Cited in sermons
J. C. Ryle
316 sermons · All people cited
The Governing Principle of Kingdom Life
Matthew 6:31–34 sets out the governing principle of kingdom life: the disciple of Christ is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and not to be paralyzed by the carnal anxiety that marks Gentile existence. The sermon draws a sharp contrast between those who have no doctrine of a sovereign Father and those who confess one, arguing that a Reformed understanding of God's sovereignty must extend beyond soteriology into the daily trials of earthly life. To worry about food, drink, and clothing is to live as a Gentile; to rest in the Father's knowledge of our needs, pray as Christ taught, and pursue the kingdom first is to live as a loyal subject of God's reign.
The Command to Resist Carnal Anxiety
Worry is not a minor personality quirk but a sin — a form of idolatry that displaces God from his rightful throne and sets self at the center. Working through Matthew 6:25–30, this sermon expounds Christ's command to resist carnal anxiety by examining the grammatical connection between kingdom-loyalty and daily trust, the two illustrative arguments from birds and lilies, and the diagnostic verdict of 'little faith.' The remedy offered is not a technique but a theological re-orientation: recognise the absolute sovereignty of God, render obedience to the command not to be anxious, and increase faith through searching the Scriptures.
Paul at Athens
Acts 17:16–34 records Paul's proclamation of the Christian worldview at the Areopagus in Athens — a city saturated with idolatry and home to Epicurean and Stoic philosophy. Paul does not simply offer historical evidences for the resurrection but instead sets forth God as creator, sovereign ruler over the nations, the only legitimate object of worship, and the coming judge — grounding the resurrection and the call to repentance in a comprehensive biblical theology. The sermon draws out the pattern of Paul's method: provoked by idolatry, he reasons in the synagogue and marketplace, addresses his audience on their own terms without compromising the truth, and calls all men everywhere to repent. Believers today are urged to cultivate the same burden for souls, to know the gospel accurately, and to carry it faithfully into a culture that remains, in its own way, given over to idols.
Undivided Submission to One Master
Matthew 6:24 confronts the hearer with an absolute either-or: no one can serve two masters. This sermon expounds the third of Christ's three metaphors in Matthew 6:19-24 — after heavenly treasure and single-eyed devotion — pressing the claim that total submission belongs to God alone, and that divided loyalty to God and Mammon is not merely difficult but impossible. A careful distinction between condition and consequence grounds the exposition: the loyalty Christ demands is never the basis of acceptance with God, which rests entirely on Christ's active and passive obedience imputed to the believer by grace alone through faith alone. The sermon closes with a direct call to the unbeliever to look to Christ and be freed from the slave market of sin.
The Necessity of a Kingdom Focus
Matthew 6:22–23 presents the eye as a metaphor for the soul's orientation: a 'good' eye signifies single-minded devotion to the kingdom of God, while a 'bad' eye signifies a divided, darkened loyalty that amounts not to partial commitment but to deep-seated idolatry. The sermon argues that the believer's every pursuit — treasure, focus, and master — must be ordered wholly toward God, and that divided allegiance is darkness, not a lesser degree of light. Drawing on Philippians 3:12–14 and Psalm 73, the preacher calls hearers to press on with single-eyed determination, to realign priorities through Scripture and the Spirit, and — for those whose darkness is not the remnant sin of a believer but the reigning darkness of an unconverted heart — to flee to Christ alone as the only remedy.
The Thief on the Cross
Luke 23:39–43 presents the conversion of the dying thief and Christ's response as a window into both the nature of saving faith and the character of Christ as a willing, able, and sovereign Savior. The thief's transformation — from blaspheming Christ to confessing his own guilt, acknowledging Christ's innocence, and calling upon him as Lord — illustrates the marks of genuine repentance and the power of sovereign grace working from without. Christ's reply, 'Today you will be with me in paradise,' demonstrates that he saves to the uttermost even from the cross itself, suffering hell there so that the penitent sinner need not. The sermon closes with a warning against presumptuous delay of repentance and a clear affirmation that salvation is always by grace alone, never by works.
The 6th Petition: Protection
Matthew 6:13 presents the sixth and final petition of the Lord's Prayer, a twofold request — 'lead us not into temptation' and 'deliver us from the evil one' — that together constitute a comprehensive prayer for spiritual protection. The sermon distinguishes between God's sanctifying trials and Satan's solicitation to evil, drawing on James 1 to clarify that God tests but never tempts, while remaining corruption in the believer's heart gives every temptation a potential ally within. Four features of the negative petition are unfolded: acknowledgement of divine sovereignty, admission of the believer's weakness, recognition of temptation's power, and humble appeal for divine aid. The doxology closing the prayer grounds every petition in God's kingdom, power, and glory, and the sermon closes with a direct call to unbelievers to seek justification by faith alone in Christ alone as the only basis on which anyone may rightly address God as Father.
The 5th Petition: Forgiveness
What does it mean to pray 'forgive us our debts' when the believer has already been justified by faith alone? This exposition of Matthew 6:12 and 14–15 distinguishes between God's forensic pardon of the sinner and the ongoing filial forgiveness a child of God seeks from his Father in the life of sanctification. Six reasons are given for the necessity of this daily petition — remaining corruption, desire for the smile of God, consciousness of sin's evil, trust in divine mercy, renunciation of self-righteousness, and acknowledgment of Christ's sufficient atonement. The sermon closes by pressing the inseparable link between receiving forgiveness and extending it: an unforgiving spirit that approaches God for pardon is a form of hypocrisy, while those who freely forgive others give evidence that sovereign grace has genuinely worked in their hearts.
The 4th Petition: Provision
Matthew 6:11 — 'Give us this day our daily bread' — sits at the hinge of the Lord's Prayer, transitioning from God-centred petitions to man-oriented ones, yet it remains entirely theocentric in its logic. This sermon works through what the fourth petition does and does not mean, establishing that it is a daily confession of creaturely dependence upon God as the first cause behind every second cause, a repudiation of covetousness, and an acknowledgment of God's comprehensive sovereignty over provision. The theological weight of the petition is drawn out through the Westminster Larger Catechism's teaching that in Adam humanity forfeited all right to temporal blessing, and through Psalm 104, Psalm 136, Ecclesiastes, and Hebrews 13. The sermon closes by turning the physical petition toward its spiritual analogue: Christ as the bread from heaven upon whom the soul feeds and never hungers again.
The First Petition of the Lord's Prayer
The first petition of the Lord's Prayer, 'Hallowed be Your name' (Matthew 6:9), confronts the creature's instinctive self-centeredness with the prior claim of God's glory. The sermon unfolds the meaning of God's name — his triune being, his attributes, and his word — before explaining that the petition does not pray God into holiness but calls the creature to recognize and reflect holiness that already belongs to God essentially. Five practical particulars for praying this petition are drawn out: knowing, professing, depending on, esteeming, and promoting the divine name — with the sobering insistence, drawn from John Owen, that he who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.
The Preface to the Lord's Prayer
What does it mean to address God as 'Our Father in heaven' before a single petition is spoken? This sermon on Matthew 6:9 argues that the preface to the Lord's Prayer is not a formality but a theological foundation: the invocation shapes the entire posture of prayer. Six truths embedded in the two words 'Our Father' are examined — that God is personal, gracious, hearing, caring, loving, and alone to be addressed — followed by two truths in the phrase 'in heaven': that God is transcendent and omnipotent. The sermon closes with a pointed call to examine whether one can honestly pray 'Our Father' at all, since access to the Father comes only through faith in the Son.
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.
True and False Religion: Almsgiving
Matthew 6:1–4 expounds the general principle governing all acts of Christian piety: deeds of righteousness are corrupted not by their practice but by the motive of seeking human approval. Christ assumes that His redeemed people will give alms, but He warns that charitable deeds performed to secure the praise of men constitute a completed transaction — the hypocrite receives his reward in full and forfeits the approval of God. The positive instruction calls for a secrecy so thorough that the believer guards against self-congratulation, resting in the promise that the Father who sees in secret will reward openly. The sermon grounds the call to cheerful, hidden generosity in the supreme act of almsgiving: Christ leaving the riches of heaven to become poor, that sinners through His poverty might become rich.
The Seventh Commandment, Part 2
Matthew 5:31–32 sits within Jesus' exposition of the Seventh Commandment, where He corrects not the Mosaic legislation of Deuteronomy 24 but the Pharisaic distortion of it that permitted divorce for virtually any cause. The sermon argues that Jesus' exception clause — 'except for porneia' — establishes sexual immorality as the one lawful ground for divorce, and that the final clause of verse 32 ('whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery') must be read as applying only to unlawfully divorced women, not as a universal prohibition on all remarriage after any divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1–4 is examined at length to demonstrate that remarriage after a lawful divorce was never treated as adultery under the Mosaic economy — a point confirmed by the death penalty for adultery in Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 22. The sermon closes with pastoral implications: upholding the sanctity of marriage as a creation ordinance, extending genuine gospel mercy to those who have sinned or been sinned against in divorce, and calling God's people to fidelity that surpasses the world's standards.
A Psalm of Comfort
Psalm 46 presents God as the impenetrable refuge and omnipotent strength of his covenant people — not by promising a trial-free life, but by declaring that the Divine Warrior and God of Jacob remains sovereign over every earthly catastrophe, political upheaval, and spiritual assault. The sermon traces four movements in the psalm: a statement of God's character to comfort, a contrast between earthly chaos and divine sovereignty to instruct, an invitation to behold God's works, and a command to be still and know that he is God. The practical summons is to resist paralysis and fear by cultivating theology proper — studying the character of God — because a revelation of God's character and glory is the best remedy for any trial.
The Seventh Commandment, Part 1
Matthew 5:27–30 expounds the seventh commandment, not as new legislation from Christ, but as Christ's faithful exposition of what the law of God has always demanded. Against the Pharisaic reduction of the commandment to its outward, physical expression, Jesus establishes that sinful lust in the heart already constitutes adultery, since God's moral law has always searched the inner man. The sermon traces the eternal and temporal consequences of sexual sin, calls hearers to radical mortification of sin in the manner of verses 29–30, and presses both saint and sinner to seek pardon and righteousness in Christ alone.
The Sixth Commandment
Jesus' exposition of the Sixth Commandment in Matthew 5:21–26 does not elevate Moses' law or introduce a new covenant standard — it clears away the scribal and Pharisaic misinterpretation that reduced 'You shall not murder' to a merely external prohibition. The commandment has always reached the heart: unwarranted anger, slander, and character assassination are violations of the Sixth Word no less than physical killing, because the law of God is, as the Psalmist declared, exceedingly broad. The sermon applies this in two directions: horizontal relationships broken by anger must be reconciled before worship can be acceptable to God, and the law's comprehensive reach exposes every hearer's guilt and drives them to the only one who perfectly kept it — the Lord Jesus Christ, the mighty Mediator who alone can plead not guilty before a holy God.
The Resurrection of Our Bodies
What kind of body will believers have at the resurrection, and why must it be this body — the very one in which we now live — that is raised? Expounding 1 Corinthians 15, this sermon argues from Paul's seed analogy and the continuous 'it is sown / it is raised' language that there is an unbroken organic continuity between the present body and the glorified resurrection body. Three reasons are pressed as to why this particular body must be raised: Christ purchased it with his blood, it remains in vital union with him even in the grave, and raising it is part of the work the Father entrusted to the Son for the full accomplishment of salvation. Hearers are urged to mortify fleshly appetites, pursue zealous service for Christ, and find comfort in bereavement — all grounded in the certainty that these bodies will be raised.
The Thief on the Cross
The conversion of the thief on the cross in Luke 23:39–43 raises an urgent double question: how does a murderous criminal enter paradise moments before death, and what does his transformation reveal about the character of Christ as Savior? The sermon traces five marks of genuine conversion in the thief — concern for others, fear of God's judgment, ownership of guilt, confession of Christ's holiness, and casting himself wholly upon divine mercy — before turning to Christ's response as a willing, able, and glorious Savior. Three conclusions follow: the passage teaches the nature of the Savior, the sovereignty of grace in salvation, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, with no contribution of works, baptism, or covenant faithfulness on the part of the saved sinner.
The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
John 19:16–24 records the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in restrained, theologically dense prose. This exposition works through four considerations — the setting at Golgotha, the act of crucifixion itself, the title Pilate affixed to the cross, and the casting of lots for Christ's garments — demonstrating that every detail fulfills prior Scripture and flows from the eternal, sovereign decree of God. The nakedness and dereliction of the cross are shown to illuminate both the nature of hell and the ground of the believer's justification, as Christ is stripped of his garments that sinners might be clothed with his righteousness. The sermon closes with a direct call to faith, pressing John 20:31 upon every hearer: these things are written that you may believe and have life in Christ's name.
Spiritual Poverty and Holy Mourning
The Beatitudes are not imperatives but indicative descriptions of those whom God has transformed by sovereign grace. This exposition of Matthew 5:3–4 argues that poverty of spirit—the recognition of one's utter bankruptcy before a holy God—and holy mourning over sin are not natural human tendencies but the direct fruit of divine grace working in the heart. Drawing on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the church at Laodicea, Isaiah 57 and 66, and the lament of Romans 7, the sermon demonstrates that pride is an offense to God while humility and contrition are the marks he blesses. The comfort promised to holy mourners is both present—through justification, the indwelling Spirit, and the Scriptures—and eschatological, when God himself will wipe away every tear in the new Jerusalem.
The Resurrection in the Book of Acts
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an isolated miracle but the climactic fulfillment of God's covenantal promises to David and Abraham, the ground of every redemptive blessing the church now enjoys. Working through the Book of Acts, this sermon traces five blessings that flow from the risen and ascended Christ: the revealed Word, the sovereignty of his reign, his active direction of the church, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the remission of sins through his blood. Because Christ sits enthroned at the Father's right hand with all authority in heaven and earth, nothing in the church's history is haphazard — every trial, every addition, every missionary advance is governed by the living Lord. The sermon closes with a direct summons to the unforgiven: the empty tomb is the loudest declaration that sin's power is broken and pardon is available to all who believe.
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.
The King Sets Himself Against Christ
Matthew 2:13–23 presents three movements in the narrative of Christ's early life — the flight to Egypt, the massacre at Bethlehem, and the return to Nazareth — each laden with Old Testament typology. Matthew deliberately parallels Jesus with both Moses and Israel: as Israel was called out of Egypt and Moses delivered God's people from bondage, so Christ is the true and greater deliverer who fulfills what they only foreshadowed. The passage confronts human depravity head-on in the murderous rage of Herod, attributing it not to social conditions but to enmity against God Most High, while simultaneously displaying God's sovereignty overruling the machinations of Satan through entirely ordinary means. The sermon closes by calling unbelievers to trust this man of sorrows — whose humiliation began in infancy — as the champion, deliverer, and mediator of the new covenant promised in Jeremiah.
Christ's Legal Succession to David's Throne
Matthew 1:18–25 is not primarily a Christmas love story but a legal and theological account establishing Christ's rightful succession to the Davidic throne. The passage resolves the genealogical puzzle of verse 16 — why Joseph did not 'beget' Jesus — by showing that Joseph's act of naming the child legally transferred Davidic inheritance to the Son born of Mary by the Holy Spirit. The exposition moves through five structural elements: the introduction, the problem of Mary's pregnancy, Joseph's incorrect solution and God's correct one, the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14, and Joseph's obedient execution of the divine command. Central to the passage is the mission declared in verse 21: Jesus will save his people — the elect — from their sins, both in penalty and in power, grounding definite atonement and progressive sanctification in the very name given to the Son of God.
The Focus of Matthew's Gospel
Matthew 1:1 is far more than a title line — it is the theological and covenantal framework for the entire Gospel, announcing in three compressed titles that the long-awaited Messiah has arrived. The sermon works through each designation — Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham — as three spotlights illuminating his messianic office, his Davidic kingship, and his role as the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant promise to bless all nations. Introductory matters concerning the author, audience, dating, structure, and purpose of Matthew's Gospel are treated before the exposition of verse one. The sermon closes by calling both believers and unbelievers to behold Jesus as Messiah, King, and surety of the covenant, and to ground their confidence in God's demonstrated faithfulness.
The Cross as the Manifestation of God's Love
John 3:16, which Martin Luther called 'the Bible in miniature,' sets forth the cross as the supreme manifestation of God's love toward a sinful world. Drawing on the context of Nicodemus's night visit and the typology of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21, five observations unfold: the cross is God's appointed remedy, the measure of His immeasurable love, the vehicle of His gracious gift, the object of saving faith, and the source of everlasting life. The sermon presses the particularity of the gospel against both universalist and Arminian misreadings of 'the world,' insisting that saving faith is exclusively in Christ alone — the only pole to which the bitten sinner must look and live.
Jesus and Thomas
Thomas's refusal to believe the apostolic testimony of the resurrection was not mere intellectual doubt but willful obstinacy — a demand that God meet his conditions before he would submit. This sermon works through John 20:24–31 under four headings: the character of Thomas, the grace of Christ, Thomas's lofty confession, and the Lord's final beatitude. The central challenge is that sinners who insist on their own terms for believing are placing themselves in the judge's seat over God, and the only fitting response is to bow with Thomas and confess, 'My Lord and my God.'
Spiritual Liberty
John 8:31–36 presents two realities that Jesus sets before his hearers: the universal bondage of unregenerate humanity to sin, and the liberating freedom that comes through knowing the truth as disciples abiding in his word. Every person outside of Christ is a slave — not to political or economic systems, but to sin itself, to Satan, and to the curse and wrath of God. The gospel remedy is not a technique or a campaign but the truth of Christ crucified, risen, and enthroned, received by faith — a truth that frees from condemnation, from the curse of the law, from divine wrath, and from the dominion of sin, and that restores the redeemed to their created purpose of worshiping God.
The Wisdom of the Small
Proverbs 30:24–28 presents four small creatures — the ant, the rock badger (coney), the locust, and the spider — each of which compensates for its weakness through a distinct virtue: preparation, caution, cooperation, and ambition. The sermon draws out the spiritual import of each creature's instinct, pressing the hearer to prepare for the coming day of judgment by faith in Christ alone, to guard against spiritual danger through prayerful dependence on God's Word, to pursue unity in family and church, and to press forward with holy ambition through every trial. Applications are directed with particular warmth toward children and young people, calling them to receive the gospel while youth remains their 'summer.'