Cited in sermons
Gregory of Nazianzus
47 sermons · All people cited
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 2
Ephesians 1:13–14 presents the Holy Spirit as both the seal and the guarantee of the believer's inheritance, grounding the security of salvation not in human performance but in the inseparable operations of the triune God. The sermon traces the instrumentality of the word of truth — showing that sinners must hear the gospel before they can believe — and then expounds the sealing of the Spirit as authentication, ownership, and security. The guarantee of the Spirit is the first installment of a heavenly inheritance that awaits the full redemption of the purchased possession at the consummation of the age. Believers are therefore urged to rest their assurance in the Father who chose, the Son who redeemed, and the Spirit who seals and guarantees.
Sanctity of Life
The Sixth Commandment — 'You shall not murder' (Exodus 20:13) — extends its protection to the pre-born, grounding the prohibition against abortion in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God. This sermon works through three lines of argument: the precise meaning of the Hebrew word for murder, the consistent biblical testimony to the sanctity of human life at every stage from conception to old age, and the specific case law of Exodus 21:22–23, which affords the pre-born equal legal protection under the lex talionis. The sermon closes with a call to press the law upon a culture that celebrates abortion, while proclaiming that the blood of Christ is sufficient to forgive all who have participated in this sin.
The Meeting with the Samaritan Woman, Part 2
John 4:16–26 presents Jesus exposing a Samaritan woman's sin through the law in order to drive her to the living water of eternal life, then correcting the corrupted worship of Samaria and declaring the arrival of new covenant worship. The sermon argues that true worship of God is irreducibly Trinitarian: the Father is the object, the Son is the mediator and the truth through whom access is granted, and the Holy Spirit is the enabling power. Jesus' self-disclosure as the great I Am — the fulfillment of Exodus 3:14 and the prophetic expectation of Deuteronomy 18 — confirms that the Messiah the woman anticipated is the very one speaking to her. Hearers are called to receive the living water freely offered and to engage in the distinctly Trinitarian worship that Christ here commands.
The Conversion of Cornelius
Acts 10:34–48 records the official inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant promises of God — a watershed moment in redemptive history. Peter's sermon before Cornelius and his household sets forth the peace, person, work, and prophetic witness of Jesus Christ, culminating in the declaration that through His name, whoever believes will receive remission of sins. The sovereign Holy Spirit falls upon the hearers before Peter has even finished speaking, confirming that salvation is of the Lord and that divine initiative — not human free will — drives the conversion of sinners. The passage concludes with the baptism of the entire household, a commanded public identification with the Triune God that pictures, but does not accomplish, the inward work already wrought by grace through faith.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not a political issue but a theological and ethical one — a violation of the Sixth Commandment against murder and a direct assault on the image of God borne by every human being from conception. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic case law governing accidental injury to a pregnant woman treats the pre-born child as a full person, applying the lex talionis — life for life — when the child is killed. Supporting passages from Genesis, Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, Luke, and Paul establish the biblical case for the personhood and sanctity of the pre-born. The sermon closes by calling the church to preach the whole counsel of God on this subject, to pursue sexual fidelity, to pray for the end of abortion, and to proclaim the gospel's mercy to all who have sinned in this way.
The Incarnation of the Word
John 1:14 declares that the eternal Word — the second person of the Trinity, who was in the beginning with God and was God — became flesh and dwelt among men. This sermon expounds the incarnation under two heads: first, the identity and reality of the Word taking on true humanity (the hypostatic union of two complete natures in one person), and second, the glory of that Word as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The incarnation is shown to be the indispensable ground of redemption — whatever is not assumed is not redeemed — and sinners are urged to flee to a mediator who is full, not miserly, in grace and truth.
The Importance of the Knowledge of Christ
The most important question ever asked — 'Who do you say that I am?' — exposes a crisis in the contemporary church: a Ligonier survey found that 78% of polled evangelical Christians answered that Jesus Christ is the highest creature of God, effectively the ancient Arian heresy. This sermon works through Matthew 16:13–20 as a launching point, pressing seven reasons why the knowledge of Christ is of supreme importance: He is the scope of Scripture, eternal life hinges on a right knowledge of His person, the gospel is about Him, He is the exclusive way of salvation, all redemptive benefits are found in Him, the church's commission is given by and about Him, and our present and future hope rests in Him alone. The practical import of Christology — rightly defined as the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of His office — is shown to bear on worship, humility, beneficence, good works, and steadfast confession.
OF Christ the Mediator (2LCF 8)
The doctrine of the Incarnation — that the eternal Son of God took to himself a full human nature, body and soul, yet without sin — is one of the two great mysteries of the Christian faith alongside the Trinity. This confession study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 8, Paragraph 2, establishing first what the Incarnation does not mean (mutation of the divine nature, mere appearance, assumption of body only, full humanity without exception, addition to divine being) before drawing out five positive theological entailments: it is the Son alone who became incarnate through the undivided work of the triune God; it is the divine Son who assumed flesh; the assumed humanity is full and complete; Christ is sinless in that humanity; and the two natures are united in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. The whole doctrine is shown to be the necessary foundation of the Christian gospel, since only a mediator who is truly and fully God, truly and fully man, and wholly without sin can accomplish the redemption of fallen humanity.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 11
Matthew 24:36–44 presents Jesus's declaration that no one — not even the angels, nor the Son according to his human nature — knows the day or hour of the coming judgment, followed by the analogy of Noah's generation and the illustration of the thief in the night. The sermon works through a contested exegetical question: whether 'that day' in verse 36 refers to the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem or to the final second coming, concluding that the hortatory application holds on either reading. Central to the exposition is a careful defense of the hypostatic union — Christ's genuine ignorance according to his humanity is not a denial of his divinity but a necessary consequence of the incarnation. The controlling exhortation is watchfulness: not withdrawal from ordinary life, but faithfulness, preparedness, and diligence under the conscious reality that God is near and will judge the living and the dead.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 20, 2016 AM
Philippians 2:6–11 contains one of the richest Christological confessions in all of Scripture, composed within two decades of the resurrection and already rehearsing Christ's pre-incarnate divine majesty, his voluntary humiliation, and his subsequent exaltation. This sermon opens the 'anatomy' of Paul's hymn to Christ as to God, establishing two foundational realities: the structural movement of the text from loftiness to lowliness to supreme exaltation, and the full, unqualified deity and equality of the Son with the Father. The church is called to hide these truths in their hearts against every heresy that diminishes Christ, and to find in his condescension the very ground and pattern of Christian humility and unity.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 2, is approached here through three progressive affirmations drawn from Scripture and the Reformed confessional tradition: God is, God is one, and God is one in three persons. The incomprehensibility of God frames the entire study — not that He cannot be known, but that He cannot be exhaustively comprehended by any creaturely mind. Moving from general revelation through the law of nature to the biblical witness of monotheism and finally to the Trinitarian distinctions of unbegottenness, eternal generation, and eternal procession, the sermon demonstrates that the doctrine of the Trinity is not speculative theology but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence upon Him.
The Lament Over Jerusalem
Matthew 23:37–39 records Christ's lament over Jerusalem — a cry of sorrow that follows directly upon the severest condemnations he has pronounced against the scribes and Pharisees. The sermon traces Jesus' prophetic lament through its Old Testament antecedents in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Psalms, arguing that Christ speaks here according to his human nature, expressing genuine grief over a city that has killed the prophets and now rejects the Messiah himself. The declaration 'your house is left to you desolate' marks a decisive redemptive-historical shift: as in Ezekiel 8–11, the withdrawal of God's glory precedes the destruction of the temple, and that withdrawal is enacted when Christ departs to the Mount of Olives. The sermon closes by refuting the Arminian use of 'you were not willing' as a proof text for free will, showing instead that the text confirms total depravity and that the free and genuine offer of Christ to sinners is fully consistent with the Reformed doctrine of sovereign grace.
The Shedding of Innocent Blood
The sixth commandment's prohibition of murder, grounded in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God, applies with full force to abortion. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic civil law affords explicit legal protection to both mother and pre-born child, and that the correct translation of the passage — 'she gives birth prematurely' rather than 'she miscarries' — is exegetically decisive for the abortion debate. The sanctity of human life is established across the full range of human existence: before the fall, after it, in children, the pre-born, the handicapped, the sick, and the elderly — and is ultimately grounded in the Incarnation, by which Christ assumed and thereby dignified human flesh. The sermon closes by calling the church to informed prayer, chaste living, and flight to the cross, where there is full forgiveness even for those implicated in abortion.
Revelation 1:4-6
Revelation 1:4–6 introduces the book of Revelation not with mystery or doom but with a carefully structured doxological greeting that grounds suffering believers in the triune God as the source of all grace and peace. The sermon works through the threefold office of Christ — prophet (faithful witness), priest (firstborn from the dead), and king (ruler over the kings of the earth) — demonstrating from Psalm 89, Acts 2, and Colossians 1 that Christ's royal reign is a present reality, not a future hope. The atonement is shown to be the irreducible distinction of Christianity: unlike every competing religion, the gospel is rooted in blood redemption, not moral example. Believers are called to resist anxiety and despair by fixing their gaze on the enthroned Lamb, whose sovereignty over all earthly powers has not diminished by one degree.
The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity — one God eternally subsisting in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is defined, defended against historic and contemporary errors, and displayed across the whole of Scripture. The sermon works through three movements: first defining the doctrine precisely (one in essence, three in person), then defending it against polytheism, Arianism, and modalism, and finally displaying its pervasive witness throughout both Testaments. The doctrine is shown to be not a cold theological abstraction but the very foundation of salvation, worship, and the believer's communion with the triune God.
The Davidic Messiah and Suffering Servant
The baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3:13–17 is not primarily a lesson in baptismal mode or mere moral example, but a divine revelation of who Christ is: the Davidic Messiah and Isaiah's suffering servant. Jesus' declaration that he must 'fulfill all righteousness' points to his active obedience — his lifelong, law-keeping representation of his people — which, together with his atoning death, provides both the pardon and the imputed righteousness sinners desperately need. The trinitarian structure of the scene (the Son emerging from the water, the Spirit descending as a dove, the Father's voice of approbation) reveals all three persons of the Godhead united in the work of redemption. The passage calls every hearer to receive this beloved Son — the champion who has accomplished what no sinner ever could — by grace alone through faith alone.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity — one God eternally existing in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the same in substance and equal in power and glory — is not a peripheral curiosity but the beating heart of Christian confession. This sermon defines the doctrine precisely, distinguishes it from the ancient heresies of Arianism, polytheism, and modalism, and then marshals Old and New Testament evidence to demonstrate that the entire canon is Trinitarian to its core. The deity of the Son and the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit receive particular attention, since these are the contested points, and the sermon closes by showing that a right understanding of the Trinity grounds our communion with God, shapes our worship, and patterns our treatment of one another.