Cited in sermons
Thomas Manton
89 sermons · All people cited
The Psalmist's Contemplation on the Revelation of God, Part 2
Psalm 19:7–11 presents four attributes of Scripture — perfect, sure, right, and pure — and traces the effects each produces in the souls of those the Spirit converts. The sermon argues that 'law' in this psalm comprehends the entirety of God's Word, including the gospel, and that the attributes ascribed to Scripture are inseparable from the perfections of its divine Author. Against a merely convicting or condemning view of the law, the preacher demonstrates that the same Word that exposes sin is the instrument through which the Holy Spirit effectually converts, enlightens, and rejoices the heart of the sinner. Hearers are pressed to receive the Word with joy rather than religious duty, and any who are yet dead in sin are called to cast themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom a willing and rejoicing Savior stands ready to save.
The Conversion of Rahab the Harlot
Joshua 2 presents the conversion of Rahab the harlot as a deliberate theological interruption in Israel's conquest narrative — not incidental color, but a magnification of the sovereign, free grace of Yahweh toward a Gentile prostitute. The sermon works through her fear, confession, and covenant with the spies to demonstrate that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, a faith that inevitably produces works, as James 2 and Hebrews 11 confirm. Rahab's inclusion in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 seals the point: the God of heaven and earth is also the God of sinful Gentile harlots, and His grace toward her is a standing summons for sinners to come immediately to the Lord Jesus Christ.
2LCF Chapter 21 - Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience
Christian liberty, as defined in chapter 21 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689), consists in deliverance from the guilt, power, and punishment of sin — purchased by Christ and applied by the Spirit to every believer in every age. The chapter further distinguishes Old Covenant from New Covenant worship, affirming that while salvation blessings were shared across both covenants, New Testament believers enjoy freedom from the ceremonial law, greater boldness of access to God, and fuller communication of the Holy Spirit. Liberty of conscience means God alone is Lord of the conscience, freeing believers from ecclesiastical tyranny, civil totalitarianism, and the moral impositions of men — whether popes, parliaments, or fellow professors. Christian liberty is not license to sin but the freedom to serve God in holiness and righteousness, delivered unto righteous obedience rather than from obligation to it.
The Believer's Contentment
Philippians 4:10–13 presents the contentment of the Apostle Paul not as an innate virtue but as a learned conviction forged through diverse and often severe circumstances. Working through Paul's expression of gratitude to the Philippians, his present situation, his learned conviction, his diverse circumstances, and his source of strength, this sermon argues that Christian contentment is utterly independent of circumstances because it is grounded in union with Christ — in justification, sanctification, and promised glorification. The practical exhortation confronts the common error of tying contentment to circumstances ('when I get married, then I will be content') and calls believers instead to submit sweetly to divine providence, rejoice in God's sovereign ownership of all things, and find their settled rest in Christ alone.
Getting the Garden Right — Dr. Richard Barcellos | Why Genesis 1–3 Matters for Everything
Genesis 1–3 is not merely the Bible's opening chapter but the theological foundation upon which the covenant of works, the divine rest, and the entire eschatological structure of Scripture are built. Richard Barcellos surveys the argument of his book 'Getting the Garden Right,' contending that New Covenant theology and progressive covenantalism go wrong precisely where they fail to reckon with Adam's probationary status under the covenant of works and the eschatological significance of God's Sabbath rest as a state into which the obedient image-bearer was to enter. The discussion ranges from hermeneutical method — the necessity of allowing the New Testament to illuminate the Genesis narrative — to the typological continuity of the Sabbath from creation ordinance through the resurrection of Christ to the weekly Lord's Day. Listeners are pressed to take the primary sources of the Reformed tradition seriously and to see that whatever Adam failed to attain, Christ secured, bringing many sons to the glory that is better than the beginning.
The Believer and Trials
James 1:1–8 confronts believers with a counterintuitive command: count trials as pure joy. This exposition works through the believer's required response to trials (vv. 2–4) and the believer's required request during trials (vv. 5–8), grounding both in the theological truth that the testing of faith produces endurance and conformity to Christ. The sermon argues that ignorance of God's remedial purposes in affliction is the root cause of disordered responses — panic, complaint, and double-mindedness — and calls believers to ask God for wisdom to navigate suffering in faith, confidence resting on the character of a God who gives liberally and without reproach.
2LCF Chapter 16 - Of Good Works
Good works, as defined in chapter 16 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, are only those things God has commanded in his holy word — not deeds devised by men from blind zeal or good intentions. They are not the ground or cause of justification, which is by faith alone through Christ alone; rather, they are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith, flowing from hearts purified by that faith and enabled wholly by the Spirit of Christ. The confession targets both the Roman Catholic doctrine of supererogation and any merit-based soteriology, insisting that even the believer's best works, mingled with weakness and imperfection, are acceptable before God only through the mediation of Christ. Believers are therefore called to freely and cheerfully perform good works — including proper worship — not to secure salvation but as the grateful and Spirit-enabled response of those already justified by Christ's perfect obedience imputed to them.
The Defense of the Faith
Jude 3 commands every believer — not merely church officers — to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This sermon works through the exhortation (v. 3), the motivation supplied by the reality of internal heresy (v. 4), and the disposition required of faithful contenders (vv. 17, 20–21). The defense of objective Christian truth is grounded not in combative temperament but in the knowledge that God loves his people, and is sustained through the study of Scripture, prayer, and a forward orientation toward the return of Christ.
The Mission and Ministry of the Church
What is the mission and ministry of the church, and how does the apostolic pattern in Acts 2 define both? This sermon works through Acts 2:22–42, showing that the church's mission is the proclamation of Christ — his life, atoning death, resurrection, and exaltation — accompanied by the killing work of God's law that convicts sinners of their guilt and drives them to the Savior. The ministry that follows is shaped by the four marks of the early church in verse 42: steadfast continuance in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer — the simple means by which God feeds his blood-bought people.
The Cry of Dereliction
What does Christ mean when he cries 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' from the cross? This sermon on Matthew 27:45–46 carefully distinguishes what the cry of dereliction does not mean — no ontological division within the Trinity, no dissolution of the hypostatic union, no suffering of all three persons — before arguing that it expresses Christ's true humanity as our surety bearing the punishment of loss: the withdrawal of the Father's smiling favor and consolatory presence as the Son satisfies divine justice for the sins of his people. The sermon draws extensively on Psalm 22 to show that the forsakenness is covenantal and substitutionary, not metaphysical, and closes with a call to believe on the crucified and risen Christ who cried this cry so that his people never will.
2LCF Chapter 4 - Of Creation
2LCF Chapter 4 expounds the doctrine of creation across three paragraphs, addressing what creation is, the triune God who creates, the nature and dignity of man as image-bearer, and the covenantal framework that gives creation its redemptive telos. The sermon argues that creation ex nihilo (qualified as God bringing forth all that is not God) and creation ex materia are distinct but complementary categories, and that divine immutability is preserved because no change or new perfection accrues to God through the act of creating. Ultimately, creation serves as the theatre within which God executes His eternal decree of redemption, bringing a multitude of elect sinners to glory through the perfect work of Jesus Christ.
2LBC - Chapter 2 - Of God and the Holy Trinity
What does it mean that God is one, simple, immutable, immense, and triune — and why does any of it matter for Christian worship? This confession study works through the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 2 ("Of God and the Holy Trinity"), tracing the three movements of the chapter: God's essential glory in paragraph 1, God's transcendent relations in paragraph 2, and God's triune majesty in paragraph 3. Along the way, foundational interpretive principles for speaking rightly about God are established — the legitimate use of logical consequences from Scripture, the necessity of extra-biblical vocabulary to guard biblical truth, and the reading of anthropomorphic language according to the meaning rather than the letter. The session closes with a direct application: the doctrine of God is not speculative labor but the very foundation of communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and of the creature's comfortable dependence upon him.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures (Paragraphs 1-3)
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith opens with the doctrine of Holy Scripture because all subsequent confessional theology stands or falls on this foundation. This session works through paragraphs 1–3 of Chapter 1, establishing first the necessity of Scripture — grounded in the insufficiency of general revelation for saving knowledge and the cessation of direct prophetic revelation — and then the identity of Scripture, treating the question of canon (which books belong) and the exclusion of the Apocrypha. Three criteria for canonicity are examined: the providential exposure of books, the divine attributes Scripture bears, and apostolic origin broadly understood.
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.
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 Ministry in Lystra
Acts 14:8–18 presents Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, where the healing of a man crippled from birth provokes the surrounding pagans to identify the apostles as Zeus and Hermes come in human form. Paul's corrective address to the Lystrans teaches the non-divinity of creatures and, by implication, the sharp ontological distinction between the living God and all that he has made. The study moves from the healing account into a substantial exposition of divine impassibility and simplicity, grounding those doctrines in the phrase 'of like passions' and tracing them through the confession, Scripture, and the Reformed theological tradition.
The Defense of the Faith
Jude 3 commands every believer — not merely clergy or scholars — to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This sermon expounds the exhortation, its rationale in the infiltration of ungodly men who pervert grace and deny Christ, and the practical readiness required: remembering apostolic warnings, building on Scripture, praying in the Spirit, and looking for the mercy of Christ at His return. The defence of the faith is not optional, not confined to specialists, and not finally dependent on human faithfulness — it is God's fight, and He keeps those who contend.
The Necessity to Walk in Wisdom, Part 3
What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and how does that filling express itself in the life of the church? Expounding Ephesians 5:19–21, this sermon argues that the Spirit's presence produces four concrete effects: mutual instruction through song, praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, gratitude to God the Father, and submissive regard for one another — all of which together constitute Trinitarian Christian worship. A sustained lexical, theological, and contextual case is made that the 'psalms and hymns and spiritual songs' of verse 19 refer to the biblical Psalter as the divinely authorized songbook of the church, and the sermon closes by grounding the call to walk in wisdom in the sufficiency of Scripture and the free grace of God in Christ.
2LCF Chapter 4 - Of Creation
Creation is not a brute fact but a deliberate act of the undivided Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — for the manifestation of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. This study of 2LCF Chapter 4 traces what creation is (all things not God, made ex nihilo and from previously created matter), who created (the triune God whose immutability and eternality mean creation produced no change in Him), and what man is within creation (a being made male and female, bearing reasonable and immortal souls, the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness). The chapter culminates in the covenant of works: man was not created in covenant but was brought into covenant by God's voluntary condescension, establishing the pre-fall communion whose loss in Adam and recovery in the second Adam frames the entire remainder of the confession.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity, Part 2
What does it mean that God is one, infinite, simple, invisible, incorporeal, and without passions? This Sunday school session works through paragraph 1 of 2LCF Chapter 2, tracing the classical attributes — or perfections — of God through their biblical foundations and the theological vocabulary refined by the church across centuries. Divine simplicity, aseity, incomprehensibility, and impassibility are each examined with care, showing how these doctrines are not abstract curiosities but guard the God of Scripture from distortion and secure the stability of his love, justice, and grace toward his people. The session closes by connecting the doctrine of divine impassibility to the assurance of salvation: because God does not move from one state to another, his love for his people is always most.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures, Part 1
The necessity of Holy Scripture, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 1, paragraph 1, arises from the insufficiency of general revelation to communicate saving knowledge. While creation and providence manifestly display God's goodness, wisdom, and power — leaving all men without excuse — they do not and cannot reveal blood atonement, the incarnation, or justification by faith alone. It therefore pleased God to commit His will to writing, producing a Scripture that is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. The session closes with extended discussion of cessationism, the distinction between inerrancy and infallibility, and the hermeneutical principle that Scripture interprets Scripture.
The Believer's Response to Trials
James 1:2–8 addresses the believer's proper response to trials in a fallen world, pressing two demands: a joyful disposition toward suffering and a prayerful request for wisdom to navigate it. Drawing on John Calvin, Thomas Manton, and John Gill, the sermon distinguishes the trials of verse 2 (divine testing aimed at maturity) from the temptations of verse 13 (solicitations to sin), and traces the progression from endurance through testing to the perfection of verse 4. The sermon closes with a gospel call: the one who mastered suffering perfectly was Christ himself, whose righteousness is given to the believer by grace alone through faith alone.
The Champion of the Howling Wilderness
Matthew 4:1–11 presents the temptation of Christ not primarily as a model for personal resistance to sin, but as the decisive act of single combat in which the Lord Jesus Christ, as the second Adam and the true Israel, vicariously perfects obedience for his elect people. Where Adam fell in the garden amid every provision and where Israel failed in the wilderness under divine care, the Son of God enters a howling wilderness—hungry, alone, and unarmed—and vanquishes the devil point for point through resolute dependence on the word of God. The rich typological connections to Adam's expulsion, Israel's forty years of wandering, Moses' fast on Sinai, and David's unarmed single combat against Goliath converge on the one claim the passage presses: Christ alone is the covenantally faithful champion, and salvation belongs exclusively to those who trust in his doing, dying, and rising. Christians are therefore called to rejoice in their champion rather than to reduce this episode to a moral technique for fighting temptation.
2LCF Chapter 16 - Of Good Works, Part 1
Good works in the Christian life must be carefully defined, grounded, and distinguished from every meritorious scheme if the glory of Christ is to be preserved. This study of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 16 works through the definition of good works (their substance, manner, and definitive character as fruits and evidences of a lively faith), the necessary foundation of good works in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, and the non-meritorious nature of good works as plainly asserted in Romans 3 and Galatians 2. The central burden is that no work of the creature — however sincere, however commanded — can merit pardon of sin or eternal life before God, because the only works that avail with divine justice are the active and passive obedience of Christ alone imputed to the believer by faith.
The 9th Commandment, Part 2
James 1:26 places the ninth commandment's prohibition of false witness directly inside the local church: a professing believer who does not bridle his tongue deceives himself, and his religion is exposed as useless — the same Greek word applied to idolatry. The sermon surveys the tongue's destructive power across James 3–4, Matthew 12 and 15, and a wide range of Proverbs texts, arguing that sins of speech are systematically undertriaged in the church compared to sins of action. Ten practical helps are offered, grounded in the conviction that taming the tongue is a fruit of genuine saving faith and requires the enabling power of the Holy Spirit working through the ordinary means of grace.
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 2
Ephesians 1:13–14 presents the Holy Spirit as both the seal and the guarantee of the believer's inheritance, grounding the security of salvation not in human performance but in the inseparable operations of the triune God. The sermon traces the instrumentality of the word of truth — showing that sinners must hear the gospel before they can believe — and then expounds the sealing of the Spirit as authentication, ownership, and security. The guarantee of the Spirit is the first installment of a heavenly inheritance that awaits the full redemption of the purchased possession at the consummation of the age. Believers are therefore urged to rest their assurance in the Father who chose, the Son who redeemed, and the Spirit who seals and guarantees.
The Discourse on God's Salvation, Part 2
John 3:16 — Luther called it 'the Bible in miniature,' and this exposition treats it as precisely that: a compressed statement of the whole Christian gospel. The sermon moves through three divisions of the verse — the declaration of God's love, the demonstration of that love in the gift of the only begotten Son, and the description of those who receive God's redemptive love through faith. Central to the argument is the insistence that God's love is the source, not the consequence, of the atonement, and that 'the world' in John's vocabulary denotes persons from every tribe and tongue without ethnic distinction, not every individual without exception — a conclusion that grounds particular redemption in the wider theology of John's writings. The sermon closes with a direct appeal to unbelievers: the one way of salvation is to believe on Jesus Christ alone, whose active obedience supplies the righteousness that sinners need and whose substitutionary death removes the condemnation they deserve.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 3
Matthew 27:45–46 records the fourth of Christ's seven words from the cross — the cry of dereliction, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — and its interpretation demands both exegetical precision and doctrinal care. The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour was not a solar eclipse but a supernatural sign of divine judgment, recapitulating the ninth plague pattern and marking the moment the Passover antitype was slain. The cry itself does not imply any ontological division within the Trinity, any dissolution of the hypostatic union, or the suffering of all three persons; rather, it expresses the withdrawal of divine consolation from the Son according to his true humanity as he bore, in our place as surety, the full weight of penal wrath. Believers are called to ground their assurance not in felt divine presence but in the covenant faithfulness of the God to whom Christ still cried 'my God' even in the depth of his substitutionary suffering.
The Defense of the Faith
Jude 3 commands every believer — not merely pastors or theologians — to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This sermon examines the exhortation itself, the internal threat posed by sneaky, ungodly apostates who pervert grace and deny Christ, and the practical preparedness Jude prescribes: remembering apostolic warning, building up on the most holy faith through Scripture and prayer, and resting in the assurance that God himself preserves his people. The defense of the faith is not pessimistic trench-holding but confident advance grounded in Christ's promise to build his church against which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.
The Gospel and Jerusalem Sinners
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:22–42 presents the gospel as an objective message focused on the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ — not a feeling or a personal response. This exposition works through Peter's call to repentance and baptism, the nature of imputed righteousness received by faith alone, and the sovereign scope of God's grace that reaches even the murderers of Christ. The sermon closes with the practice of the early church — steadfast continuance in apostolic doctrine, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, and prayer — as the pattern for all who are genuinely saved by grace.