Cited in sermons
Sam Renahan
9 sermons · All people cited
2LCF Chapter 3 - Of God's Decree
God's decree — His eternal, immutable purpose to foreordain whatsoever comes to pass — is the subject of 2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 3. This study works through paragraphs 1–7, establishing that the decree is absolute and unconditional, covers all events including the free and sinful actions of creatures without making God the author of sin, and that election unto life is grounded solely in God's free grace rather than any foreseen condition in the creature. The session addresses the distinction between preterition and double predestination, the infralapsarian and supralapsarian debate, and closes with the confession's insistence that this high doctrine is to be handled with prudence, producing praise, humility, diligence, and abundant consolation in those who sincerely obey the gospel.
CTF 2025 - Session 7 - Pastoral Reflections on Classical Theism
The prologue of John's Gospel (1:1–18) discloses both the divine perfections and the eternal relations of the divine persons — the very realities that classical theism and the Second London Confession articulate in Chapter 2. This address draws that exegetical foundation into pastoral practice, arguing that a robust theology proper is not abstract speculation but the necessary ground for faithful ministerial function and focus. The preacher identifies six areas — the salvation of sinners, the catechesis of children, the perseverance of the saints, assurance of salvation, communion with God, worship, and the knowledge of God — each of which depends inextricably on a well-formed doctrine of God.
CTF 2025 - Why Attend the Conference?
Two pastors offer reasons to attend a confessional Reformed Baptist conference centred on the knowledge of God. Drawing on John 17:3 and Jeremiah 9, they argue that knowing the triune God — his being, his perfections, and his works in redemption — is the supreme good, surpassing riches, strength, and worldly wisdom. The conference is commended not as an academic exercise but as a gathering for instruction, corporate worship, and the mutual encouragement of the saints.
2LCF Chapter 19 - Of the Law of God
2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 19 sets forth a comprehensive doctrine of the law of God, tracing its origin in the covenant of works given to Adam, its threefold division into moral, ceremonial, and judicial law under the Mosaic economy, and its continuing role in the life of the New Covenant church. The moral law, rooted in creation and specially revealed at Sinai in the Ten Commandments, retains its binding force for all persons, while the ceremonial law finds its divinely designed terminus in the person and work of Christ, and the judicial law expired with the dissolution of the Israelite state. The sermon closes with a christological summary: Christ alone actively obeyed the whole law in the room and stead of the elect, bore the law's curse in his passive obedience, and now governs the hearts of his people by his Spirit according to that same law.
The Promise of Blessings and Cursing, Part 2
Leviticus 26:14–46 sets forth the covenant curses God threatened against Israel for breaking the Mosaic Covenant — a covenant of works — escalating through drought, wild animals, war, cannibalism, wholesale destruction, and exile. These curses came to historical fulfillment in the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria in 722 BC, the fall of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon in 586 BC, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70 — events prophesied in the Olivet Discourse and confirmed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2. The chapter closes with a promise of restoration conditioned on Israel's humble repentance and God's fidelity to the Abrahamic covenant. Believers under the New Covenant are freed from these covenant curses because Christ bore them fully, fulfilling the demands of the law and standing as the surety of a better covenant.
2LCF Chapter 29 - Of Baptism
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 29 on baptism is expounded under two headings: the lawful recipients of the ordinance and its proper mode. The confession's definition of baptism as a sign of union with Christ in his death and resurrection is shown to require that only those who have actually professed repentance and faith are its proper subjects — a conclusion argued from covenant theology, positive law, and the consistent narrative of the New Testament. The proper mode is established as full immersion in water in the name of the triune God, grounded in the example of Christ at the Jordan, the Greek term baptizo, and the burial-and-resurrection imagery of Romans 6.
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.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
The doctrine of the Trinity — one divine and infinite being in whom there are three subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is not a speculative ivory-tower abstraction but the foundation of all Christian communion with God and comfortable dependence upon him. This session in the study of 2LCF Chapter 2 continues the examination of paragraph three, working through the personal distinctions of generation, filiation, and spiration; the confession's summary statement on unity and personal distinction; and the practical import of Trinitarian theology for prayer, worship, redemption, and assurance. Biblical proofs are drawn from Genesis, the Psalms, Isaiah, and the New Testament, demonstrating the revelatory development of the doctrine from its seed form in the Old Testament to its full flower in the New.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.3)
What does it mean to confess that God is one being subsisting in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? This study of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 2, paragraph 3 works through the classical Trinitarian formulation upheld by the particular Baptists, tracing its foundations in Scripture, its continuity with the ecumenical creeds, and the Baptist Confession's terminological improvement of 'subsistences' over 'persons.' The exposition addresses the unity and equality of the three subsistences, the personal distinctions expressed by eternal generation and procession, and the practical necessity of robust Trinitarian confession in an age of continuing anti-Trinitarian error.