Cited in sermons
Benjamin Keach
27 sermons · All people cited
2LCF Chapter 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.
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.
2LCF Chapter 11 - Of Justification
Chapter 11 of the Second London Confession of Faith sets forth the biblical doctrine of justification with precision: sinners are accepted before God not by infused or inherent righteousness, nor by the imputation of faith as an act of obedience, but by the imputation of Christ's active obedience to the whole law and His passive obedience in death, received through faith alone as the instrument of justification. The confession navigates the doctrine through careful negative and positive statements, guarding both the sole ground of acceptance in Christ and the inseparable connection between justification and sanctification. Believers are called to rest their assurance entirely on Christ's active and passive obedience — cleansed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness — rather than on any covenantal faithfulness of their own.
The Promise of the Covenant of Grace
Galatians 3:15–18 presents Paul's covenantal argument that the Mosaic law, given 430 years after the Abrahamic promise, cannot annul the covenant of grace nor supplement faith with legal works as the ground of justification. The sermon traces four interlocking points: the immutability of God's redemptive promise, the nature of Abraham's faith in Christ as the singular promised seed, the pedagogical and temporary character of the Mosaic covenant as a distinct covenant of works, and the inheritance as freely given by promise rather than earned by law. The pastoral application is a call to rest entirely on Christ, the champion of the covenant of grace, and to resist every system that adds law-keeping or circumcision to faith as the basis of standing before God.
The Second Commandment - Deuteronomy 5:8-11
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8-11) prohibits both the making of images to represent God and the worship of those images — two distinct but related offenses against the infinitely simple, spiritual, and incomprehensible God. Because God cannot be captured in creaturely form, any visible representation of Him, including pictures or films of the Lord Jesus Christ, violates the commandment: the hypostatic union cannot be depicted by an artist's rendering, and Christ is to be set forth through preaching, not imagery. The positive demand of the commandment is worship regulated strictly by divine command — the regulative principle — which restricts the church to the elements God has prescribed in Scripture, excluding both the inventions of men and the traditions of Rome.
2LCF Introduction and Preface to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession
The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) did not arise in a vacuum — it was forged under persecution, shaped by theological antiquity, and published to correct misrepresentations of Particular Baptist doctrine. This study introduces the Confession through its original preface, examining the necessity and utility of creeds and confessions, the historical context of 17th-century England, and the specific additions, changes, and deletions the Particular Baptists made to the Westminster Confession and Savoy Declaration. The Confession stands as a faithful summary of biblical doctrine and a demonstration that Particular Baptists stood firmly within the stream of historic Protestant orthodoxy, differing from their Presbyterian and Congregationalist brethren only on baptism, church polity, and certain covenant theology distinctions.
2LCF Chapter 30 - Of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is a perpetual ordinance instituted by Christ on the night of his betrayal, appointed for the corporate observance of the church until his return. This confession study works through all eight paragraphs of 1689 LBCF Chapter 30, surveying the historical positions on Christ's presence in the Supper — transubstantiation, consubstantiation, Eastern Orthodox epiclesis, Anglican via media, exclusive memorialism, and the Reformed spiritual presence held by the Particular Baptists — before examining what the confession affirms and opposes. The Supper is shown to be simultaneously a memorial, a proclamation of the gospel, a means of grace conferring spiritual nourishment, and a bond of communion both with the ascended Christ and with fellow believers. The Roman Catholic Mass is rejected as abominable, injurious to Christ's finished and unrepeatable sacrifice, and productive of gross idolatry and manifold superstitions that flow inevitably from the doctrine of transubstantiation.
2LCF Chapter 29 - Of Baptism, Part 2
Credobaptism rests on five mutually reinforcing theological arguments: covenant theology, federal headship, the doctrine of salvation, the clarity of New Testament revelation, and the regulative principle of worship. This session (Part 2 of a study on 2LCF Chapter 29) works through the final three arguments, demonstrating from Romans 6, Acts 2, Acts 8–9, Galatians 3, and 1 Corinthians 10 that baptism signifies union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, and therefore belongs only to those who actually possess that union. The session closes by showing that infant sprinkling not only lacks any express divine command but positively contradicts the explicit command to baptize believers only — an inconsistency that even notable paedo-baptist writers (Owen, Calvin, Matthew Henry) expose in their own defenses of the regulative principle of worship.
2LCF Chapter 25 - Of Marriage
Marriage as a divine institution is examined through the four paragraphs of 2LCF Chapter 25, with Matthew 19:5–6 as the anchor text where Christ grounds marriage in the creation of male and female. The sermon argues that marriage is not a social construct or ecclesiastical sacrament but a creation ordinance ordained by God before the fall, designed for the union of one man and one woman in monogamous covenant. A threefold providential purpose is unfolded — companionship, the inhabitation of creation, and a hedge against sexual immorality — and the regulative bounds of marriage regarding consanguinity, affinity, and Christian marital duty are applied against both contemporary sexual confusion and Roman Catholic sacerdotalism.
2LCF Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate
What does the Bible teach about civil government, and how should Christians relate to governing authorities? Working through 2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 24, this study expounds the divine origin and limited purpose of civil magistracy, the lawfulness of Christian participation in government, and the qualified obedience owed to rulers who govern within God-ordained bounds. The particular Baptists are shown to occupy a distinct position between the Anabaptist rejection of civil authority and the Erastian tendencies of their Presbyterian contemporaries, grounding Christian submission not in the authority of the magistrate but in the sovereign ordination of God over all nations.
2LCF Chapter 23 - Of Lawful Oaths and Vows
The lawful use of oaths and vows — their definition, sanctity, necessary care, and required clarity — is examined through 2LCF Chapter 23 against the backdrop of three historical abuses: Roman Catholic monastical vows, state imposition on conscience, and the Anabaptist and Quaker rejection of oaths altogether. The chapter is read in full and then expounded paragraph by paragraph, demonstrating from Deuteronomy, Matthew 5, Matthew 26, and Hebrews 6 that oaths are a legitimate element of religious worship reserved for matters of weight and moment, taken only in the name of God with holy fear and reverence. The session concludes by connecting the call to truthfulness with the person of Christ, who as the only one who ever spoke in perfect truth, stands as the substitute for those who break their word.
The Anatomy of a Letter's Main Content
Hebrews 10:19–25 grounds three congregational exhortations in the finished work of Christ as the new covenant's great high priest. The once-for-all sacrifice of Christ gives believers boldness to enter the holiest, the faithfulness of the God who promises gives ground for an unwavering confession, and the special presence of Christ among his gathered people makes the assembling of the saints the highest privilege available in this world. The sermon calls believers to reflect constantly on the person and work of Christ, to hold fast the confession of their hope without wavering, and to consider one another by refusing to forsake the assembly.
The Regulative Principle of Worship
The regulative principle of worship holds that only what God explicitly commands in Scripture is acceptable in corporate worship — nothing may be added, altered, or subtracted. This sermon works through the Old Testament foundation of that principle, tracing the divine appointment of worship through the moral law of Exodus 20, the ceremonial law governing the tabernacle and priesthood, and the stark warning of Deuteronomy 12:32. The contrast between Nadab and Abihu's condemned "strange fire" and the fire of divine approval in Leviticus 9 illustrates that God judges the manner of worship, not only its object. The congregation is exhorted to approach the living God obediently rather than creatively, recognizing that the same consuming fire who regulated Old Covenant worship governs New Covenant worship unchanged.
CTF 2024 Session 1: An Engaging Overview of the Second London Confession of Faith
The Second London Confession of Faith (1689) did not arise in a vacuum but was forged in response to specific doctrinal crises and pastoral needs within the 17th-century particular Baptist churches. This address traces the historical circumstances behind the Confession's 1677 publication — including the Christological heresies of Thomas Collier and Matthew Caffin, the threat of Quaker mysticism, fear of Roman Catholic resurgence, and the pastoral concern for family catechesis. The speaker then surveys the Confession's 32 chapters as a coherent theological architecture, showing how its structure reflects the covenant of grace viewed from both divine and human perspectives. Listeners are urged to recover the Confession as a living instrument of orthodoxy, protection, instruction, and proclamation for the church today.
The Regulation of the Church's Worship, Part 2
What right does a congregation have to alter, add to, or subtract from the worship God has ordained for His house? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon establishes that Paul's instructions carry divine necessity — the church is the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, governed by Christ its head — and that the church's common confession centres on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ: His incarnation, vindication, proclamation, and the faith He sovereignly produces in the world. The regulative principle of worship follows directly: only what God commands in Holy Scripture is acceptable worship, a principle demonstrated from the Decalogue, Deuteronomy 12:32, Leviticus 10, 1 Samuel 13, and Hebrews 12, and confessionally formulated in chapter 22 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.
2LCF Chapter 11 - Of Justification
How is a guilty sinner declared righteous before a holy God? This study of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 11 works through the six paragraphs on justification, giving careful attention to the three pairs of denials and affirmations in paragraph one. The confession is set against the Roman Catholic conflation of justification and sanctification, Socinian and Arminian errors regarding faith and evangelical obedience as the ground of justification, and the doctrine of eternal personal justification. The sole ground of the sinner's acceptance before God is the imputed active and passive obedience of Christ, received through faith alone — itself a gift of God — so that God is glorified as both perfectly just and richly gracious in the justification of sinners.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 22 grounds all religious worship in the regulative principle: God alone determines the acceptable manner of his own worship, and nothing not warranted by Scripture may be introduced. This session surveys the chapter's four movements — the regulative principle (paragraphs 1–2), the specific elements of worship (paragraphs 3–5), the appropriate location for worship (paragraph 6), and the Christian Sabbath as the appointed day (paragraphs 7–8). General revelation establishes the duty to worship; special revelation alone prescribes the way. The practical application is that Christians are bound neither to ecclesiastical tyranny (Rome, Anglicanism, independent pastoralism) nor to the inventions of men in God's house, but only to what God has commanded in his Word.
2LCF Chapter 4 - Of Creation
The 2nd London Confession of Faith Chapter 4 sets forth the biblical doctrine of creation: that the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — freely called all things into being ex nihilo in the space of six literal days for the manifestation of His glory. The study examines the Trinitarian authorship of creation, the doctrine of appropriations, the nature of man as a dichotomous image-bearer possessing knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and the probationary command given to Adam as positive law. A sustained application presses the church to hold the doctrine of six-day creation and the historical integrity of Genesis 1–3, recognizing that capitulation on creation undermines Christian ethics across every domain — marriage, sexuality, human dignity, and ecclesial order.
The Second Commandment
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8–10) does not merely forbid the worship of false gods — it forbids the worship of the true God in a false manner, a distinction that carries enormous weight for how the church orders its worship today. The sermon works through the commandment's prohibition against idols and images (including pictorial representations of Christ), the theological rationale grounded in God's jealousy and immutability, the transgenerational consequences of false worship understood not as a hereditary curse but as the imitation of godlessness, and the promise of mercy to those who love and obey God. The positive application is the Regulative Principle of Worship: only what God has commanded is acceptable, and anything beyond or contrary to that command — however sincere the motive — constitutes the offering of strange fire to Yahweh.
The Second Commandment
The second commandment forbids both the manufacture of idols and the worship of the true God by means of visible representations — a distinction the first commandment does not address. Working through Deuteronomy 5:8–10, this sermon grounds the regulative principle of worship in the doctrine of God: because God is incorporeal, incomprehensible, and infinite, any attempt to represent Him in image or statue is a theological assault on His nature, not merely a liturgical irregularity. The sermon applies this principle to Roman Catholic image-veneration, depictions of the Lord Jesus Christ (including the 'Jesus film' and similar media), and the broader failure of evangelical worship to ask what God has actually commanded.
Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day (2LCF22)
The Sabbath commandment is a moral, positive, and perpetual law binding all men in all ages — not a distinctively Jewish institution abolished with the Mosaic economy, but a creation ordinance blessed and sanctified by God from the beginning and carried forward into the New Covenant era. Working through 2LCF chapter 22, paragraphs 7 and 8, this session traces a biblical theology of the Sabbath from Genesis 2 through Isaiah and Jeremiah, establishing both the moral principle (one day in seven) and its positive element (the particular day). The shift from Saturday to Sunday is grounded in creation and redemption as the twin rationales for the commandment, anticipating the resurrection of Christ as the basis for Lord's Day worship. Hearers are called to receive the Sabbath not as a burden but as a gift given by God for the good of His creatures.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The Regulative Principle of Worship, grounded in the Second Commandment and confessed in Chapter 22 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, holds that God alone determines the acceptable way in which He is to be worshipped — nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else than what He has commanded in Scripture. Working through paragraphs 1 and 2 of the confession, this session distinguishes the first commandment (who is to be worshipped) from the second (how God is to be worshipped), showing from Romans 1, Deuteronomy 12, 1 Timothy 3, Hebrews 12, and the narrative of Saul that innovation in worship — however well-intentioned — constitutes a form of idolatry. The practical application is that the elements of corporate worship must be drawn from Scripture alone: prayer, the reading and preaching of the Word, singing, and the sacraments — with no addition, subtraction, or substitution from the imaginations and devices of men.
2LCF Chapter 28 - Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
The two ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper are positive and sovereign institutions of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only lawgiver, to be administered in His church until He returns. This study of 2LCF Chapter 28 traces the confessional and biblical foundations of these ordinances across multiple chapters of the 1689 London Baptist Confession, demonstrating how doctrines of Scripture, Christology, sanctification, saving faith, and ecclesiology together undergird their proper observance. The sermon distinguishes the Baptist use of 'ordinance' from both Roman Catholic sacramentalism and the Paedo-Baptist covenantal framework, while insisting that these are not optional ceremonies but dominical injunctions binding the conscience of every believer. Christians are called not merely to be informed about baptism and the Lord's Supper, but to obey and rejoice in them as holy appointments given for the strengthening of faith and the glory of Christ.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures
The doctrine of Scripture (1689 LBCF Chapter 1) is examined through twenty aspects drawn from paragraphs 1–10, arguing that the Holy Scriptures alone are the sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Beginning with the principium cognoscendi — Scripture as the epistemological foundation of all theology — the study moves through the limits of general revelation, the cessation of special revelation, the canon, the self-attesting authority of Scripture, and the role of the Spirit in producing genuine belief. The session closes with the Reformation axiom that Scripture is its own infallible interpreter and the supreme judge of all religious controversy, against Rome's claim that the magisterium validates the canon.
The Parables of the Dragnet and Scribe
Matthew 13:47–53 closes the kingdom parables with two final teachings: the dragnet and the scribe. The dragnet parable presses the certainty of coming judgment — at the end of the age, angels will separate the wicked from the just and cast the wicked into the furnace of fire — a reality Jesus repeats deliberately so that no hearer can ignore it. The parable of the scribe then turns to those entrusted with the mysteries of the kingdom: disciples who have understood these truths bear a corresponding responsibility to function as faithful householders, bringing out of the treasure things new and old. The sermon calls every hearer either to flee to Christ as the only refuge from the wrath to come, or, if already a believer, to take seriously the stewardship of gospel knowledge.
The Parables of Seed and Leaven
The two briefest parables in Matthew 13's kingdom discourse — the mustard seed and the leaven — address a perennial temptation: to judge the kingdom of God by its small and seemingly insignificant beginnings. This exposition argues that both parables teach the same essential truth: the kingdom inaugurated by Christ begins imperceptibly but grows inevitably and pervasively, and its lowly origin in the incarnation, ministry, and crucifixion of Jesus is not a contradiction of royal power but its very pattern. The sermon concludes with a threefold application — the parables explain Christ's ministry, call the church to resist discouragement, and confront the unconverted with the call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Parable of the Wheat and Tares
Matthew 13:24–30 presents the parable of the wheat and tares, in which Christ teaches that his kingdom advances through a world — and a visible church — where genuine believers co-exist with those sown by the devil. The sermon addresses the theodicy embedded in the parable: God's sovereignty over evil does not mean the immediate expulsion of wickedness, but its certain, final judgment at the eschaton. Hearers are called to grow as wheat, to resist an overly censorious spirit toward apparent tares, and to trust that the Master has the harvest entirely under his control.