Cited in sermons
John Gill
1,025 sermons · All people cited
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.
Spurgeon & Open Air Preaching
Drawing on Hebrews 13:7's command to remember and follow faithful ministers, this lecture examines the life, preaching, and open-air ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon as a model for gospel proclamation. The speaker presents material from his published doctoral dissertation on Spurgeon's open-air preaching, working through three open-air sermons and Spurgeon's own pedagogy for street evangelism. A recurring application presses the listener — whatever their theological sophistication — to proclaim the excellencies of Christ to all people, including the lowest and most despised.
The Apostolic Magnitude of Justification
Paul's confrontation of Peter at Antioch in Galatians 2:11–16 is not merely a biographical episode but a defence of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Peter's hypocritical withdrawal from table fellowship with Gentile believers, driven by fear of the circumcision party, was not an open denial of the gospel but a compromise of it — and Paul's rebuke exposes how even the appearance of impropriety can bring the truth of the gospel into disrepute. The sermon then turns to the apostolic doctrine set forth in verses 15–16, tracing the five-fold reiterative negation and affirmation of justification by faith and not by the works of the law, grounding Christian peace in the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience. Hearers are exhorted to carry the doctrine of justification beyond the service itself, resting their peace not on any measure of personal performance but on the sole and complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 2
John 17:4–5 records Christ's proleptic and covenantal claim to have glorified the Father and finished the work given him — a claim that opens into the full theology of active obedience and its indispensable place in justification by faith alone. The sermon demonstrates that Jesus was not merely an ethical example but the obedient substitute whose 33 years of perfect law-keeping is imputed to the elect alongside the forgiveness secured by his blood. Verse 5 is examined against the kenosis error: Christ does not pray to recover a lost glory but to be manifested as the glorified God-man and mediator who has accomplished the covenant of redemption. Believers are exhorted to pursue the knowledge of God and Christ as the essence of eternal life; unbelievers are called to look to the only Savior in whom alone there is both forgiveness and a righteousness that avails before God.
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.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 1
John 17:1–5 records the opening of Christ's high priestly prayer, in which the Lord Jesus — praying according to His humanity as the Mediator of the New Covenant — petitions the Father for glory, because glory given to the Son redounds to the glory of the Father. The sermon works through the occasion of the prayer, the derived and delegated authority granted to Christ over all flesh, and the particular redemptive purpose for which that authority was given: that He should grant eternal life to all whom the Father has given Him. Particular redemption is grounded in the text itself, and the sermon closes by pressing the definition of eternal life in verse 3 — the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ — as a summons to pursue theology, Scripture reading, and corporate worship with renewed seriousness.
The Harlotry of Israel in Moab
Numbers 25 records the final plague upon the first generation of Israel: sexual harlotry with the women of Moab leading directly to idolatrous worship of Baal of Peor, the very site where God had been blessing Israel through Balaam's compelled oracles. The chapter unfolds in three movements — the sin of the people, the zealous intercession of Phinehas, and the commanded judgment on Midian — each illuminated by the Apostle Paul's use of this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 as a warning to the new covenant church. Phinehas, acting as a priestly guardian of the sanctuary with divinely commended zeal, typifies Christ's priestly office and intercession, pointing forward to the one whose unchangeable priesthood averts the wrath of God from new covenant Israel through his life, death, and resurrection. The passage calls the church to flee idolatry, to marry only in the Lord, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God, lest spiritual harlotry — defection from the living God through unholy alliances — repeat in the new covenant community what it wrought in the old.
The Glory of Christ's Departure, Part 2
John 16:29–33 closes the Upper Room Discourse with two movements: the disciples' partial yet progressing confession of Christ's omniscience, authority, and divine origin, and Christ's triumphant declaration that he has overcome the world. The disciples' imperfect understanding — soon to be perfected on the day of Pentecost through the Spirit's coming — is met not with rebuke but with Christ's desire for their peace, even as he foreknows their abandonment of him at the cross. The sermon grounds Christian courage in the face of tribulation not in human resolve but in the objective, accomplished victory of the enthroned Christ, whose current session at the Father's right hand is the only sufficient foundation for the church's advance through suffering.
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 Oracles of Balaam, Part 1
Numbers 23 records the first two oracles of Balaam, in which God sovereignly overturns Balak's hired curse and compels a pagan seer to pronounce blessing upon Israel instead. The first oracle establishes the singularity of the covenant people — a nation dwelling apart, not reckoned among the nations — and the impossibility of cursing those whom God has not cursed. The second oracle grounds that protection in the immutability of God: because God is not a man that he should lie or repent of his word, no sorcery or divination can prevail against Jacob. The passage ultimately anticipates Romans 8:31 — if God is for his people, no Balak, no Balaam, and no adversary can stand against them.
The Suffering and Glory of Christ
Psalm 22 presents the suffering and glory of Christ with a precision and detail that exceeds even the Passion narratives of the four Gospels. The psalm's first half expounds the dereliction Christ endured on the cross — not as a breach of the Trinity or a dissolution of the hypostatic union, but as the penal withdrawal of the Father's sensible favor while the Son bore the curse due to his people's lawbreaking. The second half moves from that suffering to the exaltation of the Redeemer, the adoption of his brethren, the extension of his kingdom to all nations, and the generational advance of his church — all grounded in the finished work of the cross. The sermon calls believers to make much of the Psalms in both private devotion and corporate worship, hearing in them the very voice of Christ.
The Riches of God's Grace
Ephesians 1:7 declares that believers possess redemption through Christ's blood and the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of God's grace. This sermon works through the triune shape of salvation in Ephesians 1:3–14, arguing that the redeemed are not a class of morally capable people who needed modest assistance, but guilty sinners who required blood atonement, divine election, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit. The cross is shown to satisfy divine justice as well as display divine love — God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, as Paul argues in Romans 3:21–26. The sermon closes with a direct application to baptism, presenting the ordinance as an outward declaration of the inward forgiveness and righteousness received through union with Christ.
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.
The Authenticity of Paul's Gospel
Paul's vigorous autobiographical defense in Galatians 1:11–24 establishes that his gospel did not originate from any human source but came by direct revelation of Jesus Christ — a claim with profound implications for the doctrine of justification. The sermon works through three arguments for gospel authenticity: the nature of the gospel itself as something no man would invent, Paul's pre-conversion conduct as a violent persecutor of the church, and his post-conversion movements that deliberately bypassed human instruction. The application presses the congregation to hold with confidence to a gospel that rests on the triune God's sovereign grace alone, not on human tradition or legal observance, and to hope for the conversion of even the most hardened opponents of the truth.
The Incarnation and the Salvation of God
Simeon's encounter with the infant Jesus in Luke 2:25–35 reveals the incarnation as the decisive fulfillment of every Old Testament promise — from Genesis 3:15 through the servant songs of Isaiah — and forces every hearer to declare whose side they stand on. The sermon expounds two movements in the passage: Simeon's confession that the child he holds is the salvation God prepared for all peoples, and Simeon's prophecy that this same child will cause the fall and rising of many, pierce Mary's soul, and expose the hidden allegiance of every heart. The call is direct: look to Christ by faith as Simeon did, die in peace as Simeon could, and do not be numbered among those who fell because they rejected the consolation of Israel.
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 Conduct of the Believer
Philippians 1:27–30 presents a twofold exhortation to the church: that believers conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, and that they do so with courage in the face of adversaries. The sermon expounds the Greek word for citizenship as the governing concept of verse 27, grounding the call to worthy conduct in the reality of justification by faith — the life of sanctification flows necessarily from what God has graciously accomplished in the believer. Corporate unity in striving together for the faith of the gospel, and undaunted boldness before enemies, are shown to be not optional virtues but demonstrable proofs of sovereign grace at work in God's people.
The Glory of Christ's Departure, Part 1
John 16:25–28 records the climactic doctrinal statement of the Upper Room Discourse, in which Christ declares His eternal generation from the Father, His incarnation into the world, and His impending ascension back to the Father. The sermon works through three heads: the manner of Christ's instruction in figurative language and the Spirit's coming role in illuminating the disciples; the access believers have to the Father through the Son in prayer; and the doctrinal creed embedded in verse 28, treating eternal generation, incarnation, and ascension in sequence. The unchanging love of the Father for those who are in Christ by grace through faith is held out both as the chief encouragement for disciples going into a world of tribulation and as the ground of the gospel call to sinners to look to Christ for blood and righteousness.
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.
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.
Of the Duties of the Priests and Levites
Numbers 18–19 belongs to a literary unit stretching from chapters 16 through 19, all of which works to vindicate Aaron's God-ordained priesthood in the aftermath of Korah's rebellion. Chapter 18 defines the distinct duties and the provision of both priests and Levites, while chapter 19 supplies the purification rites that answer Israel's terrified cry in chapter 17 — 'shall we all utterly die?' — by providing a lawful way of drawing near to a holy God. The regulative principle of worship stands at the centre of these chapters: God alone determines who may approach Him, by what means, and under what conditions, and the death penalties attached to violations are not capricious but reflect the consuming holiness of the Lord. These Old Covenant arrangements point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest who is also the Lamb, the one who both provides atonement and promotes and protects true worship under the New Covenant.
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 Vindication of the Aaronic Priesthood
Numbers 16:41–17 records the immediate aftermath of Korah's rebellion: Israel accuses Moses and Aaron of murder, God's wrath breaks out in a plague, and Aaron runs into the congregation with a censer to make atonement, standing between the dead and the living until the plague stops. Chapter 17 then confirms the Aaronic priesthood definitively when Aaron's rod alone buds, blossoms, and produces ripe almonds, functioning as a perpetual sign against any future usurper of the priestly office. The typological weight of Aaron's intercession in verse 48 points forward to Christ, who stands between dead sinners and the wrath of God, propitating that wrath by his blood. The sermon calls hearers to recognize both the sinfulness of Israel's hasty accusation and the glory of the priestly atonement that alone grants the unholy access to a holy God.
The Priority of the Gospel for the Apostle
Paul's imprisonment in Rome, far from silencing the gospel, became the occasion for its advance — to the Praetorian Guard, and through the emboldened preaching of the wider brotherhood. Philippians 1:12–18 presents a progress report that reveals Paul's singular priority: the proclamation of Christ, regardless of the motives of those who preach him or the circumstances that surround the preacher. The sermon works through the paradox of fruitful suffering, the anatomy of bad and good ministerial motivation, and the theology of providence that sustains both. The congregation is called to the same pattern — faithfulness and perseverance to the end, interpreting all circumstances through the lens of God's sovereign purpose for the gospel.
The Requirements for Priesthood and Sacrifice
Leviticus 21–22 sets out strict requirements for both the priests who offer sacrifice and the animals brought to the altar: wholeness, purity, and freedom from defect. These ceremonial regulations are not arbitrary exclusions but typological anticipations of the one perfect High Priest and the one perfect sacrifice that God himself would provide in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon works through the four sections of the passage — practical restrictions on priests, physical requirements for priests, regulations concerning priestly food, and physical requirements for sacrificial animals — before turning to Hebrews 7–10 to show how Christ fulfills and surpasses everything the Levitical system could only shadow. The conclusion calls the congregation to the Lord's Supper with eyes fixed not on themselves but on the one who offered himself once for all and sat down.
The Baptism of Saul of Tarsus
The baptism of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9:17–25 demonstrates the proper order of Christian baptism: conversion precedes the ordinance, which then publicly marks the believer as a disciple of Christ. The passage is treated as a direct answer to Stephen's dying prayer in Acts 7:60, with Saul's transformation from chief persecutor to chief preacher serving as a vivid display of sovereign, redeeming grace. The sermon draws out three observations from Saul's early ministry — the immediacy, the effects, and the hostility of his preaching — and closes with the baptism of three new believers, each of whom gives a brief testimony of their own conversion.
The Gospel's Irreplaceable Value
Galatians 1:6–10 confronts every generation with the irreplaceable value of the gospel by exposing three responses to its perversion: astonishment, abhorrence, and anathema. The Judaizers who troubled the Galatian churches were not offering a different gospel but no gospel at all — a metastrophe that renders God less holy than he is, man less sinful than he is, and Christ inglorious and his work useless. Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, or there is no justification before the God of heaven and earth. The sermon closes with a call to Pauline vigilance in protecting gospel purity and to seek God's approval rather than man's.
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 Rebellion in the Wilderness
Numbers 14:1–12 records the congregation of Israel responding to the faithless report of the ten spies with weeping, complaint against Moses and Aaron, blasphemy against God, and a proposal to appoint a new leader and return to Egypt. The passage exposes the idolatry underlying Israel's rebellion — not merely a preference for Egyptian food, but a wholesale rejection of Yahweh in favor of the gods they had left behind. God's response in verses 11–12, spoken in what theologians call the 'manner of men,' underscores the gravity of Israel's sin, the holiness of God's judgment, and sets the stage for Moses' remarkable intercession on behalf of a people who had just sought to stone him.
The Intercessory Prayer of the Apostle
Paul's intercessory prayer in Philippians 1:9–11 reveals what the apostle most deeply desires for the church: not comfort or relief from suffering, but abounding love anchored in knowledge and discernment, sincere and blameless conduct persevering to the day of Christ, and good fruit borne entirely by the agency of Jesus Christ to the glory of God. The sermon works through two main petitions — the disposition of the heart (vv. 9–10a) and the actions of the life (vv. 10b–11) — showing that love divorced from sound theology produces sentimentalism, while theology divorced from discernment produces loveless pride. The whole is framed by the Pauline conviction that from justification by faith alone flows the life of sanctification, and that every fruit of righteousness is not the cause but the consequence of God's grace, rendered ultimately to the glory and praise of God.