Theological term
Election
149 sermons · All terms
God the Righteous Judge
Psalm 94 presents God as the righteous judge who hears the cry of His oppressed people, sees the wickedness of their persecutors, and will not ultimately abandon His inheritance. This expository treatment works through the chiastic structure of the psalm, showing how the cry for justice (vv. 1–3) is answered by justice administered (vv. 20–23), and how the folly of those who deny God's omniscience mirrors the divinely-given wisdom of His people. The sermon draws out the covenant comfort of God's chesed — His steadfast faithfulness to those He has chosen — as the ground of peace in the midst of affliction, and closes with a direct call to repentance for any who remain outside of Christ.
The Redemptive Work of the Son, Part 2
Ephesians 1:8–12 grounds the individual believer's redemption within a cosmic divine purpose: God's wisdom in the plan of salvation maintains all his holy perfections without compromise, the mystery of his will now openly revealed in the gospel calls sinners from every tribe and nation, and all things will be recapitulated — gathered up and set in order — under the lordship of Christ at his return. The inheritance of the elect is secured by predestination, not by human performance, so that the redeemed exist 'to the praise of his glory' — as a trophy case of grace before angels and the entire created order.
The Gracious Purpose of the Father, Part 2
Ephesians 1:5–6 presents predestination not as cold metaphysical fate but as an act of divine love, wherein God in love predetermined his elect unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his own will and not any foreseen merit in the creature. The sermon works through the motive of predestination (the love of God), the means (adoption as sons by Christ, grounded in the covenant of redemption), and the goal (the praise of the glory of God's grace), drawing extensively on parallel Pauline and Johannine texts. Against both Arminian and Pelagian objections, the preacher demonstrates that predestination to adoption is precisely what makes Christian praise coherent — the creature contributes nothing, and God receives all glory. Believers are called to live out their adopted status by walking in love, light, and wisdom as members of the household of God.
2LCF Chapter 9 - Of Free Will
What does it mean that human beings have 'free will'? This confession-study exposition of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 9 argues that free will is real but always conditioned by the moral state of the heart — whether man is in original innocency, post-lapsarian sin, the state of grace, or the state of glory. The fourfold framework drawn from the Confession exposes the Pelagian and Arminian error of treating free will as unqualified and neutral, while grounding the sinner's inability and the believer's renewal entirely in sovereign, monergistic grace. The study closes with the pastoral application that even the believer's ongoing corruption is no surprise, and that the state of glory — not the present age — is where the will is at last perfectly and immutably free to good alone.
The Judgment Throne of Christ
Matthew 25:31–46 presents not a parable but a prophecy: the Son of Man, identified as Daniel's divine king, will sit on the throne of glory and separate all nations into the righteous and the wicked. The passage is examined to show that it does not overturn justification by faith alone, but rather demonstrates that those justified by grace will inevitably produce the good works that serve as fruits and evidences of saving faith. The sermon sets the evidentiary nature of works — care for Christ's brethren — against any works-righteousness reading, drawing on Galatians 5:6, Ephesians 2:8–10, James 2, and the 1689 London Baptist Confession to ground the argument. Hearers are called to confess Christ now, since the same Lord who bids 'come' in his earthly ministry will bid 'come' or 'depart' on the day of judgment.
2LCF Chapter 5 - Of Divine Providence
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 5, on Divine Providence, teaches that God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and all their actions from the greatest to the least — not by blind fate or fortune, but according to his infinite power and wisdom, his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his will. The chapter unfolds in seven paragraphs, moving from the general definition of providence (paragraph 1) through its relation to second causes, ordinary means, miracles, the fall, remaining sin in believers, the hardening of unbelievers, and finally the special care God exercises over his church. God's sovereignty does not make him the author of sin nor does it remove human responsibility; first causality establishes rather than annuls second causality. The doctrine is a source of deep comfort: whatever befalls the elect is by God's appointment for his glory and their good.
2LCF Chapter 3 - Of God's Decree
God's decree — his eternal, comprehensive, and unchangeable purpose over all things — is the subject of 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 3. The confession affirms that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, including the free and sinful actions of men, without becoming the author of sin or violating the will of the creature. Paragraph 2 refutes the Molinist and Arminian claim that God's decree is grounded in his foreknowledge of human choices, insisting instead that election puts sinners in Christ rather than finding them there. The doctrine is shown to be practically consoling, doxologically oriented, and inseparable from the character of God as defined in Chapter 2.
Exodus 15 - Song of Moses
Exodus 15 records the Song of Moses, a celebration of divine redemption and righteous judgment sung by Israel after the destruction of Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. The sermon expounds the threefold structure of the song — the triumph of the Lord, the defeat of the Egyptians, and the majesty and incomparability of God — before tracing its prophetic reach into the nations' fear of Yahweh and the ultimate goal of covenant dwelling. The bitter waters of Marah complete the chapter, exposing Israel's reflexive grumbling as a failure to trust the God who had already done the greater work of redemption. Hearers are called to praise God for both his saving mercy and his just judgment, and to pass that doxological heritage to the next generation.
Exodus 14
Exodus 14 records the crossing of the Red Sea — a chapter whose driving theme is not merely Israel's deliverance but God's self-glorification over Pharaoh and his army. The exposition works through two main movements: the plan of God (vv. 1–14), in which God sovereignly directs Israel's route and hardens Pharaoh's heart so that He may gain honor, and the power of God (vv. 15–31), in which divine promise, protection, and action result in the salvation of Israel and the destruction of Egypt. Israel's fear and complaint throughout the chapter expose a chronic lack of faith, while Moses' brief but confident exhortation — 'Do not be afraid; stand still and see the salvation of the Lord' — models the response that faith in God's promises produces.
The Cleansing of the Temple
Jesus' cleansing of the temple in John 2:13–17 is not an aberration from his character but a direct expression of his identity as the Son of God and the antitype of the temple itself. The passage reveals two inseparable realities: the apostasy of first-century Israel's worship and the messianic zeal prophesied in Psalm 69, Malachi 3, and the post-exilic prophets. Christ's authority to purge the temple rests on his sonship by nature, not adoption, and his action announces that the entire Old Covenant sacrificial system finds its fulfillment in him. The sermon calls the church to recover zeal for the purity of God's worship, to identify and resist the defections of contemporary Christendom, and to look in faith to the Lamb who has displaced every animal sacrifice.
1 Peter 1:3-5
The believer's hope of glory, grounded in 1 Peter 1:3–5, is not a vague aspiration but a certain inheritance secured by God's sovereign mercy and the resurrection of Christ. Peter's doxology unfolds the doctrine of salvation under three headings: God the Father as its author, the nature of that salvation as a living hope pointing to a new creation, and the certainty of preservation by divine power. Because both the inheritance and the heirs are kept — the one reserved in heaven, the other shielded by omnipotence through faith — believers facing trial are called to reorient every earthly sorrow toward the glory that is to come.
The First Disciples of Jesus
John 1:35–51 records the calling of the first disciples of Jesus — Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael — and the passage frames their coming to Christ as the inevitable fruit of John the Baptist's preparatory ministry and the sovereign grace of God. The sermon traces how each disciple is drawn to Christ, how each immediately brings another, and how the accumulating titles given to Jesus in this section — Lamb of God, Rabbi, Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man — build a Christological portrait that mirrors the prologue's declaration that the Word was God. Christ's omniscience in knowing Nathanael and his royal authority in renaming Simon Peter underscore that these disciples are not choosing a teacher but being conquered by a divine Savior. The pattern of Andrew fetching Peter and Philip fetching Nathanael becomes the sermon's model for evangelism: those saved by sovereign grace become, without coercion or manipulation, propagators of that same grace.
Live Stream - July 11, 2021
John 1:18 presents two inseparable doctrines: the invisibility and incomprehensibility of God, and the revelation of that invisible God through the incarnate Word. The sermon works through the prologue of John's Gospel to show that while no creature has ever perceived the essential glory of God — not Abraham, not Moses, not Isaiah — the only begotten Son, who exists eternally in the bosom of the Father as a distinct yet consubstantial person of the Trinity, has exegeted the Father to us. The practical burden is that saving knowledge of God is not merely knowledge about the economy of redemption but knowledge of the Redeemer himself — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and that the chief end of man is to glorify and enjoy this triune God forever.
The Mission of the Word, Part 2
John 1:10–13 presents two contrasting responses to the mission of the incarnate Word: the rejection of the world and of Israel, and the reception of those upon whom Christ confers the right to become children of God. The sermon works through the threefold use of 'world' in verse 10, the parallel between Israel's ancient rebellion and their rejection of the Messiah, and the sovereign grace underlying faith and new birth in verses 12–13. Central to the exposition is the Reformed insistence that regeneration precedes faith — those who receive Christ by believing do so because they have first been born of God — against both Pelagian and Arminian construals of conversion.
The Trial before Pilate, Part 2
Matthew 27:15–23 records Pilate's attempt to grant amnesty to Jesus through the Passover prisoner-release custom, a device that exposes the cowardice of the Roman governor, the envious malice of the Jewish religious leaders, and the terrifying moral bankruptcy of mob rule. The passage is expounded under five heads — the custom of amnesty, the leaders' motivation of envy, the warning of Pilate's wife, the demand of the multitudes, and Pilate's cross-examination — each of which illuminates the comprehensive reach of human depravity. The substitution of Barabbas for Jesus is treated as emblematic of definite atonement: the just going to the cross in the place of the unjust, securing both the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone. Hearers are urged not to be carried along by ungodly leaders, to flee to Christ without delay, and to eat the Lord's Supper as a memorial of the blood atonement and active obedience of the Second Person of the Trinity wrought entirely on behalf of his people.
The Practice of the Church
Acts 2:41–47 describes the first-century church's response to apostolic preaching and, when read in light of the whole New Testament, is prescriptive for churches today. The sermon traces two main movements: the power of the gospel that produces faith, repentance, and baptism, and the fourfold practice of the church — steadfast continuation in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Cessationism is applied to the signs and wonders of the apostolic era, while the ongoing marks of the church are drawn from the Belgic Confession's articles on the true church and the obligations of her members. The practical burden is that believers must resist both the reduction of church life to entertainment and the temptation to substitute online participation for embodied, corporate worship.
Exodus 9
Exodus 9 records the fifth, sixth, and seventh plagues against Egypt — the death of livestock, the plague of boils, and the devastating hailstorm — each demonstrating that the Lord alone is the living and true God over all forces of nature. The plagues are not natural phenomena but direct sovereign acts of God, exposed as such by their precise timing, their discriminating effect on Egypt but not Israel, and the collapse of Egypt's magicians before their own affliction. God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart is treated not as injustice but as a righteous judicial act against a persistently rebellious sinner, a point Paul draws on in Romans 9 by quoting Exodus 9:16. The distinction between those Egyptians in verse 20 who feared the word of the Lord and those in verse 21 who did not becomes a pointed call to heed the gospel: Christ is the believer's Goshen, the place of safe refuge under the new covenant.
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.
Man's Responsibility and Rejection of Christ
Human responsibility before God does not disappear behind divine sovereignty. Drawing from Acts 18, Ezekiel 33, and Psalm 2, this clip exposes the error of using God's sovereign election as a shield against personal accountability for rejecting Christ. The call is direct: sinners must own their rebellion, lay down their weapons against God, and come to Christ who freely offers rest, water, milk, and wine to all who are weary and thirsty.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 8
Acts 18:1–11 records Paul's arrival and eighteen-month ministry in Corinth, one of the most morally degenerate cities of the ancient world. The sermon traces Paul's gospel strategy — reasoning in the synagogue, enduring Jewish opposition, and turning to the Gentiles — before dwelling on Christ's night vision to Paul: 'Do not be afraid, for I have many people in this city.' The doctrine of election explains how Christ could speak with certainty of many yet-unconverted people awaiting the call; the gospel, not moral reform or civil intervention, is the sole instrument for transforming a corrupt culture. The sermon closes with a call to pray for and to be men who preach Christ and Him crucified, stand under opposition, persevere in weakness, and believe the promise that Christ is present with His church in the great commission.
The Appearance of the Love of God
Titus 3:4–8 sets the merciful act of divine salvation against the backdrop of human depravity, and this exposition works through that contrast under three heads: the appearance of God's love in verse 4, the application of God's grace in verses 5–7, and the affirmation of God's word in verse 8. The passage is shown to teach that salvation originates entirely in God's kindness and mercy — not in works done before or after conversion — applied through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and sealed by justification by grace through faith. The sermon closes by pressing the pastoral logic of verse 8: it is precisely the constant preaching of justification by grace, not moralistic exhortation, that empowers the life of good works among God's people.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 2
Acts 16:6–15 traces the divine hand behind the second missionary journey's westward turn into Macedonia and the conversion of Lydia in Philippi. The Spirit's successive prohibitions of ministry in Asia and Bithynia are not judgments on those regions but demonstrations that God actively directs the missionary enterprise according to his sovereign purpose. The conversion of Lydia — a woman whose heart was dead in trespasses until God opened it to receive Paul's preaching — illustrates that the efficient cause of every conversion is divine grace, not human ingenuity, while the instrumentality of gospel proclamation and the responsibility of hearers to believe remain fully intact. The sermon calls the church to define missionary work precisely as the Spirit-sent, church-commissioned preaching of Christ crucified, rejecting both Arminian confidence in the sinner's free will and hyper-Calvinist reluctance to call sinners to faith.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 9
Acts 14:2–7 records the apostolic ministry in Iconium: Jewish opposition, the faithful perseverance of Paul and Barnabas, and the eventual division of the city. The sermon expounds these three movements in the text while devoting extended attention to a doctrinal excursus on the proper relationship between faith and repentance in gospel preaching — arguing that repentance is not a preparatory work the sinner performs before coming to Christ, but the inseparable companion of faith, both being gifts of God in the covenant of grace. The practical conclusion calls the church to faithful, courageous, wise, and Spirit-dependent proclamation regardless of mounting opposition.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 8
Acts 14:1 records that Paul and Barnabas 'so spoke' in Iconium that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed — a phrase that raises the question of the relationship between divine sovereignty and the ordained means of gospel preaching. This sermon works through a biblical theology of preaching drawn from Romans 10:14–17, 1 Corinthians 1:21–25, and 2 Timothy 4:1–8, arguing that God has foreordained not only the elect unto glory but also the means of their calling, supremely the faithful public proclamation of Christ crucified. Against moralistic preaching, life-as-gospel sentimentality, and entertainment-driven church culture, the sermon insists that only the verbal declaration of Christ's atoning work can save souls. Hearers are exhorted to pray for the raising up of qualified preachers, to support gospel church-planting, and to attend to the preached Word with the seriousness that faith coming by hearing demands.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 7
Acts 13:44–52 records the second Sabbath in Pisidian Antioch, where almost the whole city gathered to hear Paul and Barnabas, provoking the envy and blasphemy of unbelieving Jews. This sermon works through three movements: the opposition of the Jews, the bold response of Paul and Barnabas, and the spread of the word. The exposition holds together the responsibility of those who judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (v. 46) and the absolute sovereignty of God in election (v. 48), demonstrating that consistent Reformed theology requires both without collapsing either into hyper-Calvinism or Arminianism. The closing application presses hearers toward faithfulness now as the surest preparation for future persecution, and calls the unconverted to look to Christ without waiting for a private disclosure of their election.
Genesis 36
Genesis 36 presents the genealogy of Esau (Edom), a passage easily dismissed as a bare list of names. This study examines why Moses inserts this extended genealogy at the precise hinge between the narrative of Isaac and the narrative of Jacob, arguing that it serves as a demonstration of divine faithfulness: God fulfilled every promise made to the non-elect son — nationhood, territorial blessing, and temporal prosperity — which grounds the believer's confidence that His covenant promises to the elect will be no less certainly realized. The contrast between Esau's temporal inheritance and Jacob's spiritual and eternal inheritance sharpens the distinction between common providence and saving grace, and the goodness God shows even to the reprobate is intended to lead sinners to repentance.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 2
Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13–41) opens with a sweeping sketch of Israel's redemptive history — election, deliverance from Egypt, wilderness forbearance, the land promise, the judges, the monarchy, and the Davidic covenant — all converging on one point: the law and the prophets inevitably lead to Jesus Christ. The sermon examines why Paul structures his argument this way, showing that a correct hermeneutic always produces a Christocentric reading of Scripture and that God's faithfulness in the lesser promises guarantees his faithfulness in the greater seed promise. Along the way, the exposition confronts the temptation to doubt God's sustaining care in hard seasons, insisting that God never abandons his people and that every believer can rest on his unwavering covenant faithfulness. The sermon closes with a direct appeal drawn from verse 38: forgiveness of sins — which the law of Moses could never provide — is freely available through this man, Jesus Christ.
Genesis 32:1-33:20
Genesis 32–33 traces Jacob's return to Canaan through two defining encounters: his anxious preparation to meet the murderous Esau, and his night-long wrestling match with the angel of the Lord at Peniel. The passage displays the doctrine of providence at its most intimate — God present with his elect patriarch through angelic visitation, theophany, and sovereign orchestration of Esau's heart, all in service of preserving the Messianic seed. Jacob's prayer in 32:9–12, structured around God's command, his own unworthiness, a specific petition, and the covenant promise, models how the saints argue for deliverance on the basis of God's own glory. The Peniel encounter is the turning point in Jacob's life: renamed Israel, he emerges reborn — courage replacing cowardice, humility replacing arrogance — to meet Esau in reconciliation and settle at last in the land of promise.
Genesis 29:31 - 30:24
Genesis 29:31–30:24 records the birth of the twelve tribal patriarchs of Israel through a household marked by rivalry, deception, polygamy, and heartbreak — a far cry from the paradise setting one might expect for redemptive history's foundations. The sermon traces four movements: the opening of Leah's womb, Rachel's envious frustration and her recourse to surrogacy, Leah's counter-response through her own maid and the mandrake episode, and finally the long-awaited opening of Rachel's womb. The governing theological lesson is that the purely gracious character of Israel's election is on full display: the twelve tribes emerged not from human merit, virtue, or domestic harmony, but from God's sovereign purpose working through and despite profound human dysfunction. The passage calls believers to contentment in their circumstances, trust in divine providence, and wonder at a grace that accomplishes its ends in spite of fallen instruments.
The Gracious Invitation of Christ
Matthew 11:25–30 sets before the reader three interlocking realities that ground Christian thanksgiving: the sovereign will of the Father who hides gospel truth from the self-sufficient and reveals it to the humbled, the mediatorial office of the Son who alone has authority and power to reveal the Father to sinners, and the gracious invitation of Christ who calls the weary and sin-laden to come, receive rest, take His yoke, and learn from Him. The sermon works through six observations on verses 28–30 — the exhortation to come, the persons addressed, the promise of rest, the call to submit, the invitation to learn, and the light burden of discipleship — demonstrating that justification precedes sanctification and that the gospel call is issued indiscriminately to all. Hearers are urged to study the law until the weight of sin is felt, to flee to Christ rather than away from Him, and to respond to sovereign grace with daily, unreserved thanksgiving.