Cited in sermons
Richard Baxter
17 sermons · All people cited
Ask FGBC #63: What is Baxterianism?
Baxterianism, drawn from the teaching of 17th-century minister Richard Baxter, replaces the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone with a scheme in which God justifies the believer on the ground of evangelical obedience to a relaxed 'law of the gospel.' This Q&A exposition identifies Baxterianism as a conflation of justification and sanctification, a departure from the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience, and an implicit relaxation of the moral law — errors addressed directly by 1689 LBCF chapters 11, 13, and 19. The discussion grounds its critique in Galatians 2:16 and the consistent witness of Paul that sinners are justified by faith alone, not by any human obedience, through the sole and finished work of Christ.
What Is Faith? When Should I Be Baptized? & more| Ask FGBC Batch 6
This Q&A episode from a confessional Reformed Baptist church addresses twelve questions spanning baptism, faith, church membership, Scripture interpretation, seminary training, and the heresies of Federal Vision and Baxterianism. Particular attention is given to the definition of saving faith — distinguishing the objective content of the faith from the act of believing, warning against loading faith with feelings, faithfulness, or love as its ground, and insisting that faith is the empty instrument through which God-given grace lays hold of Christ alone. The episode closes with treatments of conviction of sin, catechetical instruction of children, and the importance of an educated ministry.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The gospel was not discovered by human reason but revealed by divine initiative — beginning with the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 and unfolding through progressive special revelation. This session works through Chapter 20 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689 LBCF), examining the promise of the gospel, the insufficiency of general revelation for salvation, the sovereign freedom of God in spreading the gospel, and the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's effectual work upon sinners dead in trespasses. The doctrinal stakes are practical: a right understanding of general and special revelation is the indispensable foundation for evangelical and missionary enterprise.
CTF 2024 Session 4: The Uniting Power of our Reformed Confessions
The ecumenical creeds of the first five centuries — the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Definition, and the Athanasian Creed — form the doctrinal bedrock upon which the Reformation confessions, including the Westminster Confession, the Savoy Declaration, and the Second London Confession of Faith, were deliberately built. This address traces the historical controversies (Arianism, Eutychianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism) that provoked each creed, demonstrates the precise linguistic dependence of the 1689 LBCF upon creedal formulations, and argues that this shared inheritance constitutes genuine theological unity among confessional Reformed and Reformed Baptist churches. The practical conclusion is that ministers must teach these creeds and their underlying doctrines — Trinitarian theology, the hypostatic union — as the bedrock of Christian comfort, not merely as academic curiosity.
The Saving Grace of God, Part 3
Ephesians 2:8–10 demolishes every notion that the sinner contributes to his own salvation, whether by supplying the faith or by bringing meritorious works. This sermon works through the passage in two movements: the application of redemptive grace in verses 8–9, where salvation is shown to be by grace alone through a faith that is itself God's gift and not the sinner's offering, and the consequence of redemptive grace in verse 10, where the good works of the justified are presented not as the cause or condition of salvation but as its God-prepared effect. The controlling purpose is doxological — that in every age where sinners are saved, the exceeding riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus are displayed, and God alone receives the glory.
2LCF Chapter 11 - Of Justification, Part 1
What does it mean to be justified before a holy God, and on what basis does that standing rest? This confession study works through paragraphs one and two of Chapter 11 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, examining the forensic nature of justification against both Roman Catholic infused righteousness and Baxterian neonomianism. The twin foundations of justification are established: the pardon of sins through Christ's passive obedience and the imputation of righteousness through his active obedience, both received by faith alone as a gift of God. The lecture closes by showing that justifying faith, though the sole instrument of justification, is never alone in the person justified but is always accompanied by sanctification.
The Justice of God and the Gospel
Proverbs 17:15 declares that justifying the wicked and condemning the just are alike an abomination to God — yet the gospel does precisely both: God condemned the sinless Christ and justifies ungodly sinners. This sermon works through the theological architecture that vindicates God from any charge of self-contradiction in the gospel, tracing the doctrines of covenant representation and imputation from Genesis through the Prophets and into Paul's argument in Romans 3–5. The three acts of imputation — Adam's sin to all mankind, the elect's sin to Christ, and Christ's righteousness to the elect — are shown to be the biblical answer to the problem Proverbs 17:15 raises, grounding assurance in an alien righteousness received by faith alone.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 13, 2019 Bible Study
Genesis 15 presents the Abrahamic covenant in two movements: the reiteration of God's promise of seed and land to a childless and landless Abram (vv. 1–6), and the solemn ratification of that covenant through a self-maledictory oath ceremony (vv. 7–17). Verse 6 — 'he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness' — is expounded as the locus classicus of justification by faith alone, with faith understood as the empty instrument that receives an alien righteousness imputed from Christ, not a meritorious work brought to God. The unilateral passing of the divine presence between the animal pieces is shown to anticipate Calvary, where Christ became the curse for covenant-breakers, sealing in blood what God swore to Abraham.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 19, 2017 AM
Preached at the ordination of a new elder, this exposition of 1 Timothy 4:12–16 sets forth four charges Paul lays upon Timothy as a faithful minister of the gospel: the minister's example in life and conduct, his public ministry of reading, exhortation, and doctrine, his personal growth through devoted meditation on apostolic truth, and his perseverance in both personal holiness and sound doctrine. The sermon insists that ministers are made by God and vetted by the church, not self-appointed, and that the gravity of the office lies in this: faithful gospel ministry is the ordained means by which God saves sinners and sanctifies his people. The congregation is charged to receive the gift of an ordained minister with joy, to prize the public means of grace, and to reject heresy with earnestness alongside their pastor.
2LCF Chapter 11 - Of Justification
The doctrine of justification — that sinners are legally declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ's work alone — is examined through 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 11, paragraphs 1, 2, and 5. The sermon distinguishes the essence, grounds, and method of justification, exposing the errors of Rome's infusion theology, Arminian faith-as-righteousness, and Baxterian neonomian imputation, while showing that faith is the instrument, not the ground, of justification. The inseparable yet distinct relationship between justification (a single forensic event) and sanctification (a progressive inward work) is explored against both legalism and antinomianism. Hearers are called to theological precision, assured confidence in their unlosable standing before God, and consistent holy living as fruit of that standing.
2LCF Chapter 11 - Of Justification, Part 3
Justification is the article upon which the church stands or falls, and this exposition of 2LCF Chapter 11 works through the nature, basis, and instrument of justification as the confession presents them. The sermon distinguishes justification sharply from sanctification against the Roman Catholic doctrine of infused righteousness, the neo-Nomian teaching of Richard Baxter, and the New Perspective on Paul, arguing that the elect are accepted by God solely on the basis of Christ's imputed active and passive obedience received through faith alone. The active obedience of Christ — his 33 years of perfect law-keeping — is shown to be as necessary as his death, because forgiveness alone would leave the believer back in a probationary state without a positive righteousness that avails before God. Faith is the alone instrument of justification, not its condition or cause, and is itself a gift of God, so that every ground of human boasting is excluded.
2LCF Chapter 7 - Of God's Covenant, Part 3
Covenant theology is not abstract speculation but the architectural blueprint of all Scripture, and a faulty grasp of it distorts both law and gospel. This session works through 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 7, paragraph 3, tracing the covenant of grace from its first announcement in Genesis 3:15 through the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants as progressive, concentric revelations of the same redemptive promise, culminating in the new covenant ratified by Christ's blood. The eternal covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son grounds the covenant of grace, so that for sinners, grace is free and unconditional, while for Christ, it was a covenant of works demanding exact, entire, and personal obedience. The session closes with the axiom that 'the covenant of grace is the covenant of works kept for us,' and applies this structure to the necessity of sola fide against Federal Vision, Baxterian, and Roman Catholic distortions.
The Christian Mother
What does it mean to be a Christian mother, and where does a mother's calling derive its power? Preaching from Proverbs 31:30, this sermon argues that a woman who fears the Lord is the only adequate foundation for the vocation of motherhood — not sentimentality, moral effort, or natural affection. Four aspects of the Christian mother are examined in order: her spiritual condition (she is saved by grace, not by good mothering), her influence (immeasurable and God-ordained), her authority (grounded in the Fifth Commandment itself), and her responsibility to instruct, model, discipline, and love her children in light of law and gospel. Mothers are urged to find their ultimate encouragement not in their own performance but in the righteousness of Christ imputed to them by faith alone.
Philippians 3
Paul's account of his own conversion and apostolic suffering in Philippians 3:7–11 sets forth the believer's possession of Christ, position in Christ, and privileges flowing from union with Christ. The sermon expounds the doctrine of justification by faith alone, distinguishing the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith as instrument from any righteousness derived from law-keeping or personal merit. The Zechariah 3 vision of Joshua the high priest illustrates the two components of justification — pardon of sin and the clothing of the sinner in Christ's righteousness — as wholly God's initiative. Understanding this doctrine is shown to be the ground of genuine assurance, the antidote to legalism, and the only proper basis for a God-honoring sanctification.
Beware of Forgetting God in the Land
Deuteronomy 8:6–20 presents Israel on the plains of Moab receiving Moses' final warning before entering Canaan: the land of promise will itself become the land of temptation. The abundance of water, food, and mineral wealth that God graciously provides carries within it the seed of self-sufficiency — the prideful declaration of verse 17, 'my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' The sermon traces the anatomy of spiritual forgetfulness, showing that disobedience is its inevitable symptom, idolatry its destination, and covenantal destruction its consequence. The appointed remedy is remembrance: to rehearse God's redemptive acts, receive his gifts with thanksgiving, and live by the indicative of grace as the foundation for all obedience.
The Identity of the Church
What is the church, and what is she for? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon sets out the identity and confession of the church under three descriptions Paul gives: the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth. The church's unique institutional privilege — distinct from family and state — is to proclaim, defend, and propagate the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. The sermon closes with a call to resist pragmatism, hold fast to sound doctrine, and enter the house of God through Christ alone.
The Foundation for Christian Baptism
Baptism is grounded not in the merit or decision of the one being baptized, but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was himself 'baptized' — overwhelmed unto death — as a substitute for sinners. The sermon works through Mark 10:32–45 to show that Christ's language of drinking the cup and being baptized with his baptism refers to his substitutionary suffering at Calvary, not his water baptism by John. Baptism is therefore an act of obedience that publicly declares the believer's identification with the triune God and union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, while picturing — though not providing — the forgiveness of sins.