Cited in sermons
A.T. Lincoln
7 sermons · All people cited
The Whole Armor of God, Part 1
Ephesians 6:10–17 calls the believer to armed, active resistance against a spiritual enemy whose power and cunning exceed any merely human opposition. The sermon works through three movements in the passage: the necessity of the armor (vv. 10–11a), the reason for it in the reality of demonic spiritual warfare (vv. 11b–12), and the meaning of each defensive piece — truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, and salvation — drawn from both Old Testament background and Paul's wider corpus. Against the tendency toward either passive Christianity or an obsessive preoccupation with demonic activity, the text calls every believer to stand, hold ground, and advance, doing so entirely in dependence on the power of the risen and ascended Christ who reigns over all principalities and powers.
The Necessity to Walk in Wisdom, Part 2
Ephesians 5:18–21 sets a prohibition against drunkenness alongside a positive command to be filled with the Spirit, and this sermon works through both in sequence. A biblical theology of alcohol is developed first: Scripture neither condemns moderate use nor condones drunkenness, and the sinner — not the substance — bears the blame. The filling of the Spirit is then interpreted not as a charismatic second work of grace but as the ongoing pursuit of the Spirit's presence and power through prayer, illuminated by the parallel text in Colossians 3:16 where 'being filled with the Spirit' corresponds to 'letting the word of Christ dwell richly.' The congregation is urged to seek more of the Spirit's influence through prayer, knowing that the evidences of that filling are speech, song, thanksgiving, and mutual submission.
The Transition from Darkness to Light, Part 1
Ephesians 5:3–7 calls believers to a radical break from the sexual sins that characterised their former life in darkness. Working through the three prohibited actions (fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness) and three prohibited forms of speech (filthiness, foolish talking, and coarse jesting), the sermon demonstrates that these sins are not merely behavioural failures but expressions of idolatry—putting creaturely gratification above God. The consequences are grave: those who unrepentantly practice such things have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, a warning grounded in both general revelation and the consistent testimony of the apostolic letters. Believers are called to resist deception through the word of God, to replace vile speech with thanksgiving, and to ground their ethical obedience not in moral effort alone but in the imputed righteousness of Christ.
The Conduct of the New Man, Part 3
Ephesians 5:1–2 concludes Paul's extended exhortation on the conduct of the new man (Ephesians 4:17–5:2), calling believers to be imitators of God as dear children and to walk in love. The basis for this imitation is theological: God is definitionally love (1 John 4:8, 16), believers have been adopted into his family by sovereign election and effectual grace, and family membership carries both privilege and responsibility. The motivation for walking in love is the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ, whose self-offering was an acceptable sacrifice to the Father — the antitype of the Old Testament burnt offering — and whose love supplies both the standard and the ground for all Christian love toward God and neighbour.
The Conduct of the New Man, Part 2
Ephesians 4:29–32 calls believers to put off corrupt speech and bitter dispositions and to put on edifying words and a forgiving heart — not as conditions for salvation, but as conduct that flows necessarily from it. The sermon exposits the structure of Paul's exhortations: a prohibition, a positive exhortation, and a motivation in each subsection. Corrupt speech grieves the Holy Spirit, who has sealed believers for the day of redemption; and bitterness, wrath, clamor, and evil speaking are symptoms of the old man that must be mortified. The sermon closes with the ground of all Christian forgiveness: God in Christ has already forgiven us, and that forgiveness is the cause, not the goal, of our forgiveness toward others.
The Gifts Given by the Ascended Christ, Part 2
Ephesians 4:11–13 presents Christ's ascension gifts to the church — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers — not as a support structure for general congregational ministry, but as the primary agents of three coordinate purposes: perfecting the saints, engaging in the work of ministry, and edifying the body of Christ. The sermon argues at length for a reading of verse 12 that sees all three prepositional phrases as dependent on the gifted men of verse 11, contesting the newer 'every-member ministry' interpretation found in modern translations and commentaries. The church's corporate maturity and doctrinal stability depend on qualified, diligent, Word-centered ministers whom Christ in his wisdom and kindness has given as gifts, and the congregation bears a corresponding responsibility to receive and honor that ministry.
Conduct Unbecoming a New Man
Colossians 3:5–11 calls believers to put to death sins of the flesh and put off sins of the tongue as conduct unbecoming of the new man in Christ. The sermon works through two parallel sections: the cluster of sexual sins (fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness) rooted in idolatry, and the sins of speech (anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language, lying) rooted in corrupt internal dispositions. Throughout, the preacher insists that the motive for mortification is not moralism but gospel indicative — the old man is dead, the new man is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator. The closing application presses both the unconverted and the baptized: acting like a Christian does not make one a Christian; salvation rests entirely on the finished work of Christ, and only from that ground does holy conduct flow.