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2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ, the Mediator (Part 2)
The deity of Jesus Christ is not a late ecclesiastical imposition but the irreducible confession of Scripture, the early church, and the Reformed confessional tradition. This lesson, the second in a series through 2LCF Chapter 8, opens by reading paragraphs 1–2 of the confession before working through both what the orthodox doctrine of Christ's deity does NOT mean — rejecting polytheism, social trinitarianism, homoiousian subordinationism, modalism, and kenoticism — and what it positively asserts: that Christ is very and eternal God, of one substance with Father and Spirit, equal to the Father, personally distinct within the Godhead, and unchanging in deity through the incarnation. The biblical witness is then marshalled under five categories — explicit statements, Christ's self-witness, NT application of OT divine texts, divine perfections predicated of Christ, and divine works ascribed to Him — to demonstrate that the deity of Christ is axiomatic rather than argued in Scripture itself.
11/26 AM
Psalm 19 is read not merely as a declaration of general and special revelation but as a prophetic anticipation, interpreted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10, of the apostolic proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Working through seven points across the psalm's three movements, the sermon traces the symbol, referent, and message of each image: heavens and firmament pointing to the apostles, the sun pointing to Christ the Bridegroom and Son of Righteousness, and the law, testimony, statutes, and judgments pointing to the gospel itself. The Word of God is shown to be perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous — qualities that belong to the gospel, not the Mosaic law — and its effects of conversion, wisdom, rejoicing, and enlightenment call both believer and unbeliever to rest in Christ, the Son of Righteousness, whose glory has gone out to the ends of the earth.
2LCF - Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 1
What does it mean to confess that Jesus Christ is very God and very man, and why does the precision of that confession matter for eternal life? This introductory session on 2LCF Chapter 8 surveys the doctrine of Christ the Mediator by establishing both the necessary posture and the interpretive rules required for sound Christology, then sets out seven reasons why the study of Christ stands at the center of all Christian theology. The session moves from the scope of Scripture as Christ-centered revelation, through the connection of eternal life to a right knowledge of Christ, to the comprehensiveness of all redemptive benefits being located in union with Him, calling the hearer to pursue a high Christology as the only safe and saving confession.
2LCF Chapter 7 - Of God's Covenant
The doctrine of God's covenant is not merely one column in the architecture of systematic theology — it is the architecture itself, the organizing and unifying principle of the entire Bible. This session works through 2LCF Chapter 7, examining the ground of covenant necessity in the creator-creature distinction, the nature of God's voluntary and revelatory condescension, the occasion and provisions of the covenant of grace, and the progressive revelation of that covenant from the protevangelium to its formal ratification in the New Testament. The distinctively Baptist formulation — using 'revelation' rather than 'administration' — reflects the conviction that the covenant of grace was not formally and properly a covenant until Christ ratified it in his blood, a distinction with direct bearing on the doctrine of baptism and the composition of the church.
The Cessation of Revelatory Gifts
First Corinthians 13:8–13 declares that tongues, prophecy, and words of knowledge have a designed and determined end, giving way to the completed New Testament canon. This sermon argues from Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 13–14, Hebrews 1–2, Ephesians 2, and Daniel 9 that the revelatory gifts were temporary, apostolic, and tied to the first advent of Christ and the foundational era of the church. The 'perfect' of 1 Corinthians 13:10 refers not to the eschatological consummation but to the inscripturated fullness of divine revelation in the New Testament scriptures. Christians today are called to glory in the completed Word of God and in the abiding work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and illumination, rather than seeking gifts that have ceased.
The Blessings of the Ascended Christ
The ascended and glorified Christ actively dispenses blessings to his church from the right hand of the Father. Expounding Acts 2:22–47, this sermon traces three categories of those benefactions: his proclamational gifts (the gift of preachers, the preaching of the Word, and the Spirit's empowering of that preaching), his salvific gifts (effectual calling and the forgiveness of sins), and his ecclesiastical gifts (the creed of the church, the building and unity of the church, the gathering around apostolic doctrine, and the new covenant ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper). Believers are exhorted to pray for Spirit-empowered preaching, to attend diligently upon all the appointed means of grace, and to find their unity in the objective content of Christian confession rather than in secondary things.
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 3 - Of God's Decree
God's eternal decree—that He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, freely and unchangeably, from the counsel of His own most wise and holy will—is the subject of 2LCF Chapter 3. This study works through all seven paragraphs of the confession, grounding the doctrine first in divine sovereignty (God is most absolute, most free, and all-sufficient), then examining the decree's scope over all things, its special application to the predestination of the elect through Jesus Christ, and the reprobation of the wicked to the praise of His glorious justice. The decree is shown to be identical with the divine essence itself—eternal and unchangeable—and the means ordained by God (the redemptive work of Christ, the preaching of the Word, and the effectual work of the Spirit) are likewise foreordained. The proper posture before this doctrine is not boasting but humility, reverence, and abundant consolation in the God who saves sinners by His sovereign grace alone.
2LCF Chapter 2.3 - The Confessional Doctrine of the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity is the capstone of the confession's treatment of God, asserting that the one divine and infinite being eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three subsistences of one substance, power, and eternity, each possessing the whole divine essence undivided. This session works through six confessional affirmations: that Trinitarian monotheism excludes tritheism; that confessing one God in three persons is no contradiction; that the persons do not collectively comprise God in fractional parts; that the persons are distinguished solely by their eternal relations of origin; that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are fully co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial; and that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a cold academic exercise but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him.
The Vainglorious Quest, The Virtuous Path, and The Veracious Contemplation
Jeremiah 9:23–24 issues a threefold structure: a prohibitive warning against glorying in wisdom, might, or riches; a prescriptive call to glory in the understanding and knowledge of God; and a veracious contemplation of who God is and what He does. The sermon situates these commands within their covenantal context — the inevitable Babylonian judgment upon covenant-breaking Israel under the curses of Deuteronomy 28 — demonstrating that wisdom, strength, and riches will not avail in the face of irreversible divine justice. True glorying is exclusively God's due, and the knowledge of the one living and true God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is the only wisdom, strength, and riches that profit eternally. Hearers are called to cast off vainglory, grow earnestly in the knowledge of God, and trust in Christ alone, in whom are found all true wisdom, strength, and riches.
The Exhortation and The Exemplar
Philippians 2:5–11 sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the supreme exemplar for Christian humility, but the apostle's purpose is not merely moral instruction — it is to ground the call to others-mindedness in the incomparable descent of the eternal Son from pre-incarnate glory to the shame of the cross. The sermon works through five aspects of what has been called the 'hymn to Christ as to God': his consubstantiality with the Father, his equality with the Father, his condescension in the incarnation (the assumption of humanity), his active and passive obedience unto death, and his subsequent exaltation above every name. Christians are exhorted to exercise humility and conduct themselves worthy of the gospel, precisely because their redeemer — who was in the form of God and equal with the Father — willingly descended to the lowest ignominy in order to accomplish their salvation as the second Adam.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Theology Proper, Part I
Eternal life consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3), which means the knowledge of God is not optional for Christians but is the very substance of their salvation. This session opens a multi-week confession study of 2LCF Chapter 2 (Of God and of the Holy Trinity) by establishing what theology proper is — the study of the being, attributes, and works of the triune God — and why it is primary: it is grounded in God's creative purpose, commanded in Scripture, promised in the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and urgently needed in the face of false religion and bad theology. Six preliminary interpretive helps are then introduced to prepare the mind for rigorous and reverent engagement with the doctrine of God, including the necessity of recognising the ontological chasm between Creator and creature, God's revelatory condescension, and the joint propriety of affirmations and denials.
2LCF 27 - Of the Communion of Saints
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 27 grounds the communion of saints in the prior doctrine of union with Christ and union with one another in love, then draws out the obligations that follow for both local church life and the wider household of faith. The chapter carefully rules out any ontological or hypostatic union between Christ and his saints while affirming that believers genuinely share in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory through the indwelling Spirit and the gift of faith. Three constituent elements of that communion are identified — complementary profiting through gifts and graces, spiritual encouragement in gathered worship, and physical provision for those in need — before a closing qualification defends personal property rights against any collectivist or communistic reading of the text.
The Cross of Christ in the Book of Acts
The cross of Christ is not a threshold event left behind at conversion but the perpetual heartbeat of Christian life and worship. Working through the theme of the cross as it appears across the Book of Acts, this sermon traces six dimensions of the cross under six headings — divine purpose, divine promise, divine providence, divine power, divine proclamation, and divine proficiency — demonstrating that the crucifixion was planned in eternity, foretold throughout redemptive history, carried out through providential means, accomplished by the God-man himself, heralded by apostolic messengers, and effectually applied to all whom the Father gave the Son. The central application is a call to restore the art of marveling in the cross daily, not only on the Lord's Day, as the only fitting response to the reality that the God of heaven and earth took human flesh to bring many sons to glory.
Better Things in Christ
Hebrews 1:1–4 presents Jesus Christ as the apex of divine revelation, the eternal Son who bears the undiminished nature of the Father, and the perfect High Priest whose finished work secures salvation for all His people. The sermon moves through three considerations: the singular greatness of Christ's revelation over all prior prophetic speech, the infinite excellency of His person as the brightness of the Father's glory and the exact imprint of His nature, and the perfection of His redemptive regency demonstrated in His expiatory sacrifice and His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Against any drift toward lesser things — whether Old Covenant shadows, Roman Catholic purgatory, or the kenotic diminishment of Christ's deity — the congregation is called to hold fast their Christ, rejoice in the revelation God has given, and fear the consequences of neglecting so great a salvation.
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 25 - Of Marriage
The confession's chapter on marriage (2LCF 25) rests on the foundation of Genesis 2 and Matthew 19, defining marriage as an exclusive covenant between one man and one woman, ordained by God before the fall and therefore neither a social construct nor a second-rate reality beneath celibacy. The chapter serves four structural functions: establishing the monogamous design of marriage, grounding its divine origin and pre-fall holiness, articulating its threefold providential purpose (companionship, procreation toward the inhabitation of creation, and a hedge against sexual immorality), and setting its regulative bounds with respect to both consanguinity and the Christian obligation to marry in the Lord. The placement of this chapter immediately before the chapter on the church (2LCF 26) is deliberate: God's use of marriage to populate the earth is the providential means by which He gathers the elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation unto Christ.
2LCF21 - Of Christian Liberty (partial recording)
This exposition of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 21 (Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience) examines what freedom Christ secures for his people and what that freedom does not permit. The sermon works through three liberties from sin's bondage — from its guilt, its power, and its punishment — before turning to freedom in worship and obedience, distinguishing what Old and New Testament believers share and what New Testament believers enjoy in greater measure: freedom from the ceremonial law, greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and fuller communication of the Spirit. A substantial section treats liberty of conscience — freedom from ecclesiastical tyranny, civil totalitarianism, and moral impositions of men — and the sermon closes by warning against the perversion of Christian liberty into licentiousness.
Of the Gospel and Extent Thereof (2LCF 20)
2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 20, 'Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof,' addresses a chapter absent from the Westminster Confession but added by the Congregationalists in the Savoy Declaration and retained by the Particular Baptists to combat incipient deism and the General Baptist doctrine that sinners may be saved through general revelation alone. The sermon traces the chapter's four paragraphs through Romans 10, Luke 24, John 5, and Psalm 19 to demonstrate that the gospel of Christ has been the sole substance of special revelation since the protevangelium of Genesis 3:15, that general revelation is categorically insufficient to make Christ known, that God distributes gospel light with absolute sovereignty, and that effectual grace is indispensable alongside that revelation for the conversion of dead sinners. The double theme of the chapter — the necessity of special gospel revelation and the necessity of the Spirit's insuperable work — magnifies divine grace, grounds the missionary enterprise, and exposes the doctrine-of-sin deficiencies latent in every scheme that allows salvation apart from hearing Christ proclaimed.
Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation (2LCF 18)
Assurance of salvation is grounded not in the strength of faith or the quality of obedience but in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ revealed in the gospel. This exposition of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 18 works through the four paragraphs of that chapter: assurance stated, assurance grounded, assurance realized, and assurance disquieted. The objective foundation of assurance is the active and passive obedience of Christ, proclaimed in the gospel and sealed to the believer by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Believers are called to rest upon Christ alone, to attend the ordinary means of grace, and to resist grounding their hope in their own acts of obedience.
The Blessings of the Resurrected Christ
Luke 24:36–53 presents the resurrected Christ bestowing concrete blessings upon his disciples before his ascension: peace, bodily proof of his resurrection, exposition of the Old Testament Scriptures, enabling grace for comprehension, and the promise of the Spirit. The physical demonstration Christ offers refutes both ancient Docetism and its modern heirs — if Christ did not truly assume humanity, the unassumed is the unhealed, and salvation itself is a phantom. The sermon calls believers to rest their religious affections upon the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ as the sum and substance of all biblical revelation, finding in him both the ground of present comfort and the power for gospel proclamation.
Of The Perseverance of the Saints
The perseverance of the saints is not grounded in the will or strength of the redeemed but in the immutable decree of election, the finished work and ongoing intercession of Jesus Christ, the oath of God, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, and the inviolable nature of the covenant of grace. Working through chapter 17 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession, this study traces the "golden chain of redemption" from predestination through glorification, demonstrating that every link is secured by the triune God rather than by human willing. The session also addresses the reality of backsliding — its causes in the world, the flesh, and the devil — while insisting that the means of grace (prayer, the Word, the ordinances, and the fellowship of the saints) are the appointed instruments by which God preserves His people. Christians are called to heed apostolic exhortations to diligence precisely because perseverance is God's work, not a license for antinomian presumption.
The Perfection of Christ as the Prompting of His People
Hebrews 10:19–25 marks the great hinge of the epistle, where doctrinal exposition gives way to exhortation. The perfection of Christ's sacrifice and priesthood — the absolute sufficiency of His once-for-all offering and His unceasing high-priestly office — forms the irreplaceable ground upon which three congregational imperatives rest: draw near to God in full assurance of faith, hold fast the confession of hope without wavering, and consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Christians are not called to seek experiential novelty or emotional stimulation, but to the settled, corporate, and simple obedience of gathered worship, resting entirely upon the finished work of the One who consecrated a new and living way through His own flesh.
Of Good Works (part II)
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 16, teaches that good works neither merit pardon of sin nor eternal life, yet are genuinely accepted by God — not on the ground of their own quality, but solely through the believer's union with Christ the Mediator. This session completes the chapter by examining first why good works are accepted in Christ (the Mediator's priestly office presenting both persons and works acceptable to God), and then the sixfold purpose of good works: expressing gratitude, strengthening assurance, edifying the brethren, adorning the doctrine of Christ, stopping the mouths of adversaries, and glorifying the triune God. The controlling application is that a right understanding of good works drives the believer away from every meritorious scheme and toward Christ alone, in whom both persons and performances are accepted.
2LCF 16 - Of Good Works (part I)
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 Thief on the Cross
The salvation of the dying thief in Luke 23 is examined as one of the most concentrated demonstrations of vital theology in all the gospel narratives, showing that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and that the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work requires no supplementary priesthood or sacrifice. The sermon moves through the sobering inscription over Christ's cross, the unrepentant blasphemy of the cursed robber as a window into total depravity, and the remarkable conversion of the penitent thief — a reviler turned praiser — as evidence of sovereign, effectual grace. The thief's confession is shown to be theologically substantive: he acknowledges the fear of God, owns the justice of his condemnation, confesses Christ's innocence, and calls upon Christ as Lord and King. Hearers are called to remember their former state of spiritual bondage, to glory in the amazing grace that has brought them from reviling to worshiping, and to rest in Christ's word to the thief — 'today you will be with me in paradise' — as a word addressed to all who trust in Him.
The Dying Thief and the Prince of Life
The crucifixion scene of Luke 23:38–43 presents three voices: the cursed robber who reviles Christ to his last breath, the dying thief who exercises remarkable faith in a bloodied and apparently defeated king, and the Prince of Life who responds with sovereign assurance. This sermon exposition focuses on Christ's words to the thief — 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise' — unpacking the divine promise, immutable love, and perfection of Christ's blood and righteousness that undergird that assurance. The confession of faith's teaching on the perseverance and assurance of the saints illuminates why the thief's salvation is certain, and the same certainty belongs to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Importance of the Knowledge of Christ
The most important question ever asked — 'Who do you say that I am?' — exposes a crisis in the contemporary church: a Ligonier survey found that 78% of polled evangelical Christians answered that Jesus Christ is the highest creature of God, effectively the ancient Arian heresy. This sermon works through Matthew 16:13–20 as a launching point, pressing seven reasons why the knowledge of Christ is of supreme importance: He is the scope of Scripture, eternal life hinges on a right knowledge of His person, the gospel is about Him, He is the exclusive way of salvation, all redemptive benefits are found in Him, the church's commission is given by and about Him, and our present and future hope rests in Him alone. The practical import of Christology — rightly defined as the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of His office — is shown to bear on worship, humility, beneficence, good works, and steadfast confession.
The Benefactions of the Ascended Christ
The ascended Christ does not cease his mediatorial activity after the resurrection — he pours out benefactions upon his church. Preaching through Acts 2:22–43, this sermon examines two of three categories of those gifts: his charismatic benefactions (the gift of preachers, the act of preaching, and the Spirit's empowerment for proclamation) and his soteriological benefactions (effectual calling and the forgiveness of sins). Believers are urged to pray for their preachers, to come eager to hear the Word preached, and to give thanks daily for the grace by which God raises dead sinners to life in Christ.
July 01, 2018 - PM
What is the gospel, and why does its content matter for the Lord's Supper? Expounding 1 Corinthians 15:1–20 with focused attention on verses 3–4, this sermon argues that the gospel is defined by three inseparable historical and theological events: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Each event carries precise atoning weight — the death is substitutionary, propitiatory, and expiatory; the burial confirms the reality of that death and sets the stage for resurrection; the resurrection vindicates Christ's saving work, bears witness to the justification of his people, and establishes him as judge of the living and the dead. Delivered in the context of the Lord's Supper, the sermon calls believers to a wonder-filled, theologically informed observance of the ordinance, and warns unbelievers that the risen Christ who died for sinners will also be their judge.