Cited in sermons
John Trapp
3 sermons · All people cited
The Bronze Serpent
Numbers 21:1–9 records Israel's sin of grumbling in the wilderness, God's judgment through fiery serpents, and the divinely prescribed remedy: look at the bronze serpent lifted on a pole and live. The sermon traces this narrative in two movements — the defeat of the Canaanites in verses 1–3, where Israel prays and trusts God, contrasted with the failure of verses 4–9, where they grumble despite God's provision. The bronze serpent functions as a type of Christ, as Jesus himself declares in John 3:14, and the sermon presses the application that justification is by faith alone — not by prior works, not by self-examination of the wound, but by looking to the one lifted up. Weak faith does not disqualify the sinner; even a feeble look at the appointed remedy brings the sinner into peace with God.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 11, 2018 PM
James 4:1-6 exposes two devastating fruits of what James calls 'demonic wisdom': conflict with one another (vv. 1-2a) and enmity with God (vv. 2b-6). The source of both is unmortified lust — the unrestrained desire for pleasure, riches, and worldly greatness that breeds wars, fights, covetousness, and wicked prayer among professing believers. The sermon presses the congregation to trace every form of church conflict and spiritual adultery back to pride, and closes with the transitional mercy of verse 6: that despite all this, God gives more grace to the humble.
Our Present Suffering vs. Our Future Glory
Romans 8:18 presents the Apostle Paul's carefully weighed reckoning of present Christian suffering set against the future glory promised to the children of God. This sermon expounds three dimensions of that verse: the nature of suffering in this present age, the content of the coming glory — reigning with Christ, being conformed to His image, and beholding Him face to face — and the accounting exercise by which Paul concludes that present afflictions are not worthy to be compared with what awaits the redeemed. Believers are exhorted to lift their eyes from present groaning to the certain inheritance secured in Christ, while the unconverted are warned that refusing Christ forfeits not only that glory but ensures a far worse eternal reckoning.