Cited in sermons
John Calvin
990 sermons · All people cited
2LCF Chapter 3 - Of God's Decree
God's decree — His eternal, immutable purpose to foreordain whatsoever comes to pass — is the subject of 2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 3. This study works through paragraphs 1–7, establishing that the decree is absolute and unconditional, covers all events including the free and sinful actions of creatures without making God the author of sin, and that election unto life is grounded solely in God's free grace rather than any foreseen condition in the creature. The session addresses the distinction between preterition and double predestination, the infralapsarian and supralapsarian debate, and closes with the confession's insistence that this high doctrine is to be handled with prudence, producing praise, humility, diligence, and abundant consolation in those who sincerely obey the gospel.
The Introduction to the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments stand apart from all other Mosaic legislation as the moral law of God — written by God himself on two tablets of stone, binding on all humanity in every age, and distinct from the ceremonial and judicial laws that have either been fulfilled in Christ or expired with the Old Covenant commonwealth. This study works through the introduction to the Decalogue in Deuteronomy 5, establishes the threefold division of the law, and then traces the threefold use of the moral law: its civil function as a restraint on sin in society, its pedagogical function in driving sinners to Christ, and its normative function as the pattern for the believer's sanctification. Four classical principles for interpreting the commandments are introduced to guide the series ahead, drawn from the Westminster Larger Catechism and Reformed exegetical tradition.
The Faithful Christian Mother
Proverbs 31:28–30 grounds this sermon on the faithful Christian mother in four doctrinal categories: her condition before God, her influence over her children, her authority over her children, and her responsibility toward her children. The fear of the Lord that marks the virtuous woman is not a natural disposition but a new-covenant gift of sovereign grace, as Jeremiah 32:40 and Romans 3:18 together demonstrate. Because salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, the mother's instruction, example, discipline, and love flow from a regenerate heart rather than from moralism. Mothers are exhorted to maintain dependence on God, to ground child-rearing in Scripture rather than cultural trends, and to persevere in a calling that is high, demanding, and ultimately accountable to God.
Our Eternal Dwelling Place
Psalm 90, the only psalm of Moses in the Psalter, confronts the brevity and bitterness of human life and points the wandering soul to the only dwelling place that neither crumbles nor wears out — God himself. The sermon moves through four movements: God's eternal being as the refuge of his people, the astonishing shortness of every human life, the hard reality that death is not natural entropy but divine judgment upon sin, and finally the hopeful petitions with which the psalm closes. Every petition in the psalm's closing verses finds its definitive answer in the person of Christ, in whom God has once again opened heaven and called sinners to dwell with him in peace.
CTF 2025 - Session 7 - Pastoral Reflections on Classical Theism
The prologue of John's Gospel (1:1–18) discloses both the divine perfections and the eternal relations of the divine persons — the very realities that classical theism and the Second London Confession articulate in Chapter 2. This address draws that exegetical foundation into pastoral practice, arguing that a robust theology proper is not abstract speculation but the necessary ground for faithful ministerial function and focus. The preacher identifies six areas — the salvation of sinners, the catechesis of children, the perseverance of the saints, assurance of salvation, communion with God, worship, and the knowledge of God — each of which depends inextricably on a well-formed doctrine of God.
CTF 2025 - Session 8 – Q&A Panel
A Q&A panel from a theology conference on the doctrine of God addresses questions arising from the preceding lectures on classical theism. Three theologians field questions on divine impassibility (including whether God can be grieved), the eternal decree and the covenant of redemption, divine aseity and the Son's relationship to the Father, the nature of time in the eternal state, the role of philosophy and natural theology in arriving at the classical doctrine of God, and whether genuine evil exists within God's sovereign economy. The discussion throughout presses for formulations of doctrine that protect divine simplicity, immutability, and impassibility while preserving the integrity of biblical language and confessional categories.
CTF 2025 - Session 3 - Exploring God’s Impassibility
God's immutability and impassibility, confessed in 1689 LBCF 2.1 as foundational divine attributes, are not cold abstractions but the very ground of the gospel's freeness and the perfection of God's love. This session from a Reformed theology conference works through the classical theistic framework: because God is pure act, wholly self-sufficient in being, he cannot undergo change or be moved to new states of affection by creatures. Counterintuitively, this means God's love is not diminished but infinitely surpassed by passionate human love — for an impassible love is uncaused, unbounded, and purely beneficent, making sola gratia coherent and certain.
The Resurrection and Justification
Romans 4:25 binds the death and resurrection of Christ together as twin pillars of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Christ was delivered up because of the offenses of his people — bearing the substitutionary curse that divine justice demanded — and was raised because of their justification, the resurrection serving as the Father's public testimony that satisfaction had been rendered and righteousness secured. The sermon works through four reasons why Paul links the resurrection to justification: the resurrection declared Christ to be the Son of God with power, testified that his sacrifice was accepted, confirmed that satisfaction was rendered, and marked the completion of redemption and the inauguration of Christ's present session. Believers are called to rest their entire confidence for standing before God on this finished work, and the unconverted are urged to confess and believe in the risen Lord Jesus.
Galatians 2:17–21 — Justification by Faith Alone
Galatians 2:17–21 closes Paul's autobiographical defense of justification by faith alone, and these five verses press three weighty questions: Is Christ a minister of sin when believers forsake the Mosaic ceremonies? Who is the true transgressor? And what does Judaizing heresy actually do to the cross of Christ? The sermon argues that to impose any measure of works upon the economy of salvation — whether old-covenant ceremony or its modern legalistic counterpart — is to render the incarnation, the perfect obedience, and the atoning death of the Son of God as vanity. The single ground of the believer's justification, assurance, and perseverance is the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us, in whom alone everlasting righteousness is found.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 6
John 17:17–19 records Christ's priestly petition that the Father sanctify the apostles by the truth — consecrating them, as the Old Testament priests were consecrated, for the specific mission of preaching and writing to which He was sending them. The instrument of that sanctification is the truth: the incarnate Word who is truth, the Spirit of truth, and the written Word breathed out by that Spirit. Christ's own sanctification in verse 19 is not a prayer for personal holiness but His self-consecration as the high priest who offers Himself as sacrifice, and that priestly self-offering is the very foundation on which the apostles — and all believers — are set apart. The practical summons is plain: growth in grace and conformity to Christ come through the ordinary means of God's truth, not through experience, emotion, or entertainment, and the church's fidelity to that pattern depends on elders who are devoted to teaching it.
The Believer's Response to Trials
James 1:2–8 addresses the Christian's response to trials — not with grief or complaint, but with counted joy grounded in a clear theological understanding of God's purpose in suffering. The sermon works through two movements: the believer's response to trials in verses 2–4 (identifying, expecting, and rightly receiving them) and the believer's request during trials in verses 5–8 (seeking wisdom from a generous God and coming in faith without double-mindedness). The central application is that Christians must lay up this theology before trials arrive, so that when affliction comes, they are equipped to respond with settledness, faith, and prayer rather than anger or despair.
The Joy of the Gospel
Ephesians 2:1–10 presents the whole arc of redemption in miniature: total depravity, sovereign grace, and the new life of sanctification. This sermon works through that arc by contrasting the bad news of verses 1–3 — that every human being is spiritually dead, enslaved to fleshly desires, complicit with satanic powers, and deserving of divine wrath — with the good news of verses 4–10, where God's rich mercy, unearned grace, and sovereign bestowal of faith rescue sinners who had nothing to offer Him. The central application is that the regenerate life is marked not by boasting but by the Spirit's fruit, and that the gathered church is itself a foretaste of the eternal communion for which God has prepared His people in Christ.
The Idolatry of Solomon
Solomon's reign, celebrated across 1 Kings 3–10 as a golden age of wisdom and divine blessing, collapses in chapter 11 under the weight of multiplied foreign wives and the idolatry they drew him into — a direct violation of the Mosaic prohibitions in Deuteronomy 7 and 17. The sermon traces the idolatry itself (vv. 1–8) and the divine response (vv. 9–13), showing that Solomon's sin was aggravated by his knowledge of the law, the good example of his father David, and two personal appearances of God. From this sobering case the sermon draws eight practical warnings: that experience, godly example, knowledge, and wisdom are not in themselves sufficient to secure present faithfulness, and that the believer's only safeguard is constant dependence on the Holy Spirit and a mind rooted in Scripture.
2LCF Chapter 31 - Of the State of Man After Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead
What happens to the individual when he dies, and what will the resurrection of the dead look like at the last day? Working through 2LCF Chapter 31, this study examines the intermediate state — the period between death and resurrection — establishing from Scripture that souls neither sleep nor enter any third place such as purgatory or limbo, but go immediately either to be with Christ in paradise or to hell in torment. The session then treats the final resurrection of both the just and the unjust, argues for the simplicity of biblical eschatology against dispensational complexity, and closes with the anti-gnostic insistence that the redemption of the body is the believer's final and glorious hope.
The Sixth Commandment
The Sixth Commandment — 'You shall not murder' (Exodus 20:13) — addresses far more than the physical act of killing; it presupposes the dignity of every human being as an image-bearer of God and condemns unrighteous hatred of the heart. This sermon expounds the Hebrew word for murder, distinguishing it from lawful killing in capital punishment, just war, and self-defense, before pressing the command's indictment of abortion and euthanasia as violations of the sanctity of life. Jesus's teaching in Matthew 5 extends the commandment's reach to unwarranted anger and character assassination, and the three uses of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — frame both the church's public witness and the believer's ongoing sanctification. The sermon closes by insisting that the most faithful response to a death culture is to preach both the law and the cross of Christ.
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.
The Enthronement of the King-Priest
Psalm 110 is the most frequently quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament, and for good reason: it presents the Lord Jesus Christ in his twofold office as enthroned King and eternal Priest. This exposition works through all seven verses under three headings — the enthronement of Christ at the Father's right hand (vv. 1–3), the Melchizedekan priesthood sworn by God's oath (v. 4), and the triumph of Christ over all his enemies (vv. 5–7). The sermon calls believers entering a new year to fix their minds on the reigning King-Priest rather than on the hostility of the present evil age, and urges the unconverted to come to Christ in faith on the grounds that God's saving purpose is irreversible.
Late in Time Behold Him Come
Galatians 4:4–5 declares that the Son of God entered history at the precise moment determined in the eternal covenant of redemption — not a moment early or late, but at the fullness of the times. The sermon works through four heads: the moment of Christ's coming as the convergence of eternal decree, prophetic anticipation, typological terminus, and Old Covenant tutelage's completion; the mission of the sent Son as the assumption of humanity by the omnipresent divine Word; the mystery of His humiliation in being born of a woman and born under the law as last Adam, obedient servant, and satisfier of the law's penal demands; and the meaning of the Incarnation as the redemption of law-breakers and their adoption as sons of God. The sermon calls believers to daily joy in so great a salvation and urges unbelievers to repent and believe before the day of forced submission.
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.
The Covenant Ceremony With Abraham
Genesis 15 records the covenant ceremony by which God confirmed his promises of seed and land to Abram — not with a bilateral oath, but with a unilateral, self-maledictory act in which God alone passed between the divided animals. The sermon traces Abraham's justification by faith alone in verse 6, examines the ancient covenant-ratification ritual as a type of Christ bearing the covenant curse, and shows that the smoking oven and burning torch passing through the pieces preaches the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. The application presses believers to rest their assurance not in their own covenant faithfulness but in the faithfulness of the God who swore by himself and sealed that oath in the blood of his Son.
The Salvation of Sinners on Pentecost
Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:22–42) declares the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ as the exclusive ground of salvation, and calls sinners to repentance and faith. The sermon examines what genuine repentance means — a change of mind inseparable from faith, not a prior moral reformation — and argues that baptism is the sign of what God has already accomplished internally, not the instrument of forgiveness. Acts 2:39 is addressed directly against paedobaptist appeals, with the promise of the Spirit shown to belong to all who are effectually called, not to the physical infants of believers. The sermon closes with an exhortation to follow the Pentecost pattern: preach the gospel, baptize disciples, and teach them in the church.
2LCF Chapter 28 - Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
2LCF Chapter 28 presents baptism and the Lord's Supper as two ordinances of positive and sovereign institution appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ, the only lawgiver, to be continued in His church until the end of the age. This session traces the confessional groundwork laid in 2LCF chapters 8, 14, 17, 22, and 26 before examining Chapter 28's two brief paragraphs in detail. The particular Baptist choice of 'ordinance' over 'sacrament,' the exclusion of 'seal,' and the inclusion of 'positive' are each shown to be polemically deliberate — asserting that baptism and the Lord's Supper are divine commands to be obeyed only by those who can render obedience, that is, regenerate believers. The session closes by grounding lawful administration of the ordinances in Matthew 28 and the commission given to qualified, called ministers of the gospel.
The Spirit's Ministry to the Apostles
John 16:12–15 presents the Spirit's ministry to the apostles as the continuation and completion of Christ's own self-disclosure to the disciples. The sermon expounds Jesus' promise that the Spirit of Truth will guide the apostles into all truth, situating that promise within the doctrine of the Trinity — specifically the eternal processions of the Son and Spirit and their corresponding temporal missions. The Spirit's 'not speaking on his own authority' is shown to mirror Christ's own language about receiving all things from the Father, testifying not to any inferiority of persons but to the consubstantiality of the three divine persons, each possessing the whole divine essence undivided. The congregation is called to pursue the knowledge of the triune God as the foundation for every other duty of the Christian life.
The Requirements for Religious Life
Numbers 15 interrupts the narrative of Israel's rebellion in chapters 11–14 with renewed covenant obligations — laws of offerings, provisions for unintentional sin, and the command to wear tassels. The placement is deliberate: faithfulness to God's ordained means of grace is the proper remedy for the kind of corporate collapse just witnessed. The sermon traces how God's judgment on one generation does not exhaust His covenant mercy, and draws a typological line from Mosaic sacrifice and priesthood through to the once-for-all offering of Christ and the believer's advocate before the Father.
The Martyrdom of Stephen
Acts 7:54–8:1 records the martyrdom of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, whose death exposes the murderous hatred that unbelieving Israel bore toward the Messiah and those who bore witness to Him. Standing alone before the Sanhedrin, Stephen receives a vision of the glory of God and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father — confirming his theology of temple, rebuking his executioners, and manifesting the presence of the triune God with His servant in extremity. His dying words, mirroring Christ's own prayers from the cross, demonstrate that true temple worship — the meeting of God and sinners in prayer and forgiveness — is found not in any physical structure but in the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage calls believers to theological preparedness, courageous witness, and dependence on the triune God in the face of opposition, however severe.
The Gospel of Christ in the Valley of Elah
David's victory over Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 is not merely an episode in Israelite history but a Christological shadow pointing forward to the greater conquest of Christ over Satan at Golgotha. This sermon works through twelve points of typological correspondence between David and Christ — from Bethlehem's birthplace, to the shepherd-king, to vicarious representation, to the skull motif of Genesis 3:15 — demonstrating that the whole of Scripture is organically unified around the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The exposition serves as a Lord's Supper meditation, calling believers to rejoice in their conquering substitute and urging the unconverted to flee to the champion who uses death itself to destroy death.
Gospel Treasure in Human Weakness
Gospel ministry is defined by the preaching of Christ alone, not the self-promotion of the minister. Expounding 2 Corinthians 4:5–7, this sermon traces four marks of faithful gospel ministry: the obscurity of the minister who refuses to preach himself, his bondservice to the congregation for Christ's sake, the divine illumination that enables true proclamation, and the humility of an earthen vessel that magnifies the treasure it carries rather than the vessel itself. The call throughout is for preachers to disappear so that only Christ is seen, and for congregations to demand nothing less.
Ask FGBC #10: Why should only believers be baptized?
This Q&A episode addresses the Reformed Baptist argument that only professing believers are proper subjects of baptism. Drawing on the distinction between moral law and positive law, and grounding baptism firmly in the New Covenant rather than the Abrahamic covenant, the speaker argues that circumcision was an ordinance tied to a specific historical covenant now abrogated, and that its recipient-list cannot be transferred to baptism. The episode also traces the historical development of paedobaptism from pre-Reformation sacerdotalism to the covenantal argument codified in the Westminster Confession.
The Love of Christ and Love to One Another
John 15:9–11 presents the love of Christ for his disciples as the pattern, precept, and purpose of the Christian life. The Father's love for the Son — infinite, eternal, and unchangeable — is the very measure of Christ's love for his people, a love that is not conditional upon the disciples' obedience but is rather the ground from which obedience springs. Keeping Christ's commandments is not the cause of the disciple's acceptance before God but the consequence of justification freely received: the blood and righteousness of Christ alone secure standing with the Father. The sermon closes with an urgent call to unbelievers to cease searching for joy in creatures and to come to Christ, in whom fullness of joy is found both now and in glory.
The Apostle Paul, Part 4: His Doctrinal Legacy
The doctrinal legacy of the Apostle Paul is surveyed across seven theological themes: the comprehensive nature of sin and depravity, the incarnation of the divine Son of God, the sovereignty of the triune God in salvation, amazing grace, justification by faith alone, sanctification in union with Christ, and a simple and glorious eschatology. Paul's writings are shown to move consistently from the gravity of man's ruin to the glory of God's redeeming grace in Christ. The sermon closes with a direct call to believers to be built up in the knowledge of the gospel, and to those outside of Christ to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.