Theological term
Ecclesiology
11 sermons · All terms
Ask FGBC 68: Are Reformed Baptists More Baptist or More Reformed?
The question 'Are Reformed Baptists more Baptist or more Reformed?' draws out a careful answer: the two labels are not competing loyalties but successive correctives — Reformed Christianity corrects medieval Roman Catholic and Lutheran error, while the Baptist stream carries the Reformation's logic further in ecclesiology, the church-state relation, and liberty of conscience. Which emphasis comes to the foreground depends entirely on the conversation partner: against Christian nationalism the Baptist distinctives press harder; against Arminian dispensationalism the Reformed heritage dominates. The panel settles on a working formulation: Reformed in soteriology and theology proper, Baptistic in ecclesiology, and — with the addition of what the Reformation did not yet reform — small-c Catholic, Reformed, and Baptist.
Ask FGBC #65: Are Reformed Baptists Really Just Anabaptists?
The claim that Reformed Baptists (specifically, Particular Baptists) descended from the Anabaptists is examined historically and found to be without evidential basis. Drawing on primary-source scholarship by historians such as Matthew Bingham and James Renihan, the discussion establishes that the Particular Baptists emerged from English Reformation Congregationalism — not from the continental Anabaptist movement — and that no documentary connection exists between the two bodies in the extant 17th-century literature. The conversation also notes that the Anabaptists themselves were not a monolithic group, making the category 'Anabaptist' less precise than popular usage suggests.
2LCF Chapter 26 - Of the Church, Part 1
What is the church, and who governs it? This confession study works through 2LCF Chapter 26, paragraphs 1–4, examining the universal (catholic) church: its election-grounded identity, its visible and invisible dimensions, the perpetuity of Christ's kingdom despite the inevitable mixture and error found in even the purest churches, and the exclusive headship of the Lord Jesus Christ over his body. The session challenges both Landmark Baptist denials of a universal church and Roman Catholic claims to papal headship, grounding ecclesiology in the confession of Christ as Son of the living God as articulated in Matthew 16.
The New People of God: Part 2
The titles given to the church in 1 Peter 2:9–10 — chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, and his own special people — are drawn directly from Old Testament Israel typology and applied to all who believe in Christ. Working through Deuteronomy 32, Exodus 19, 2 Samuel 7, and the Abrahamic covenant, the sermon traces how God's act of separating Israel from the nations at Babel prefigures his rescue of the spiritual Israel — the church — from the dominion of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. The sermon argues that the new covenant fulfils what the old covenant typified: believers now constitute the household of God, the spiritual temple, and a royal priesthood whose commission is to proclaim the excellencies of the one who called them out of darkness. This demands that the church pursue its prophet-priest-king calling not through military or political dominion but through the proclamation of the gospel of King Jesus to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
The New People of God, Part 1
What does it mean for the church to be built on Christ as a living cornerstone, and how does the Old Testament ground that identity? Expounding 1 Peter 2:6–8, this sermon traces the biblical-theological arc from Adam's failed dominion mandate in Genesis through Israel's typological history—law-giving, exile, and restoration—to the fulfilment of Isaiah's cornerstone prophecy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel's covenant history is shown to be a historical type of the cosmic reality: the broken covenant of works and its restoration by the Messiah, who is now building a global kingdom of redeemed image-bearers out of every tribe and tongue. Believers are called to marvel at God's sovereignty over history, over the kingdom of darkness, and over the unified message of Scripture that runs from Genesis 3:15 to the church as the true Israel of God.
The Council at Jerusalem, Part 1
Acts 15:1–5 introduces the Jerusalem Council by presenting the Judaizing heresy in its starkest form: certain men from Judea taught that circumcision must be added to faith in Christ for salvation, striking simultaneously at the law's proper use and at the sufficiency of Christ's finished work. The passage is set in its chronological context, distinguishing the events of Galatians 2 from the council itself, and showing that the problem was not merely one of Jewish-Gentile social relations but a soteriological crisis with eternal consequences. Paul and Barnabas respond with uncompromising confrontation, the church at Antioch sends delegates to Jerusalem, and the passage closes with the same Judaizing demand surfacing within the Jerusalem church — demonstrating the universality and perpetuity of the tendency to add human merit to sovereign grace. The exhortation is to resist every form of works-righteousness and to preach the law and gospel in their proper distinction, so that sinners are directed to Christ alone.
The Great Commission, Part 5
Christ's closing promise in Matthew 28:20 — 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age' — is the assurance that undergirds the entire Great Commission. This concluding exposition of the gospel of Matthew draws out three summarizing observations: Christ's omnipresence sustains the church in her disciple-making mission, his active headship equips her for ongoing ministry through the gifts described in Ephesians 4, and the Commission's scope demands both a love for the visible church and a concern for her future across all nations. The sermon calls believers to prize the church as Christ's bride, to train and send men for gospel ministry, and to trust that Christ's promised presence is conditioned on obedience to the Commission itself.
2LCF Chapter 26 - Of the Church
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.
An Introduction to Christology
What does it mean to study Christ, and why does it matter above every other theological discipline? This introductory Christology study, anchored in John 20:24–31, argues that the doctrine of Christ is not one branch among many but the integrating center of all Christian theology — the terminus of the Old Testament's canonical trajectory, the non-negotiable content of apostolic proclamation, the sole ground of salvation, and the pattern for the believer's practical life. Hearers are called to fill their minds with precise Christological knowledge so that their hearts may be both warmed in worship and guarded against the errors that have always threatened the church's confession of Christ's full deity, full humanity, and undivided person.
The Final Charge
The final two verses of 1 Timothy close Paul's first letter to Timothy with a charge that is as urgent as it is simple: guard the deposit and avoid the dangers. This sermon works through the nature of that deposit — the gospel of God, owned by God, entrusted to Paul and passed to Timothy and the church as stewards — and the dangers that threaten it: the profane and idle babblings of false teachers whose contradictions are falsely called knowledge. The application presses the church to see that faithful gospel preaching is inseparable from the glory of God, the edification of believers, and the salvation of sinners, and that the only power sufficient to sustain that fidelity is the grace with which Paul both opens and closes the epistle.
The Conduct of the Good Minister, Part 1
What marks a minister as truly 'good' in the sight of God? Expounding 1 Timothy 4:6–11, this sermon argues that ministerial faithfulness is defined not by popularity, giftedness, or leadership skill, but by the diligent instruction of the congregation in sound doctrine — the words of faith and good teaching. The pursuit of godliness, understood as rigorous training for the unhindered service of God, surpasses all bodily discipline because it carries promise for both the present life and the age to come. The sermon concludes by addressing the contested phrase 'Savior of all men' in verse 10, rejecting universalism and unlimited atonement in favour of a reading grounded in God's common grace and providential preservation, with special and saving grace belonging distinctively to those who believe.