cleansing is answered by the one definitive sign: the death and resurrection of Christ, which the apostle John interprets for the reader in verses 21–22. The sermon also treats the omniscience of Christ as evidence of his divinity, demonstrated in his refusal to entrust himself to those whose belief was superficial and temporary. Hearers are called to flee to Christ in genuine faith and repentance, receiving both forgiveness of sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ that avails before the Father.
The Earthly Temple in Stephen's Defense
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:44–50 is not an attack on the temple but a demonstration that the Sanhedrin itself has misunderstood it. Working through the tabernacle, David's desire, Solomon's building, and Isaiah's oracle, Stephen shows that Israel's entire sacrificial and dwelling-place theology was typological — pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true temple in whom God dwells with his people. The sermon argues that the dispensational expectation of a rebuilt physical temple in Jerusalem represents a retreat from fulfilled typology, and calls hearers to receive Christ as the antitype of all that the earthly sanctuary signified.
Exodus 12 - Part 1
Exodus 12 presents the institution of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a blood ritual pointing forward to Christ, the anti-type of the Passover lamb. The chapter is expounded in three movements: the specific blood-ritual instructions God gives to Moses and Aaron (vv. 1–13), the regulations for the memorial Feast of Unleavened Bread (vv. 14–20), and Moses's transmission of those instructions to the elders of Israel (vv. 21–28). The blood on the doorposts was not a sign for an omniscient God who needed locating data, but an outward expression of the faith of those who believed Yahweh's word — a pattern fulfilled when Christ, the blemish-free Lamb, shed his blood so that the wrath of God passes over all who trust in him. The study closes by drawing out the catechetical purpose embedded in the Passover ordinance: that each generation would rehearse the redemptive acts of God and understand that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
LBC - Chapter 2 - Of God and the Trinity
What does Scripture reveal about God's relationship to his creation, and how does that shape the creature's obligation to the Creator? Working through paragraphs two and three of Chapter 2 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, this study expounds three perfections of God in his external relations: his aseity (independence and self-sufficiency), his omniscience, and his holiness. From Acts 17, 1 Kings 8, Psalm 113, Psalm 115, Daniel 4, Ephesians 1, and Romans 9, the instructor demonstrates that God is the sole fountain of all being, exercises most sovereign dominion over all creatures, and is morally pure in all his counsels, works, and commands — and that these perfections ground the creature's comprehensive obligation of worship, service, and obedience to the Creator.
The Cleansing of the Temple
Jesus' cleansing of the temple in John 2:13–17 is not an aberration from his character but a direct expression of his identity as the Son of God and the antitype of the temple itself. The passage reveals two inseparable realities: the apostasy of first-century Israel's worship and the messianic zeal prophesied in Psalm 69, Malachi 3, and the post-exilic prophets. Christ's authority to purge the temple rests on his sonship by nature, not adoption, and his action announces that the entire Old Covenant sacrificial system finds its fulfillment in him. The sermon calls the church to recover zeal for the purity of God's worship, to identify and resist the defections of contemporary Christendom, and to look in faith to the Lamb who has displaced every animal sacrifice.
The New Heaven and New Earth
Revelation 21:1–8 presents the new heaven and new earth not as the annihilation and replacement of creation but as its renovation — the consummation of covenant blessing in which God dwells fully and finally with his redeemed people. Working through four elements of the vision (the new creation, the bride, the announcement of blessing, and the voice from the throne), this exposition situates John's language within the broader biblical storyline of paradise lost in Adam and paradise restored in Christ, and interprets the new Jerusalem as the church — the covenant community that has replaced apostate Israel as the bearer of God's covenant promises. The sermon closes with a meditation on individual eschatology, drawing on Job, the Psalms, and the Apostle Paul to comfort believers with the certainty that those who die in Christ pass immediately into his presence, and that the fullness of covenant blessing awaits them in the age to come.
Exodus 11
Exodus 11 announces and describes the tenth plague — the death of the firstborn throughout Egypt — which God executes directly and immediately, without mediation through natural means. The chapter is structured around three movements: the promise of liberty and prosperity to Israel, the announcement of sweeping judgment upon every household in Egypt, and Pharaoh's continued, God-ordained rebellion. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is treated not as mere divine permission but as a just act of sovereignty, displaying God's power, holiness, and mercy simultaneously — mercy to Israel being inseparable from judgment upon her oppressors.
The Wedding at Cana of Galilee
John 2:1–12 recounts the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine as the first of his public signs. The sermon traces three movements in the passage — the setting, the sign, and the summary — and argues that the miracle is not merely a display of power over nature but a prophetically charged inauguration of new covenant abundance, anticipated by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, and Zechariah. The water pots of Jewish purification give way to wine that surpasses what came before, signifying that the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ exceeds the law given through Moses. The closing application presses hearers to heed the one command Mary gives in all of Scripture: whatever Jesus says, do it.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 2
Matthew 27:39–44 records the threefold mockery of Christ on the cross — by passing bystanders, by the chief priests and scribes, and by the robbers crucified alongside him. Each taunt — that he could not save himself, that his kingship was fraudulent, that his claim to divine sonship was false — is shown to be an ironic confirmation of the very things the mockers deny: Christ's identity as temple builder, King of Israel, and Son of God. His refusal to descend from the cross is not weakness but the perfect obedience of the covenant of redemption, the very means by which he saves his people from their sins. The sermon closes with the conversion of the penitent thief as a trophy of sovereign grace and an argument for faith in a willing Savior.
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) - Sunday School Study - August 29, 2021
What does it mean that God is 'without body, parts, or passions'? This study works through Chapter 2, Paragraph 1 of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, examining the perfections of God under three classical categories: divine incorporeality (God has no body), divine simplicity (God is not composed of parts), and divine impassability (God does not undergo emotional change). By grounding each doctrine in Scripture and the church's historic theological grammar — including the distinction between proper and improper predication, accommodation, and anthropomorphism — the exposition argues that God's transcendence over every creaturely category is not a cold abstraction but the very foundation of confident worship and unshakeable assurance for his people.
The Pharisee and the Publican
This exposition of Luke 18:9–14 examines the parable of the Pharisee and the publican as a penetrating diagnosis of self-righteousness and a declaration of justification by faith alone. The sermon works through the occasion of the parable, the contrasted characters of the two men, and Christ's concluding verdict that the tax collector — not the Pharisee — went home justified. The central contention is that acceptance before God rests entirely on the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith, not on any moral performance or religious accomplishment, and that those who understand this will be marked by humility rather than contempt toward others.