Theological term
Creatio Ex Nihilo
2 sermons · All terms
The Sovereignty of God
Proverbs 3:19–20 grounds God's sovereignty not merely in creation but in every sphere of existence — the world was founded by divine wisdom, and that same sovereign wisdom governs all of history and secures the redemption of His people. Drawing widely from Proverbs alongside Genesis, the Psalms, Daniel, and Romans, this sermon traces three distinct expressions of God's sovereignty: His free, unconstrained creation of all things; His comprehensive providence over human affairs including civil government; and His eternal purpose in redemption, centred in the pre-existent Christ of Proverbs 8. The practical force of the message is that divine sovereignty — rightly understood — produces neither fatalism nor hyper-Calvinist passivity, but rather deep comfort, stable faith, and the use of appointed means, all to the glory of God.
The Prayer of the Early Church, Part 1
Acts 4:24–28 records the early church's response to persecution: a corporate prayer that grounds confidence not in circumstances but in the character of God. The sermon traces three foundations of the congregation's confidence — God as sovereign creator, God as sovereign revelator (particularly through Psalm 2), and God as sovereign predeterminer and governor of all things — showing that the church's unity is a gospel-defined unity, not a generic sociological bond. The exposition presses these truths against fleshly anxiety, open theism, and the therapeutic impulse to find comfort in a God who co-suffers, calling the congregation to bring their petitions to the immutable, impassible God who has decreed all things and governs them for the good of his people.