Cited in sermons
Vincentius of Lérins
4 sermons · All people cited
More than a Greeting
Titus 1:1–4 is far more than a standard epistolary greeting: compressed into four verses is a complete theology of the apostolic commission, the sovereignty of God in salvation, and the unchangeable hope of the elect. The sermon traces seven movements in Paul's salutation — from the commissioned servant and his appointed course, through the changeless confidence grounded in divine immutability, the chosen season of gospel proclamation, the committed charge, the common confession, and the consummate blessing of grace, mercy, and peace. Hearers are pressed to own the gospel publicly, to adorn it by godly conduct, and — if outside of Christ — to cast off misery and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's Apostolic Concern
Paul's letter to the Galatians confronts churches tempted to abandon the sufficiency of Christ's work in favour of Judaizing observances, and in Galatians 4:8–20 the apostle makes the startling theological move of equating Jewish law-keeping after Christ's advent with pagan idolatry — both are bondage to 'weak and beggarly elements.' The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the regression of backsliding into that bondage, the broken fellowship Paul calls to remembrance, and the false zeal of the agitators set against Paul's own burdened, birth-labour concern for Christ to be formed in his hearers. The application presses believers to guard against the perennial love of novelty and to hold with unwavering constancy to the old paths of justification by faith alone in Christ alone.
Paul's Salutation to Titus
Paul's salutation to Titus in Titus 1:1–4 is not empty formality but a compressed treasury of apostolic theology. This exposition works through seven elements of the greeting: Paul's identity as bondservant and apostle, the apostolic task of advancing the faith of God's elect through faithful proclamation, the eternal assurance grounded in God's immutable promise before time began, the providential means of preaching, the specific entrustment given to Paul, the recipient Titus as a true son in the common faith, and the benediction of grace, mercy, and peace from the triune God. The sermon calls hearers to slow down at biblical salutations, to prize the heritage of Christian antiquity, and to pray for ministers who proclaim Christ in a God-hating world.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 4
The person of the Lord Jesus Christ — his true humanity, sinlessness, and mediatorial office — is examined through paragraphs 2, 3, and 7 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 8. The session works through the Virgin birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, the essential properties and common infirmities of Christ's assumed human nature, his sinlessness according to that nature, and the role of the Holy Spirit in equipping him for his mediatorial task. Paragraph 7's doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum is then treated, establishing what may and may not properly be said of Christ given the hypostatic union of two natures in one person.