Theological term
Eternal Generation
74 sermons · All terms
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 20, 2016 AM
Philippians 2:6–11 contains one of the richest Christological confessions in all of Scripture, composed within two decades of the resurrection and already rehearsing Christ's pre-incarnate divine majesty, his voluntary humiliation, and his subsequent exaltation. This sermon opens the 'anatomy' of Paul's hymn to Christ as to God, establishing two foundational realities: the structural movement of the text from loftiness to lowliness to supreme exaltation, and the full, unqualified deity and equality of the Son with the Father. The church is called to hide these truths in their hearts against every heresy that diminishes Christ, and to find in his condescension the very ground and pattern of Christian humility and unity.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - June 26, 2016 PM
Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission, grounds the church's mission in the sovereign authority, command, and presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon works through three points: the post-resurrection exaltation of Christ as mediator — established by Philippians 2:5-11, Daniel 7:13-14, and Hebrews 1 — demonstrates that all authority given to the ascended Son pertains specifically to his mediatorial office rather than to any deficiency in his eternal deity. The sovereign command to make disciples of all nations, to baptize in the triune name, and to teach obedience to all Christ has commanded establishes the church's mission and the regulative principle of worship against human traditions. Christians are called to confidence and courage in a hostile world on the basis of Christ's abiding promise — 'lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age' — while unbelievers are confronted with the same authority as the ground of coming judgment and the only sufficient ground of saving grace.
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.
John's Incarnation Theology
John 1:1–18 presents the most concentrated incarnation theology in the New Testament, and this sermon works through that prologue under four headings: the eternality of the Word, his personal distinction from the Father, his full and essential deity, and his true humanity. The Word who has always existed as God, distinct from the Father yet of one undivided substance with him, took to himself man's nature — not by casting off deity, nor by confusion of the two natures, but by a condescension in which he remained what he always was while becoming what he was not. The sermon guards each heading by naming and refuting the classical heresies that have distorted each truth, drawing on John 8, John 18, John 20, Philippians 2, and 1689 LBCF 8.2. The application calls believers to deepen their knowledge of this Christ and urges the unconverted to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before that same Christ comes as the sovereign judge of Revelation 19.
2LCF Chapter 12 - Of Adoption
The doctrine of adoption — that God, by free grace, receives the justified into the number and privileges of His sons — is the subject of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 12, paragraph 1. The teaching works through five aspects of adoption: its origin in God's eternal loving-kindness and decree, its procurement by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit's role as guarantor and testifier, the recipients (the elect alone), and its nature as an objective legal determination made by God as Father. The doctrine is grounded in the ordo salutis, follows logically from justification, and calls believers to be grounded in the joy of adoption, to walk as children of God, to welcome fatherly chastisement, and to love their brothers and sisters in the household of God.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 2
The deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 8 paragraphs 1–3, stand as the twin foundations of orthodox Christology. This session from a series on the 1689 London Baptist Confession works through what the confession affirms — and what it denies — regarding both natures of the one Mediator, showing how its language recapitulates the early church's creedal formulations. The study demonstrates the deity of Christ from his self-identification as the divine 'I Am,' his equality with the Father, explicit New Testament declarations, Old Testament Yahweh texts applied to him in the New Testament, and divine prerogatives predicated of him. The humanity of Christ is then established from the birth narratives, apostolic declaration, and Christ's own evidential self-disclosure, preparing the ground for a subsequent session on the incarnation proper.
4 Aspects of the Incarnation
Galatians 4:4–5 contains one of the most compressed statements of the gospel in all of Scripture, setting forth the incarnation of the eternal Son of God as the decisive corrective to the Galatian error of adding legal works to faith in Christ. This sermon examines four aspects of the incarnation: the timing sovereignly appointed in the eternal covenant between Father and Son, the triune glory visible in the Father's sending of both Son and Spirit, the double humility of Christ being born of a woman and born under the law, and the twofold purpose of redemption and adoption. The application calls hearers to be astonished at God's sovereign plan, to know the Trinity rightly, to rejoice in Christ's condescension, and to rest solely in His finished work — neither adding legal performance nor trusting in one's own standing as a professing Christian.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
The doctrine of the Trinity — one divine and infinite being in whom there are three subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is not a speculative ivory-tower abstraction but the foundation of all Christian communion with God and comfortable dependence upon him. This session in the study of 2LCF Chapter 2 continues the examination of paragraph three, working through the personal distinctions of generation, filiation, and spiration; the confession's summary statement on unity and personal distinction; and the practical import of Trinitarian theology for prayer, worship, redemption, and assurance. Biblical proofs are drawn from Genesis, the Psalms, Isaiah, and the New Testament, demonstrating the revelatory development of the doctrine from its seed form in the Old Testament to its full flower in the New.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.3)
What does it mean to confess that God is one being subsisting in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? This study of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 2, paragraph 3 works through the classical Trinitarian formulation upheld by the particular Baptists, tracing its foundations in Scripture, its continuity with the ecumenical creeds, and the Baptist Confession's terminological improvement of 'subsistences' over 'persons.' The exposition addresses the unity and equality of the three subsistences, the personal distinctions expressed by eternal generation and procession, and the practical necessity of robust Trinitarian confession in an age of continuing anti-Trinitarian error.
The Word Became Flesh
John 1:14 presents one of the most concentrated statements of Christology in all of Scripture: the eternal Word, who was God and was with God in the beginning, became flesh and tabernacled among men. This sermon expounds the incarnation under two heads — the fact of the Word becoming flesh, and the glory beheld in that incarnate Word — with sustained attention to the doctrine of eternal generation, the Shekinah-tabernacle background of John's prologue, and the covenantal purpose of the incarnation in redemption. The hearer is called to rest in the Christ who perfectly fulfilled the law, bore the wrath due to sinners in their stead, and rose for their justification, and to hold fast to a sound Christology as the very ground of salvation.
The Resurrection of the Bridegroom
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not a peripheral doctrine but the very ground of Christian hope, justification, and assurance. Working through John 20:1–23, this sermon examines three successive narratives — the empty tomb, the appearance to Mary Magdalene, and the appearance to the disciples — demonstrating through eyewitness detail, fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, and apostolic interpretation that the risen Lord is none other than the crucified sacrifice. The resurrection vindicates Christ's atoning work, secures the believer's justification, and commissions the church to proclaim the forgiveness of sins as its primary and irreplaceable task.
The Superiority of Christ Over the Angels
Hebrews 1:4–14 opens the epistle's sustained argument for the superiority of Christ over the angels — an argument the apostle grounds not in assertion but in seven quotations from the Old Testament. The passage addresses Jewish Christians tempted to abandon Christ and return to old covenant rites, demonstrating from their own scriptures that the Messiah, as God-man and mediator, possesses a dignity and dominion infinitely exceeding that of the angels. The sermon traces two of four sections in the confirmation passage: Christ's unique filial relationship to the Father (Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14), shown to be fulfilled in his resurrection and exaltation, and his relationship to the angels, who worship him and serve as his ministers. Throughout, the recurring motif of 'better' in Hebrews is shown to be the epistle's controlling theme: Christ and the new covenant are not merely different from the old, but surpassingly superior to it in every respect.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity — one God eternally existing in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the same in substance and equal in power and glory — is not a peripheral curiosity but the beating heart of Christian confession. This sermon defines the doctrine precisely, distinguishes it from the ancient heresies of Arianism, polytheism, and modalism, and then marshals Old and New Testament evidence to demonstrate that the entire canon is Trinitarian to its core. The deity of the Son and the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit receive particular attention, since these are the contested points, and the sermon closes by showing that a right understanding of the Trinity grounds our communion with God, shapes our worship, and patterns our treatment of one another.