Cited in sermons
John Gill
1,025 sermons · All people cited
Modesty and Good Works
Paul's instructions to women in 1 Timothy 2:9–10 are grounded in one controlling concern: corporate worship is about God, not the worshipper. This sermon works through the passage under three headings — the general principles of adornment, the specific applications Paul names (braided hair, gold, pearls, costly clothing), and the reorientation Paul commands toward good works. A biblical theology of jewelry demonstrates that Scripture nowhere condemns adornment as such; the prohibition targets ostentatiousness — the deliberate drawing of attention to oneself, whether through sexuality or the display of wealth — that distracts men from worship and provokes covetousness in sisters. The sermon closes by calling the Christian woman to pursue modesty, self-control, and good works as the true adornment of a gospel profession.
The Servant Song of Matthew
Matthew 12:15–21 records Jesus withdrawing from the murderous rage of the Pharisees while multitudes — including Gentiles — follow Him for healing, and Matthew interprets this through the first Servant Song of Isaiah 42:1–7. The sermon works through six characteristics of the Servant of Yahweh as Matthew presents them: His excellence as the Father's chosen and beloved, His empowerment by the Holy Spirit, His message of justice to the Gentiles, His character and commitment as one who does not quarrel or cry out, His mercy toward bruised reeds and smoking flax, and His worldwide mission culminating in the Great Commission. Throughout, the preacher presses the comfort that weak faith — however small — is true faith, and that Christ as the great Savior of great sinners is the hermeneutical center of all Scripture.
A Manifestation of Brotherly Love
Hebrews 13:3 commands believers to 'remember the prisoners as if chained with them' — not as a passive acknowledgement that suffering exists, but as an active, continual intercession on behalf of persecuted brothers and sisters. The sermon situates this command within the broader biblical pattern of enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15), arguing that persecution is the expected and normal experience of the godly throughout redemptive history. Three considerations structure the exposition: the duty to remember, the objects of remembrance (prisoners and the mistreated), and the reason for remembrance ('as if chained with them' — intense identification through shared membership in the body of Christ). Ten practical applications are drawn out, from intercessory prayer and letter-writing to praying for the conversion and restraint of persecutors, with the governing motive that Christ Himself is worth any suffering His people are called to endure.
The Emancipating King
John 8:31–36 confronts two realities simultaneously: the totality of human bondage to sin and the sufficiency of Christ as the sole emancipating King. The sermon expounds five headings — the evidence of true discipleship, its blessing, the false assessment of unbelief, the divine assessment of unbelief, and the divine sovereignty in conquering unbelief — demonstrating that abiding in Christ's word is the evidence, not the cause, of regenerate discipleship. The liberation Christ brings is not social or political but forensic and spiritual: freedom from sin's guilt, power, and condemnation, purchased on Calvary and applied by sovereign grace alone. Hearers are called to know the truth, rejoice in it as the only lasting joy, and rest in the emancipating King rather than in any self-assessed freedom of will.
Specific Directions for Corporate Prayer
What does it mean for men to lead in corporate prayer, and what moral conditions must accompany that leadership? Expounding 1 Timothy 2:8, this sermon establishes that Paul's expressed 'desire' carries apostolic authority binding upon all churches, that the word for 'men' (Greek andros) specifies males as those who are to lead in public worship, and that this complementarian order is grounded not in Ephesian circumstance but in the creation order of Genesis. The manner of that prayer — lifting holy hands, free from wrath and disputing — demands horizontal reconciliation before vertical supplication, so that unresolved sin and unreconciled relationships do not hinder the church's prayer to God.
The Gracious Declaration of the Gospel
Matthew 11:27–28 sets forth the mediatorial office of Christ and the gracious declaration of the gospel as the second and third grounds upon which sinners come to know God. Christ possesses all authority delivered by the Father, holds exclusive knowledge of the Father, and sovereignly wills to reveal Him — condemning universalism, pluralism, and every works-based religion. The free invitation 'Come to me' presupposes sovereign election and effectual grace, addresses those burdened by sin and Pharisaic religion alike, and promises rest that is grounded in Christ's mediation alone, not in human virtue or effort.
Joshua 9
Joshua 9 records the deception of the Gibeonites and Israel's failure to seek divine counsel before entering a covenant of peace with them. The chapter's key verse — 'they did not ask counsel of the Lord' (v. 14) — exposes how even a sophisticated ruse of moldy bread and worn sandals can succeed against God's people when they trust their own discernment rather than inquiring of God. The sermon traces four movements in the narrative: the coalition of Canaanite kings, the Gibeonites' elaborate deception, Israel's indiscretion, and Joshua's subsequent investigation of the Gibeonites. The application is threefold: seek God's counsel in weighty decisions, verify the claims of those you deal with, and maintain faithfulness to oaths even when they were entered into wrongly.
The Condemnation of Israel's Unbelief
Jesus pronounces solemn woes upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum in Matthew 11:20–24, condemning their unrepentance despite being the primary sites of His Galilean ministry. The greater the privilege and witness a people have received — miracles, preaching, the very presence of the Messiah — the greater the condemnation they bear for rejecting it. Capernaum, Christ's own base of ministry, is likened to both Sodom and Babylon, cities proverbial for wickedness, because its sin of impenitence in the face of such light exceeded even theirs. The sermon applies this graduated judgment directly to hearers in the Western world who possess Bibles, faithful churches, and the preached gospel, calling them urgently to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before the day of judgment.
The Indictment of Israel's Unbelief
Israel's rejection of both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ is the subject of Matthew 11:16–19, where Jesus indicts his generation as incorrigible — stubbornly unresponsive to the mourning of the Baptist and the celebration of the Son of Man alike. The parable of children in the marketplace exposes the fatal irony: the very charge Israel leveled against Jesus — that he was a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of sinners — echoes the language of Deuteronomy 21's incorrigible son, the language that rightly belongs to Israel herself. Christ alone is the obedient Son who lived in perfect submission to the Father, providing the righteousness and forgiveness that rebellious sinners require. The sermon closes with a direct summons to repentance, warning that greater privilege under gospel preaching brings greater accountability on the day of judgment.
The Priority of Prayer in the Church
Paul's command in 1 Timothy 2:1–2 to offer supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for all men — including kings and those in authority — establishes corporate prayer as the first order of business in the life of the church. This sermon works through the four terms Paul employs, the scope of those for whom prayer is made (all classes of men, not every individual without exception), and the purpose clause that grounds the command: that the church may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence so as to pursue the Great Commission. The exhortation to pray for governing authorities is traced across the canon, from the Babylonian exile in Jeremiah 29 through Ezra 6 and Psalm 2, demonstrating that intercession for civil rulers is no novelty in redemptive history. Hearers are called to replace complaint about government with prayer for the salvation of those in authority, trusting that God sovereignly moves the hearts of kings.
A Filthy Priest and the Grace of God
Zechariah 3 sets before the reader a courtroom scene in which Joshua the high priest — clothed in garments the Hebrew describes with language reserved for human feces and vomit — stands before the Lord with Satan at his right hand, ready to accuse. The vision is an unsparing portrait of what every sinner looks like before a holy God, and the response is entirely God's: He silences the accuser, strips the filthy garments, and clothes Joshua in an alien righteousness he did nothing to earn. The sermon expounds this fourth night vision under three headings — the cleansing of Joshua, the charge given to Joshua, and the promise concerning the Branch — demonstrating that the imputation of Christ's righteousness is not a Reformation novelty but a reality enacted in visible, typological form five centuries before Calvary. The application drives toward assurance grounded not in the believer's obedience but in sovereign election and justifying grace, while calling the unconverted to believe on the Branch who came to do what God purposed for Him.
The Shocking Character of God's Grace, Part 1
Hosea 1–3 presents what one commentator calls 'a tapestry of grace': God commands Hosea to marry the harlot Gomer as an acted parable of Yahweh's covenant relationship with an idolatrous Israel. This sermon works through the first chapter and the opening of the second, establishing the historical and covenantal context — Hosea's ministry to the Northern Kingdom circa 750–715 BC — and arguing for the literal interpretation of the marriage command against symbolic and proleptic alternatives. The three children's names (Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, Lo-Ammi) announce covenant judgment, yet verses 10–11 pivot to gospel hope: God's Abrahamic promise of a numberless people cannot be annulled, and Paul and Peter both apply Hosea's restoration language to the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. Every hearer is Gomer — an idolater who has rejected God — and the shocking grace of the text is that God, like Hosea, goes after, buys back, and restores the very people who have played the harlot against him.
Angered by the Grace of God
Jonah 4:2 preserves one of the most striking confessions of divine grace in all of Scripture — stated not as praise, but as the reason a prophet fled from God. This expository overview of the entire book of Jonah traces Jonah's flight, his rescue, his mission, and his anger, demonstrating that the book's central concern is not missiology or even sanctification, but theology proper: a revelation of God's character as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love toward sailors, a rebellious prophet, and a pagan city alike. The sovereignty of God is shown to govern every creature and circumstance — fish, plant, worm, and wind — so that His word to His prophet cannot return void. The sermon calls every hearer to abandon self-sufficiency and cast themselves upon the mercy of God revealed supremely in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all that Nineveh hoped for is guaranteed without the 'if perhaps' of uncertainty.
The Revelation of God's Glory
Exodus 34:6–7 reveals the attributes of God not in the abstract but in the wake of the catastrophic covenant-breaking of the golden calf — making the declaration of divine mercy, grace, long-suffering, and forgiveness all the more staggering. This sermon works through the context of Exodus 32–33 to show that God meets great sin with greater grace, and that sovereign grace is not a theological concession but the very content of the divine name. The same passage that grounds Moses' intercession grounds the call to flee to Christ, who accomplishes what Moses could only typify: atonement for covenant-breakers.
The Trinity and the Death of Christ
The death of Christ on the cross is not the work of the Son alone but of the entire Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each acting distinctly yet inseparably in the one work of redemption. Drawing from 1 Peter 1:2 as a launching text, the sermon traces each person's role: the Father in purpose, promise, and punishment; the Son in penal obedience, perfection, and protection; the Spirit in publication, persuasion, and purification. The definite, efficacious nature of Christ's atonement is insisted upon throughout — Christ did not die to make salvation possible but to actually and perfectly save his elect. Observed in the context of the Lord's Supper, the sermon calls believers to reflect on the Triune God as the sole and sufficient author of salvation from beginning to end.
Covenant Faithfulness and the Lord's Victory at Jericho
Joshua 5:1–6:5 brings Israel to the threshold of Canaan for two covenant rites — circumcision and Passover — before the campaign against Jericho begins. The uncircumcised second generation receives the covenant sign, qualifying them for the Passover meal and for life in the land God swore to give their fathers. The cessation of manna as Israel eats the land's produce is treated not as the end of divine care but as its continuation through ordinary providence. The passage climaxes with the pre-incarnate Christ appearing as commander of the Lord's army, commissioning Joshua with the promise that Jericho is already given — a promise to be received by faith, not taken by military prowess.
The Finished Work of Christ
John 19:30 records the sixth and final word of the Lord Jesus from the cross before he gave up his spirit: 'It is finished' — the Greek tetelestai, a perfect passive verb stamped on commercial receipts to signify a debt paid in full with present and abiding effect. The sermon examines this declaration under three headings: the fulfillment of all redemptive prophecy, the glory of the Son in his obedience to the Father, his redemption of his people, and his defeat of the devil, and finally the manifold comfort the declaration brings to the church — propitiation exhausting the wrath of God, triumph over death, the forgiveness of sins, the imputation of a perfect righteousness, and peace with God. The sermon is preached in the context of the Lord's Supper, calling believers to receive the ordinance in full consciousness of a finished, unrepeatable, entirely sufficient work of Christ, and calling the unconverted to look to that Savior in simple faith.
The Mission of the Twelve
The mission of the Twelve in Matthew 10:5–15 is not a universal mandate for all gospel ministry but a historically specific, geographically confined commission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel — the necessary first movement in a salvation-historical arc that culminates in the Great Commission of Matthew 28. The sermon works through four observations: the scope, nature, provision, and response to the mission, demonstrating that the sign gifts authenticated apostolic preaching rather than being ends in themselves. The sermon closes with a sober warning drawn from verse 15: greater gospel privilege demands greater accountability, and to hear the word faithfully preached and refuse it is a more grievous offense than the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Introduction to Joshua
The book of Joshua stands as Scripture's definitive testimony to divine covenant faithfulness: every promise God made to Abraham regarding the land finds its historical fulfillment here. This introductory study surveys the date, authorship, and canonical setting of Joshua, presents a four-part structural outline (entering, taking, dividing, and retaining the land), and examines the book's major theological themes — holy war and the ban, the land as covenant inheritance, and the unqualified faithfulness of God. The closing summary in Joshua 21:43–45 anchors the entire exposition, demonstrating that not one word of God's promised word failed.
The Slaying of the Giant
The account of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 is not primarily a lesson in human courage or self-confidence, but a declaration that the battle belongs to the Lord and that God vindicates his name through unassuming instruments. The sermon works through the final section of the chapter in six movements — from Saul's faithless objection to David's theological confidence, from Goliath's arrogant threat to David's sober counter-promise, and from the quick duel to its far-reaching aftermath. David's trust in the God who delivered him from lion and bear is held up as the pattern of saving faith: historical retrospect grounding confident expectation. The whole account is read typologically, with David as a type of Christ — the one sent by his father, of unassuming appearance, to conquer a mighty foe on behalf of his people, that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel.
The Prelude to the Giant Slaying
What is the actual point of the David and Goliath narrative, and does it transcend the familiar moral lessons about courage and faith against odds? This exposition of 1 Samuel 17:1–32 argues that the passage exists to demonstrate to all the earth that there is a God in Israel, with David's zeal for the name and honour of Yahweh driving the entire account. The sermon works through four movements: the introduction of the battle scene and its scale, the detailed description of Goliath as a proficient, well-armoured, and blaspheming giant, the contrasting portrait of David as a humble and obedient son, and the prelude to the slaying in which David's God-centred zeal stands out against Israel's dreadful fear. Throughout, David is presented as a type of Christ — the unassuming champion who accomplishes what no one else in Israel could, conquering the enemy and enabling his people to march forward — with the call to unbelievers to flee from Goliath's end and take refuge in Christ by faith.
Deuteronomy 34
Deuteronomy 34, the final chapter of the Torah, records the death of Moses and the transfer of leadership to Joshua, framing both events within the larger structure of covenantal succession. The chapter's central theological weight falls on the faithfulness of the covenant Lord, who fulfils to the letter every promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob regarding the land — a faithfulness Moses witnesses from the summit of Pisgah. Moses' death and anonymous burial serve as an emblem of the law's inability to bring God's people into the heavenly inheritance, a typological thread that runs forward to Joshua (whose name is the Hebrew form of 'Jesus') and ultimately to the Mediator of the new covenant, whose own 'exodus' Moses would discuss face to face on the Mount of Transfiguration. The sermon closes with a sustained application on the means of grace, arguing that corporate worship ordered by God's own prescription — word, prayer, and sacraments — is the appointed means by which God's people gain their clearest foretastes of the heavenly Canaan.
A Ruler's Daughter and an Afflicted Woman
Matthew 9:18–26 presents two intertwined miracles — the raising of Jairus's daughter and the healing of a chronically afflicted woman — as Matthew's climactic demonstration of Christ's authority over death and disease. The passage exposes the nature of saving faith: not its strength or emotional intensity, but its object, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both willing and omnipotent to save. Whether the petitioner is a prominent synagogue ruler or a marginalized, impoverished woman, Christ receives all who come to him in faith, regardless of social station. The sermon closes with a call to venture on Christ in faith, and a pastoral plea for parents to pray that their children would be brought to saving knowledge of him in their youth.
The Charge to Timothy
The Apostle Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3–7 exposes a crisis of false teaching in the Ephesian church and demands an authoritative, commanding response — not suggestion or diplomacy. The sermon works through the specific charge to silence heterodoxy (vv. 3–4), the purpose of that charge which is love flowing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith (v. 5), and the defection of the false teachers who, having strayed from the truth, turned to idle talk and arrogant ignorance (vv. 6–7). The congregation is pressed to see that doctrinal fidelity is the precondition of genuine love in the church, and that the qualifications for teaching office in 1 Timothy 3 exist precisely to prevent the disorder on display in Ephesus.
Christ, the Woman, and the Multitude
Matthew 8:14–17 presents Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law and then a multitude at evening, and Matthew's theological concern throughout is not merely miraculous spectacle but the identification of Jesus as Isaiah's servant of Yahweh. The sermon addresses two errors: the Roman Catholic elevation of celibacy against Peter's demonstrated married life, and the charismatic and prosperity-gospel misreading of Isaiah 53:4 as a promise of physical healing secured by the atonement. Matthew's citation of Isaiah 53 is a Messianic identification — behold the servant of Yahweh — whose primary burden is spiritual healing, the forgiveness of sins, not the removal of physical infirmity. The application is direct: come to a Savior who unites pity with omnipotence, who heals with immediacy and efficacy, and who forgives sins by faith alone.
Christ and the Centurion
Matthew 8:5–13 presents a Roman centurion whose faith surpasses anything Jesus has found in Israel, and whose encounter with Christ becomes a theological announcement: the Abrahamic promises are now being fulfilled in the inclusion of Gentiles and the judgment of unbelieving ethnic Israel. The centurion's approach to Christ models three marks of genuine faith — a plea grounded in misery rather than merit, profound humility before the Lord's authority, and unshaken confidence that Christ's spoken word alone is sufficient to heal. The sermon calls hearers to examine whether they stand in faith or unbelief, and to rest entirely in Christ's authority and grace rather than any personal worthiness.
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.
The Two Claims
Matthew 7:21–23 presents one of the most sobering scenes in Scripture: a multitude of religious professors standing before Christ on the day of final judgment, presenting their prophesying, exorcisms, and miraculous works as credentials for entrance into the kingdom — only to hear the words, 'I never knew you.' This sermon argues that Jesus is not here calling his people to try harder or obey more, but is exposing and condemning works righteousness as the very lawlessness he will judge. The false professors' error is not a lack of religious activity but a failure to rest in Christ alone, whose perfect obedience is the sole ground of the sinner's acceptance before God. Assurance of salvation is found not in rigorous self-examination of one's works but in extra-spective faith resting on the free promises of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving in Thessalonica
Paul's thanksgiving in 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14 is directed Godward and grounded in the sovereign saving activity of the triune God — not in the virtue of the Thessalonians. This sermon examines the persons addressed (Christians as brethren beloved by the Lord), the proper direction of thanksgiving (always toward God, never toward self or others), and the rich theological content of that thanksgiving: sovereign election, sanctification by the Spirit, the gift of faith, effectual calling, and glorification. The application presses believers to reflect on their pre-Christian condition, their remaining corruption, and the mercies of God in Christ, so that gratitude is grounded in redemptive history rather than in future relief from present trouble.
John 1:12-13
What is saving faith, and how does it relate to knowledge, truth, and the new birth? Expounding John 1:12–13, this study argues that saving faith is not a leap into uncertainty, a vague encounter with a divine person, or something greater than opinion but less than knowledge — it is genuine knowledge of revealed truth, specifically the propositional truths of Holy Scripture concerning Jesus Christ. The study establishes four foundational principles: regeneration must precede faith, truth is the instrumental cause and object of faith, Jesus Christ is the central content of that truth, and faith ordinarily comes through the preaching of the word.