Cited in sermons
John Stott
50 sermons · All people cited
The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:1–9 confronts the reader with one of the most dramatic conversions in redemptive history: the sovereign arrest of Saul of Tarsus, the church's most ruthless persecutor, by the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon traces Saul's murderous hostility toward the disciples before examining the divine initiative, interrogation, identification, and instruction Christ brings to bear on the road to Damascus. That Christ identifies himself with his suffering members ('I am Jesus whom you are persecuting') and overcomes Saul's resistance through effectual grace establishes that no sinner stands beyond the reach of sovereign mercy. The sermon closes with a call to repentance grounded in the certainty that the God who conquered the chief of sinners is able and willing to save all who come to Christ.
Of Good Works (2LCF16.13)
Matthew 7:1, 'Judge not that you be not judged,' is one of the most frequently misapplied verses in Scripture, often weaponized to prohibit every form of ecclesiastical discernment and render church discipline illegitimate. This session from a study of the 1689 London Baptist Confession examines 2LCF 26.13 on the conduct of the offended church member, then exegetes Matthew 7:1–6 to show that Christ forbids a nitpicking, censorious, fault-finding spirit toward fellow believers — not the lawful exercise of judgment required by Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, and 1 Timothy 5. The positive application calls believers to mortify the censorious plank in their own eye, apply biblical law rather than personal preference to matters of judgment, cultivate humility, and look to Christ and his gospel as the continual remedy for self-righteousness.
The Prohibition Against Judgmentalism
Matthew 7:1–5 contains not a universal ban on discernment but a precise prohibition against the censorious, fault-finding spirit that delights in the shortcomings of others. Working through three movements — the prohibition itself, Christ's explanation of its consequence, and the plank-and-speck illustration — the sermon establishes that judgmentalism is a serious sin condemned by Christ on the Mount, one attended by self-righteousness, a lack of charity, and a practical denial of remaining corruption in oneself. The application calls believers to seek the Spirit's influence, apply biblical law evenhandedly, pursue humility, and let the cross be the death knell of self-righteousness.
2LCF Chapter 26 - Of the Church, Part 13
The conduct required of an offended church member, and the proper interpretation of Matthew 7:1–6 in relation to church discipline, stand at the center of this study of 2LCF 26.13. The confession forbids the offended party from absenting themselves from worship or disturbing church order while awaiting the church's further proceeding, and calls them instead to wait upon Christ. Matthew 7:1–6 is not a blanket prohibition against all judgment but a condemnation of the censorious, nitpicking, fault-finding spirit that disregards the law of God and one's own sin. The sermon closes with the exhortation to remove the plank of self-righteous censoriousness before seeking to help a brother with his speck.
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 5 records the Ark of the Covenant's journey through Philistia after its capture at Ebenezer, where the God of Israel systematically humiliates Dagon and devastates every city that receives the Ark. The chapter is structured as a deliberate polemic against idolatry: Dagon is twice found prostrate before Yahweh, then stripped of head and hands, while Yahweh's 'heavy hand' of judgment moves from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron. The passage calls for reverent, humorous recognition that idols must be propped up by their worshippers, whereas the living God carries His people. The sermon draws out the perennial relevance of this account by connecting it to Isaiah 44, Isaiah 46, Psalm 106, and Romans 1, arguing that modern idolatry — whether of self, money, sexuality, or ideology — is the root disease for which the gospel of Christ is the only cure.
The Descent into Idolatry
Romans 1:18–32 presents the universal condemnation of mankind, tracing the descent from the suppression of general revelation into full-blown idolatry and its attendant vices. The wrath of God is not an incidental doctrine but the necessary backdrop to the gospel: ungodliness precedes unrighteousness, and when God is rejected, judicial abandonment follows — God gives men over to the very sin they have chosen. Idolatry is not merely an ancient phenomenon but the root of every vice list Paul enumerates, and contemporary idols of false religion, mammon, and self demand the same vigilance the Apostle John commands: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols.' The only antidote to idolatry is the gospel, in which the righteousness God demands is also the righteousness He supplies through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
The Narrow Way
Matthew 7:13–14 confronts every hearer with a binary reality: there are only two ways, and every person is already on one of them. The broad way is the default condition of fallen humanity — wide, well-populated, and apparently pleasant — but it ends in conscious, eternal destruction from the presence of God. The narrow way, by contrast, is the life of Christian discipleship entered by grace through faith alone, marked by difficulty and tribulation, yet terminating in everlasting life and the immediate presence of Christ. The sermon presses this text as both an ethical directive to professing believers to walk in decisive discipleship and an evangelistic summons to the unconverted to flee to the Savior, while insisting that the Sermon on the Mount rightly read exposes every hearer's need for an alien righteousness found only in Christ.
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 Gracious Remedy
Matthew 7:7–11 presents prayer not as a religious technique but as the God-ordained remedy enabling believers to live as the Sermon on the Mount demands. The passage's four considerations — its connection to the preceding ethical instruction, the exhortation to persistent prayer, the promises given to those who pray, and the encouragement drawn from God's fatherly character — all converge on a single point: the emphasis falls not on the act of praying but on the God to whom we pray. Because the Father in heaven is neither a reluctant stranger nor a malicious tyrant, believers are called to ask, seek, and knock with confidence that He defines and supplies the good things His children truly need.
The Prohibition Against Judgmentalism
Matthew 7:1–5 contains one of the most abused texts in Scripture — 'judge not' — which is habitually weaponised to silence any Christian voice of discernment, yet just as habitually practiced as censorious fault-finding within the church. This exposition distinguishes the absolute prohibition Jesus does not give from the specific sin he does condemn: the nitpicking, petty, fault-finding spirit toward brothers and sisters in Christ that magnifies their specks while ignoring one's own log. The sermon traces the prohibition, its explanation in terms of divine judgment, and its illustration, showing that censoriousness is simultaneously an arrogant assertion of authority over others, an expression of self-righteousness, and a failure of charity — and that the Sermon on the Mount, rightly interpreted, drives every guilty hearer to the foot of the cross.
The Governing Principle of Kingdom Life
Matthew 6:31–34 sets out the governing principle of kingdom life: the disciple of Christ is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and not to be paralyzed by the carnal anxiety that marks Gentile existence. The sermon draws a sharp contrast between those who have no doctrine of a sovereign Father and those who confess one, arguing that a Reformed understanding of God's sovereignty must extend beyond soteriology into the daily trials of earthly life. To worry about food, drink, and clothing is to live as a Gentile; to rest in the Father's knowledge of our needs, pray as Christ taught, and pursue the kingdom first is to live as a loyal subject of God's reign.
The Command to Resist Carnal Anxiety
Worry is not a minor personality quirk but a sin — a form of idolatry that displaces God from his rightful throne and sets self at the center. Working through Matthew 6:25–30, this sermon expounds Christ's command to resist carnal anxiety by examining the grammatical connection between kingdom-loyalty and daily trust, the two illustrative arguments from birds and lilies, and the diagnostic verdict of 'little faith.' The remedy offered is not a technique but a theological re-orientation: recognise the absolute sovereignty of God, render obedience to the command not to be anxious, and increase faith through searching the Scriptures.
The Pursuit of Heavenly Treasure
Matthew 6:19–21 sets before the believer a stark choice: lay up treasure on earth, where moth, rust, and thieves destroy, or lay up treasure in heaven, where nothing can diminish what is stored. The sermon expounds three movements in the text — a prohibition against covetousness and materialism, a positive command to pursue heavenly treasure through kingdom-shaped living, and an implication that wherever a man's treasure lies, his heart inevitably follows. The application presses hearers toward honest self-examination, gratitude for Christ's perfect loyalty to the Father, and the call to believe on him as the only one who perfectly laid up treasures in heaven on behalf of his people.
The Law of Love
Matthew 5:43–48 contains the sixth and final antithesis of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Christ corrects the Pharisaic addition 'hate your enemy' — a phrase found nowhere in Scripture — and restores the full demand of the moral law: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you. Christ is not introducing new legislation but faithfully expounding the eternal righteousness of the Father, whose law always required love even toward enemies, as texts from Exodus, Leviticus, Proverbs, and Job demonstrate. The sermon traces the contrast between true law and scribal distortion, the three positive duties of love, the theological ground of sonship in reflecting the Father's common grace, and the summary call to perfection — which ultimately drives the believer to the cross and to the imputed righteousness of Christ who alone satisfied these demands perfectly. Kingdom citizens are not bare-minimum disciples but are called, by the Spirit's enabling, to embody an ethic that distinguishes them entirely from tax collectors and pagans.
The Persecution of the Church and the Power of God
Acts 12 sets the persecution of the early church against the sovereign power of God: Herod executes James, imprisons Peter with an overwhelming guard, and receives divine worship — yet God delivers Peter through angelic intervention, strikes Herod dead for his idolatry, and the Word of God grows and multiplies. The chapter exposes both the reality of suffering for Christ's people and the futility of every human attempt to extinguish the gospel. Four movements structure the exposition: the persecution of the church, Peter's miraculous escape, the judgment of Herod Agrippa, and Luke's progress report on the unstoppable advance of God's Word. The sermon calls hearers to honest reckoning with suffering, earnest corporate prayer, and worship of the God who shares his glory with no one.
Christ Our Propitiation
Romans 3:25–26 stands at what Martin Luther called 'the chief point of the whole Bible,' and this sermon expounds why: the cross is not only a display of divine love but a vindication of divine righteousness. Two theological words — redemption and propitiation — carry the weight of the exposition: redemption addresses humanity's bondage; propitiation addresses humanity's liability to the wrath of God, which Christ exhausted in himself on behalf of his people. The sermon argues that God's justice and God's justifying mercy are not in tension but cohere perfectly at Calvary, and calls every hearer to rest that case not on moral performance but on faith alone in Christ alone.
Blessed are the Merciful
Matthew 5:7 — 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' — is expounded as an indicative declaration about the character of kingdom citizens, not an imperative condition for earning divine favor. Mercy is defined as pity joined to active relief: grace addresses men in their sin, mercy addresses men in the misery that results from sin. The sermon traces mercy through its description, its illustration in the character of God and the ministry of Christ, its supernatural source in regenerating grace, its attractiveness in family, church, and world, and its eschatological promise. Those who have genuinely received Christ's mercy will manifest mercy toward others; the persistent absence of mercy is evidence that one has never truly known the grace of God.
The Resurrection in the Book of Acts
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an isolated miracle but the climactic fulfillment of God's covenantal promises to David and Abraham, the ground of every redemptive blessing the church now enjoys. Working through the Book of Acts, this sermon traces five blessings that flow from the risen and ascended Christ: the revealed Word, the sovereignty of his reign, his active direction of the church, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the remission of sins through his blood. Because Christ sits enthroned at the Father's right hand with all authority in heaven and earth, nothing in the church's history is haphazard — every trial, every addition, every missionary advance is governed by the living Lord. The sermon closes with a direct summons to the unforgiven: the empty tomb is the loudest declaration that sin's power is broken and pardon is available to all who believe.
The Believer's Inheritance
What does the believer's inheritance consist of, and how is it secured against every threat? Expounding 1 Peter 1:4–5, this sermon examines the three negative descriptions of the believer's heavenly inheritance — incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading — before turning to the divine preservation that guarantees the heir will actually receive it. The inheritance is secured not by the believer's own resolve but by the power of God working through the gift of faith, so that even amid persecution, trial, and the triple enmity of the devil, the world, and the flesh, the Christian presses on in confident, heavenward hope.
The Conversion of Cornelius
Peter's sermon to Cornelius in Acts 10:34–48 presents the irreducible content of apostolic gospel preaching: the impartiality of God toward all nations, the person and work of Jesus Christ (his sinless life, atoning death, and bodily resurrection), his exaltation as ordained judge of the living and the dead, and the exclusive promise that remission of sins comes through his name alone to all who believe. The sermon argues that a crossless or tombless message is no gospel at all — moralism and self-improvement cannot substitute for blood atonement and imputed righteousness. Believers are called to live daily in the light of Calvary, and the unconverted are warned that rejecting the only Savior means one day facing him as judge.