Cited in sermons
John Calvin
990 sermons · All people cited
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, Part 4
The Fourth Commandment's perpetual and universal obligation — rooted in both natural law and the Word of God — binds new covenant believers to Sabbath observance no less than it bound old covenant saints. This session of a consecutive study through the 1689 London Baptist Confession (chapter 22, paragraphs 7–8) examines the twofold testimony to Sabbath necessity (general and special revelation), the positive-moral character of the Fourth Commandment, and the pre-Sinaitic origins of the Sabbath in Genesis 2. The change of the day from the seventh to the first is introduced and will be treated in full in the following session. The governing spirit of Christian Sabbath observance is not legal fear but cheerful compliance, strengthened by the risen Christ and the sweetness of the gospel.
David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan
David's lament over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:17–27 is examined as a carefully crafted literary and theological act, not merely an outburst of emotion. The lamentation reveals David's paramount concern for the glory of Yahweh, his unbitter spirit toward a sworn enemy, and his covenantal grief over the loss of Jonathan. The study draws out practical instruction on the role of lament in the Christian life, the ethics of speech about the dead, and the priority of God's honor in prayer.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 29, 2015 PM
Evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, yet the people of God are called not to despair but to persevere in the things they have learned — above all, the Holy Scriptures. Expounding 2 Timothy 3:13–15, this sermon contrasts the downward trajectory of false teachers with the upward call to Timothy: continued faithfulness grounded in the Word of God, which is able to make one wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Old Testament is shown to be thoroughly Christ-centred, pointing to one way of salvation in both testaments — by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Parents are charged to bring their children under the Scripture from childhood, and all believers are urged to persevere through faithful use of the means God has ordained.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, Part 3
What does God require of his people in corporate worship, and by what means does he strengthen them in faith? Working through 2LCF Chapter 22, Paragraph 5, this session examines five constituent elements of religious worship: the Word of God (read, preached, and heard), songs to God, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the worshipper's disposition, and occasional worship. The regulative principle governs the whole: only what God has prescribed in Scripture may be brought into worship, and every element is to be engaged with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear. The practical burden is that corporate Lord's Day worship is not liturgical formality but God's ordained means of grace by which the Spirit strengthens and grows the faith of his people.
The Cleansing of the Temple, Part 2
Matthew 21:14–17 presents two responses to Christ's messianic presence in the temple: the blind and the lame receive healing, and the religious leaders respond with indignant fury. The healing of the outcasts carries deliberate Davidic overtones, evoking 2 Samuel 5 and the messianic prophecies of Isaiah 35 and 61, so that Christ's identity as the greater Son of David is confirmed by deed as well as by word. The praise of nursing infants, drawn from Psalm 8, presses the question of Christ's deity — the religious leaders understood the implications and hardened rather than repented. The passage calls unbelievers to abandon the side of Christ's despisers and look to Him as the only ground of mercy, and reminds the church that the threefold office of prophet, priest, and king is the heart of the gospel it is commissioned to preach.
2 Samuel 1:1-16
2 Samuel 1:1–16 records an Amalekite's false report to David claiming credit for Saul's death, and David's swift, severe response. This exposition examines the inconsistencies in the Amalekite's account, David's genuine grief over Saul and the house of Israel despite Saul's wickedness, and the theological weight of fearing to touch the Lord's anointed. Three practical lessons emerge: guarding against self-promotion, cultivating a multifaceted response to divine judgment that avoids bitterness, and living under the motivating power of the fear of God.
The Proven Faithfulness of Timothy
Paul's appeal to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10–12 rests not on flattery but on a proven record of faithfulness — in doctrine, conduct, purpose, and endurance through persecution — that now grounds the exhortation to press on. The apostle holds out his own life, particularly the stonings and expulsions at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, as concrete evidence that godly perseverance is possible precisely because the Lord delivers his servants through tribulation. The sermon closes with the general maxim of verse 12: suffering persecution is not the experience of a spiritual elite but the inevitable mark of all who genuinely desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. Christians are called to seek out exemplary models of faithful ministry, to pursue a comprehensive rather than selective obedience, and to be assured that the gospel of Christ is worth every cost.
The Cleansing of the Temple, Part 1
Matthew 21:12–17 records Jesus entering the temple and driving out the buyers and sellers — an act that is neither impulsive nor isolated but stands as a prophetically scripted portent of divine judgment on apostate Israel. Drawing on Haggai 2, Zechariah 14, and Malachi 3, the sermon establishes that Christ's entrance into and cleansing of the temple fulfils the office of prophet-king-priest announced across the post-exilic writings, and that the glory of this latter temple infinitely exceeds Solomon's because Christ himself is the temple. Three ecclesiastical implications follow: the purity of divinely authorized worship is a primary concern of God; the church must pursue faithful obedience over popularity; and hypocrisy — living in sin while invoking the covenant — is precisely what the temple cleansing condemns.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, Part 1
What gives any human being the right to determine how God is to be worshipped? This study of 2LCF Chapter 22, Paragraphs 1–2 argues that the light of nature establishes the creational obligation to worship God, while Scripture alone establishes the acceptable manner of that worship — the regulative principle. The exclusive object of that worship is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which the confession defends against both the Roman Catholic invocation of saints and the broader normative principle that permits what God has not commanded. Worshippers are called to receive God's own prescribed order of worship rather than supplementing it with the imaginations and devices of men.
The Warning Concerning Perilous Times
Paul's warning in 2 Timothy 3:1–9 locates 'perilous times' not in some distant future crisis but in the present age — the entire span between Christ's first and second advents — and identifies the danger as false teachers operating within the visible church. The sermon works through four considerations: the need to recognise the danger, a detailed description of apostate character (seventeen vices rooted in self-love), the command to avoid such men, and an encouragement that their folly will ultimately be exposed. Pastors and church members alike are called to combine sound doctrinal knowledge with the discernment and resolve to identify and turn away from heresy, trusting that Christ is building his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
2LCF Chapter 21 - Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience, Part 1
Christian liberty, as defined in 2LCF Chapter 21, is not primarily about what believers are permitted to do but about what Christ has accomplished for them — freedom from the guilt, power, and punishment of sin, as well as freedom from the ceremonial yoke of the Old Covenant. The chapter also guards the conscience from two opposing errors: the tyranny of ecclesiastical or civil impositions that bind the conscience beyond God's Word, and the antinomian perversion that treats liberty as license for sin. The sermon calls believers to live under God's Word alone as the Lord of the conscience, neither adding to it nor subtracting from it, walking in holiness and righteousness without fear.
The Healing of the Blind Men
Matthew 20:29–34 records the last detailed miracle of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel: the healing of two blind men outside Jericho. This expository sermon traces three movements in the passage — the setting, the earnest petition of the blind men, and the gracious response of the Son of David — arguing that the blind men's importunate faith, their address of Jesus as Lord and Son of David in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant and Isaianic prophecy, and Christ's immediate compassion together present the gospel in miniature. The sermon presses unbelievers to cry out to Christ with the persistence of these men and assures them that the same Jesus who stood still for two wretched beggars extends pity joined with power to all who come to Him in faith.
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment forbids bearing false witness, and this sermon works outward from its primary application — perjury in a judicial setting — to the full range of sins committed with the tongue: lying, slander, backbiting, and gossip. The reason God demands truth-telling is rooted in his own character as the God of truth, in man's nature as his image-bearer, and in the stability of the social order, which collapses wherever deception is tolerated. Positively, the commandment calls God's people to speak truth in all areas of life, to exercise charity toward others in thought and speech, and to actively discourage those who would sin with their tongues — while finding in Christ the only sufficient remedy for a history of lies.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The necessity and exclusivity of special gospel revelation for salvation — not natural revelation — is the central concern of 2LCF Chapter 20. Against the errors of incipient deism (which denied the need for special revelation) and General Baptist soteriology (which allowed for salvation via the light of nature), the confession affirms that the gospel promise of Christ, inaugurated at Genesis 3:15, is the sole appointed means of calling the elect in every age. Divine sovereignty governs the dispensation of that gospel to nations and persons, and the effectual, insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul is necessary alongside the outward proclamation for any sinner to be converted.
The Ambitious Request for Position in the Kingdom
Matthew 20:20–23 records the request of Salome and the sons of Zebedee for privileged positions at Christ's right and left hand in the kingdom — a request that exposes the deep-seated pride and spiritual blindness endemic to even the most devoted disciples. The sermon works through two movements: the ambitious nature of the request (vv. 20–21) and the ominous response of Christ concerning the cup of God's wrath and the baptism of suffering that must precede any crown (vv. 22–23). The cross precedes the crown — not as a grudging concession but as the invariable pattern of Christian discipleship — and the seating in the kingdom belongs to the sovereign appointment of the Father alone, not to those who jockey for it by ambition or tenure.
The Third Announcement of Jesus' Death
Matthew 20:17–19 records Jesus' third and most detailed formal announcement of his coming death, functioning as a table of contents for the remainder of Matthew's Gospel. The passage identifies four prophetic elements: the betrayal of the Son of Man to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council's condemnation, the delivery to the Gentiles for mocking and scourging, and the triumph of resurrection on the third day. This announcement is grounded in the Covenant of Redemption — the pretemporal compact between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture, and the necessity of saving God's elect from their sins. The sermon calls the church to receive, embrace, and worship in response to the gospel, and calls the unbeliever to flee the wrath of God by faith in Christ crucified and risen.
1 Samuel 25
First Samuel 25 sets David's near-catastrophic act of vengeance against Nabal within the larger narrative of God's providential establishment of the Davidic kingdom. David, who rightly restrained his men from killing the Lord's anointed in chapter 24, immediately loses that self-possession when personally affronted by a foolish and godless landowner, drawing his sword to execute a man who did not deserve death. God sovereignly intervenes through an unnamed servant, a wise woman named Abigail, and ultimately the direct stroke of divine judgment upon Nabal himself — demonstrating that the advance of God's kingdom depends entirely on divine providence, not human vengeance. The practical lesson is that believers must praise God not only for deliverance from suffering but for restraint from sinning, trusting that God himself will repay wickedness in his own time.
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), prohibits not only the external act of unlawfully taking human life but also the internal dispositions of hatred, unwarranted anger, and character assassination that Christ exposes in the Sermon on the Mount. The prohibition is grounded in the imago Dei: because every human being bears the image of God, to assault a human life is to assault the divine majesty itself. The sermon carefully distinguishes murder from lawful killing, defending the legitimacy of capital punishment, just war, and self-defense, while applying the command's positive obligation — the active promotion of life — to contemporary issues including abortion, euthanasia, and gossip.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 13, 2015 PM
Psalm 107:1–9 calls the redeemed to give thanks to God for His goodness and mercy — two terms the psalmist binds together to signal covenantal faithfulness. This exposition traces God's goodness through creation, Providence, and redemption, showing that divine beneficence reaches its pinnacle in the saving work of Christ. God's mercy, distinguished from its human counterpart as originating entirely within God's own nature rather than being moved by anything external, is shown to be operative in temporal blessings, in the judgment of the wicked, and supremely in the salvation of sinners. The sermon closes with a direct call to those outside of Christ to flee to Him, that they too might give thanks to the Lord whose mercy endures forever.
God and Man in the 107th Psalm, Part 1
Psalm 107:1–9 opens with a summons — 'Oh, give thanks to the Lord' — that exposes a perennial failure of fallen humanity: thanklessness toward a God of inexhaustible mercy. This sermon works through two headings from the psalm: the call to thanksgiving and the content of that thanksgiving, showing that gratitude is not an optional sentiment but the defining disposition of the redeemed, rooted in God's character and displayed across all of life — blessing, affliction, law, and gospel. The sermon closes with practical means for cultivating thankfulness: corporate worship, prayer, Scripture, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
The Precious Blood of Christ
What is the value of Christ's blood, and why does the New Testament insist that nothing corruptible — no silver, gold, or human religious tradition — can redeem a sinner? Drawing from 1 Peter 1:18–19 in the context of a Lord's Supper meditation, this sermon works through three considerations: the vanity of any bloodless redemption, the aimless sinfulness that necessitated a blood redemption, and the exclusive and infinite worth of Christ's precious blood. The application is direct — because believers have been purchased at such an infinite price, they are to hold Christ alone as precious and to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of that redemption.
The Fifth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment, 'Honor your father and your mother' (Deuteronomy 5:16), is the first commandment of the second table of the law and governs not merely the parent-child relationship but all relationships between superiors and inferiors in family, church, and civil society. The command to 'honor' (Hebrew: to treat as weighty and burdensome) carries covenantal significance for Israel and is extended by Paul to Gentile believers in Ephesians 6, demonstrating that the moral law transcends any particular covenantal administration. The sanction attached to its violation — from the rod and reproof of Proverbs to the death penalty of Deuteronomy 21 — underscores the gravity God assigns to lawful authority. Pedagogically, the commandment exposes the universal failure of all people to render perfect obedience and drives sinners to Christ, who alone fulfilled this word by continuing in subjection to Joseph and Mary throughout his earthly life.
The Call to Marvel, Part 2
What does it mean that God has 'bestowed' on sinners the right to be called children of God? Expounding the first half of 1 John 3:1, this sermon works through the content and intent of the apostle John's call to marvel — tracing divine love, divine grace, and divine fatherhood as the three constituent elements of the Christian's astonishment. The sermon presses the doctrines of adoption and sovereign grace against any scheme of salvation that credits the creature, and closes by showing that the same behold which exhilarates also obligates: children of God are to pursue practical godliness, avail themselves of the ordained means of grace, and walk in cheerful conformity to the law of their Father.
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment—'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain' (Deuteronomy 5:11)—encompasses far more than profane speech: it governs every use of God's titles, attributes, and works, whether in word, oath, prayer, or conduct. The sermon works through the richness of the divine name (Yahweh, Elohim, El Shaddai, and the Triune persons) before examining the prohibition's reach across blasphemy, unlawful oaths, magic and manipulation, misapplication of providence, and misinterpretation of Scripture. The positive demand of the commandment calls believers to reverent use of God's name in worship, to integrity in oaths and vows, and to a holy profession of faith whose conduct matches its confession. The law's pedagogical use is pressed upon the hearer: all stand guilty before this commandment and are thereby driven to Christ, who alone kept it perfectly and bore the penalty for those who did not.
The Conversion of Matthew
What does genuine conversion look like? Expounding Matthew 9:9–13, this sermon traces the call of Matthew the tax collector — one of the most notorious sinners in first-century Jewish society — to show that Christ's power to forgive is precisely suited to the wretched. The three movements of the passage — the call to discipleship, the feast at Matthew's house, and Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees — together establish that Christ came not for the self-righteous but for sinners, and that His summons produces immediate, costly, and joyful obedience. Five marks of genuine discipleship are drawn out: saving faith, repentance as a consequence (not a condition) of grace, kingdom priority, beholding Christ as altogether lovely, and serious pursuit of sanctification — set alongside an honest account of remaining corruption and the struggles that attend the Christian life.
"The Instruction on Riches and Rewards" - July 12, 2015 AM
Matthew 19:23–30 presents Christ's instruction on the spiritual dangers of wealth, the impossibility of self-salvation, and the gracious recompense awaiting those who follow him. Working through three movements — the commentary on riches, the question of salvation, and the instruction concerning rewards — the sermon argues that riches (and by extension every besetting sin) render men spiritually helpless apart from sovereign, effectual grace. The sermon closes with both a gospel call to the unconverted and a sober exhortation to believers: no one who follows Christ will ever be a loser for it, because eternal life and the hundredfold recompense of the messianic community are the portion of all who believe.
The Son's Accomplishment of Redemption
Ephesians 1:7–12 sets forth the Son's accomplishment of redemption within the eternal Covenant of Redemption, in which the Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies salvation. Working through four movements in the text — redemption by the Son's blood, the revelation of the mystery of God's will, the cosmic reconciliation of all things in Christ, and the reward of an eternal inheritance — the sermon shows that sinners enslaved to sin have been purchased at a cosmic price paid only by the eternal God-Man. The sermon closes by calling believers to meditate on and proclaim this redemption, and by urging unbelievers to believe on Christ before they die in their bondage.
The Enthronement of the Priest-King
Psalm 110, the most-quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament, sets forth the Messiah under three aspects: divine king enthroned at the right hand of Yahweh, eternal priest after the order of Melchizedek, and conquering warrior who shatters every enemy of God. The sermon argues that Christ's enthronement at the ascension inaugurates a reign that cannot fail, grounded in the unbreakable oath of the covenant of redemption, and that his priestly office is inseparable from his role as both offerer and offering — the seed of the woman crushed on Golgotha so that he might crush the serpent. The congregation is called to hold this warrior-king vision without embarrassment, to grieve sin without shock at its prevalence, and to press forward as a willing people in the day of his power.
The Importance of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is a divine commandment, not a recommendation, instituted by Christ on the night of his betrayal and binding on his church until he comes again. This exposition of 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 moves through four aspects of the ordinance's importance: its nature as a positive and sovereign institution, its character as a commanded act of remembrance, its object as Christ himself in his person, life, and atoning death, and its quality as a means of grace through which the risen Christ spiritually nourishes his people by his Spirit. The sermon calls believers to joyful, cheerful compliance with the Lord's table — to come, take, eat, and be fed by the exalted Savior who blots out the sins of all who trust in him.
The Rich Young Ruler
What must a man do to inherit eternal life? This exposition of Matthew 19:16–22 examines the encounter between Christ and the rich young ruler, showing that the young man's question is at once legitimate — every soul must reckon with eternity — and illegitimate, because it proceeds from the assumption that salvation is earned by human merit. Christ answers him on the terms of the covenant of works, pressing the second table of the Decalogue and then the tenth commandment in particular, not to prescribe a new way of salvation by poverty, but to expose the man's covetousness and unmask the bankruptcy of his self-righteousness. The sermon calls hearers to abandon proud self-righteousness, reckon honestly with the spirituality of God's law, and flee by faith to the one who alone kept it perfectly.