262 sermons · All speakers
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.
Of Baptism (2LCF29)
Baptism, as confessed in chapter 29 of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (2LCF), is examined here as a divine and mediatorial ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ for the New Testament church. The exposition grounds the doctrine of baptism in a web of interconnected doctrines — Scripture, the covenant of grace, effectual calling, union with Christ, and the regulative principle of worship — demonstrating that believers' baptism by immersion is the necessary conclusion of consistently applied Reformed theology. The confession's fourfold structure is traced: what baptism is, to whom it is properly administered, in what element, and by what mode, with sustained argument from Romans 6, Galatians 3, Mark 16, and Matthew 28 that only professing believers are lawful recipients of the ordinance.
The Angelic Word & Song
What did the angels announce to the shepherds on the night of Christ's birth, and why does it matter for sinners today? Expounding Luke 2:10–14, this sermon traces the angelic word and the angelic song under two headings, showing that the announcement is one of greatest significance, greatest joy, universal scope, and divine salvation — a Savior who is Christ the Lord, born in fulfillment of Old Testament promise (2 Samuel 7, Isaiah 9:6, Micah 5:2) and condescending from infinite glory to a feed trough. The sermon calls hearers to hasten their gaze upon this Christ, to hitch the joy of their lives to the triune God and His gospel alone, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life.
OF Christ the Mediator (2LCF 8)
The doctrine of the Incarnation — that the eternal Son of God took to himself a full human nature, body and soul, yet without sin — is one of the two great mysteries of the Christian faith alongside the Trinity. This confession study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 8, Paragraph 2, establishing first what the Incarnation does not mean (mutation of the divine nature, mere appearance, assumption of body only, full humanity without exception, addition to divine being) before drawing out five positive theological entailments: it is the Son alone who became incarnate through the undivided work of the triune God; it is the divine Son who assumed flesh; the assumed humanity is full and complete; Christ is sinless in that humanity; and the two natures are united in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. The whole doctrine is shown to be the necessary foundation of the Christian gospel, since only a mediator who is truly and fully God, truly and fully man, and wholly without sin can accomplish the redemption of fallen humanity.
A Thoughtful Diligence in Fellowship
Hebrews 10:24–25 contains the third of three apostolic exhortations grounded in Christ's blood and high-priestly office: a thoughtful diligence in corporate fellowship that stirs one another to love and good works. The sermon traces the call to mutual consideration — looking away from self and toward brothers and sisters in Christ — and grounds its motivation in the incarnate humility of the Son of God, who made himself of no reputation to serve sinners. Forsaking the assembly is not a private failure but a breach of the covenantal reciprocity that belongs to those who rest on so great a salvation.
The Three-Fold Exhortation
Hebrews 10:19–25 sets forth a two-fold foundation and a three-fold exhortation for corporate Christian life. The foundation is Christ's blood-purchased boldness of access into the holiest and His abiding high-priestly intercession — both of which make the old-covenant sacrificial system not merely obsolete but inferior in kind, not degree. From that foundation the apostle issues three commands: draw near with a true heart in full assurance, hold fast the confession of hope without wavering, and (deferred to a subsequent sermon) consider one another to stir up love and good works. The sermon presses hearers to root their weekly confidence not in the quality of their obedience but in the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of His once-for-all sacrifice.
The Sacrifice Remembered
What does it mean to remember the death of Christ at the Lord's Supper? Examining 1 Peter 1:18–20, this sermon traces three dimensions of that remembrance: the incomparable value of Christ's precious blood over all corruptible earthly things, the eternal and love-driven divine purpose behind the atonement foreordained before the foundation of the world, and the singular historical reality of the incarnation and sacrifice. The congregation is called to prize Christ above every earthly attachment and to observe the Lord's Supper with the gravity and joy befitting so great a Savior.
Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience (2LFC21)
Christian liberty is grounded not primarily in political or personal freedoms but in the perfect saving work of Christ, who has purchased freedom from the guilt, power, and punishment of sin for all his elect. This study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 21, paragraphs 1–3, tracing the biblical foundations of liberty of conscience against both Roman Catholic ecclesiastical imposition and antinomian abuse of grace. The New Testament enlarges the freedom already held by Old Testament believers by releasing them from the ceremonial law's yoke, granting bolder access to the throne of grace, and communicating the Spirit more fully. True Christian liberty issues not in licentiousness but in cheerful, childlike obedience to God, freed from slavish fear and self-imposed religious scrupulosity alike.
The Prince of Life and the Penitent Thief
The conversion of the penitent thief on the cross presents what one 19th-century commentator called the finest demonstration of vital theology in all the gospel narratives. Working through Luke 23:38–43, this sermon examines four elements of that occasion: the ironic truth embedded in the inscription 'This is the King of the Jews,' the unrepentant blasphemy of the cursed robber as a mirror of unregenerate depravity, the dying thief's Spirit-wrought confession of God's holiness, Christ's innocence, and Christ's lordship, and the sovereign comfort of Christ's assurance that salvation rests on divine promise rather than human merit. The sermon is delivered in the context of a Lord's Supper service, and each point is drawn toward the ordinance as a call to remember the King, to recall one's former state of enmity, and to rest on the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
Paul at the Areopagus
Paul's sermon at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22–34) is an unapologetic proclamation of the exclusive lordship, unbounded glory, and all-sufficient independence of the one living and true God over against the multiplicity of Athenian idols. The sermon traces Paul's argument through four movements — the prelude, the proclamation proper, the mercy extended, and the Athenian reception — grounding each in the prophetic witness of the Old Testament. The idols of Athens are shown to be dependent, spatially confined, and utterly without refuge, while Yahweh is immense, uncircumscribable, and the source of all life, breath, and existence. Hearers are pressed to abandon the folly of any idolatry, old or modern, and to believe on the risen Christ before whom all will be judged.
Paul in Athens
Acts 17:16–21 presents the Apostle Paul's arrival in Athens, where he encounters a city so consumed by idolatry that ancient sources estimated some 30,000 deities. The sermon examines two subjects: the preacher and the people. Paul's spirit is provoked to a wholesome, righteous indignation — not a curmudgeonly repulsion — rooted in zeal for the glory of the one true God, the demands of His law (particularly the first and second commandments), and a knowledge of the deliverance the gospel brings to souls in bondage. His response to that provocation is immediate proclamation of Christ in the synagogues and the marketplace, even before a hostile audience of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who insult him as a babbler and misunderstand the resurrection as a second deity alongside Jesus.
Paul's "Jesus and the Resurrection"
What does Paul mean when he proclaims 'Jesus and the resurrection,' and why does the denial of bodily resurrection destroy the entire Christian faith? Drawing on 1 Corinthians 15:1–20, this exposition works through four interlocking realities: the gospel is comprehensive for all of Christian life, the events of the gospel are certain on the testimony of Scripture and eyewitnesses, the grace of God is foundational to both the delivery and reception of the gospel, and the resurrection of Christ secures an unconquerable hope for all who believe. The sermon presses toward a pointed application: Christian hope is not wishful thinking but the certain expectation that God's promises in the risen Christ will most surely come to pass.
Of Adoption (2LFC12)
Adoption is a gracious act of God whereby those whom He has justified are brought from the household of Adam — where they were sons of disobedience and children of wrath — into the household of God, with all the rights and privileges of divine sonship. This study of 1689 LBCF Chapter 12 traces five dimensions of the doctrine: the recipients of adoption (all the justified), the author of adoption (God alone, not human will), the pre-temporal provenance (the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love), the objective historical ground (the redemptive work of Christ), and the temporal application (the effectual work of the Spirit). The hearer is called to take great comfort in the benefits the confession enumerates — access to the throne of grace, the Spirit of adoption crying Abba Father, divine pity, protection, provision, and chastening — and to live as imitators of God, conducting themselves as members of His household.
The Hymn to Christ as to God, Part 3
What does it mean that Christ 'emptied himself' in Philippians 2:7? This sermon works through the first clause of Christ's condescension, arguing that the self-emptying was not a divestiture of deity but an addition of humanity — Christ took on what he was not without ceasing to be what he eternally was. The incarnation is treated under two headings: his self-emptying by assuming man's nature, and his self-humiliation in engaging that nature as a bondservant. The sermon closes by drawing out the practical weight of Christ's true humanity for worship, perseverance under suffering, and help in temptation.
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.
Isaiah's Child of Promise
Isaiah 9:6 announces a child born and son given as the divine answer to covenant judgment — not a military conqueror, but a gift of sovereign grace. This sermon traces four aspects of the promised Messiah: his humble beginning as a given gift, his royal commission over an eternal kingdom, his divine majesty expressed in four throne-names, and the perfect peace he secures through his atoning blood. The exposition grounds Christological adoration in its Old Testament context, showing how the prophecy builds on Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7 before finding its fulfillment in the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. Hearers are called to count Christ as the chief of all blessings, to rest in his kingship over a disordered world, and to flee immediately to his cross-won peace when guilt assails.
The Hymn to Christ as to God
Philippians 2:5–11, known in scholarly and devotional tradition as a hymn to Christ as to God, opens a series of expository studies through one of the most concentrated christological passages in the New Testament. This sermon establishes the exhortation's context within the letter to the Philippians — a message of thanksgiving and rejoicing addressed to a church facing external persecution but inward temptation toward pride and disunity — and then examines the exordium of verse 5: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.' Three qualifications govern the use of Christ as example: He is not only nor primarily an example, Christians are called to imitate His disposition rather than duplicate His saving work, and this lowliness of mind is not the pathway to salvation but the characteristic mark of those already saved by grace through faith. The sermon closes with a direct call to humility modeled on Christ's condescension and an evangelistic summons to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before that day when every knee shall bow in judgment.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2)
The doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 2, is approached here through three progressive affirmations drawn from Scripture and the Reformed confessional tradition: God is, God is one, and God is one in three persons. The incomprehensibility of God frames the entire study — not that He cannot be known, but that He cannot be exhaustively comprehended by any creaturely mind. Moving from general revelation through the law of nature to the biblical witness of monotheism and finally to the Trinitarian distinctions of unbegottenness, eternal generation, and eternal procession, the sermon demonstrates that the doctrine of the Trinity is not speculative theology but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence upon Him.
Of the Lord's Supper (2LCF 30.1-8)
The Lord's Supper, as confessed in chapter 30 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, is examined across all eight paragraphs under four headings: its nature, administration, elements, and reception. The session expounds the Confession's positive affirmations — that the Supper is a divine ordinance of perpetual remembrance, proclamation of Christ's finished sacrifice, and a means of grace by which the risen Christ spiritually nourishes His people by the Holy Spirit — alongside its sharp rejection of Roman Catholic transubstantiation, the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice, and Lutheran consubstantiation. The 17th-century polemical context is traced, showing that the particular Baptists aligned with Presbyterian and Congregationalist confessionalism against both Roman Catholic sacerdotalism and the anti-Trinitarian Socinian memorial-only reduction. The session closes with an urgent call to faithful, frequent participation in the Lord's Supper as an act of communion with Christ and with one another, refusing both careless neglect and the errors of Rome.
The Galatian Benediction
The opening three verses of Galatians are not mere epistolary formality but carry concentrated theological weight: Paul's identity as a divinely commissioned apostle, the significance of the audience designation, and the rich pastoral benediction of grace and peace. The sermon argues that Paul's apostolic authority is grounded in divine rather than human commissioning, that the absence of the customary commendatory address to the Galatian churches signals a subtle rebuke, and that the benediction of grace and peace is a Trinitarian gift addressing the precise spiritual need created by the Judaizing perversion of justification by faith alone. Hearers are called to seek growth in grace and peace through faithful attendance upon the means of grace, and those outside of Christ are pressed to believe on the one who lived, died, and rose to save sinners.
Gospel and Doxology for the Galatians
Galatians 1:4-5 presents both a summary of the true gospel and a call to doxology, set against the backdrop of the false gospel threatening the Galatian churches. The sermon works through three movements in the gospel itself: Christ who gave Himself (His free act, His assumption of human nature, His vicarious obedience, and His sacrificial death), the substitutionary and cleansing effect of that giving 'for our sins,' and the deliverance from this present evil age effected according to the sovereign will of God the Father. The exposition closes with Paul's doxology, arguing from Job, Acts 17, and the 1689 confession that God does not stand in need of glory but that His creatures are called to ascribe to Him the glory eternally due His name. Hearers are exhorted to know the triune God, guard against every false gospel, and train themselves now in the ascription of glory that will occupy the saints forever.
Of Baptism (2LCF 29.1-4)
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.
Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper (2LCF 28)
The two ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper are positive and sovereign institutions of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only lawgiver, to be administered in His church until He returns. This study of 2LCF Chapter 28 traces the confessional and biblical foundations of these ordinances across multiple chapters of the 1689 London Baptist Confession, demonstrating how doctrines of Scripture, Christology, sanctification, saving faith, and ecclesiology together undergird their proper observance. The sermon distinguishes the Baptist use of 'ordinance' from both Roman Catholic sacramentalism and the Paedo-Baptist covenantal framework, while insisting that these are not optional ceremonies but dominical injunctions binding the conscience of every believer. Christians are called not merely to be informed about baptism and the Lord's Supper, but to obey and rejoice in them as holy appointments given for the strengthening of faith and the glory of Christ.
Of the Church (2LCF 26)
The doctrine of the church, ecclesiology, is inseparable from every other locus of Christian theology: the doctrine of God, Scripture, Christ, and salvation all converge in what the church is and how it is ordered. This session walks through all fifteen paragraphs of 2LCF Chapter 26, tracing a threefold outline — the universal (Catholic) church, Christ as sole head, and the local church — while marking the distinctives of Baptist ecclesiology over against Presbyterian and Episcopalian forms. The governing conviction throughout is that the church is constituted by believers alone, is called and preserved by Christ through Word and Spirit, and is ordered by his appointment for mutual edification, the due administration of ordinances, and the proclamation of the gospel to the world.
A Sure and Proven Creed
First Timothy 1:15 presents what Charles Spurgeon called 'the whole gospel in one verse' — a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. This sermon expounds the verse under three headings: the introduction to the creed (its truthfulness and trustworthiness), the creed itself (Christ Jesus as champion, his incarnational coming, and his consummate saving work), and the demonstrable confirmation of the creed in the conversion of the Apostle Paul, the self-declared chief of sinners. Believers are exhorted to ground assurance not in inward experience but solely in the person and finished work of Christ Jesus, the Lord.
The Christocentric Gospel
John 20:30–31 gives the purpose statement for the entire Gospel of John: that readers would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they would have life in His name. This sermon examines, first, the deliberate divine design behind gospel revelation — that God superintended the inscripturation of Scripture not to disclose all things, but to set forth with clarity the saving knowledge of Christ — and, second, the Christocentric character of that revelation, tracing how the whole of Scripture, from Moses through John, has Christ as its intended terminus. The sermon closes with a direct call to believe on Christ, warning that rejection of such a glorious Savior issues in eternal condemnation, while faith issues in spiritual life now and eternal life in the age to come.
The Darkness and the Derelict
Mark 15:33–34 presents two interlocked realities at Calvary: the supernatural darkness over the land and the cry of dereliction from the lips of the Son of God. The darkness is both a portent of coming judgment upon the generation that rejected the Lord of glory and a sign of the terrible deprivation the suffering servant endured as God withdrew from Him. The cry — 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' — is examined under four questions: who is crying, why He cries, what He has done, and for whom, establishing that Christ was made the derelict so that all who believe in Him might never themselves be forsaken by God. The sermon closes with exhortations to fear the judgment if you reject Christ, to rest in the assurance that God will never forsake His people, and to never neglect the ordinances — especially the Lord's Supper — through which that assurance is sealed.
The Incarnation and True Humanity of Christ
Philippians 2:5–11 anchors a study of the incarnation and true humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing on the Nicene, Constantinopolitan, Chalcedonian, and Athanasian creeds together with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, the study traces three aspects of the incarnation — assumption of human nature, the virgin birth, and the union of two natures in one person — before marshalling seven biblical proofs of Christ's full humanity. The central argument throughout is soteriological: the Son of God must be truly and perfectly man, body and soul, yet without sin, because only such a mediator can make propitiation for guilty sinners and be their faithful high priest.
The Deity of Christ
Who is Jesus Christ, and what does Scripture mean when it confesses that He is God? This Bible study on John 1:14–18 opens a series on Christology by examining the deity of Christ from three angles: its precise meaning, the breadth of its biblical testimony, and the doctrinal affirmations necessary for confessing it rightly. The study moves from definitional clarity—ruling out Arian, adoptionist, and Mormon distortions—through exegetical survey of Christ's self-identification, apostolic statements, Old Testament Yahweh texts applied to Christ, and divine attributes predicated of Him, before concluding with four essential affirmations: His essential identity with the Father, His personal eternal distinction as the eternally begotten Son, His unchanging post-incarnation deity, and the specific role His divine nature plays in assuming, personalizing, and sustaining His human nature.
The Vision of the Unrivaled Majesty, Part 2
Isaiah 6:1–7 confronts the reader with the unrivaled majesty of the triune God and the radical grace that answers the creature's ruin. This exposition completes an earlier morning sermon by examining the third point of the passage: the blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord, in which a seraph carries a live coal from the altar to purge Isaiah's unclean lips. Atonement comes from the Lord alone, through sacrifice alone, and it comforts, confirms, and fits the pardoned sinner for renewed service — a pattern illustrated by David in Psalm 51, Peter in John 21, and codified in the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 18. Hearers are called to reflect often on the greatness of God, to refuse self-atonement, to use the means of grace faithfully, and to flee to Christ whenever despair lays them low.