Cited in sermons
John Eadie
54 sermons · All people cited
The Ascension of Christ
The bodily, visible, local ascension of Christ into heaven forty days after his resurrection is not a peripheral doctrine but the hinge on which the entire exaltation of the Mediator turns. This sermon expounds Acts 1:9–11 in three movements: the historical reality of the ascension (real, visible, bodily, local, and glorious), its theological significance (fulfillment of Scripture, completion of Christ's priestly work, his enthronement at the Father's right hand, and the glory given to him as Mediator), and its practical benefits for the church (the gift of the Holy Spirit, the perpetual intercession of Christ, and the guaranteed second coming). Believers are called to draw courage from Christ's present reign, flee to the cross before the judgment that the ascension makes inevitable, and rest in the advocacy of the enthroned Savior who always lives to make intercession.
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–18 calls believers to put on the whole armor of God — not for ceremonial display but for genuine hand-to-hand combat against principalities, powers, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness. The armor is not native to the believer but is provided entirely through union with Christ: truth, imputed righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, and salvation constitute the defensive elements, while the Word of God is the offensive sword. The sermon argues that the Christian life is a lifelong fight requiring daily, persevering diligence — not passive rest — and closes by urging both believers and unbelievers to recognize that lasting victory over sin is possible only through the blood of atonement and the grace of the triune God.
Be Imitators of God
Ephesians 5:1–21 confronts believers with a single pressing question: what is truly honorable and acceptable in the sight of God rather than in the sight of men? Working through three consecutive imperatives — walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom — the sermon grounds each in the indicative of redemption: because the Father has predestined, adopted, and redeemed a people through Christ's perfect and acceptable sacrifice, they must imitate God as dear children. The practical implications range from the mortification of sexual sin and covetousness to the filling of the Spirit expressed in mutual speech, psalmody, thanksgiving, and submission, all of which flow from what Christ alone accomplished as the only sweet-smelling offering acceptable to the Father.
The Spirit's Application of Redemption
The Holy Spirit's work in applying redemption to sinners is the focus of this exposition of Ephesians 1:13–14, the concluding verses of Paul's great doxology on the blessings of God the Father and God the Son. The Spirit functions both as a seal — impressing upon the heart of the believer the assurance that he is a child of God — and as a guarantee or down payment of the full inheritance yet to be received in glory. Drawing from the 1689 London Baptist Confession's chapter on assurance and the writings of J.C. Ryle, the sermon calls believers struggling with weak faith to rest in the objective work of the triune God, and exhorts them to pursue holiness through the means of grace as the proper fruit of that assurance.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 3
What role did the Holy Spirit play in the earthly ministry of Christ, and why does it matter for the doctrine of salvation? Expounding 2LCF Chapter 8, Paragraph 3, this session traces the Spirit's work across every stage of the Mediator's mission: the virginal conception, the public ministry, the cross, and the resurrection. Because Christ executed his mediatorial office in his human nature — not merely by the immediate operation of his divine nature — the Father's gift of the Spirit without measure to the man Christ Jesus is essential to orthodox Christology and to the assurance that a genuinely human Mediator has met every demand of the covenant on behalf of the elect.
4 Aspects of the Incarnation
Galatians 4:4–5 contains one of the most compressed statements of the gospel in all of Scripture, setting forth the incarnation of the eternal Son of God as the decisive corrective to the Galatian error of adding legal works to faith in Christ. This sermon examines four aspects of the incarnation: the timing sovereignly appointed in the eternal covenant between Father and Son, the triune glory visible in the Father's sending of both Son and Spirit, the double humility of Christ being born of a woman and born under the law, and the twofold purpose of redemption and adoption. The application calls hearers to be astonished at God's sovereign plan, to know the Trinity rightly, to rejoice in Christ's condescension, and to rest solely in His finished work — neither adding legal performance nor trusting in one's own standing as a professing Christian.
The Nature of the Gospel
Galatians 1:1–5 is not merely a conventional greeting but a compressed doctrinal statement of the gospel that Paul deploys as the foundation of his polemic against the Judaizers. Working through five truths embedded in verses 4 and 5, the sermon demonstrates that Christ's death was voluntary, substitutionary, and divinely ordained, that it delivers the elect from this present evil age, and that it exists ultimately for the glory of God. The doctrines of penal substitution, divine sovereignty in salvation, and the deity of Christ are examined in detail, with supporting texts drawn from across both Testaments. The doxological response of Revelation 4–5 is held up as the pattern for how a right understanding of the cross necessarily issues in worship.
The Son-Tilted Focus of All Things
Colossians 1:16 presents the Son of God as the author, agent, and goal of all creation — not merely its first product, but its sovereign Lord. The sermon argues that 'firstborn of all creation' (Col. 1:15) carries the Old Testament sense of preeminence and rank, not ontological origin, so that the Son is the Creator and not a creature. From this text the preacher traces a 'Son-tilted' architecture running through creation, providence, and redemption, showing that all three are oriented toward the glory of the eternal Son. The sermon closes with the gospel call: the same Son who made all things assumed human nature, suffered, rose, and now brings many sons to glory — a glory in which believers will stand blameless before God with great joy, solely on the ground of Christ's righteousness.
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–20 calls believers to put on the whole armor of God not as a passive ideal but as an urgent, daily discipline in genuine spiritual warfare against principalities, powers, and the wiles of the devil. The sermon works through three structural observations: the two commands of verses 10–11 (be strong in the Lord; put on the armor), the reason given in verses 11–12 (the nature and reality of the enemy), and the armor described in verses 13–20 (five defensive elements and one offensive element). Each piece of armor — truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Word, and prayer — is shown to direct the believer away from self-reliance and toward Christ as the captain of salvation. The central application is that theological grounding, not spiritual showmanship, constitutes genuine spiritual warfare, and that apart from Christ no believer will stand in the evil day.
Galatians 1:6-10
Galatians 1:6–10 confronts the Galatian churches' rapid defection from the gospel of grace to a Judaizing heresy that added circumcision and law-keeping to faith as a condition of justification. The sermon argues that any addition of human merit to the work of Christ — however small — destroys the gospel entirely, because salvation is either by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, or it is by the law, and the two cannot be mixed. The Apostle Paul's double pronouncement of anathema on false gospel teachers is examined in its Old Testament background (the herem principle) and applied as a call to doctrinal precision, vigilance against indifference, and refusal to supplement the finished work of Christ.
The Marriage Relationship
Colossians 3:18–19 calls wives to submit to their own husbands and husbands to love their wives without bitterness — two commands that cut precisely against the natural grain of each. This sermon argues that both duties are grounded not in social utility or natural sentiment but in the gospel itself: the wife's submission images Christ's submission to the Father, and the husband's love images Christ's self-sacrificial love for the church. The sermon draws on Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, and 1 Corinthians 11 to show that ontological equality between husband and wife is fully compatible with functional differentiation of role, and closes by pressing both commands back onto the cross as the only sufficient motive and resource for obedience.
The Current Session of Christ
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 demonstrates that the session of Christ — his present reign at the right hand of the Father — is the convergent fulfillment of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants, together with the royal-priestly announcement of Psalm 110. Working from Acts 2:29–36, this sermon traces Christ's universal sovereignty over all creation and then hones in on his specific interest in his church, exercised through his threefold mediatorial office as prophet, priest, and king. The current session is not a distant or past reality but a present comfort: Christ subdues his people to himself, intercedes for them continually, and governs every circumstance of history for the glory of God and the good of his elect. Believers are exhorted to engage Christ in his offices — hearing him as prophet, going to the Father through him as priest, and submitting to him as king — before that submission becomes compulsory at the final judgment.
The Motivation Behind False Religion
Galatians 6:11–13 exposes the threefold motivation driving those who distort the gospel by adding law-keeping to faith as a condition of justification. The Judaizers pursued circumcision adherents to make a good showing in the flesh, to escape the persecution that the exclusive claims of the cross inevitably provoke, and to boast in the numbers of their converts — all motivations rooted in the externals of religion rather than in the finished work of Christ. Paul's polemic against this Judaizing tendency applies equally to Rome and to any system that mingles law and grace, for to mingle them is to end with neither. The sermon calls believers to boast in the cross of Christ alone and confronts the unconverted with the impossibility of rendering the personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience God demands.
From Alienation to Reconciliation
Colossians 1:21–23 sets before the believer a movement from total alienation to gracious reconciliation, and Paul's logic demands that the Lord's Supper be received as a celebration of divine achievement rather than human performance. The sermon examines three realities in the text: the previous state of the Colossians as alienated enemies engaged in wicked works, their present status as those whom God has reconciled through the physical death of Christ, and the future blessedness to which God is bringing them — holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight. Because reconciliation flows from sovereign election and not from foreseen faith, all glory belongs to God, and the table is rightly approached with awe and worship rather than self-congratulation.
The Christian Father
Colossians 3:21 delivers a single, pointed command to fathers: do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. This sermon exposits that verse within the broader household code of Colossians 3:18–4:1, arguing that redemption in Christ does not dissolve familial distinctions but rather furnishes the spiritual capacity to fulfill them rightly. Drawing on positive examples from Abraham and Joshua and the negative example of Eli, the sermon identifies specific forms of provocation — unrighteous anger, unbiblical discipline, favoritism, inconsistency, and gospel-less child-rearing — before turning to the positive exhortation of Ephesians 6:4. The sermon closes with five concrete duties of the Christian father: presence, provision, protection, prayer, and preaching sound doctrine in the home.
The Works of the Flesh
Galatians 5:19–21 presents Paul's catalog of the works of the flesh as a concrete definition of what it means to fail to walk in the Spirit — the very Spirit given to those justified by faith alone. This exposition works through four categories of fleshly sin: sexual immorality, religious apostasy, disorders in personal relationships, and intemperance, drawing on the Westminster Larger Catechism to illuminate each category's depth and breadth. The critical distinction the sermon presses is between remaining corruption (the struggle every believer knows) and reigning corruption (the habitual, unrepentant practice that marks the unconverted). The sermon closes by directing hearers to the active obedience and atoning death of Christ as the only ground of hope in the face of this condemning list.
Hagar, Sarah, and Covenant Theology
Galatians 4:21–31 presents Paul's allegorical argument from the two sons of Abraham — Ishmael and Isaac, Hagar and Sarah — to demonstrate that faith and law-keeping are mutually exclusive systems of approach to God. Paul maps Hagar onto the Mosaic covenant, first-century apostate Jerusalem, and the bondage of those who seek acceptance with God through legal works; he maps Sarah onto the covenant of grace, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the freedom of those who are justified by faith alone in Christ alone. New covenant membership belongs not to ethnic Israel as such, but to all — Jew and Gentile — who are united to Christ by sovereign grace, making them heirs of the promise given to Abraham. The sermon closes with a call to recognise false teaching as a form of persecution and to exercise church discipline against those who corrupt the gospel of free justification.
The Expectation of the Law
Galatians 3:10–14 presents a twofold appeal to Scripture — through Deuteronomy, Habakkuk, and Leviticus — that exposes the impossibility of self-justification and the necessity of redemption in Christ alone. The law demands entire, constant, and perfect obedience, a standard no fallen sinner can meet, placing all who rely on law-keeping under the curse of God. Christ, who knew no sin and violated no statute, became that curse in the place of his people, securing for them the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit through faith. The sermon calls every hearer to abandon any confidence in works or law-keeping and to look to Christ alone, in whom redemption is covenantal, instantaneous, complete, and powerful.
The Example of Abraham
Galatians 3:6–9 presents Abraham as Paul's decisive scriptural witness against the Judaizing demand for circumcision alongside faith. Drawing from Genesis 15:6, Paul demonstrates that Abraham's justification was by faith alone — faith as the instrument, not the ground, by which righteousness was reckoned to his account — and that this same faith-righteousness is the only basis on which anyone, Jew or Gentile, stands as a son of Abraham. The sermon works through four theological implications: imputed righteousness comes through faith alone, sonship to Abraham belongs only to the believing, Scripture itself preached the gospel to Abraham in advance, and the blessing of God falls exclusively on those who share Abraham's faith. Hearers are called to rest in the peace, gratitude, and humility that flow from justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and to guard against every system — ancient or modern — that supplements faith with human merit.
Paul's Astonishment at the Galatians' Desertion
Paul's opening words in Galatians 1:6–10 omit his characteristic thanksgiving and replace it with astonishment, signalling that the Galatian churches' drift toward a works-plus-faith gospel is not a minor doctrinal adjustment but a desertion from Christ and a perversion of the gospel of grace. The sermon expounds the gravity of that defection — the Judaizers were not denying Christ's existence but insisting that faith in Christ must be supplemented by law-keeping, a move Paul condemns as abandoning a religion of grace for a religion of merit. The anathema Paul pronounces is not mere church discipline but exposure to the judicial wrath of God, and it falls on any messenger — apostle or angel — who deviates from the fixed gospel tradition. Hearers are called to resist doctrinal indifference, imprecision, compromise, and novelty, and to rest in the active and passive obedience of Christ imputed to the believer by faith alone.
The Responsibility of Children
Colossians 3:20 addresses children as responsible members of the covenant community with a specific duty: to obey their parents in all things for the glory of God. This sermon expounds that command under two headings — as a religious commitment rooted in what is well-pleasing to the Lord, and as a requirement of God's moral law grounded in the Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5; Ephesians 6:1–3). The law's impossible demand is not softened but turned pedagogically toward the cross: children cannot perfectly obey or honor their parents, and that failure is meant to drive them to Christ, whose active obedience fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of sinners. Parents are therefore urged to present the law honestly, presume nothing about their children's regeneration, and cultivate homes where gospel ethics are visibly practiced.
The Defining Characteristic of a Christian Husband
Colossians 3:19 commands husbands to love their wives and prohibits bitterness toward them — a deceptively simple two-part instruction that cuts against both passive abdication and domineering harshness. This sermon works through what that love requires by examining 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 5, and 1 Peter 3, showing that Christ's sacrificial, monogamous, intimate, and sanctifying love for the church is the standard and pattern for every Christian husband. Three practical obligations emerge: pray for and with her, provide for her materially and spiritually, and protect her from danger, ungodly influences, and false doctrine. The sermon closes with a gospel appeal, reminding hearers that the active and passive obedience of Christ — not marital performance — is the ground of their standing before God, and that the husband-wife relationship exists as an illustration of Christ's love for his church.
A Word for Fathers
Ephesians 6:1–4 addresses fathers and the entire domestic order within which fatherhood functions — husbands as servant-leaders of their wives, wives submitting and rendering respect, and children obeying and honoring their parents. The sermon argues that God invests fathers with real, God-given authority, and that this authority carries commensurate responsibility: to lead sacrificially, to disciple, to nourish, and to discipline without provoking to wrath. Throughout, the gospel grounds the whole: no husband, wife, or child meets these standards perfectly, and the righteousness required is found only in Christ's active and passive obedience imputed to the believer by faith.
Paul's Stewardship of the Gospel
Colossians 1:25–29 sets before the church the apostolic stewardship and preaching ministry of Paul as a pattern for gospel ministry. The passage unfolds in three movements: Paul's divinely assigned stewardship of the mystery of Christ in the Gentiles, the content and manner of his Christ-centered proclamation, and the Spirit-empowered labor that drove that proclamation toward eschatological completeness. The sermon draws out the implications for both preachers — who must warn, teach, and strive with wisdom in dependence on God — and hearers, who bear responsibility to receive the preached word with attentive, covenant-renewing ears.