Theological term
General Revelation
124 sermons · All terms
The Psalmist's Contemplation on the Revelation of God, Part 3
Psalm 19:9–14 presses the believer to consider both the benefits of Scripture and the right response to divine revelation. The fear of the Lord, pure and enduring, is the fruit of sovereign grace working through a word that is perfect, sure, right, and pure — a word more valuable than gold and sweeter than honey. David's closing petitions in verses 12–14 trace a graduated reckoning with sin — secret faults, presumptuous sins, and the dominion of sin — answered not by human resolve but by pardoning, preventing, and restraining grace grounded in God as rock and redeemer. The sermon calls believers to prize Scripture above every temporal good, to deal honestly with remaining corruption, and to rest the whole petition for acceptance on Christ, the true David, whose imputed righteousness alone makes the prayer of Psalm 19 fully and finally ours.
The Psalmist's Contemplation on the Revelation of God, Part 2
Psalm 19:7–11 presents four attributes of Scripture — perfect, sure, right, and pure — and traces the effects each produces in the souls of those the Spirit converts. The sermon argues that 'law' in this psalm comprehends the entirety of God's Word, including the gospel, and that the attributes ascribed to Scripture are inseparable from the perfections of its divine Author. Against a merely convicting or condemning view of the law, the preacher demonstrates that the same Word that exposes sin is the instrument through which the Holy Spirit effectually converts, enlightens, and rejoices the heart of the sinner. Hearers are pressed to receive the Word with joy rather than religious duty, and any who are yet dead in sin are called to cast themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom a willing and rejoicing Savior stands ready to save.
The Trial of Jesus Before the Jews
John 18:13–27 interweaves two scenes: Jesus standing firm under unlawful interrogation before Annas, and Peter collapsing three times before servants in a courtyard. The passage exposes the trial of Jesus before the Jews as a juridical farce engineered to secure a death warrant from Pontius Pilate, while the Sanhedrin — the very experts in the law — trample every evidentiary requirement their own law demanded. Peter's threefold denial is set in deliberate contrast to Christ's unflinching confession, calling believers to examine whether a willingness to die for Jesus necessarily includes the daily courage to live and testify for Him.
The Psalmist's Contemplation on the Revelation of God, Part 1
Psalm 19:1–6 presents the doctrine of general revelation — God's self-disclosure through the created order — and David's prophetic anticipation of the gospel's universal proclamation. The sermon traces the content, constancy, and comprehensive scope of general revelation, grounding each observation in Paul's parallel argument in Romans 1:18–32. The expositor then argues, against Calvin's merely comparative reading, that Paul's citation of Psalm 19:4 in Romans 10:18 legitimizes a Christological interpretation of verses 4b–6, in which the sun typifies Christ the Son of Righteousness, the great Bridegroom of his church, whose gospel goes forth conquering to the ends of the earth. Hearers are called to receive the Son whose rays of saving grace cannot be stopped any more than the circuit of the sun.
The Gospel Foundation for Corporate Prayer
The apostle Paul grounds the church's corporate prayer in a three-part theological rationale drawn from 1 Timothy 2:3–7: the nature of God, the office of Christ, and the ministry of Paul. The phrase 'all men' in verses 1–4 refers not to every individual without exception but to all kinds of men without distinction — Jew and Gentile, slave and king — a reading demanded by Paul's own doctrine of reprobation in Romans 9 and confirmed by the scope of his apostolic commission to the Gentiles. Christ's mediatorship is shown to require both a divine and a human nature, and his ransom is definite in its design — paid for all kinds of men, not all men without exception — precluding both universalism and any notion of unmet desires in God. The sermon closes by pressing the congregation to show up for corporate prayer, to pray specifically for the salvation of those in civil authority, and to exhort all around them to flee to Christ.
The Conversion of Rahab the Harlot
Joshua 2 presents the conversion of Rahab the harlot as a deliberate theological interruption in Israel's conquest narrative — not incidental color, but a magnification of the sovereign, free grace of Yahweh toward a Gentile prostitute. The sermon works through her fear, confession, and covenant with the spies to demonstrate that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, a faith that inevitably produces works, as James 2 and Hebrews 11 confirm. Rahab's inclusion in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 seals the point: the God of heaven and earth is also the God of sinful Gentile harlots, and His grace toward her is a standing summons for sinners to come immediately to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Promise of Blessing or Curse
Deuteronomy 11 sets before Israel a stark covenantal choice: blessing conditioned upon obedience to the Lord, or curse consequent upon idolatry and rebellion. Working through the chapter's three sections — the works of God rehearsed in history, the requirement of covenant fidelity, and the promise of blessing or curse — the sermon traces how Israel's failure to meet the covenant's demands is precisely the ground upon which Christ, as the true Israel and last Adam, fulfills all righteousness and absorbs the covenant curse on behalf of his people. The exhortation closes by connecting Deuteronomy 27:26 to Galatians 3, showing that the Mosaic covenant of works for Israel becomes the ground of Christ's redemptive obedience and that justification has always been by faith alone in the one who kept what Israel could not.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The regulative principle of worship — the doctrine that God alone prescribes the acceptable manner of his own worship — is the controlling theme of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 22, paragraphs 1 and 2. Drawing on Deuteronomy 12:29-32, 1 Timothy 3:14-15, Hebrews 12:18-29, and the narrative arc of Exodus through Leviticus, this study argues that Scripture consistently restricts corporate worship to what God commands, forbidding both addition and subtraction, across both the Old and New Covenants. The contrast between Leviticus 9 (divine approval) and Leviticus 10 (divine judgment on Nadab and Abihu) illustrates that coloring outside the lines God has drawn in worship carries deadly consequences. The practical application presses hearers to reject the normative principle of worship — the view that anything not expressly forbidden is permitted — in favor of the regulative principle: in worship, do only what God commands, with reverence and godly fear.
The Theater of His Glory
Psalm 19 sets creation and Scripture side by side as God's two books of revelation: the heavens declare His glory in every language to every people, while the Word of God converts the soul and opens eyes to see what unbelief cannot perceive. The sermon works through the psalm to show that general revelation leaves all people without excuse before God, yet only the regenerate, illumined by the Spirit through Scripture, properly receive the theater of God's glory. The three closing applications call Christians to train their children in a Christ-centered view of both books of revelation, to cultivate daily awareness of God's hand in creation, and above all to prize the Word of God as the supreme gift that leads to life and holiness.
Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
What is the acceptable way to worship the triune God, and who determines it? Working through paragraphs 1–6 of chapter 22 of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, this study establishes that while the light of nature discloses that God exists and is owed reverence, only special revelation determines how he is to be worshiped — the regulative principle. Religious worship belongs to the triune God alone, comes through the sole mediation of Christ since the fall, and consists of elements appointed by God himself, not devised by men. The Roman Catholic errors of saint-veneration, Marian intercession, and priestly mediation are examined and refuted at length, with particular application to the first element of worship: prayer offered in a known tongue, in the name of Christ, by the help of the Spirit.
The Justice and Mercy of the Lord, Part 2: God's Judgment and Refuge
Psalm 9:13–20 presents two petitions that mirror the psalm's earlier doctrinal foundation: a cry for mercy grounded in God's proven faithfulness, and a cry for judgment grounded in the certainty of divine justice. The preacher traces both petitions through their Christological fulfillment — the man of sorrows who prays from the gates of death and the appointed judge of the world in righteousness — demonstrating that David's psalm finds its true subject in Christ. God's justice toward the wicked and His mercy toward the oppressed are not in tension but are two sides of the same covenantal reality: the overthrow of God's enemies is itself the preservation of God's people. Hearers are called to pray these psalms with theological weight, to assemble corporately as those delivered from the gates of death into the gates of Zion, and to seek the Lord while He may be found.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The 1689 London Baptist Confession's twentieth chapter, 'Of the Gospel, and the Extent of the Grace Thereof,' argues that two things are absolutely necessary for the salvation of sinners: the special revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the effectual, insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul. This chapter arose in both the Savoy Declaration and the Particular Baptist Confession to counter four specific errors: incipient deism, Quaker inner-light theology, General Baptist salvific subsystems for the unevangelized, and Socinian rationalism. The sermon traces the sole dominion of Christ as the promised seed of the woman across all of redemptive history, demonstrates from Scripture that no saving knowledge of Christ is available through general revelation, natural ability, or any religious sincerity outside the gospel, and closes with the confession's insistence that the Spirit's invisible and invincible work upon the soul is the indispensable accompaniment to gospel proclamation.
The Dominion of the Incarnate Son
Psalm 8 is not merely a meditation on creation but a messianic prophecy concerning the dominion of the incarnate Son of God. The sermon traces the psalm's double register — the glory of God manifest in the created order and the glory of God manifest in the incarnation — grounding that interpretation in the two New Testament passages where Jesus and the Apostle Paul explicitly apply Psalm 8 to Christ: Matthew 21 and Hebrews 2. The exaltation of the God-man at the right hand of the Father, his conquest of the devil through death, and his propitiation for the sins of his people are shown to be the true fulfillment of the dominion language of verses 4–8. Believers are exhorted to silence the enemy's accusations against them by invoking the blood and righteousness of Christ, which is the ground of both justification and assurance.
The Presence of the God of Peace
Philippians 4:8–9 presents two inseparable imperatives — meditate on whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, and then do what has been learned, received, heard, and seen in the Apostle Paul — with the promise that the God of peace will be with those who obey. The sermon argues that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are not alternatives but are inextricably bound: the failure to practice truth indicts the practitioner, not the doctrine. The source of right thinking is both the light of nature (general revelation accessible to all men) and the special revelation of Scripture, which governs and clarifies all truth. The hearer is called to fill the mind with God's word, live consistently with it in a pagan society, and trust that the grace which saves also teaches and equips for godly conduct.
The Darkness of Depression
Proverbs 15:13 identifies the broken spirit as a genuine human affliction, and the broader witness of Scripture — from Elijah under the broom tree to the weeping prophet Jeremiah to the Saviour himself as a man of sorrows — confirms that depression and melancholy are realities in the lives of God's people, not marks of spiritual failure. This sermon works through the reality of depression, its manifold causes (physical, psychological, circumstantial, spiritual, and diabolical), and practical strategies for those who suffer and those who come alongside sufferers. The controlling remedy throughout is the means of grace: rest, diet, exercise, prayer, Scripture, and the gathered worship of God's people — with the warning that singing songs to a heavy heart, after the manner of Job's friends, is a pastoral failure Scripture explicitly condemns.
The Sixth Commandment, Part 3
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), prohibits unlawful killing with premeditation and malice, but the Bible distinguishes murder from lawful taking of life in capital punishment, self-defense, and just war. This study works through the Old Testament legal framework for self-defense, particularly Exodus 22:2–3, alongside several narrative examples, to establish that defensive homicide is not forbidden by Scripture. The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:38–42 is examined carefully to show that the Sermon on the Mount addresses personal, interpersonal ethics — not a universal prohibition on self-defense — and that Jesus himself assumes people will protect themselves and others. The study concludes with a call to think with biblical clarity on these matters in an age of muddled Christian ethics.
The Sixth Commandment, Part 2
The sixth commandment's prohibition of murder raises pressing questions about the lawfulness of capital punishment — questions this study addresses by examining common objections, both biblical and pragmatic. Working through passages in Genesis 9, Romans 12–13, Matthew 5, and John 8, the study argues that none of these texts undermines the death penalty; rather, each, rightly interpreted, confirms that the civil magistrate is God's ordained avenger, armed with the sword to execute retributive justice. The account of the woman caught in adultery is shown to uphold, not overturn, the law of Moses, since Jesus' appeal to qualified witnesses is itself a requirement of that law. Believers are called to embrace the whole counsel of God on civil justice, including its consistency with — not contradiction of — the free offer of the gospel.
The 5th Commandment
The fifth commandment — 'Honor your father and your mother' (Deuteronomy 5:16) — demands far more than a recipe for happy families; it is a covenantal obligation rooted in God's own authority and binding on every generation. This study examines the command under three heads: its explanation (the Hebrew word for 'honor' connoting weightiness and reverence), its scope (extending beyond the family to all superior-inferior relationships in church, workplace, and commonwealth), and its sanction (from the rod of correction in Proverbs to the capital sentence of Deuteronomy 21). The promise appended to the command — long life and general wellbeing — is understood as a principle of divine providence, not an absolute guarantee, and the study closes with the duty of superiors to govern those beneath them in a godly and nurturing way.
The Fourth Commandment, Part 2
What does Jesus's ministry teach about the continuing obligation of the Sabbath commandment, and how does the resurrection determine which day Christians must observe? This study works through the Fourth Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:12–15) in its New Covenant application, examining Christ's relation to the law in Matthew 5:17–20, his correction of Pharisaic Sabbath-keeping in Matthew 12, and the testimony of all four Gospel accounts that the resurrection occurred on the first day of the week. The moral principle of one day in seven devoted to God is shown to be trans-covenantal and perpetual, while the positive-law element — which day — shifts from Saturday to Sunday with the resurrection of Christ, establishing what the 1689 London Baptist Confession calls the Christian Sabbath.
The Second Commandment - Deuteronomy 5:8-11
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8-11) prohibits both the making of images to represent God and the worship of those images — two distinct but related offenses against the infinitely simple, spiritual, and incomprehensible God. Because God cannot be captured in creaturely form, any visible representation of Him, including pictures or films of the Lord Jesus Christ, violates the commandment: the hypostatic union cannot be depicted by an artist's rendering, and Christ is to be set forth through preaching, not imagery. The positive demand of the commandment is worship regulated strictly by divine command — the regulative principle — which restricts the church to the elements God has prescribed in Scripture, excluding both the inventions of men and the traditions of Rome.
The First Commandment
Deuteronomy 5:7 — 'You shall have no other gods before me' — is the foundation of covenant loyalty, defining not only who the one true God is but what response He demands from His people. This study works through the prohibition against other gods (atheism, polytheism, syncretism, sorcery, heresy, and creature-worship) before turning to the positive duties the commandment requires: knowing God, loving Him, fearing Him, obeying Him, trusting Him, and worshipping Him on His own terms. The first commandment is not merely theological orthodoxy but a call to total, exclusive, and practical devotion to Yahweh — a devotion made possible only by the grace that plants His fear in the heart.
2LCF Chapter 1 - Of the Holy Scriptures (Paragraphs 1-3)
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith opens with the doctrine of Holy Scripture because all subsequent confessional theology stands or falls on this foundation. This session works through paragraphs 1–3 of Chapter 1, establishing first the necessity of Scripture — grounded in the insufficiency of general revelation for saving knowledge and the cessation of direct prophetic revelation — and then the identity of Scripture, treating the question of canon (which books belong) and the exclusion of the Apocrypha. Three criteria for canonicity are examined: the providential exposure of books, the divine attributes Scripture bears, and apostolic origin broadly understood.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 4
What grounds the prayers Jesus offers for his people, and why does he explicitly exclude the world from his intercession? Working through John 17:9–11a, this sermon examines the focus and rationale of Christ's high priestly intercession: he prays specifically for the elect whom the Father gave him, not for the reprobate world, and he does so as the mediating priest who both sacrifices and intercedes on behalf of his own. The mutual possession declared in verse 10 — 'all mine are yours and yours are mine' — establishes the full equality of the Son with the Father, while 'I am glorified in them' frames the church as a trophy case of divine grace displayed before angels and nations. The sermon closes with an exhortation to treasure the blessedness of election: a Savior who intercedes, a triune God who is known, and a security that nothing can sever.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 1
John 17:1–5 records the opening of Christ's high priestly prayer, in which the Lord Jesus — praying according to His humanity as the Mediator of the New Covenant — petitions the Father for glory, because glory given to the Son redounds to the glory of the Father. The sermon works through the occasion of the prayer, the derived and delegated authority granted to Christ over all flesh, and the particular redemptive purpose for which that authority was given: that He should grant eternal life to all whom the Father has given Him. Particular redemption is grounded in the text itself, and the sermon closes by pressing the definition of eternal life in verse 3 — the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ — as a summons to pursue theology, Scripture reading, and corporate worship with renewed seriousness.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
The regulative principle of worship — the claim that God alone determines the acceptable manner of approaching Him — is the organising doctrine of 2nd London Confession of Faith Chapter 22. This session works through all eight paragraphs, distinguishing between the divinely commanded elements of worship (prayer, Scripture reading, preaching, singing, the sacraments) and the circumstantial matters left to Christian prudence, while also setting out the confession's Sabbatarian position: a creation-grounded, morally perpetual fourth commandment whose appointed day shifts from the seventh to the first day of the week at Christ's resurrection. Hearers are pressed to submit their worship preferences to divine prescription rather than personal taste, and to pursue Sabbath observance in its full rigour while resting in Christ's atonement when they fall short.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The gospel was not discovered by human reason but revealed by divine initiative — beginning with the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 and unfolding through progressive special revelation. This session works through Chapter 20 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689 LBCF), examining the promise of the gospel, the insufficiency of general revelation for salvation, the sovereign freedom of God in spreading the gospel, and the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's effectual work upon sinners dead in trespasses. The doctrinal stakes are practical: a right understanding of general and special revelation is the indispensable foundation for evangelical and missionary enterprise.
The Ministry in Lystra
Acts 14:8–18 presents Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, where the healing of a man crippled from birth provokes the surrounding pagans to identify the apostles as Zeus and Hermes come in human form. Paul's corrective address to the Lystrans teaches the non-divinity of creatures and, by implication, the sharp ontological distinction between the living God and all that he has made. The study moves from the healing account into a substantial exposition of divine impassibility and simplicity, grounding those doctrines in the phrase 'of like passions' and tracing them through the confession, Scripture, and the Reformed theological tradition.
The Regulative Principle of Worship, Part 3
Deuteronomy 12:32 commands that nothing be added to or taken from what God has appointed for worship — a principle this sermon grounds in covenant theology and traces from the moral demands of natural law through the abrogation of the Old Covenant into the simplicity of New Covenant worship. The shift from Old Covenant to New Covenant is not a loosening of God's requirements but a fulfilment: the ceremonial positive law governing tabernacle, priesthood, sacrifice, and feasts has been abrogated by Christ, leaving the New Covenant church with the elements Christ himself has appointed — prayer, singing, Scripture reading, preaching, and the sacraments. The elements-and-circumstances distinction closes the argument: only what the divine Lawgiver has commanded in the New Covenant may govern the church's worship, and nothing may be added or taken away.
Paul in Athens
Paul's encounter with the philosophers and council of Athens in Acts 17:16–34 exposes the persistent and universal nature of idolatry, the sufficiency of general revelation to render all men without excuse, and the necessity of special revelation for salvation. The sermon traces Paul's Mars Hill address to show how the apostle grounds his proclamation in the doctrines of creation, providence, and divine aseity before pressing the call to repentance and warning of coming judgment. Where idolatry blurs the Creator-creature distinction, the gospel restores it — and the varied responses of the Athenians (mockery, curiosity, and saving faith) remind the church that conversion belongs to the Spirit of God, not to the eloquence of the preacher.
Ask FGBC #7 - How do you explain that God is real to an athiest?
When confronted by a convinced atheist, should a Christian lead with personal religious experience or with the objective truth-content of Christianity? Drawing on Romans 1, Acts 14, Acts 17, 1 Peter 3, and John 9, this conversation argues that general revelation establishes the existence of the Creator while special revelation identifies who that Creator is and what he has done in Christ. The ethical dimension of unbelief — that sin, not merely intellectual inquiry, drives resistance to the gospel — must not be overlooked. Rather than prescribing a single apologetic method, the speakers commend flexible, gospel-centered engagement rooted in knowing the faith well and living it openly before a watching world.