Cited in sermons
William Perkins
20 sermons · All people cited
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 Second Commandment - Deuteronomy 5:8-11
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8-11) prohibits both the making of images to represent God and the worship of those images — two distinct but related offenses against the infinitely simple, spiritual, and incomprehensible God. Because God cannot be captured in creaturely form, any visible representation of Him, including pictures or films of the Lord Jesus Christ, violates the commandment: the hypostatic union cannot be depicted by an artist's rendering, and Christ is to be set forth through preaching, not imagery. The positive demand of the commandment is worship regulated strictly by divine command — the regulative principle — which restricts the church to the elements God has prescribed in Scripture, excluding both the inventions of men and the traditions of Rome.
Bible Study - Saul and the witch at Endor
King Saul's consultation with the witch at Endor (1 Samuel 28) illustrates the catastrophic spiritual consequences of persistent disobedience to God's revealed word. Having been cut off from God through compounding acts of rebellion — beginning in 1 Samuel 13 and 15 — Saul finds himself without prophetic word, priestly access, or divine dream, and turns in desperation to a source God had expressly condemned. The narrative is set in deliberate contrast with David, who, though not sinless, maintained communion with God through repentance and reliance on the means of grace. The lesson closes with a call to seek God earnestly through Scripture and prayer rather than turning to any substitute, however desperate the circumstances.
The Ministry in Iconium, Part 1
Acts 14:1–7 records the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in Iconium during the first missionary journey, and this exposition focuses on God's blessing in verse 1 — specifically the sovereignty of God in salvation and the instrumentality of gospel preaching. Drawing on Acts 13:48, Acts 16:14, Romans 10, 1 Corinthians 1, and 2 Timothy 4, the sermon argues that while God alone opens hearts, He ordains the foolishness of preaching as the ordinary means of saving sinners. The sermon closes by examining the relationship between faith and repentance in Acts, contending that the two are inseparable sides of the same coin and that repentance must never be preached as a work the sinner performs before coming to Christ.
May 18 Sanders Holy Spirit and the Father
How does the Holy Spirit relate to God the Father, and what does that relationship mean for Christian worship and prayer? Working through a chapter on the Holy Spirit and the Father, this study traces the biblical pattern of 'from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit' — and its liturgical reverse, 'in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father' — as the framework for understanding both Trinitarian processions and the nature of true worship. The discussion addresses the Spirit's work in the old and new covenants, the cessation of the revelatory gifts at the completion of the New Testament canon, and the Spirit's role in empowering prayer, drawing particularly on John Owen's treatment of Ephesians 2:18 and Romans 8:26-27.
CTF 2024 Session 7 - Q&A Panel Discussion
A conference Q&A panel addresses a wide range of confessional, theological, and pastoral questions arising from lectures on the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession and its relationship to broader Reformed orthodoxy. Topics range from the nature of creedal subscription and what it means to be Reformed, to the hermeneutics of typology, the mystery language of Ephesians 3, the humanity and knowledge of Christ, divine immutability and impassibility, and the differences between the Second London Confession and the Three Forms of Unity. The panel consistently grounds its answers in the churchly authority of confessions over individual interpretation, the centrality of the means of grace for generational faithfulness, and the necessity of theological humility before the accumulated witness of the church.
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 Second Commandment
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8–10) does not merely forbid the worship of false gods — it forbids the worship of the true God in a false manner, a distinction that carries enormous weight for how the church orders its worship today. The sermon works through the commandment's prohibition against idols and images (including pictorial representations of Christ), the theological rationale grounded in God's jealousy and immutability, the transgenerational consequences of false worship understood not as a hereditary curse but as the imitation of godlessness, and the promise of mercy to those who love and obey God. The positive application is the Regulative Principle of Worship: only what God has commanded is acceptable, and anything beyond or contrary to that command — however sincere the motive — constitutes the offering of strange fire to Yahweh.
Bible Study - Exodus 7
Exodus 7 presents the reassurance of Israel's deliverance, the opening sign before Pharaoh, and the first plague — the turning of the Nile to blood. The sermon works through God's sovereign purpose in hardening Pharaoh's heart, arguing that this was an act of righteous judgment upon an already-guilty idolater, not arbitrary cruelty, and that the ten plagues constitute a direct assault upon the gods of Egypt to vindicate God's elect and instruct Egypt in who the Lord truly is. The satanic origin of the magicians' counterfeit signs is examined through Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 18, 1 Samuel 28, Matthew 24, and 2 Thessalonians 2. Romans 9:14–18 frames the theological conclusion: God's sovereignty in hardening and in showing mercy is absolutely righteous, and every act of judgment against God's enemies is simultaneously a mercy toward his people.
The Second Commandment
The second commandment forbids both the manufacture of idols and the worship of the true God by means of visible representations — a distinction the first commandment does not address. Working through Deuteronomy 5:8–10, this sermon grounds the regulative principle of worship in the doctrine of God: because God is incorporeal, incomprehensible, and infinite, any attempt to represent Him in image or statue is a theological assault on His nature, not merely a liturgical irregularity. The sermon applies this principle to Roman Catholic image-veneration, depictions of the Lord Jesus Christ (including the 'Jesus film' and similar media), and the broader failure of evangelical worship to ask what God has actually commanded.
Saul and the Medium at En Dor
When Saul consults a medium at En Dor on the eve of his final battle with the Philistines, the deepest terror of 1 Samuel 28 is not the Philistine army but the silence of God — the Lord refuses to answer Saul by dreams, Urim, or prophets. The passage exposes the bankruptcy of pragmatic religion: Saul does not want communion with God, only tactical advantage, and so he turns to what God has explicitly forbidden. The sermon examines the three main interpretive positions on the conjured spirit, argues that a demonic entity — not the real Samuel — appeared to the medium, and closes by distinguishing between the hardened reprobate who has been abandoned by God and the struggling believer who is called to renew repentance and press into the ordained means of grace.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is examined as a biblical mandate rooted in the sanctity of human life as image-bearers of God, tracing the consistent teaching of Scripture from Genesis 9:6 through Romans 13:1–4. The sermon argues that the Noahic covenant establishes civil government's God-given authority to execute murderers, an authority confirmed rather than overturned in the New Testament. Common objections — from the sixth commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, the woman caught in adultery, and concerns about deterrence and salvation — are answered exegetically. Believers are called to submit to governing authorities as God's ministers of wrath, to pray the imprecatory psalms, and to reject both personal vengeance and the sentimental rejection of God's revealed standard of justice.
The Importance of Preaching
Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 1:18–25 that God saves sinners 'through the foolishness of the message preached' establishes preaching not as one option among many but as the divinely ordained and irreplaceable means of grace. The sermon traces four interlocking claims: preaching is the means by which dead sinners are brought to saving faith, the means by which Christ builds his church, a proclamation that has Christ himself as its sum and substance, and a proclamation that has the cross as the apex of its content. Hearers are pressed to pray and give financial support for gospel ministers, to deepen their knowledge of Christ crucified, and — if as yet unconverted — to seek salvation through that cross alone.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 23, 2016 PM
What does it look like for a justified sinner to walk in the Spirit? Working through Galatians 5:22-26, this exposition of the fruit of the Spirit demonstrates that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not optional extras but the necessary outflow of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The sermon argues that because those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires at regeneration, the absence of these fruits is not an excuse but a call to repentance, and the presence of the Spirit provides the very power by which they are cultivated.
The Works of the Flesh
Galatians 5:19–21 presents a vice list Paul calls 'the works of the flesh,' catalogued here under four headings: sins of the flesh (adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness), sins of religious apostasy (idolatry, sorcery, heresy), sins against personal relationships (hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, envy, murder), and sins of intemperance (drunkenness, revelries). The sermon distinguishes between remaining corruption — the ongoing struggle common to every justified believer — and reigning corruption, the habitual, unrepentant practice that characterises the unregenerate and excludes from the kingdom of God. Drawing on the Westminster Larger Catechism, Calvin, and Perkins, the preacher grounds each vice in the moral law and closes with a double summons: believers who have fallen into these sins are to repent and seek forgiveness through the blood of Christ; unbelievers are to see in the law their need for the Saviour.
1 Samuel 28
First Samuel 28 records one of the most devastating episodes in Saul's life: having been abandoned by God and cut off from every legitimate means of divine communication, the king of Israel disguises himself and consults a medium at Endor on the eve of his final battle with the Philistines. This Bible study traces Saul's trajectory from incremental disobedience in 1 Samuel 13 through to full-blown necromancy in chapter 28, demonstrating that his ruin was not sudden but the cumulative fruit of small acts of defection from the living God. The appearance of 'Samuel' is examined with appropriate tentativeness, with the case for a demonic impersonation receiving the most sustained treatment. The study closes with a contrast between Saul's desperation and David's persistent pleading in Psalm 13, calling hearers to cling to the means of grace rather than abandon them when God seems silent.
The Second Commandment
The second commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8–10) distinguishes the object of worship, addressed by the first commandment, from the manner of worship — forbidding both the making and the worship of images as representations of God, including images of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon works through three considerations: the positive demand for regulated worship according to the regulative principle, the twofold prohibition against idol-making and idol-worship, and the reasons grounded in the jealousy of God and the covenant curse and blessing. The great need of the hour is not merely moral reform but the proclamation of the gospel so that sinners are turned from their idols to worship the living God in the way He has prescribed.
The Church's Duty to Train Pastors
Paul's charge in 2 Timothy 2:1–2 — that Timothy be strong in grace and commit apostolic doctrine to faithful men who can teach others — imposes a binding duty on the church in every generation. This sermon works through two commands: the call to courageous, Christ-dependent strength in gospel ministry, and the church's obligation to identify, instruct, and deploy faithful men for pastoral work. The qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9 supply the objective standard for identifying such men, distinguishing the unqualified (who may yet be fitted) from the disqualified. The sermon closes by locating this four-generation chain of transmission within God's eternal decree to save the elect through the ordained means of faithful preaching.
Divine Simplicity 2 - Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
What does it mean to say God is 'without parts,' and why does it matter for every other divine attribute? This second session on divine simplicity (2LCF 2.1–3) continues an expository study of the Second London Baptist Confession's opening chapter on God, working through the classical doctrine that God is not composed of physical, metaphysical, or logical parts — a doctrine historically attested from the church fathers through the Reformation and represented in every major Reformed confession. The session focuses especially on God's pure actuality (the denial of act-and-potency composition), the inseparability of God as knower, knowing, and things known, and the impossibility of God being both agent and patient — showing that divine simplicity is the ontological foundation for God's immutability, independence, absoluteness, unity, and infinite love.
Divine Simplicity - Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
Divine simplicity — the classical doctrine that God has no parts, no composition whatsoever, and that all that is in God is God — is examined through its confessional, definitional, historical, and doctrinal dimensions. The 1689 London Baptist Confession's phrase 'without body, parts, or passions' serves as the entry point, with 'without parts' identified as the direct expression of divine simplicity. The doctrine is shown to be the ontological foundation for God's aseity, infinity, immutability, and the unity of his attributes, and is traced through an unbroken stream of witnesses from Irenaeus and Augustine through Aquinas, the Reformers, and the Reformed scholastics. Hearers are pressed to resist any conception of God as a composite being whose attributes are properties inhering in a subject, and to affirm instead that God is identical with his own essence, being, and every perfection predicated of him.