Cited in sermons
James Montgomery Boice
4 sermons · All people cited
The Consequences of the Fall
Genesis 3:14–24 records the divine sentences upon the serpent, the woman, and the man after the fall, but within those judgments God announces the first gospel promise. The Proto-Evangelion of verse 15 — that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent — is the programmatic nucleus of all subsequent redemptive history, finding its fulfilment in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Headship and labor, often misread as punishments of the fall, are shown to be pre-fall ordinances whose distortion, not existence, is the consequence of sin. The sermon closes with the coats of skin as an enacted prophecy of blood atonement and the expulsion from Eden as a mercy that preserves fallen man until the Second Adam secures permanent access to the tree of life.
The Galatian Benediction
The opening three verses of Galatians are not mere epistolary formality but carry concentrated theological weight: Paul's identity as a divinely commissioned apostle, the significance of the audience designation, and the rich pastoral benediction of grace and peace. The sermon argues that Paul's apostolic authority is grounded in divine rather than human commissioning, that the absence of the customary commendatory address to the Galatian churches signals a subtle rebuke, and that the benediction of grace and peace is a Trinitarian gift addressing the precise spiritual need created by the Judaizing perversion of justification by faith alone. Hearers are called to seek growth in grace and peace through faithful attendance upon the means of grace, and those outside of Christ are pressed to believe on the one who lived, died, and rose to save sinners.
The Importance of Acceptable Worship
Malachi 1:6–14 records God's indictment of Israel's priests for offering defective, stolen, and contemptible sacrifices — worshipping with the form but without the heart. This sermon examines three movements in the passage: God's accusation, the people's oblivious response, and the implications of unacceptable worship for the covenant community. The preacher presses home that careless worship is not a minor infraction but a major sin that provokes divine wrath, and calls every hearer to come before the great King with regenerate hearts and faithful, Scripture-ordered devotion.
The Identity of the Church
What is the church, and what is she for? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon sets out the identity and confession of the church under three descriptions Paul gives: the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth. The church's unique institutional privilege — distinct from family and state — is to proclaim, defend, and propagate the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. The sermon closes with a call to resist pragmatism, hold fast to sound doctrine, and enter the house of God through Christ alone.